In this episode Aaron talks to Seshu, a headshot Photographer - Connecticut Headshots. We met over 2 years ago when I jumped over from film to digital and decided I wanted to do photography full time.

The headshot is sort of the quintessential personal branding photo. Topics we'll cover:

How "headshots save you time and increase revenue".

What makes a good headshot?

What are some of the keys to Seshu's success building his brand?

Seshu's top tips to elevate your personal brand

Connecticut Headshots Website

Find Seshu on Facebook here.

Seshu's Instagram account: @ctheadshots

Are you letting these common objections hold you back when it comes to building your personal brand?

Personal branding is about helping you grow your business. It's about making a better connection and letting the people who need your services and need the things that you bring to the world: your super powers, as I often call them.

It's letting your ideal clients connect with you so that they can actually make the decision to work with you because it's better for them.

So if you're saying any of these kinds of things that I cover in this episode, remember it's doing two things. It's holding you back from the impact that you want to make in the world. And more importantly, it's withholding your services from the people who really need you the most.

The most common objections I hear are:

I don't like having my photo taken

I can't afford to have professional photos done

What I do isn't all that interesting

I want to lose some weight first

I don't know what to do in front of a camera

Jake Smith is a personal brand photographer from Orlando, Florida. Aaron and Jake talk about his business and brand, including the following topics:

Bearded Lens Photo and Create More Now

Personal branding personified - Bearded Lens

What was the drive behind launching the podcast

How Jake got into taking photos in the very cool music scene in Orlando.

Jake's tips for people who are thinking of getting professional photos for their personal brand.

What’s been his favorite photo shoot?

Jake's perspective of why male photographers are rare in personal branding.

And then Jake turns the tables on Aaron and asks a few questions as well!

https://selflesslovefoundation.org/

Jake's podcast: Create More Now

Jake's portfolio of "The Unsigned Artist"

Jake's website: Bearded Lens Photography

In this episode, I share my journey from starting to post content consistently to building a content generation engine for my business.

Here are the steps along my journey:

Step 1: Start With Your Hero Piece of Content and Platform

Step 2: Pick a Secondary Platform to Grow

Step 3: Put together a content creation strategy

Step 4: Create the System

Step 5: Start the content creation engine

Step 6: Build your content creation team

And, after running through those growth steps, here's my current Content Creation Waterfall:

I’ll list out each step with how many pieces of content come from each step. I’m sort of excited to see what the total is!

Write one 1500-3000 word blog post (1)

Share the blog post on Google My Business, Facebook and LinkedIn (3)

Copy the blog sections into Instagram posts (6) – one week later

Record a podcast episode with video based on the blog post (2)

Send the video to my video editor who creates:

A YouTube video (1)

A 60 second teaser video (1)

An Instagram story (1)

The YouTube video is scheduled at some point in the future. Currently 3 months out!

Send the audio to my podcast editor to create the podcast. (1)

Podcast comes out 3-6 weeks later

Create an Instagram story about the podcast episode (1)

Post the transcript from the podcast (1)

My social media VA creates a quote card from the podcast to be used on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest (3)

Post on Facebook and LinkedIn about the podcast episode (2)

Re-use the best Instagram posts on Facebook and LinkedIn – 3 each (6)

Pin all the IG posts and best performing posts on Pinterest (10+)

I create a monthly email that highlights my top content. (1)

Create ads from the best content. Maybe (2) per month?

What’s the total? 42 pieces of content from one blog post! One creative session.

Multiply that by 4 weeks per month, and there’s 168 pieces of content that are stemming from (4) blog posts.

That’s my content creation strategy and system. It didn’t exist a year ago. Now I can say I host a Top 100 Marketing Podcast, I organized and hosted arguably the largest and best Virtual Summit for the personal branding space, and I’m on pace to have my best year in my photography business.

Just take it step by step. I can’t wait to hear how it works for you!

What can you learn from someone who has been a nuclear engineer, has patents to his name, was an FBI special agent, a triathlete, and more? I sum it up as "the Mindset of Excellence."

We cover the following topics:

Belief, confidence, and overcoming negativity

The idea that's it's OK to feel uncertain

Identifying "non-serving thoughts" vs thoughts that serve us in a positive manner

The power of learning from others

Focusing on what we can control

The power of visualization

Giving yourself time for the changes you desire to happen

How to connect when you can't be in the same physical location

Steven's website: https://www.striveformore.com/

Do you ever wonder, what to say on social media, or what to send to your email list?

I used to struggle with what to post. Then i started learning about how to tell stories that are relevant to my business.

I’m good at sharing tips. It’s why I share quotes consistently too. But even with the quotes, I’m trying to tell some sort of story.

This isn't always easy for me - and maybe not every one connects, but when I take a little more time and intentionally construct a good, true, story, they connect at a higher level.

Emails, IG posts that have connected

“On the road to Manarola”

“Begin”

Lost Eyeglasses

When i finally started to learn to just tell stories, my posts and my emails - and the engagement with them - improved.

In this episode, personal brand photographer Aaron Hunt talks with personal finance coach Dan Hinz from Adulting with Money.

Dan shares his own personal finance journey of getting out of debt, including the moment early in his marriage that he realized they needed to do something different than what his MBA taught him

Dan's three tips to master your money

Success stories of how Dan has helped other couples win with money

His views on combining finances as a couple

Dan's experience in building a YouTube Channel and a lesson in consistency

How YouTube can build your personal brand

Dan's YouTube: Adulting with Money

Dan's homepage: https://www.adultingwithmoney.com/

Tim Schmoyer's Video Creators: https://videocreators.com/

So how many ways are there to use your branding photos?

I've got a list of 41... and there's even more, I'm sure!

As a Facebook banner. ...

In your Facebook posts. ...

As your profile photos. …

Everywhere. IG, FB. LinkedIn, Pinterest

In your Instagram posts. ...

In your Instagram stories. ...

Pin Pinterest pins to drive traffic to your blog/website.

As blog post header graphics. ...

In the body of your blog posts.

Website Header

Campaign landing pages

Twitter header

LinkedIn header

Youtube Thumbnails

In your online courses

In your freebies / lead magnets

Email marketing / newsletters

Email signature

Business Cards

Networking / speaking events

For magazine / publication articles

For your book

PRicing Guides

Pop-ups

In your Funnels

Advertising

About me pages

Event Invitations

Facebook tabs

Website buttons

In a custom business app

Brochures

Postcards

Thank you cards

Press Release

Google My Business Page

Zoom Image for conference calls

As wall art

On you blog pitch bio

Promotional videos

Displays at events and trade shows

And don’t forget your team - they can use branding photos in most of the same ways!

So hopefully that gives you some ideas on ways to better use your branding photos.

Branding vs. Marketing

Which is more difficult - branding or marketing.

This won't be a surprise, but I focus more on branding than marketing.

There’s a certain level of consistency when people find me on the various channels I’m on.

The best branding in the world won't matter if you don’t market at all!

I think of the overall branding of you as the business owner, vs just the logos and colors of your brand.

If you don't market you can’t get market feedback.

You don't get those little hits of endorphins when you make a sale, and start getting validation that the thing or service you are offering is of value to people.

Without that customer validation in the form of sales - it can sometimes be difficult to keep consistently doing the things and creating the content.