In this world, a pretty portfolio just isn’t enough! Today’s episode is all about how to sell with your personality and living brand. We’re diving into how to bring more YOU into your content, and why connection converts way faster than a perfectly polished feed. 

On Quianna Marie Weekly, we’re chatting about business growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating wins of all sizes through the lens of a photographer at heart. Sprinkled throughout stories and interviews with past clients, photographers and other business owners this podcast is designed to help you step into your purpose and to truly create a life you’re proud of, a life worth photographing and sharing.

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Today’s episode is brought to you by The Green House, my resource garden for photographers! Let me help you AMPLIFY your heart online and in real life to turn bridesmaids into future brides through templates, workshops, and freebies!

Review The Show Notes:

Why A Pretty Portfolio Isn’t Enough (1:33)

How To Bring More YOU Into Your Content (6:17)

Building Your Living Brand (13:03)

Why Connection Converts Faster Than Polish (17:24)

Practical Content Ideas You Can Record This Week (18:32)

Your Permission Slip (21:32)

How To Stay Consistent Without Burnout (22:48)

Mentioned In This Episode:

Easy B-Roll Ideas For Business Owners: quiannamarie.com/broll

The Green House Resource Garden: quiannamarie.com/shop

Check Out The Blog: quiannamarie.com/blog

Connect with Quianna:

Website: quiannamarie.com

Instagram: instagram.com/quiannamarie

Review the Transcript:

Hey, hey. Welcome back to Quianna Marie Weekly. I’m your host Quianna, your business bestie branding photographer, and B-roll Hype girl. Today we’re talking about something that might sting just a little bit. Ready. Your portfolio might be beautiful. Your feed might look aesthetic and cohesive and really pretty, but your personality, that’s what sells your presence, your warmth, your voice, your corks.

That’s what turns viewers into friends. Friends into clients, then imagine having those clients turn into lifelong friends that keep booking you year after year. So today we’re diving into how to bring more you, more of your personality, more of your love, more of your heart into your content, and how to build what I call your living brand online.

And why connection converts way faster than a perfectly polished feed. Grab your iced coffee and your notebook. Let’s dig in. Welcome to Keana Marie Weekly, a podcast for creatives who love to celebrate wins big or small by dancing in the kitchen photographers who are excited to serve their clients and friends who are ready to chase.

Really, really big dreams. You can find all of the resources mentioned in this episode@kianamarie.com slash podcast. Join me as I share weekly motivation chat about growing pains, finding genuine connections, and celebrating your wins through the lens of a photographer at heart. Come join me for a dance party.

Ready? Let’s go.

Okay. Tough love, big sister moment. A gorgeous portfolio. Used to be enough. Five, 10 years ago, yes, of course you could post beautiful photos and it was enough to get people to book you, but today everyone has access to decent cameras and our phone quality keeps getting better and better and better.

Everyone has presets. Everyone can fake a pretty feed with blurry photos being trendy these days. Even toddlers can take those trendy photos with their cameras, right? I don’t know what it is. It’s a trend. Call me an elder millennial. I feel like there’s always room for movement and some of those blurry photos do feel magical, but I’m sorry, A blurry photo of a flat light that’s just not cutting it for me.

I’m sorry. But with that in mind, even blurry photos are what everyone’s doing these days. So how were you standing out? Right? What they can’t fake is you, they can’t duplicate your laugh. They can’t replicate your client experience. They can’t ever, ever, ever, ever match your energy. When everyone’s work looks the same, personality becomes the differentiator.

Clients wanna feel like they already know you. They can trust you. Their friends have invested in you and they want their turn. Next, they wanna see how fun you are and can imagine having a blast with you. And then I would argue the most important piece of your marketing and messaging, you get them, you understand them, you speak their language, you feel like you’re a friend, and that you’re already in their head, right?

This is why B-roll behind the scenes, talking head videos, like micro moments of your life matter. We need to share pieces of our lives for connection, clarity in our offers, share our value, and leave clues that were the best option for our dream clients. Sometimes your industry will drive styles, culture, norms and expectations that you may not even align with.

We started our businesses so we can do things our own way. I wanna take you back to my wedding workshop days and dig into a throwback for you when my own personality and style was questioned while I was having my website audited by an industry leader Years ago, and I’m talking almost 10 years ago. In 2016, a photographer that I admired really looked up to, told me to remove cowboy boots from my.

She encouraged me to swap a hero image on my bridal page of a row of cowboy boots with the bridesmaids bouquets in them. For a more styled flat lay, showcasing some Jimmy Chu heels. As I was soaking up their knowledge and wanted their encouragement for booking more high-end and more luxury weddings, I quickly changed it.

I didn’t even question it. I was like, oh, duh, cowboy boots. Let’s get these outta here and let’s replace them with some fancy Jimmy Chu’s or some red bottom heels, right? Like that, no questions asked. I did it at the time. I was determined to listen to their insight and was eager to go from Kiana, the friend that works at Trader Joe’s and takes pretty pics to a published and award-winning wedding photographer.

I made the swap and moved on to more lessons and capturing the dreamy style shoot with, you guessed it. No cowboy boots on the models. The only cowboy boots in sight were the ones I was wearing in the desert. I had my cowboy boots on. They were dusty. And I just felt alive photographing in those boots because clearly I’ve heard horror stories.

I’m a California girl, born and raised in Northern California. I’ve actually been around tons of encounters with rattlesnakes, and I just wanted to wear my boots and feel a little bit more protected in the desert, and that’s just what I felt comfortable in. It was my style. After sitting with that for a while, you know that feeling when you get home from a conference or an educational experience and you just wanna burn everything down, start over and implement pages and pages of notes you, you think you took away with, right?

Like, you just wanna get started and just start from scratch. I started to think, wait a minute. I know I’m capable of booking high-end luxury weddings because I already have booked those weddings. Many of my brides and grooms wore cowboy boots and many of them wore elegant heels. It was a mix of both, and I wanted to work with hardworking couples that love a tuck of luxury and comfort.

I didn’t want to let anyone else curate my style and dilute my vibes simply because it didn’t match their visions or standards for a luxury portfolio. So I swapped those hero images out as soon as I got home. This my love. This is your sign to take everything with a grain of salt, learn as much as you can, and only implement what feels good for you.

The more we share our style, preferences, personality, sense of humor and lifestyle with our audience, the more touch points we’ll have to build trust and make our future clients slow their scroll to think that’s her, or that’s who I need to hire next. Okay, so let’s chat more about how to bring more of yourself and your personality into your content.

You don’t have to brain dump your childhood trauma or overshare every detail. Don’t freak out. It’s not truth day, and I’m not encouraging you to put your entire life online. We’re not doing diary entries here. We’re adding flavor, some spice and some sparks. I love a good list. So this is where I would pause to grab your notebook or definitely scroll to the show notes blog to revisit if you’re driving or busy getting your steps in.

Which PS Commercial Break? Did you know that you can view blog posts for every single episode from Keanu Marie Weekly? Every podcast player has show notes to share right below the play button for every episode, but I also share a blog for every single episode. I love adding more links, education, and the entire transcripts.

I even love to share episode referrals too. So if you liked a particular episode, I’d love suggesting other past episodes to tune into too. Okay, before I move on, I wanted to make sure that you knew how to access these blogs and these extended show notes. So if you just head over to kiana marie.com and click blog, they’re all right there.

Um, you can visit recent episodes. You can even type in series. So if you’re interested in learning more about weddings or mindset series or photography or content or even just type in B-roll, literally all of the blog posts and all of the episodes that are related to that topic will pop up. Literally, it’s a vault of education and I try to keep it that way so it’s easy to access, easy to find.

Back to our list of ways to sprinkle more of you into your content. Here’s a handful of simple ways. Share how you think about things, not just what you do, but why you do it. And the next time you arrive for a fall mini session day, get there a little bit early and record yourself explaining why you chose that particular location.

If you’re on your way to a conference, tell us why you chose to wear certain shoes. Maybe you’re rocking some killer boots that make you look and feel incredible, but they kill your feet and since you’ll be sitting down, most of the time, you’re brave enough to rock them for the conference. Tiny touch points, build connection and relatability fast, right?

It’s like the fast pass for Disneyland when you can create these touchpoints and make people feel like they already know you. Tell tiny little stories. The moment a client almost cried because they love their photos, that’s gold. Share a recap of your client experience and how your client almost canceled, but she’s thrilled she showed up.

Anyway, share client wins that feel attainable and encouraging. That’ll highlight your client and still layer in some soft selling and adding so much value to you and your business. Show your personality off camera, your messy bun, your car snacks, your editing rituals, your cozy home vibes. We’re all super nosy.

We wanna see what’s inside your fridge, what your closet looks like. Are you the kind of person that goes in and out of your front door or are you a garage door person? Right? Like we’re definitely garage door people. And it’s so funny because Mike is a front door guy, but. He’s been going in and out the garage door, which I love.

It’s just so funny and you know, like, what are you like, I wanna know, tell me in the comments or send me a dm. If you go in and out of your house through your garage or your front door. I’m so curious. I have to know. As entrepreneurs, we’re very conditioned to monetize everything these days. What activities or hobbies do you do that helped you relax and unwind?

What can you share that feels boring but actually builds trust and credibility for your brand? Side story. Commercial break. I am obsessed. I’ve gone down the rabbit hole through content on TikTok and Instagram and Facebook. Actually, I keep getting ads on Facebook too. For, um, stitching like, um, cross stitching with embroidery thread.

I am obsessed and I think that’s something that’s gonna be on my wishlist for this, um, holiday season, is to maybe add some gifts for family and friends with the cross stitching. I just think it’s just like a grandma hobby that I’m really excited to get into. Another way to add more of yourself to your brand.

Your language. I briefly mentioned this before, but the words you say all the time, like, Hey, cutie, okay friend, or, let’s bloom, or you grow, girl. When I’m photographing someone, I just keep talking and there’s never any silence. I’m literally a cheerleader and hype girl the entire time. Those become your brand signatures, so not just your language and your think of like Gretchen from Mean Girls, right?

Like that’s so fetch, right? Like what are the things that you are saying that you’re trying to make a thing? And it could just be something that is your personality that you say often, right? Like. My best friend, um, Brandy, she’ll say 10 outta 10 all the time. Like if she’s eating a delicious meal, she’ll say, oh, that was 10 outta 10.

Or if, um, something went her way or was really awesome. Right? 10 outta 10. And even Mike starts saying that now, right? Like he, he jokes and he’s like, oh, if Brandy was here, she would say, that’s 10 outta 10, right? Like, whatever it is, that is something that you say often. And then also I would say like, I dunno, like a flip of the coin of that too, when I mentioned your language also relates to the language that your clients speak, right?

Like what’s in their head? What is keeping them up at night? Um, what are the words that they use? And I’ve mentioned this before in past episodes, when we’re actually pulling them, right? Like we’re asking them these questions. About their client experience, about why they decided to work with you. Like those are all clues.

Those are all ways that we can speak the language of our clients and not just our current clients, but clearly those words can be used to attract our future clients as well. Another way to add more you into your business is sharing your values. You don’t need to scream them, okay? We don’t need to have all these like Danny Tanner moments from Full House when we are just always trying to make a lesson out of everything.

But we’re showing them, right, how you prep your clients, how you celebrate them, how you go above and beyond how you troubleshoot situations, or how you would do things differently next time. And the easiest way to capture all of this B roll. All of the behind the scenes moments, just record the life you’re living and the work you’re already doing, and talk about what you’re doing if you’re thinking.

But key, what clips? What ankles, what do I record? What do I say? Anytime I hit record on my phone or set up a tripod, I go blank. You already know I’m gonna say it. Bloom with B-Roll was created for exactly this chaos, right? We literally saw this exact panic. So just saying, make sure to check out Keanu marie.com/ B-roll to get started with a free guide today, and upgrade to Bloom with B-roll to get started sharing your value, booking more clients, and align yourself with dream clients.

Simply being yourself. I’m not even joking. For the cost of one of your mini sessions, you can have access to B with B roll for a lifetime, and we get to go over all of this together. Now let’s roll into building your living brand. Now that you’re gating momentum and your confidence is growing, let’s chat about developing a pivot proof brand that grows with you.

I want you to picture Disneyland, okay? It’s not just the rights, it’s the smells, the colors, the characters, the magic, the music, the yummy snacks. It’s a whole fantasy world. Your brand needs that too. So I challenge you, I want you to ask yourself, this is something you can journal on. This is something you can write on.

This is something you could think about when you’re in the shower, okay? But I wanna ask yourself, what phrases do you repeat over and over? What snacks show up in your stories? Like what is literally on your desk? What is in your car? What’s in the bottom of your purse? What are the snacks that you find yourself often grabbing and nibbling on when you’re doing your work?

What color palette naturally happens. I recently had the opportunity to get my colors analyzed by my friend Michelle, and it has been a life changing for the outfits that I order on Amazon last minute, being intentional with picking my wedding decor, right? These are all personal things to me, but they’re colors that I vibe with that make me look my best, the healthiest version of myself.

I glow when I wear my winter colors. So those are things that happen naturally. I’m also very much surrounded by greens. I love plants, I love nature, and I find that that color palette of just natural woods and greenery and just like nature vibes often pop up in my content as well. Lots of plants. I have the greenhouse as a resource garden for photographers and creatives, right?

That right there. Hello. That’s my branding and I wanna be. Aware of that, and I also wanna encourage you to see what type of color palettes are naturally occurring in your content and in your business. What music or vibes represent you? I mentioned cowboy boots. I love country music. Country is the heartbeat of my childhood.

It is always on the radio. I, it just makes me feel so nostalgic and I’m obsessed, like I’m a nineties country girl. I was raised on country and it’s funny because. I’ve had friends tell me before, like, oh, not everybody loves country. Like maybe you shouldn’t put that into all your content, but especially was I, when I was in the thick of weddings.

I can’t tell you how many times I would play country either on my reels or in my songs, or I would just mention how much I love it. And I would have so many brides have country music as they’re getting ready playlist, and they would just tell me like, oh, key. I know you love country. You’re gonna love this.

Right? Like instantly making bestie conversations, right. What locations are so you? Are you a beach bum? Do you love the outdoors? Do you prefer intimate coffee shops with like moody lighting? What is it that represents you and do you find yourself gravitating towards certain locations? What opinions do you stand on when people can describe you without your name?

You’ve built a living brand. It’s not just about what you do, it’s how you make people feel. It’s how they remember you, right? It’s what they say. When you’re not in the room, how would your current clients describe you? What do your kids think you do? What do your family and friends think you do? My brother Mike teases me that I only use my pointer finger to click and take photos.

Clearly I offer way more than that, but he jokes and makes fun of me when I’m exhausted after a long day of extroverting after many session days, and he just teasing me. He is like, oh, I don’t know why you’re so tired. You just like, and he’s just clicking his thumb, right? Like, or his pointer finger. Like, click, click, right?

I’m like, ah, I just wanna punch you right. I am hoping that I’m encouraging you to ditch the perfect and share more of the present. Showing up online and making these connection points and relatable posts don’t have to always be personal either. Okay. So I do want to really just paint this picture that it doesn’t have to be about open your refrigerator and sharing what’s in your camera bag or like what are a part of these like intimate moments of your daily life.

I think personal is easy because so much life is happening around us, but you can throw rocks at your industry, which just means like poking fun at trends or, or challenging industry norms and sharing controversial hot takes that can be personal to your thoughts and opinions, but isn’t necessarily blasting your personal life online.

Right. People don’t want perfect. They want human. They wanna be able to see themselves in you, in your business. They wanna, they wanna see that FOMO that you’re creating and they want a piece of it, right? Perfection makes them think, she’s too polished for me. I’m not ready. I’ll embarrass myself. I need to lose 30 pounds first.

Right? Connection says, you are welcome here. I’ll hype you up. You are already enough. When clients feel safe, they book faster, period. When clients feel they can trust you, they keep watching. When clients can see themselves working with you and getting the results they want, they’ll hire you. Think of the last person you hired.

You probably liked them. You probably followed their life and their stories and had been engaged in their social media for a while before you purchased or you know, hit that buy button and you’ve probably thought we’d totally vibe. If I met them in real life, I would totally be their friend. It wasn’t the perfect feed, it was the relationship.

It was their voice. It was the voice and experiences of their clients that received the results you are craving. It was social proof, not society perfection that won you over. Alright, one thing I wanna start adding to these episodes to not just leave you feeling inspired and encouraged, but also supportive with tangible tips and action items.

I love a good checklist. So here’s five practical content ideas you can record this week. I challenge you to record yourself, setting up your camera, wiping down your lenses, editing with your coffee, right? So like literally just a couple shots of you at your laptop and editing your like editing cave. I know right now we’re in busy season.

Okay. Talking about a recent client win. Sharing a behind the scenes moment, like take us behind the scenes. We want to see all the fun details and the moments that go into creating your client experience. We can chat about some red flags in green flags for clients, right? So red flags to look for. Um, this could be in their shoes though, right?

So for example, if you’re a photographer getting ready for a full day of mini sessions, maybe some red flags to look for is actually red flags to avoid, to avoid meltdowns for kids, right? And then green flags that you can look for too, because once again, these are busy mamas that are looking to hire you.

We’re not necessarily talking to other photographers. Right. Okay. So think about the clients that you are speaking directly to with those red flags and green flags, and not just industry stuff. We don’t wanna like do inside jokes with other photographers at this time, unless you want other photographers following you.

I get that complaint all the time. Key. I always have so many photographers follow me or have so many other realtors following me, or I have so many other hairstyles because you’re creating inside jokes and trends for them. You’re not creating inside jokes and trends for your clients. Okay, so sorry, that was another big sister moment.

Um, another, uh, practical content idea. Three questions you ask before every shoot or before your client experience. These are questions you ask your clients, um, to help them feel prepared. Right? So going back to the hairstylist moment here, like what questions do you ask your clients to ensure that you’re seeing the same colors or you’re hyper aware of the exact cut that they’re looking for, the length, the style, all of that.

What particular questions do you ask that you can get online and share? And then any advice you give for, for after the session, right? So what can they expect after? What can they look forward to? How can they display their photos, print their photos? How do they care for the lymphatic drainage that you just provided for them, right?

Like whatever it is that your industry is. Um, what is something that your clients can look forward to after their session? These videos create trust, authority, and they build connection. If you’re like, okay, but I need some prompts, angles, scripts, and confidence. That’s literally why Bloom with B-Roll exists.

It takes the guesswork out of content creation so you can show up confidently, consistently, and creatively. Make sure to check out Bloom with B-roll at keana marie.com/ b-roll. There’s no hyphen there. It’s just BR oll. We’re head right over to the show notes or the link in my Insta to learn more. I have a free guide for you, so if you’re like, okay, I just wanna learn more, I just just wanna grab and go, grab that guide for a hundred easy B-roll ideas for your business.

I wanna leave you with this. I wanna give you permission to stop hiding. Stop waiting until you look better. You feel smarter. You have another certificate, whatever. Please stop obsessing over. Perfection. Record the messy clip. Show that awkward smile. Wear the comfy sweater. I have this magnolia sweatshirt that I’ve literally got on my 30th birthday, and I’m totally dating myself.

It’s, it’s seven years old. This is my favorite Magnolia sweatshirt from the silos from Magnolia at, from Chip and Jojo’s in Waco. And I like, it’s so thin. It’s so thin because I’ve washed it literally a million times. And I wear it all the time. It’s so comfy and soft and, and that’s just a piece of meat and something I wear often, right?

So become a cartoon character for your brand if you are constantly wear re-wearing the same things. I actually think that builds trust and familiarity instead of just like always need to have a new outfit all the time. Side story. Let your personality peek through, right? We wanna see that. We wanna see you.

I wanna get to know you. I wanna be your best friend, right? So how are you showing me that we would click or that we have some connection points or some similarities? Because guess what? Your dream clients want you, not the curated air quote professional version of you. The secret is not filming more, it’s capturing the life you’re already living.

Prop your phone up while you are at your next photo shoot. Grab that tripod. Record hyperlapse moments when you edit. Capture these snippets, right? Like share a hyperlapse of you calling and a whole photo shoot or a whole wedding, right? Show your prep and your cleanup, what it’s like and how you prepare, and how you wrap things up, or you hit the drive-through.

Late at night after your session, right? Like, what does that look like? What is your order? Uh, mic yourself up and talk through us. Like talk through your thoughts while you’re working. Use your life as content, not extra work or extra labor. As photographers, entrepreneurs and creative business owners, we’re in the thick of our busy season as we welcome the holidays and all the craziness that comes with that.

So don’t let your busy season drown your marketing efforts. In fact, I would argue that this busy season is the best time to showcase your client experience, share the behind the scenes and post intentionally to speak directly to your future clients. You’re already doing the work. Just hit record and post it the next day with some engaging copy and dialed in messaging.

All right, my love. That’s it for today. If this episode was your sign to show more of your personality, take it. Live it, breathe it, soak it in, and hit record. Your clients are craving connection, safety, and chemistry. They want to see that they can trust you. If you’re ready to bloom online, build your living brain and attract clients that feel like instant besties, check out Bloom with B-Roll.

It’s packed with content, ideas, prompts, angles, and scripts to help you show up confidently and consistently. Thank you so much for listening to Keanu Marie Weekly. Don’t forget to like, subscribe, share with a friend and tag me in your B roll. I wanna see it. I wanna cheer you on, and I will absolutely repost it if you tag me.

So make sure to mention me. Mention Quianna Marie and I will a 100% re-share it. I’m cheering for you every step of the way. Until next time, keep blooming, babe. Kay. Love you. Bye. That’s a wrap on another episode of Quianna Marie Weekly. Thank you so much for your listenership and support. You can find the resources and show notes for this episode and more at QuiannaMarie.com/podcast

I’d be honored if you’d show your support by leaving a review and rating on your favorite podcast app. Until next time, keep on on dancing.