When marketing your business, photos of you and your team speak volumes in establishing connection and building trust. And who better to tell that story than the founder, owner or frontline team. Both professional photos AND phone camera content can be used to connect with your audience. The trick is knowing what role each of these types of content plays in your marketing and making sure you use it in the right places with intention.

Book launches shouldn’t be just a one-time event, but should be seen as a important marketing opportunity long before, and way after the actual launch day. Creating branded photo content that’s on hand whenever you need it over the next 6-12 months is so helpful in saving you time, keeping your marketing efforts consistent, and building trust with your audience.

Lately, I’ve been noticing more and more businesses and organisations using acronyms in place of their full brand name. As an advocate for brevity, I’m all for keeping things simple.

However, by using an acronym, are we really simplifying and making communication easier, or is it in fact creating even more confusion?

In today’s noisy digital marketplace, everyone seems to be on a quest to increase their visibility. Post more on social media. Pay more for online ads. Get a bigger sign. And rightly so. It makes sense to conclude that “the more people who can see my business, the more people who will buy”.

While that may be the case in some instances, it isn’t always a hard and fast rule. You can still have high visibility, but low engagement.

As history tells us, Disneyland was indeed a success in 1955 and still is to this very day. But Walt didn’t know that at the time. His sharing of the process (the good, the bad and the ugly) took courage and conviction. After all, if he didn’t believe in his idea, why would anyone else?

If you’ve got a dream or goal you’d like to achieve this year, share it. Talk about. Document the process. Believe in yourself with the same courage and conviction that Walt had.

Whenever I’m talking with clients to plan their brand photoshoots, many of them ask “do I need to get my hair and makeup done? I don’t normally wear makeup.” My answer is always yes! Not because I think women need to cover themselves up or hide who they are, but because you’ll be on camera with the specific goal of elevating your brand to represent your business, and that requires some additional attention to detail by people with experience.