Five helpful heart and soul branding strategies from a personal branding Boise Photographer that you need to add to your branding session.
As a Boise photographer who works with a lot of small businesses, I see branding clients struggle to know how to present themselves both online and in person. They sometimes lack strategies with heart and soul. The thought of marketing themselves seems heavy. As individuals, we have a hard time stepping back and taking a 30,000 foot view of our lives. That’s where we can help with a personal branding session! The first step is branding pre-consultation. When we complete your branding pre-consultation, you will have taken inventory of your business, personal goals/dreams, and determined how to present all those to the world best.
#1 Start by asking the people you know well what they would say about you.
As a Boise photographer, I pour my heart and soul into writing my story. I like to ask people I know what they would say about me.
Try this exercise and make a list of 20 friends from different areas of your life and ask them the following question. Ask them to name three adjectives that they will use to describe you, and how would they define your style? Be sure to ask a cross-section of people (i.e., not everyone in your small group at church) to get a variety of input. Each person will have had a different experience with you. Also, make it easy for your contacts to reply. I suggest using text or DMs and know that not everyone will get back to you. That’s okay. People are very busy.
#2 As a Boise Photographer, I suggest you define Your Three business goals.
Next, make a list of your three business goals. This list is vitally important to know what you want to do in your business and what direction you’re headed. We will design your branding strategy around this roadmap—Circle the one most crucial business school.
#3 Three Personal Goals
Third, write out your three biggest personal goals. These goals will give you clues as to what direction you’re headed, your top priorities, and your “why” for being in business in the first place. Now, circle the most important one.
#4 Make a list of the things that you would like to do in your personal time.
Fourth, make a list of the things that you would like to do in your personal time. Do you have fun and exciting stories? Facts that will help you stand out? Cool details that you can share or anything that will help you connect with your audience. Do a massive brain dump at this point. The important thing is to get it out of your head and on the paper. We will use all of these answers later, when we get to the branding questionnaire.
#5 What is your legacy?
Finally, what is your legacy? Why are you in business? Why is it important to you? What do you want to do? If you could be truly excellent at one thing, what would it be? Wow, does this affect your clients, your community, and the world at large? These are the concepts I want you to wrap your head around before starting the questionnaire. Once you have these answers and all of your creative juices flowing, we will then put them into your Write Your Story branding questionnaire. This is a template to help us design your branding message and your branding session.
I hope these strategies to branding yourself with heart and soul help! I would love to hear your answers. Please feel free to email them or shoot me a DM! Be sure to take time to do this step as it an essential foundation for growing your business.
SENIOR | FAMILY | TEENS | BRANDING
Shelly Niehaus Photography is a Boise, ID-based branding and headshot photographer. Shelly specializes in professional headshot photography, personal branding photography and lifestyle photography. Shelly serves the greater Treasure Valley area including Boise, Meridian, Eagle, and Nampa.
