What's YOUR why in your business? What made you do what you do? I'm a personal branding photographer in Edinburgh and there are a few reasons I do what I do.
Now, I'm maybe not the brightest, so it took a while for me to see that I am no unique little snowflake in the shitting-one's-pants-about-being-seen-in-business arena.
It took a while for me to realise that all these hundreds of comments and remarks I was hearing from other women business owners about feeling paralysed and terrified of being truly visible meant something.
It meant that this is something I can help them with. Firstly by identifying what exactly they NEED to tell their potential customers or clients, and then giving them their own great brand photographs which not only convey those messages but which they'll also be proud to post, so their businesses are propelled forward.
I always feel like a fairy's died when I hear other women, whose businesses have such a lot to offer, say things like "I look shit in photos", "Why would anybody want to see me, I don't matter", "I'm boring, I don't have anything to say", "People will think I look old/haggard/ugly/fat ... No wait, I AM old/haggard/ugly/fat".
It's heartbreaking.
I don't only offer photographs. I help people see women business owners like this be seen the way they SHOULD be seen, not the way they see themselves. Which is just one of the reasons I spend a lot of time beforehand with them finding out who they are and how they need to be seen by their target audiences.
That's a huge part of my why. (The rest? See the top of this page.) I know what it feels like to be desperate to stay invisible, forgetting that if you can offer something which genuinely helps others, then you've actually got a moral duty to tell them about it.
And the funny thing is, when you stop focusing on yourself and what people out there are going to think of you, and you start concentrating on getting yourself out there to help others ... You just publish the damn Facebook page, you just write the damn Instagram post, you just put the damn photos of yourself out there so people can see who you are and what you do.
Because it's not about you any more, it's about the people you're trying to help. It's about letting them know you're there for them. It's about showing them what you can do to help them on THEIR journeys. Once you move your focus from your own fears and towards helping others conquer theirs, that's where the magic starts.
I want my personal branding photography to illuminate women business owners all over Scotland and give them business images they'll be desperate to share and which will make them feel proud of their online presence.
What's YOUR why? Have you identified it? It should be like a north star, guiding your entire business.
