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Learning To Love Yourself Will Get You A Better Headshot

With Valentines Day just around the corner our thoughts are turned to Cupid and hearts and all things love. I’m just the same, a romantic at heart, always looking for ways to let my loved ones know I care. They will agree with me. I promise.

When I’m not planning my latest gesture of affection, I’m busy working on helping my headshot clients portray themselves in the best possible light and recently I’ve noticed something interesting.

The quality of your headshot is directly related to how much you love yourself.

I’m not talking self centred arrogance here. I mean accepting how awesome you are, being confident in your own skin and allowing your true self to shine. My mentor, Peter Hurley, describes it as being able to mess with the camera and not allow it to mess with you. When you see the headshot of someone who can feel this way, it shows. The image sparkles and it captures attention.

From the moment I got into the headshot game, I’ve focused on coaching my clients to look confident and approachable in front of my camera and the difference between before and after is striking. Here’s an example from a recent shoot with a repeat client of mine.

BeforeAfter-Headshot

The difference is obvious but here’s the thing. I can achieve a lot with my coaching (and often in a very short amount of time) but to get that extra 1% of magic means coming into your time with me already loving yourself in the way I’ve talked about. Sometimes people do, but it’s rare. Single figure percentages. What’s much more common is for people to have an element of self doubt but not enough that it can’t be coached around. However, on occasion I see people who literally fall apart when they have to be photographed and it’s these people that have got me thinking.

I had lunch with a friend of mine, Matisse Martin, a few months back. Matisse runs Mind Align Focused Solutions and describes herself as a solution focused therapist. Matisse works with her clients to help them to realign restrictive beliefs to change how they feel about themselves. It was obvious to me during our lunch that there was an opportunity to work together and help those folks who have avoided being photographed for years to get a really incredible headshot. Matisse works her magic and then I work mine. This can be life changing stuff. There’s a lot of people out there who believe they are not photogenic and that it’s impossible to get a great image of them.  Now I know that to be complete rubbish but understandably people expect me to say that. I feel like we have a real opportunity to help them truly believe it themselves and that’s what Matisse does. It’s a unique collaboration, nobody outside of the U.S. has recognised the importance of this stuff and we are both truly excited at what it will bring.

If you’d like more information on the process you can drop me a line , we will be happy to chat with you.

Happy Valentines Day. Go love others but don’t forget to love yourself too.

 

 

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