The Indispensable Ingredient of Your Headshot
If you're a transformational expert in business for yourself -- coach, consultant, leader, author -- you'll need a headshot or signature image to market yourself. The same goes for any profession, such as artists and musicians, where you are the "brand". Now there are a lot of elements that go into compelling signature brand images that get you noticed. But there is one that is absolutely indispensable.
Some think it’s most important for brand images to look “professional.” Sorry, that’s not it. Sure, you can put on a suit and tie and look professional. But a professional what exactly? Lawyer? Real estate agent? These photos don’t position you as the transformational expert you are. And frankly they're usually boring and don’t get you noticed. On the other hand, I've seen (and created) "unprofessional" images that captured a compellign ingredient that stopped me in my tracks and made me want to know that person.
Some focus on looking “attractive”. This may be a little more promising. But unless you have a keen sense of who you want to attract and what they find attractive, these images can be vague, fussy, generic or even misleading.(For instance, I've seen headshots for business leaders styled like glamour magazine covers.) Moreover your subjective sense of "looking good" may not be the same as the qualities that attract your ideal clients. (And you may also be triggering your own self-judgements about your okay-ness.) Such images often miss the mark.
Others focus on “expression”. That’s a much more useful target. But exactly what is it you want to express? Unless you can answer that question, these images often end up turning into fake, happy-happy grins. Can you say cheese? In my own photography practice, I focus on identifying and drawing out and expressing the specific qualities of being that showcase your uniqueness. That will be the focus of another post.
So what are we aiming for? What is that indispensible ingredient in a brand image that arrests the viewers attention?
For me it’s the sense of authentic engagement in the image. When I see your image I want the sense that you are fully present and fully engaged. I want to feel like you’re looking out of the photograph and meeting me personally. I want to feel your vibe, your pulsating aliveness and the unspoken demand that you are a presence to be reckoned with. We’ve all seen those images that just connect. In a word, the most important thing is YOU, honestly engaged.
Think about meeting someone face to face, not mediated by an image. When we make eye contact with most people, there is a subtle (or not so subtle!) electric shock of recognition — I see you and you see me. I am encountering another human being who sees me too, and that awakens a whole new level of awareness, connection, even demand for response. That’s what I want to experience when I encounter your signature brand images.
Yet we see so many images that are technically competent, well-composed, well-lit, with an attractive setting or wardrobe, absolutely professional . . . and the person looks absolutely blank and unexpressive. You often see this in commercial fashion photography — the too cool for school, unaffected “model expression.” Unegaged. Or you see the unfocused, deer in the headlights look. Not fully present. Or the frozen half smile. Faking it. (By the way, smiles are mini-dramas with a beginning, middle and end — not frozen monuments posed in stone.)
There is a price to be paid when we don't show up fully present in our brand images. We human beings are exquisitely programmed to detect both genuine contact and inauthentic posturing. We're very good at detecting the fake, the frozen, the inauthentic, the pose. And we instinctively avoid it for good reason. I will scroll past a professional but inauthentic or disengaged image in the blink of an eye. It does not engage me, draw me or entice me to want to want to know you. It will not compel me to pick up the phone.
If you are an individual coach, consultant, author or other transformational expert, your brand images should convey authentic engagement to start the conversation with your prospective clients.
How do you get that in your images? I'll address that in later posts, but I do have three tips for you.
Hire a professional photographer that is social and you click with. Someone who draws you out. The game is to get out of your own head and all its self-consciousness and self-judgements..
To get out of your head, get into your body. Take a few deep breaths periodically. Run in place before each new setup. Do a few stretches. It may feel dumb, but it helps you get fully present.
Bring along a friend who gets you to the photo session, again, someone who draws you out of your self-consciousness.
Own your badassity!
