When you’re vulnerable, you draw a crowd
Although it's awesome to present yourself as a superhero in your photos…
…being vulnerable is a highly persuasive way to connect with your audience.
There is no denying the importance of instilling confidence in those you serve by illustrating your expertise through your image content.
I mean, after all, you’re asking your audience to financially invest in the promise that your expertise and attention is the solution to what is holding them back in their business and/or lives.
So you need to leverage image content that illustrates that confidence and experience in order to create that type of connection before they continue their qualification process.
But a balance is needed.
You need to balance your magical superpowers with a slice of humanity.
That humanity can take many forms, but begins with you breaking down the fourth wall between yourself and those you serve by showing them what your world looks like.
And I don’t simply mean sharing the good times - that’s not enough.
Sharing your missteps and failures is also important.
In the following video, I talk about what that sentiment translates to when it comes to your image content:
(If your browser isn’t displaying the video clip, click here to watch.)
As an example of the types of photos that I describe in the video, take a second look at the photo of Speaker Ted Rubin that is attached to this article.
Reflective, pensive and slightly vulnerable in front of the camera, Ted can leverage this portrait as a way to introduce a story of struggle and loss based on the emotional sentiment created by the lighting, composition and most importantly, his head angle and facial expression.
When a photo is captured in this way, that signals to the audience that although he is sharing something personal - and by extension, vulnerable - with his audience in the caption of this post. These photos cast a very strong pull for audience members because they can deeply relate to what is going on in this photo. Reflection, loss, rumination - all of these feelings are felt by all human beings, and by leveraging these types of images, that reminds your potential clients that you are, in fact, a human being while also being a badass.
It’s a potent combination - one that you need to offer your audiences with your image content in order to lay a solid foundation of trust and understanding, especially while they are still in the decision-making phase as to what direction they want to go with finding help to their points of friction.
Any takeaways or conclusions that you’ve uncovered while watching this video? Please share your thoughts in the comment section here.
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