3 Words to Describe My Brand

This past weekend, I watched part of the CreativeLIVE online course with Jasmine Star - where she shot an actual wedding, while it was being filmed live and it was broadcasted over the internet for the entire world to watch. LIVE. Talk about pressure! This California girl absolutely rocked the house, handling it all with the grace that is J*.

In addition to actually shooting the wedding, Jasmine basically unleashed ALL of her secrets to everyone watching. 5 people were selected to be participants of this weekend, and were in Seattle with J* and her husband JD throughout the 5 days. They talked about business, marketing, branding, shooting, posing, editing... everything one could possibly want to know about specifically wedding photography, and photography in general. It was an amazing thing to watch a pro divulge all the information that has made her this crazy success story. She didn't hold anything back - talking all about Keeping It Real, and not worrying about trying to get everyone to like you. Very profound topics to both photographers and to everyone in general. I bought the downloads of the 5 days, so I have basically like 50 or more hours of footage to watch sometime this fall and winter.

One of the things that Jasmine talks about is branding. Making your brand. Being consistent with your brand. Knowing exactly what your brand is, what you want it to say, what you want it to be like. She asked the 5 participants to come up with 3 words that define their brand. J's are Fun, Fresh and Fabulous.

I started to think about mine... what are the three words that define my brand. I stumbled with coming up with three good words. Beautiful? Happy? Those are boring.

It's a real challenge to think critically about your business, whether it's in photography or ANYTHING, and think - do I have a strong brand? Does my website fit with my promotional pieces, with the whole client experience of working with me?

I have some goals for the winter, and that includes strengthening my brand. Defining it even further than I have in this past year. I have seen such great growth in my brand since the summer of 2009, and I know that next summer will show even more progress. It's a challenge I want to conquer.

The three words that I have come up with so far - and there's room for change, development, elaboration etc... is Classic, Emotional and Real. I think that Intimate is sometimes interchangeable with Emotional, but because I shoot families and kids too, it's the Emotions that I've after - happy, sad, content, angry, shy... all of it. Intimate doesn't exactly fit with the non-wedding/couples side of my photography.
I know that my brand is ultimately defined by what I want it to say, but I'm curious - if you had to come up with three words that describe what you feel about me, and Laura Radniecki Images, what would they be? When you look at my website, and through my blog, what words come to mind? I think I need a thesaurus! :)





xo, L