Mastering Authentic Personal Branding Through Powerful Photos with Vicki Knights

In this episode of Your Dream Business Podcast, I dived deep with Vicki Knights, a pro photographer and positive psychology expert, about the challenges business owners face with photography and personal branding. We talk about why so many people feel uncomfortable in front of the camera and how to overcome that to look authentic and confident in photos. Vicki shares some great tips on preparing for a photoshoot, feeling at ease on camera, and using photos to boost your personal brand. We also touch on why investing in professional photography matters, how your appearance impacts how your business is seen, and Vicki's unique career blending photography with visibility coaching. This one's perfect for coaches, course creators, and anyone looking to level up their personal brand.   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Overcome Camera Shyness: Learn how to feel more confident and authentic in photos, so you can showcase your true self for your brand. Invest in Professional Photography: Professional photos are worth the investment because they can significantly impact how your business is perceived and help build a stronger personal brand. Leverage Photography for Visibility: Use photos strategically to enhance your personal branding and connect with your audience on a deeper level.   If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Vicki on LinkedIn, Website, Instagram Connect with Teresa on Website, The Club, Sign up to Teresa's email list,  Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter   Transcript Whether we like it or not, as business owners, we have a personal brand and part of that personal brand is showing up and showing our face. And one of the ways in which we do that is through having our photographs taken and posting images of ourselves, whether it's on our website, whether it's on social media. But why is it that so many of us hate having our photo taken and how can we get over that to make sure that we're showing up authentically and with the confidence that we have in our business, but in our photos today, we are talking all about that with the amazing photographer and positive psychology practitioner, Vicki Knights. Welcome to the Your Dream Business Podcast. I'm your host, Teresa Heath Wareing. An international bestselling author, award winning speaker, TEDx speaker, certified coach, and the host of this number one ranked podcast. I am so excited to guide you on the journey of creating a [00:01:00] business and life that you not only love, but one that perfectly aligns with you and the season of life that you're in. In each episode, I'll share with you easy, actionable, and insightful strategies to grow your online business. Plus, we'll be diving into some mindset tools and strategies that keep you focused, motivated, And are going to stop you from getting in your own way. So if you're a course creator, membership owner, or coach, you're in the right place. Let's get started. Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. I am your host, Teresa Heath Wareing . As always, I hope you are doing well. I have to say I am recording this and the sun is shining and the sky is blue and it just makes me feel, so flippin happy and the sooner I can get out into my garden again, if you don't follow me on Instagram then and you're interested in a bit of vegetable growing and baking, you might want to follow me over there because that's what I do when I'm not helping people with [00:02:00] launches and the fact that the sun is shining and spring is coming, it makes me feel so, so happy. Today, we are talking about something that I think lots of people might hate, and I have learned to love. Today, we are talking about photography and having our photos taken, and being confident on camera, showing up authentically, and how to Be willing to show our faces because at the end of the day, if you're listening to this, I am fairly confident that whether you think you are or not, you're a personal brand, everyone is a personal brand to some degree. I've been watching a lot of Daniel Preece's content, and he talks about the fact of. how personal brands are way more powerful than companies. If you look at someone like Virgin, he gives this as an example, how Richard Branson has way more followers than any of his Virgin companies. And he gives a ton of different examples. And it was so prevalent in today's conversation, the fact of we do need to show our face and we need to understand that we [00:03:00] are a personal brand. And today I'm talking with the very lovely Vicki Knights. Vicki is a visible strategist with a positive psychology practitioner and is one of the UK's leading branding photographers. Vicki uses photography and positive psychology to help business owners to be seen and show up with joyful confidence. She has photographed over a thousand female business owners across the globe over the last 15 years, and her work has been featured internationally in publications like Vanity Fair, Forbes, The Sunday Times, and Cosmopolitan. Vicki's photography is amazing. Now, I have never had a photo shoot with Vicki. I would like to have a photo shoot with Vicki, and the reason I haven't is because she lives quite far away from where I am, and I just haven't found the time to free up a few days in my diary to be able to go somewhere, for a photo shoot. The photo shoots that I have are either in my house or sometimes when I go to the States and stay with my lovely friend Mary, who has a beautiful house, [00:04:00] I have photos done with her. She doesn't do them. We have a photographer and someone come in. So I just haven't got round to having some photos done with Vicki, but I want to because she is excellent. So that's your first job today to go and follow Vicki on Instagram if you don't already, because her photo shoots are just awesome. But we talk about having photo shoots and having photos taken and I say pretty early on that actually, I don't mind it. I quite like it now. I never used to, that was never something that I loved, but I got used to it. But one of the things that always worried me was how do we show up authentically? Well, also trying to have a really good photo shoot and I tell a story about how I am with my photographer and how I can turn it on really quickly in terms of getting some good photos and how authentic does that actually feel and how authentic is having your hair done and your makeup done and showing up and being positioned potentially. So we talk about all of that and how Vicki ensures that her customers and people who work with her are [00:05:00] comfortable and do shop as their authentic selves. She also talks about how to feel confident on camera because it's not something, and I think as women as well, it's not something that we're used to doing. Like. Other than the business friends that I have, my friends and family who are nothing to do with business, none of them have had a photo shoot. And it feels like a very weird and bizarre thing to do when you think about it, when you're not in business. And we talk about this as well. And we talk about showing up and feeling confident and all of that good stuff. So I think if you are a woman in business in particular, you are going to find this conversation really, really helpful. And if you. need a photo shoot, want to photo shoot, and you're about to have one, then this is definitely going to help you show up with confidence and have your best photos yet. Okay. Without further ado, here is the very lovely Vicki. Vicki, welcome to the podcast. Vicki: Thank you. I'm looking forward to an opportunity to talk to you again. Teresa: Me too. I came on your podcast, didn't I? This is quite some time [00:06:00] ago. Vicki: Last year. You were one of my first guests,...