Posed for Success

Did you know that Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping days of the year. In fact over 20% of holiday shopping is completed in between the days of Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday. 

And black friday isn’t just for the U.S. Black Friday has spread to over 15 countries across the world! So if you don’t have something in the works for Black Friday, it’s definitely something that you want to jump in on. You 100% still have time!

Industry leaders predict that this year’s Black Friday will probably not be the craziest due to the pandemic, but they still expect over $11 Billion in sales to be made. 

How do you position yourself in a time when everyone is going to be offering a deal and customers are going to be bombarded with offers?

Service.

The answer is serve your customers.

Serve them in such a way that they don't feel sold to. They feel taken care of.

Yes, black friday can be a big win for your business, but it can also be an awesome day to build trust and connection with your clients. 

Take a few minutes and think about what you can offer or what you are already planning to offer as a black friday deal. 

Does it align with your brand? 

Listen to the episode for examples on how you can be aligned with your offering while honoring your personal brand.

Now I’m not going to just leave you there, because Black Friday is supposed to be fun and exciting. It’s ringing in the holidays and it’s the first day my husband lets me play Christmas music….so I’ve got 10 unique ways for you to promote a black friday offering for your business. Don’t worry, you don’t have to do all of these. Go through the list and figure out what works best for you and remember, keep it aligned with your brand. Confused customers DON’T buy! Especially not on Black Friday where over 12% of shoppers are already drunk!

Let’s dive in.

1. Deal an hour
2. Gift Guide
3. Extend your sale through Cyber Monday
4. Offer a new deal each day
5. Make it Black Friday Week
6. Add New Products
7. Add a free gift with purchase
8. Stairstep your discount
9. Donate to charity
10. VIP Sale to Your Email List

BONUS - Partner up with other entrepreneurs to promote one another’s offers.

Now go out there and create some offers or uplevel the ones you have in your plans. 

And if you’re interested...here’s my on-brand Black Friday Pitch. I’m offering 20% off all of my courses using the code BF2020.  I’ve got a brand photography course, smartphone course, and family photography course all waiting for you to learn, grow, and get better pictures for your life! Check it out at britbennion.com for all of the details.

To all of you amazing listeners, I hope you have the very best of holidays and thank you so much for listening. We’ll see you next week.

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Ikigai is a Japanese term that means "A Reason for Being". What is your reason for being? And how can you incorporate that into your personal brand? What do you bring to the world that is so uniquely you and creates your brand?

Let's start by asking ourselves some important questions:

1) What are you good at?

This can be easy AND this can be hard. Think of what everybody else is constantly saying about you. Or even better, ASK the people who know you best what they think you are good at.  Sometimes, what you are hardest on yourself about, you are actually pretty good at.

2) What do you love?

What is it that lights you up? Is it a hobby or a dream that you have? If I gifted you a whole day, all to yourself, what would you do?

Now take a moment and look at your two lists. At the intersection of what you’re good at and what you love is your passion. Who doesn’t love discovering or reaffirming what they are passionate at?  Can you circle or draw connections between things on your first list and things on your second? This is a good insight into what you are passionate about.

3) What does the world need?

I’m talking both big and small. This can be something on a global scale or a simple daily annoyance that needs attention. Maybe the world needs more laughter….it definitely needs more love and healing. What do YOU think the world needs?

Just like there was an intersection between what you’re good at what you love, there is also an intersection between what you love and what the world needs. This is called your Mission. 

4) What can you be paid for?

You are creating a business and that means that you need to make money. The more money you make, the bigger impact you can have and the greater good you can bring to the world. What would someone pay good money to have? This is the question that every entrepreneur asks. The better you get at answering this question, the more likely you are to be successful. 

At the crossroads of this question, what can you be paid for and what you’re good at is your profession, and at the crossroads of what you can be paid for and what the world needs is your vocation. 

What if you were able to find something where all of these places overlapped? Where you could be good at what you’re doing, help the world, love the work you do and finally get paid for it? This is your Ikigai. This is your reason for being.

This should be the center of everything for your personal brand. 

If you want to find success, this is the work that you need to do. Maybe you’ve looked over your lists and thought, Great! This is validation that I’m doing exactly what I want and need to do. Then good for you. Keep moving in the right direction. Keep aligning yourself that way. But maybe you looked at your lists and they are nothing like what you’re doing. This is what’s keeping you stuck. You may not feel like you are mission driven. Your WHY isn’t big enough to keep you going. Or perhaps you aren’t loving what you do. Maybe at one point you thought it was for you, but now it’s time to make a serious pivot. Because you only have one life and you don’t want to get yourself STUCK doing things that aren’t of great worth and joy. This is the time to write down and be innovative. Which part of this isn’t working for you in the way you want it to? Work it out. Come up with ideas. Be brutally honest with yourself. It may be the best thing that you can do for your life and business.

To each of you out there, my hope is for you to find your ikigai. Head over to our FB Group and  let me know what your Reason for

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How to Tell a Story with your Personal Brand Photos

Great personal brand photos are so much more than good-looking headshots. They tell the entire story of you and your brand through images. They capture your personality and help bring your entire personal brand together. They help your clients and customers know who you are, what you can offer, and why they should hire you — all with just a glance.
 
 How can you make sure your personal brand photos tell a powerful story? Here are a few key things you’ll need to do:

Know your story
It’s really tricky to tell a story you don’t already know by heart. Before you book your personal brand photoshoot, do your homework. Think about who you are and what you have to give. Identify the traits that make you unique. Then, write it all down. Don’t be afraid to dig deep! 

Think about your target audience
Now that you know what you want to say, think about who you want to speak to. Imagine your dream client. You should know him or her intimately — everything from favorite brands, preferred colors, fears, dreams, favorite pizza toppings, etc. Share these details with your photographer so you can plan your photoshoot and your storytelling around them.

Discuss with your photographer
You’re not the only storyteller here. You and your photographer should be on the exact same page every step of the way. Have a consultation with your photographer before the day of the shoot to go over your vision and your goals. 

Dress the part
On the day of the photoshoot, wear clothes that communicate your personality & fit your narrative. Of course, you will want to look your best — but that doesn’t mean you have to dress all prim and proper if that’s not your persona!

And action!
Get photos of you in action in order to literally tell the story of what you do! Don’t leave it to your clients to just picture it. Consider bringing along props or taking photos in your usual workspace for some powerful visuals.

As long as you follow these top personal brand photoshoot tips, you’ll be so much more than a pretty face in front of that camera — you’ll come across as a smart, capable, friendly professional with a story to tell and so much to give. 

www.britbennion.com/episode51

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Let's make sure you are speaking to the right people with your messaging. 

So for many years, I was taught that in order to know who you serve, you needed to create an ideal client avatar. This meant picking just ONE single person to speak to. That perfect person who needed exactly what you had to offer. And then you needed to tailor your message to fit just them. Of course, in order to do this you need to know their height, weight, eye color, hair color, how many kids they had, etc.

When you can get really crystal clear on speaking to ONE person, then you can connect to their wants, needs and problems. And provide a solution to that.

Unfortunately, I would always get stuck when working on my ICA, and I know and have worked with dozens of women who felt the same way. This type of characterization has never resonated with me. 

When you are trying to build out an Ideal Client Avatar, you are limiting yourself to such a specific person….possibly for NOT the right reasons. 

Creating an ICA had me focusing on aspects that didn’t REALLY matter to me or my industry.

In this day and age, especially with the societal issues that are at the forefront of our nation, I want you to get really clear about what attributes are important for you in your business. 

Instead of creating an ideal client avatar, I want you to create an  ideal client community. A community is built not on one specific person. It’s literally a community of people. It allows you to stop limiting who you are speaking to...especially from a diversity standpoint, and instead connects you to people who share the same values, morals, and ideals.

Do not focus on what an ideal client LOOKS like, but rather, what their dreams and values are. What their behaviors are, what they care about. 

When you map out an ICA physical attributes so specifically, you leave yourself open to discrimination. 

An Ideal Client community solves that problem. For example, if a financial advisor builds an Ideal client community that serves families that cared about saving for the future, building a nest-egg for their children, and living debt free….she could 100% cater her messaging to a very specific set of people. But it also wouldn’t matter if a family came in that was Christian, Musulim, or Atheist. It wouldn't matter if they walk in on their own or were a wheelchair user.

• Start thinking about building a community. 
• Ask the questions that really MATTER to your industry. 
• Be intentional with how you are including others and adding diversity to your messaging. 

This answers all of my problems. Because when you start to focus on the right characteristics of your ideal client community, you are no longer stuck in the minutia of what they look like and instead focus on who they are on the inside.

And don’t forget, this episode is special because it is the 50th episode. Enter to win a chance to get the Branding Goodie Bundle. Go ahead and leave a review and then screenshot it and email me at [email protected]. I’ll be choosing a winner on November 13th so go run and do it right now!

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When you invest time and money into a session, you want every aspect of it to reflect you, your brand, and your message. And the location plays a big part of that. 

So I want to tell you a few options that you may have when you are looking for a location to shoot at. Let this episode help get those creative wheels turning so that you can go out there and rock your next session.

Remember, you shouldn’t do anything in your business and brand without having intention behind it. And it’s really easier than it sounds. You want to make sure that you are considering the message that you are sending wherever you are taking your images.

Perhaps you have a gorgeous home with amazing lighting and it looks like Joanna Gaines just finished up decorating it. Do you do your session there? Well...it depends. Just because you have a great space doesn’t mean that you should use it. 

When choosing a location ask yourself the following questions:

1. Is this consistent with my brand?
2. Does this compliment the intention I have behind my message?

So why do we ask if this is consistent with your brand? Well...because that’s what branding is all about….consistency. Now that doesn’t mean that you can only take branding photos in the same place every single time. It just means that you want to have the same feel, the same vibe as your brand in all of your messages and locations. If you were a travel blogger and talked about all of these amazing travel tips and adventures you were on, but you decided to hold your branding session at the library or your home, that wouldn’t really be consistent with your brand.

And then, does this compliment the intention I have behind my message? Once again, you don’t want to confuse your audience with your branding photos and location really plays into this. If you are a personal trainer, and only have photos of you sitting behind a desk, that’s not going to compliment your message. If you never have photos of you in the gym or working out at home or on the go, it’s going to be much harder for you to connect with your ideal clients.

So let’s talk about a few places that you can look for when searching for a location for your branding session.

1. Your home
2. A friend's house
3. Your office
4. Your store front, studio, practice, etc.
5. Air BnB / VRBO
6. Peerspace
7. Outdoors
8. Coffeehouse 
9. Co-working space

I want to hear from you about what YOUR favorite location is. Connect with me on instagram or our Facebook Community.

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How do I brand myself when I have two different businesses? Do I have a personal brand, and a business brand or just one?

Now this is an excellent question. And many of you out there have your businesses set up like this. Especially if you are a service based business. For example, if you are an agency that trains copywriters, but you also do that yourself….do you have one brand for everything, or do you have two separate brands. What if you are a fitness instructor and gym owner. You want people to come to your gym because it’s good for the gym, but you also want people to sign up for your specific classes. So what do you do?

Let’s go back to that copywriter as an example. Let’s say that you are a copywriter that takes on individual clients, but you also have a copywriting agency, where you hire or contract out other copywriters. You essentially have two businesses, right? So do you keep those two brands the same or separate them out?

There are two different ways to go about it and it all depends on the goals you have in your business. 

One option is to separate out your brands. This means that you have a brand that works and fits for you as a personal brand and one that fits for your agency. This works out really well if you have two distinct feels to your brand or your marketing to two different clientele. Perhaps your agency is marketing to a wider range of people, and then they can choose which copywriter best aligns with their needs. If you have two separate brands, you can more easily hone in on the type of people you want to attract and work with directly, and still have a steady increase of customers to your agency. 

This also works well if you don’t particularly feel attached to your agency’s brand. It gives you a little more freedom between the two brands.

Your other option is to keep them together. This works really well if you started out building a personal brand and people come to you because of YOU. It’s okay to still have an agency, but you will be building the brand as you and as you attract people to you, they will trust you to take care of them by either working directly with them or fitting them to someone who will be best for their needs. Does that make sense? Think about the fitness industry, for example. You can follow the brand 24 hour fitness, and you can also follow the brand of an instructor there. Those are two separate brands. I’m sure at one point in time the original owner of 24 hour fitness actually taught there. On the flip side, you can have a fitness brand like Tracey Anderson. Tracey Anderson builds her brand and business around her and people come to her business for her, but then she has many fitness trainers under her that use her methods and train like her. In fact, they are just an extension of her brand.

So which one will work best for you? Once again, it all comes down to the goals you have in your business. If you want some autonomy, then break them out, if you know that the best part about your business is you, then keep them together. If you want to expand and franchize, it’s easier to do that with two separate brands. If you have serious name recognition, use that to your advantage. Don’t forget the added workload it takes to manage two separate brands. That might be a determining factor for you. 

There’s no wrong way to do it. Just get intentional about why you’re doing it!

Keep sending me questions so that I can keep bringing you these fun bonus episodes. Connect with me at britbennion.com or on instagram @ brandingbybrit. See you soon!

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There are a million ways to measure a conversion. Conversions are where we want our potential clients and audience to take action and interact with us in a way that’s good for our business. Conversions are one of the ultimate goals that we have as entrepreneurs. 

90% of the information that our brain receives and processes is visual. The other 10% is through our other senses. Our brain is a visual consuming machine. Plus it processes visuals 60 thousand times faster than text. 

We remember images better, which is why visual platforms such as instagram, pinterest, and snapchat are so popular and can pull someone in for extended periods of time. With visuals you are able to create a captivated audience quickly.

Talia Wolf says, “Images are the best way to convey feelings that drive conversions.” And I couldn’t agree more.

I’m going to reference this awesome article I was reading by Jacob McMillan where he talks about different examples of high converting imagery. He is a conversion specialist and copywriter and was able to test out a number of different techniques that you can use in your photos to increase conversion. 

1. Show Those Pearly Whites in Your Hero Image (episode 42)

If you want to increase conversion, then make sure you are smiling in your hero image. People are attracted to faces and especially connect with people who are smiling. Make sure that you have a nice, welcoming smile for your hero image.

2. Use Real Photos Instead of Stock Photos

I talk about this all of the time. Real photos, meaning photos that include you, your process, your people, your items will always outperform stock photos. Well...as long as they are high quality images. That’s not to say that there isn’t a real need and space for stock photos. I talk all about that in episode 30. But when you are using real photos, you’ll see your conversion drastically improve. This has happened to every single one of my clients. That’s the magic of branding. 

I had one client increase their instagram engagement over 400% in the first week after using branded photos of herself. This is so important, which is why I’ll say it over and over again.

3. Align Your Copy and Images

McMillian says that by doing this you are creating the perfect marriage of words and images. And it works! This is the strategy that sweat block.com used. They made sure that both copy and their hero image was in alignment and they increased conversions by 108%.

If you want more information on how to do this, check out episode 6 of the Posed for Success podcast. 

Now that you’ve got all of this useful information inside of your head, go back through your website or your most recent social media posts. Check out the images you’re using in your facebook ads or email campaigns. Are there places where you can implement these tools to increase your conversion? I’m always about doing a self-audit, and this is a great place to start. If you are looking to uplevel your conversions, if you are ready to take on more clients, if you want to make more sales, start with your imagery. I guarantee that by doing a little tweaking, by making improvements in this area, it is going to drastically improve your business.

Links
Jacob McMillan Article

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What is a digital filter? A digital filter is a code or set of rules that you apply to your photo that makes adjustments to it, such as saturation, contrast, and color temperature. But when you use a filter, it’s much easier than that. In fact, most filters just have a name that you click and it changes the look of your photo. Filters can be found in just about every photo editing app, including the native photo app for your phone.

So why would you use a filter? Many times people use filters as a quick way to get an edited look on their photo. In fact, I’ll even use a filter every now and then to give my photo a quick boost. 

But I’m going to say some things on this episode that are going to have a bit of a dissenting viewpoint from most people. I’m going to say that you need to void filters as much as possible.

Now hold on...I’m not saying DON’T EVER USE THEM. I’m saying be cautious when you use them. Because just like men’s drug store cologne a little bit goes a long ways and it usually isn’t attractive.

What I’m mostly referring to are those instagram feeds that look like every single picture was taken with the exact same 4 or 5 hues or colors. It was a super trendy thing to do….like 2 years ago. And in the world of digital marketing that feels like a century ago.

So I suggest that if you want to have an IG feed that looks good for a LONG time, then you avoid them. I was just looking at one and the photos were all orange and teal. But the photos were SO edited that it was incredibly off-putting. Everyone’s skin looked like an oompa loompa and the grass in another photo, which is normally supposed to be , you know...green, was so desaturated that it looked like the picture was taken on another planet.

Now what was the purpose of this? So that it can fit in your feed? So it can be on brand? Yeah….maybe. But you have to understand how your consumers are consuming your posts. Are they only looking at your 9 grid so they understand that you are keeping everything the same? Or are they scrolling and going to wonder what the crap had just happened to that photo?

That’s the kind of filtering I’m talking about. 

What I’m suggesting is that you keep to well lit, normal colored looking images. If you want to have a cohesive look to your brand, bring those colors in by what you’re wearing, the stock images your using, and the branded photos you include. Don’t do it by trying some after market filter that looks like your 3 year old got a hold of your phone and jacked up all of your editing sliders.

Simple is best. Let the image and copy do the persuading. 

Now, if you’re saying, but BRITTANY….everyone who does this mega filtering trick has tens of thousands of followers. To this I say….it’s not the filter. It’s that they are playing the long term game. They have been at it a while and are CONSISTENT. THAT’s what’s bringing in the followers more than anything else. 

If you don’t believe….give it a test. Post overly filtered photos at the rate you are regularly posting for 2 weeks and see what your metrics are. And then try posting high quality (NATURAL) looking photos for 10 days straight with great copy and see what happens to your metrics.

I’d be interested in learning what happens. But I have a feeling I already know.

If you’re wondering how to get images that look great, make sure to check out:
Episode 4
Episode 17
Episode 18

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This episode is probably going to be one of my favorite episodes. I’m going to talk to you about 4 lessons to learn about being an entrepreneur. But these stories all come from a mini entrepreneur….well maybe not mini, because it features stories of my oldest son, Matt who is just a quarter inch shy of being as tall as I am.

Matt is 12 and a BORN entrepreneur. This kid could sell you trash from the bottom of his locker….which he has, and I’ll tell you about now. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting Matt, you know that he is an ideas guy. He loves designing things and figuring out how things work. He loves people and he is FAST. Like the Flash fast. In just about everything he does. And super action oriented.

So it’s easy to say that he has a lot of qualities that great entrepreneurs have. So let me tell you a crazy story about this kid and how it’s going to help your brand.

Make sure to tune in to hear all of the fun.

So here are some lessons that we can learn from Matthew in this situation.

1. Find a need and fill it.
2. Automate your work 
3. Build A Team
4. Create an Irresistible Offer 

And I’d love to hear from you. Did you like this episode? Do you want to hear more stories like this? What are you loving and what do you want to leave? Leave me a review or drop me a line. You can find all of this information in the show notes at britbennion.com/episode45

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Today we are going to be talking about using angles to get better photos. Did you know that the angle that you take a photo with can make it look completely different? Yeah, pretty crazy, but when you know these simple tricks, it can make a world of a difference. An angle is essentially the positioning of the camera to a subject. Think back to 2nd grade math. You learned all about angles when you were learning about shapes. I specifically remember all of the rules you learn with triangles. I always thought that was fun. You learned about the angle from point A to point B and it was pretty simple.

The same goes for photography, but we are dealing in a 3D space. So you have to think about up and down and side to side and now you have a ton of different options. Now technically there’s a difference between camera position and camera angle, but because I’m not teaching a technical photography class in this 5 min episode, I’m just going to lump it all into angling so that you can digest it all a little easier….you’re welcome.

So when you are getting ready to take a picture, and I’m talking specifically about a picture of a person, because that’s usually what we are dealing with branding, there’s two rules I want you to keep in mind. 

1. Angle down to look smaller
2. Angle up to look bigger

It’s pretty simple. 

If you shoot a photo from a high angle, meaning that your angling the camera down slightly, pointing towards your subject, you’ve got a bit of a bird’s eye view. When done carefully, this creates a very flattering image for your subject. Think about all of the teenages taking selfies out there. You always see them holding a phone up high and shooting down. This is for that reason. Now I feel like they usually take it to the extreme, but that’s another topic entirely. 

When you shoot from a higher angle you allow your eyes to open up bigger, avoid that double chin and aren’t shooting up your nose. Shooting with a slightly downward angle is great for portraiture. 

If you shoot a photo from a low angle, you get a different look entirely. You can get super extreme and shoot from the ground up. This brings out an intensity to a photo. You get a lot of depth when you do this. I rarely shoot from a lower angle for a close up or portrait shot unless I’m shooting for a specific reason. If you take a less extreme angle and shoot just slightly below the eyeline, and point it up, it makes your subject look bigger. It creates a feel of power and intimidation. This works really well when you are in a power pose or trying to convey that type of a message. Play around with this. It’s a lot of fun.

And then there’s straight on. I know this may not seem like an angle, but I know you passed 2nd grade, so you know it is. So straight on is when you are shooting right at eye level. This is a great angle to shoot at and probably what you are most used to. And that’s not coincidental. When you are shooting at eye level or directly on, it creates a sense of security in the images. It has a natural, familiar feel, so you are more likely to shoot from this perspective. 

So play around with it. Use these rules to improve the photo and message behind it. Remember, I’m always saying that you need to have intention behind your photos. Yes, it’s nice to have pretty photos, but you want photos that convert, so test out your camera angles to create a powerful message behind your images. 

That’s all for this bonus episode. See you soon!

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