The One Upgrade That Made My Business Look 10x More Legit

[00:01] done a photo shoot for it, well, I think you're missing out. I happen to get the opportunity to do a photo shoot with a professional photographer early on in the process of starting my business, and it had a huge impact on my confidence,

[00:16] and my success, and my ability to brand my business. It honestly kind of changed everything, and I really feel that it set me up for success, and launched my brand. So, today I want to tell you a little bit about the impact that that

[00:30] photo shoot had on my business, so that you can see if a photo shoot might be a boost. And then I'm also going to share with you step-by-step how to go about planning a photo shoot for your business, how to find a photographer,

[00:43] and some just tips and tricks for success to get the best results with your first business photo shoot. Okay, so let's start off with the story of my first photo shoot. Basically, one of my best friends is a really talented

[00:56] photographer, and when I was first starting my business, she was not just for a little while, but she was working on expanding her clientele and growing her business. And I think she also wanted to be a good friend and help me

[01:10] out. So, long story short, she offered to do a business photo shoot for me for free, and it's a good thing she did offer to do it for free, because I was in no position to pay for it, and I also had no idea how impactful it would be.

[01:23] So, I didn't see the value in the investment. And honestly, I didn't just not see the value in the investment, I picture to be taken at all, because I did not think that I was good on camera.

[01:37] I did not think I was photogenic, and that was based on some real evidence, you know? I had had my picture taken before, and I never looked very cute. And so, I did not think it'd be very helpful, or very pleasant to have a

[01:50] bunch of pictures of me taken. So, you can imagine my surprise then when I got those pictures back, and I was like, "Who is this beautiful lady?" Because that's the thing about a talented photographer. They really bring out your

[02:02] best side, and they bring out a side of you that you might never have seen before, or not even be aware existed. And that was certainly the case for me. I was honestly totally shocked at how good she made me look. And that alone

[02:17] gave me a lot of confidence with putting my face on my website and starting to build my personal brand. But it wasn't just the confidence that it gave me. Honestly, it also was just kind of some instant branding for my business. I'd

[02:32] been struggling with trying to figure out what colors I wanted to put on my that they looked nice and looked professional. And quite frankly, it did not look professional. It looked very DIY. Well, the amazing thing about

[02:46] having great high-quality photography is that suddenly the layout and the design and everything becomes much less important. You really can let the photos do the heavy lifting on your website. And if the photos look professional,

[03:01] then they can really make your whole website look so much more professional and polished and high-end. And that was exactly what happened with my website. I went from struggling with it for months, even probably over a year, and it

[03:16] I said, DIY. I popped those nice professional photos on my website from that first photo shoot, and suddenly I looked like I knew what I was doing. Crazy. So, the first point that I want to make, and kind of the main reason

[03:31] that I'm talking to you about this today, is that I want you to know how big of an impact having a photo shoot can have on your business, especially on the visual, you know, branding sort of aspect of your business, but honestly,

[03:45] underlying things that are being affected positively or negatively by your confidence. If you've been struggling to get your website to look been spending too much time on it, if you've been having trouble choosing

[03:59] brand colors, I truly think that just investing in a business photoshoot could mostly solve all of these problems basically overnight. Okay, now let's talk about how much this is going to cost and how challenging it is. So,

[04:14] photographers in different areas charge very different prices. You might be paying anywhere between, I would say, about $150 for a business photoshoot all the way up to over $1,000. But, somewhere in the $500 to $1,000 range is

[04:33] going to be the most typical. You can most likely find a good professional photographer for not much more than about $500. Now, yes, that is a significant investment, but like I said, this is going to be an investment. It

[04:47] really will probably solve quite a few problems in your business, will save you a lot of time, and there is a very real high probability that it will help you to land work, that it will help you to get clients, to get customers. So, I

[05:01] think that you're going to see a great return on this investment. Now, maybe you are already sold on this idea of investing in a business photoshoot for your business, especially considering that it can obviously be a tax write-off

[05:13] since it is a business expense. But, if you're not, then I bet that I can guess what you are thinking or the question that you're asking, which is, "Can't you just like have a friend take these pictures for you and get

[05:26] practically the same results?" Like, couldn't you just ask your husband or your girlfriend or, you know, someone to use your phone and take some pictures of you? I mean, our phones these days have pretty incredible cameras in them,

[05:38] pretty incredible cameras in them, right? And honestly, they do. And a good photographer probably could get you some great results with just your phone. But, your brother or your mom or your girlfriend probably can't. They're

[05:53] probably going to look amateur. They're probably going to look DIY. And long story short, not professional. And the whole magic of the business photoshoot actually is that it makes you look like a professional. And it gives you these

[06:07] high-quality assets that you can put on your website and can really like carry the whole weight of the appearance of your website and really your business online. And for these photos to be able to do that much, they do have to be

[06:20] top-notch. So, while if you are more frugally minded, which I totally actually invest in my first photoshoot. I wasn't convinced yet. I probably wouldn't have seen the value. Since then, I've gone on to invest in numerous

[06:35] business photoshoots over the years. I normally do one every year or two. So, I've probably done about like six or seven or so in these past eight years. So, I totally get not seeing the value in it or trying to find a cheaper way to

[06:47] But, I can just tell you from experience, I always get better results when I use a professional photographer. If you want to see an example of this in many, but you could go to my website gillianperkins.com.

[07:02] original, you know, eight years ago photoshoot on it anymore cuz obviously I a little bit older, had a few more kids, all of that. But, you can see some of

[07:14] the more recent pictures there and you can see how they really do carry the weight of the website. And one thing I specifically want you to be looking for is how minimally designed the site is overall. There aren't a lot

[07:27] of graphics. There aren't a lot of fancy layouts or anything like that. Most of the beauty of the website, most of the impression of the branding, most of the structure on the website really does come just from those photos. Now, for

[07:40] the rest of today's episode, I want to walk with you through the process of your business. Starting with what should you plan before you find a photographer? In my opinion, the answer to this question is actually not very much. Now,

[07:57] if you do have some idea what you really want these photos to look like or you already have some branding created or planned, then that's a great starting place, but you don't have to. Really, you don't have to have chosen your

[08:11] chosen your colors. What I would recommend that you do is that you do a little bit of browsing either on other people's websites or just on Pinterest and you try to find some photos that kind of embody the look that you want to

[08:27] have on your website or with your own photos. Basically, we need something that we can show to the photographer to give them an idea what you're going for. plans. Like I said, you don't need to choose specific this or specific that.

[08:42] Just let's get a vision for this. Once you've identified a handful of photos that you like the look of, ideally photos that match to some extent, that have similar vibes, similar colors, that sort of thing, that will give you an

[08:58] idea for the other main thing that I would say you do need to plan, which is what you're going to wear. Because truly, what you wear is going to really set the tone in these photos. One outfit is going to give one impression, another

[09:12] outfit could give a totally different impression of you and who you are and even what you offer. So, I would say you're looking for three main things with the outfits that you choose. The first one is that they match the

[09:25] perception you want people to have of you. This is going to mostly be about your level of professionalism. So, are you going to wear a suit and tie? Are you going to wear a t-shirt and jeans? Are you going to wear a beautiful dress?

[09:39] That sort of thing, okay? So, how do you want people to perceive you? How professional or corporate do you want to look, or how relaxed or casual do you outfit to consider is going to be colors. Hopefully, you have started to

[09:52] identify some types of colors that you prefer as you were browsing around looking for inspiration. Now, what you don't necessarily need to do is choose a matchy-matchy. They don't all need to be blue, or all need to be red, or anything

[10:07] that work together. Basically, kind of a subtle color palette. Now, this could be like blues and greens, cool tones, or it could be more warm tones, but it also could be more subtle than that. It doesn't necessarily have to be, like I

[10:22] something more along the lines of just like muted tones, or pastels, or bright vibrant colors. So, think more in terms of words like that to describe the colors you're choosing, rather than specific colors like blue, or green, or

[10:37] consider when planning the outfits is how many outfits you need. You can do your entire business photoshoot in just one outfit, but the photos will be more useful to you if they have a bit more variety to them. So, I would recommend

[10:52] that you plan to wear three different outfits, or at least three different tops during your photoshoot. You might be able to keep the same jeans or slacks on the whole time, but you'll probably want to change your shirt so you have

[11:04] three distinct different looks that still work together. So, with those couple of things planned, I would say you can move forward to actually finding different options to do this. Probably the most straightforward one is to go to

[11:17] Google and search just for photographer and then the name of your city and state. You also could try searching for business photographer or brand I find that a lot of photographers are interested in any work they can get

[11:32] someone who is a portrait photographer or perhaps even somebody who's typically pretty good chance that they might be open to doing your business or brand is that you're looking for options and you're going to want to look at the

[11:47] portfolios of all of these photographers that you find to be uh finding out which one you really like the style of. Now, of course, the other big consideration here is probably going to be budget because uh different photographers

[12:00] said before, you might see prices ranging anywhere from $150 up to $1,500 or even more. Not every photographer publishes their prices on their website.

[12:12] So, if you find a photographer whose portfolio you like and they don't have their prices published, then just shoot them an email or use their contact form on their website and ask what their rates are. But, of the people whose

[12:24] rates you can see, of course, you'll be considering that and evaluating that. You know, maybe choosing not to pursue the people who are the most expensive and choosing essentially, you know, the cheapest photographer who has a style

[12:36] that you really like. One way you can potentially find them is looking for a potentially find them is looking for a hashtag like LA, California photography or Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania photographer. Photographers generally

[12:48] try to use hashtags like this so that potential clients can find them. And once you find a photographer in your area, you can look and see what other hashtags they are using and then tap on those hashtags or type them in so that

[13:01] you can find other photographers who also are using those same hashtags. Once you find a couple photographers that seem to be within your budget and you can reach out to them, let them know what you are looking to do, specifically

[13:15] and tell them what they're going to be taking a picture of. If that's going to be you for your personal brand or if you do have some sort of physical products or an office that you want to take pictures of, then let them know that

[13:27] photography. You'll also want to give them an idea of when you're hoping to do already know their rates, of course, ask them about their rates. Now, most likely they will respond to you, and they'll let you know if they are interested in

[13:42] helping you out with what you're asking them for, and they will probably tell you about their options in terms of session length and maybe session type. Now, to some extent, you can just take their guidance on this, but I would

[13:56] recommend that you are looking for a photo shoot in the 1 to 2 hour range. And most likely, if you can afford it, having a session that's more like 2 hours long will work the best, because that'll give you time to experiment with

[14:09] that'll give you time to experiment with different posing and different locations and props and different outfits. Time to change your outfit, and that's really helpful. Now, of course, if right now you are on a budget and you can only

[14:21] afford 1 hour with the photographer, I still think you should go ahead and do that, and you can still get great results in just 1 hour for sure. But, I probably wouldn't go for a session that's less than about 1 hour long, just

[14:34] because most likely you'll wind up feeling rushed, and you won't be able to get very many photos or very big variety with the photos. Now, I think from this pretty obvious how to go about having your business photo shoot. The one other

[14:48] thing that I would say is very important is that you do pass along your inspiration photos to the photographer, so that they have a solid idea what photographer, they will be great at doing things like posing you and

[15:01] figuring out what the best lighting is and all of that. But, the photos that are created will be very different depending on those inspiration photos that you give them. Now, how you are going to figure out how to match the

[15:14] aesthetic in your inspiration photos is on the photographer's side, them perhaps choosing the location, making sure that their camera settings are correct to match that look, and making sure that they're choosing the right lighting, and

[15:27] the posing, and then definitely how they edit the photos after the fact. On your side, you need to make sure that you are working with them to choose the right before, are choosing outfits that are

[15:40] those vibes. Okay, well, that's pretty much everything that I wanted to share with you in this episode. I really do think if you've never had a business photoshoot, or maybe not professional photoshoot at all, that this is a very

[15:54] worthwhile business investment. I know it can be hard to see the value in it before it has happened, but I know that my own personal experience was that, honestly, it really changed everything about my ability to brand and

[16:08] subsequently market my business, and it made it so much easier for my website to look professional, and for me to position myself as an expert, and for me to get people to follow me and to grow my audience online. So, I would highly

[16:22] recommend that you do make the investment and have your first business haven't done before. Thanks for being here for this video. If you are working to build your own business, then be sure to hit that subscribe button down below,

[16:35] because I make new videos here on this channel every single month about exactly that, how to start and grow a successful online businesses, specifically. And if that thumbs up button to help more people find it. All right. Now, next up,

[16:51] if you're looking for something else to watch, check out this video right here. watch, check out this video right here. I talked to Alex Cattoni in it all about how online marketing has fundamentally changed over the last couple of years,

[17:03] what's working, what's not, and how to still successfully launch products still successfully launch products online.