Branded Headshots Ideas

Watch The Episode on Branded Headshots Ideas

If you clam up with thoughts of

“my work is just a bit too dull for branded headshots”

then by the end of this episode, I am going to have you thinking about how your monotony is another person’s intrigue and education on the way they can give you money in exchange for your fabulosity.

HOW MANY VERSIONS OF YOU ARE THERE AT WORK?

As a photographer, I have two extremes in my daily working life.  I can be running around with lots of equipment shooting.  Always out on location and chatting to my clients and crew.  This is paired with long periods of time of lone working.  I’m not ashamed to admit that the latter sometimes gets done in PJ’s.

<shhhhh>

For me, this could open up the potential of shooting both sides of myself in headshots. This is a great way to start thinking about which versions of yourself are currently on display in your headshots.  If you are playing the same tune and style it can become lacklustre and disengaging.

A LAWYER PET PEEVE

Lawyers are great at making this mistake.  They’d always much rather discuss going for a glossy picture of themselves with a corporate or cityscape behind them.  Instead of showing themselves dealing with clients or arguing the law with passion and vigour.  

Sure…. In this instance, we’d need to find a mock-up legal setting and some models to pose as real-life clients, but none of this is impossible. Here is a quick image from my archives of a fashion shoot I did in a pretend legal library at a college YEARS ago.

TRY IT:

Try listing out the variations of yourself at work. 

• Do you do work on your phone when you’re waiting around on the school run?
• Do you always meet your clients for beers when you’re beginning your sales process?
• Does your dog come to work with you every day?

WHAT’S THE BIT YOU WANT TO HIDE THE MOST?

There is a good chance that you’ve decided that there is a section of your daily work life that is just far too boring or unglamorous to even think about sharing.

• Doing your books.
• Cleaning out your stock cupboard.
• Multi-tasking when on the groceries run.

This is a hard one to try out, but really sit with why you think this is not worth mentioning.  It could be that this part of your daily working life is actually the impetus behind a really beautiful shoot.  It just hasn’t been fully imagined or given enough creative attention yet.

LET’S THINK ABOUT TREES!

Here are two branded headshots ideas examples that involve trees.

MICHELLE

Michelle has a virtual business.  She works on the metrics of her clients’ businesses to help them make informed marketing decisions. In a conversation together she said she felt like a gardener.  Helping creative brained business owners take out the weeds so that they could concentrate on the things that made them easier money.  She then quickly added… but I don’t want to look like a horticulturist in my headshots Laura! We dabbled with the expression of saplings to oak trees and this resulted in these headshots. Michelle now really stands out from her competition. 

How many marketers do you know with a tree subtext in their branding?

CERYN

Let’s talk about Ceryn.  Ceryn provides soul-led therapy.  A lot of the time this is delivered to clients around the world with online tools.  It’s safe to say that sitting on Skype or Zoom is not the most glamorous thing to add into a headshots session. 

We all do this, don’t we? 

Ceryn came to me with a strong vision of shooting together at sunrise in the springtime.  She and her beautiful dog Kali walk there together all the time and she goes to the same location as our shoot very early on every New Years day to think about her year ahead. 

This resulted in some really inspirational headshots.  The narrative of loving your own company, beginning a new day, it’s baked right in.

YOUR TURN

Scribble this down…

• WHO
• WHAT
• WHEN
• WHERE
• WHY

and then muse with yourself on…

• WHO you work with
• WHAT It looks like when you’re doing your most dull tasks in everyday work.
• WHEN you work in the day – what is the natural light like at that time?
• WHERE you work.  What’s the strangest place you have ever worked from?
• WHY what is it that makes you continue to do what you do?  What is your fuel?

When you know the answer to these questions you have the ingredients to come up with some really fabulous branded headshots ideas.

TELL ME

Comment below with your WHO/WHAT/WHEN/WHERE & WHY

IF YOU’RE SHY…

Send me your answers in an Instagram DM.