Welcome back. Today we're talking about branding. And do you know who this is?
We've got Emily Linda Miller here. So we're talking about how important
branding is for small business. Okay, so let's just jump right in with that
question. I mean how important is branding for small business? -Well, to me
when you say branding, you can be referencing different things. You could
be talking about your visual brand. Which is what I think most people mean when
they say branding. But in general, the word brand, your brand is everybody's
perception of you as a business. And if you're a small business owner, that's...
That is your business. -Okay, so yeah. So we're not just talking about then your
logo. -Right, right. But we're talking about people's perception of you. -Yeah. So, you
know, I definitely want to get into all these different kind of elements
especially for a small business owner who's their brand, right? You are your
brand in certain businesses. But for this video, I wanted to be really, really clear
on visual brand. Creating a visual brand concept that's something that you can
take then to your team. Basically the people who are making your visuals
for you. Whether it's your website, your graphic designer or, you know, even your
wardrobe consultant. -Mm-hmm. Those are you seeing the improvement to my brand will
recognize and improvement to my photography, to my website, things Emily
hears is responsible for that. Well, let's let's first address why is
having a powerful visual brand so important? -You know people are going to
be making a first impression judgment about you whether you've given it any
thought or not. And so getting some clarity on how you want to come across.
Not just because you're wanting to fake something. It's not that at all. It's more
that you're wanting to get to the core values that you have and want to come
through in your business and that you can give people an idea of what to
expect when they work with you. What the experience would be like. -Okay, so to be a
contrarian what if I think, "Well, I shouldn't want to... I shouldn't need to
care what other people think." -I literally have no answer to that because you're in
business. So, by default not... You know, I think it's
kind of funny when people say they're going to quit their job, fire their boss.
When you're a business owner, your clients are all your bosses. So you end
up having a lot of bosses in your life. And so, what they think and how you
perform for them really really matters. -Yeah. It matters. It matters 100%
-And if you're doing it right, your brand should give them an idea of
who you are and what it's going to be like to work with you before they even
hire you. Which is good for you because then it helps you to be able to deliver
exactly what they're expecting. -Well, I want to throw another twist in this
because I've experienced as I've increased the quality of my photos of
increased my brand through wardrobe, it actually has given me a boost of
confidence. Just earlier this week, I was in a
meeting in Austin where there was a lot of very, very wealthy influencers. You
know making millions of dollars a year. And I wasn't even expecting to go to
this meeting. I was just kind of invited and I was wearing the right attire.
And I was having conversations and several of them want to hire me. And it's
like, "I'm so glad that I wasn't just... I don't know. dressed like I used to dress."
-Well, so what's interesting about that is yes, definitely self-confidence makes you
show up in a bigger grander way. But also the way that you dress or the way that
you present yourself, it tells people, it gives them clues about your tastes. And
so, if you've got a high level of taste, then they know that your work is
probably going to reflect that as well. Without even necessarily having to see
your work first. And obviously this applies you know, if somebody's first you
know, impression of you is through your website. You want your website to reflect
that. If somebody's first impression of you is how you're dressed just seeing
you across the room, you want that to riff like that. And if your first
impression is how you communicate to people when you're standing in the front
of that room and introducing yourself, then the where... Even the words that you
speak, the mannerisms that you have, the the way that you show up as maybe really
friendly and inviting and warm versus some businesses
makes more sense to show up as commanding and strong and powerful and
very capable. So, it kind of depends on, you know, your needs in your own brand. So,
I thought keeps coming on my mind about how you and I we got working together.
Almost 3 years ago, I saw a friend who a good friend of mine. She had a new
profile photo that she posted on Facebook. And I've seen lots of
different headshots of her. She's an amazing woman but I saw this photo and I
thought that... I thought, "That is Anne? Who took this photo?" And it was
obviously, it was Emily. And then I went and I looked at your portfolio. And when...
I then, you know, made a decision right there. "I'm going to work with Emily." Because
like when... And when I was ready to up my brand when I was ready to step into a
just a stronger role to really help people the way that I'm good at,
obviously, went to Emily to up my photography. I mean if there's a chance
of making an improvement on a photography, why wouldn't you choose the
best? So, I want I want to switch gears for a minute to talk about like how you
created your brand. -Okay, so kind of to go back maybe 7 years, I was actually
working as a graphic designer in a previous business that I had created. And
in my role as a graphic designer, I wasn't... I wasn't trained in college. So, I
didn't have the training that that says branding is you know giving a feeling
about who this business is. And so for me, branding was purely visual. Okay? So, I
started my you know foundational elements of building this business. My
portrait photography business on just the purely visual aspect of branding. And
I.. Looking back have thought about it and part of me wants to say that was maybe a
little frivolous or you know, I didn't have to be as complicated as I made it.
But at the same time, I really loved that that was the first step because it
gave me a chance to get clarity on how I wanted my brand to look first. And then I
switched gears into how I wanted, you my, brand, my persona to feel and how I
wanted people to feel when they worked with me. And those conversations kind of
built on the visual foundation. -Okay. Because there's a difference there.
If you focus all about the look, how do you want something to look versus
the feeling how do you want them to feel, it might completely change
the look. -In my case, what... That actually definitely happened. So, what I did when I
was trying to curate the idea of what my brand looked like is I went on Pinterest
and I just pinned all of the different... I just did searches for a branding or web
design or things like that and I pinned everything that I thought was really
beautiful or really cool. And what I found is that there was this enormous
collection of very not consistent looking content. And so then I went
through and said, "Okay, what are the keywords (Visually) that are really
important for my brand?" And you know, in my case, I photographed mainly women. And
my images have a specific style. Since I'm a visual brand. I mean, what I do. That
kind of helped give me some starting points. And so I started by asking myself,
you know, "What are my images like and what are, you know, what are the kind of
images that I want to create for my clients?" And remember at this point, I'm
brand new and so I don't have tons of clients. And so I get to choose in this
moment. Who are the clients I want to work with and how do I want to serve
them? Right? So for me, it was like I want to be able to photograph really elegant,
timeless, glamorous, super feminine images. That are classic. And so that those
words kind of became my visual branding like direction. So then after that, I took
those words and I said, "Alright Pinterest, which of these pins that I put in this
brand board match those words?" In which totally don't because I would find that
there would be some that were super playful and trendy posts that definitely
didn't fit the bill for timeless. And so those had to go. And then I also kind of
got a little more clarity on the color schemes that I wanted. I wanted to be
really... Obviously I wanted it to be classic and timeless.
And the kind of thing that that's not all you're looking at. I didn't want it
to be color based. So I chose colors that are in the images that I photograph. Like
skin tones and the colors of the backgrounds that I use in black and
white and just keeping it really clean. And so once I got clear on the colors
and the keywords then I was able to curate down that Pinterest board to
something that was really, really defined. -So, it's really cool. So that's a
lot of what I do myself and when I work on my clients is to find examples, to search on and find what you like. But it's so
important to follow the steps that you've done as well. Really knowing the
words, how long how long was that process of kind of choosing the words that
represent your brand? -Choosing words was easy. Narrowing them down was the hard
part. So I started by just... I would come up with several words and you know, it
would be like 50 or something, outrageous. And what I even... Some words, I would go to
the thesaurus and add five that are all kind of related to each other. And that
gave me a chance to say, "Do you know what? This specific word has everything that I
want to communicate. And in this word allows me to get rid of these many." You
know, all of these other words. So it was kind of an exercise in clarity that
was the most valuable aspect of it was probably the opportunity that it gave me
to really be... To get that clarity. -So how many words did you narrow it down to? -I
narrowed it down to 6 words. -Awesome. -Yeah. -And how long have you had those 6
words? Since the beginning? -Since the beginning and what's kind of interesting
is when I... I started with just those 6 words and then I started going to
networking events and I started to feel a little confined by those words. Not
just networking events but also like when I would be posting content on
social media. And I found that I really wanted to post content that was
emotional and that would connect with people and it was going to kind of give
people an insight into my heart and how I wanted to hold space for them and
invite them to my studio. And I felt like the words classic, timeless, elegant,
glamorous kind of hold people at heart arm's
length. They're beautiful visual words but they're not great for how I want
people to feel around my brand. So that's why I ended up kind of cultivating
another list that was separate from my visual list. So today, I was thinking, "This
video would be great to talk about the visual list and that it would be awesome
to have another conversation about the next level." -Alright so what you what
you mentioned there's pretty interesting. And I... Grab that paper because what
she has here... She's got like different visual brands. You've got my brand images
are and they're their words we've mentioned timeless, luxurious, elegant
glamorous. Let's talk about this one here though. The "I am." So you've got different
words that you're going to use in different scenarios? Is that... Is that how I'm
understanding this? -Yeah. So essentially, my visual brand is how it looks, okay?
That's also kind of the first impression if you were looking at something I was
wearing or something from a distance. That's maybe how you would see me. But at
the core of who I am... Like glamorous, elegant, feminine, polish. Like those are
all things that I aspire to be and that I dressed up as. But in reality, you know,
people aren't those things. Those are people words. And so for me, you know, I
wanted more than anything to come across as compassionate and inviting to people.
So that when they came into my space that they would feel safe and feel seen
and heard and important. -So, there's obviously a difference there. It would... It
would... Those words don't necessarily represent your photography business
brand. Compassionate and inviting. So I see what you're saying. -Yeah. And honestly,
the way that I photographed women, that's my visual brand. You know, it kind of ties
together. Some women I photograph as... Most women actually are very powerful and
engaged and deeply connected in their images. And so that's part of my visual
brand absolutely. But then there would also be images where people were super
dressed up and really glamorous and kind of playing that fun dress-up game
and it's like that is my brand. And it completely makes sense for that to be
kind of how I show up at events and things like that. But at the same time, I
don't want it to be the kind of maybe intimidating woman
whose cold and and a little scary to be around. And I'm not that and so it didn't
make sense for me to play at that. So for me, it was just kind of giving myself
these words. And they're directed to me. So for me, it was... I wanted to be able to
come across as vulnerable and playful and whimsical and sensual and inviting
and all of those other things that I think are super important to be able to
have relationships especially with women. Who are my main audience, my main client.
-This to me, words mean a lot to me. And I have not at all gotten this specific. But
having a foundation, I think that's something that I'm committing to right
now is I need to get more clear on my words in different areas
because having clarity on the words that then makes it seems like it's going to make
everything else easier. -Right. Well and what's fun is it's interesting because I...
I was so nervous that I was going to be showing up. I mean I was 25 when I
started this business. And I was so nervous that I was going to be seen as
maybe too silly or too young if I had those words. And so I was so focused on
words like committed to excellence and successful and prepared and you know,
things like that that are certainly important to my brand and to how I want
people to perceive me and as a business woman. But not necessarily how I want
people to see me as myself. So, I wanted to give myself words that were separated
out. This is how I show up in my business and this is how I'll show up when I'm
serving you as my client. But this is how I'm going to show up as your friend and
we're going to bond and this is part of what I bring to the table. Because being
able to photograph somebody... I mean, you have to have a bond and a connection
with them. -Cool. So it's kind of a take away for small business owners that are
wanting to create a brand. The message here then is to come up with words. So if
people see you, they see your brand, they see your website, they see photography.
What words you want to come to their mind? Or what feelings you want them to
have? And then I guess another level is okay, when they're interacting with you,
what experience you want them to have? What words to find that experience? And
would you say that the words are the starting point for creating a brand? -I
would say it it's the thought that goes into
up with the words. And then for me a huge aspect of these words were just
permission to show up as I already was in a way that said, "This is okay.
This is okay in this context and this is okay in this context." So... So it wasn't
necessarily about changing Who I am or changing how I'm being perceived or
wanting to be perceived. It was more about saying, "It's okay for you to be
perceived this way and in fact, here's why it's good." -So, you'd find this episode
helpful, I know I did. But was also. Thanks so much. If people want to find you, where
do they go? So, emilylondonportraits.com is my website. -We'll link it below.
-You can also find me on Instagram emilylondonportraits. And on Facebook. -Okay. So
if you're watching this on YouTube and you're not a subscriber, be sure to
subscribe. If you're on LinkedIn then follow. Because we're starting to post
all these videos on LinkedIn as well. So, we'll see in the next episode.