X-Press Headshots Keep Your Branding & Marketing Fresh!

Hi, guys, I'm Michael with Michael Negrete Photography. I'm here in my photography studio in Claremont; I'm actually on our headshot set, and we're doing Xpress headshots this month. I've got the wall of light here, surrounded by fill cards. It's perfect for making people look gorgeous. 

I wanted to take a moment to talk to you about headshots. Headshots are not just for actors. They're not exclusively for professionals anymore. Anytime you're in business representing yourself, you need a headshot. Even if you're not a professional, you still need a headshot for your brand. Many people are using pictures from their phones, and it's just not putting your best foot forward to market yourself.

We can do group shots as one image, or even better, we can photograph each subject separately in the studio and composite them as a group. This strategy has many benefits. Such as allowing the subjects to come at different times or days, lighting each face individually to produce the best results, selecting the perfect pose for each subject instead of the entire group's best image, and placing them together to best fit marketing materials.

The thing that's critical with the headshot is to communicate your personality. People will do business with people they like. Say you're even a college student, and you know you're graduating in another year or two. Say you're going to go into business, or you're studying business. Maybe you're going to be a financial advisor. People will look back at your marketing from previous years, even just on Facebook and Instagram. Having amateur shots for your profile picture, it's just not putting your best foot forward for your website. You can get a regular headshot with perfect lighting from any pro photographer, but the critical part is your personality. People do business with people they like. So you want to be authentic. It would help if you had a headshot that reveals who you are so you attract your ideal target audience.

I asked my staff after we had finished a Facebook live video, and I said, "Oh my God, I talked too fast. Was I talking too fast?" And they said, "No, that's just who you are." So there are going to be people that watch this video, and they go, "That guy talks too fast. I can't stand him." Then there's going to be people that go, "Oh, that's my guy." My point is you want to be who you are and communicate who you are. The people who identify with all the little bits of you, the way you look, the way you speak, your mannerisms, etc. Do you talk with your hands like I do? Whatever is unique about you will attract those that like you. And your life will be much easier because then you're going to end up doing business with the kind of people you want. In short, you'll attract your tribe :)

School administrators frequently need a great headshot. Ironically they’re similar to the subjects I encounter with school picture days; they hate having their portrait taken or concerned about looking good. I work with them to help their confidence and true personality shine. My subjects always leave feeling better about themselves.

Now, I've been out passing out postcards to market our Xpress headshots. We have a special this month. We do this every single March. This year, from March 16th to April 3rd, we are doing Xpress headshots for only $75. We usually charge $125. However, after this round, we're going to raise our price to $150. So if you miss out on it, that's going to be the new price. Frankly, after March, we won't have time to dedicate a lot of time at such a discounted rate. I've had past loyal clients ask if I can honor the sale price after the offer ends; I'm so sorry, I just can't. So be sure to book if you want the special offer.

So the thing I wanted to also talk about is there are people out there that think their headshot's good. And it probably is, but it's maybe two, three years old. You think it's fine, and you're busy, you're working, you're making money, you're trying to do other things. And you figure, "I don't have time to do a headshot; I'm busy doing this, what does it matter?" We fall into that into a bad habit in business very naturally. Suppose we're profitable and we're busy. We're working on our business or working in our industry, and we're dealing with clients. In that case, we don't see the need to update the marketing. I have a personal story about that. My website and my headshot weren't updated for probably five to seven years. I was busy. I was bringing in money. I was working on clients and, honestly, didn't have time to deal with it. My staff would occasionally say, "Hey, we need to update the website." The reality is, people are going to be nice to you. No one's going to tell you your headshot sucks.

Sometimes my subjects wear multiple hats, such as Rod pictured here and above. He’s the current vice-principal of Glendora High School and works with USC sports programs as well.

I'm telling you right now if your headshot is old, it doesn't suck, but you need to redo it. It's just not who you are right now. People want to see who you are, even if you've gained weight, if you've lost some hair, if you've added a couple of wrinkles, they want to see who you are because they like you. You may not like all those parts about you, but they like you. And they don't look at it like that. They want to see who you are and experience you. So back to my website, I finally thought, "Okay, now that during COVID things were slow, we thought let's go and update the website." Once I finally found someone to help me make the changes I wanted to, she was frank and just said, "Your website's dated." She was nice saying it like that, it was dated, and it looked old. The more I looked at it; I realized this website looks old. 

In today's digital age and today's market, there are tons of people creating new marketing all the time. If you let your website get old and they're going to other places, say, let's say you're a lawyer. There's the one lawyer who, he's been doing this for 30 years. He's got a decent, professional, clean headshot from five, six years ago. He's wearing a blue suit. What's the difference between doing a new one in another blue or a gray suit? Then you got the guy who just graduated law school. He gets a brand new headshot. Visual communication changes; it changes fast, every year. The headshot that I do today versus the headshot I did five years ago is different, tiny minor tweaks, but it's different. The clothing is new, the way the person looks has changed, and the lighting is current. Anyone can quickly tell a photo that's five years old versus a fresh one.

These portraits are just what I’m talking about in the blog. One is a lawyer of several decades, and the beautiful woman is a brand new licensed real estate agent. Fresh branding means fresh clients.

The guy who just did the new headshot, the new website, his visual communication will be unique and fresh. People are going to look at both lawyers, A and B. Now, the guy with 20, 30 years of experience is probably the better lawyer. He knows what he's doing. But as a consumer, I'm going to look at these two professionals and think; I don't know which one. I mean, yeah, I could see that, oh, it says he's been doing it for 20 years. Still, I look at his website, and it seems dated like Ethan Allen furniture. And the new guy looks fresh and new, and he's sharing his personality, and he's got a bio saying, "I like to ride mountain bikes. And I like iced coffees." I immediately identify with this other guy, and that's going to be the guy who's going to get the business. Consumers don't always make the right choice, and they follow their instinct based on reading visual communication. Please don't leave them hanging with inferior branding.

I know if you're a business owner, you know this already, but you need to hear this; if you're not constantly growing your business, it is dying. Even if you're making enough money right now, the day's going to come that you let your website get so stale; this honestly happened to us. We were very, very busy with lots of different accounts. We used to do lots of family portraits before we took on high school seniors. The fine art family portrait side of my business slowed down in the last four or five years. Why? Because we weren't marketing it. Our previous clients' pictures were great, but our clients see fresh stuff from other photographers and friends. And they know that our work now looks dated. It's not that the portraits are terrible, but the wardrobe, makeup, style, locations, etc., gives it away. So other photographers are getting that family portrait business that I'm not getting. Now, I have a problem with marketing, and I realize I want to get up on top of it.

Headshots can be fun. These are two authors/professors, they brought their kids to the session, and we just had fun with it. Impromptu family portraits just happened. Marketing can be fun.

The analogy I like to use with marketing is farming. I stopped tilling my fields, I stopped working the land, and my website and brand became dated and stale. It would be best if you were always working the land. The farmer who works his land, no matter the circumstances, whether the weather's terrible, it's too much rain, the earth is dying, whatever, will reap the rewards. You always want to be planting seeds. The person who stopped working the field stopped marketing their business; once they want to get back up on top of it, they will have to work doubly hard, and it will be years before they regain what was lost. You let the business die, and now you want to regrow. There's going to be a time lag before you can get that going.

See how awesome headshots can be when you’re encouraged to be authentic during the session. These two let their warm personalities shine, which will only bring more great clients/opportunities to them.

So if you let your headshots and your website get even just two, three years old, you are constantly behind. It's not a big deal to come in and get a headshot. We've made it easy, and it's only $75. We give you an hour time slot so that you could do multiple headshots if you want. You can do various outfits. If you're picky as heck, we're picky as heck. We'll light it all day long and get you to look the way you want. It's not a big deal. It's easy to do it every single year and stand out in the crowd.

To wrap this up is, if you're not farming the fields constantly, your business or your brand is going to die, and you want to put your best foot forward. So again, this isn't just for business people. It's pretty much for anyone that needs to sell themselves. We are in a new world, where most people have multiple jobs. Their digital marketing, their avatar, their image of themselves is critical. So everyone needs a headshot. We've made it incredibly easy for you. I put a link below this vlog/blog to go straight to a booking page and book them for $75. It's from March 16th through April 3rd. We've got slots open almost every single day, basically from 12:00 to 6:00 PM. If you're a busy, busy person, and you want to do your shot in 15 minutes and get out of here, that's great. You can come in, do the portrait, select your image, and then we can retouch it and email it to you.

If you want the location portrait look but with perfect lighting, we can photograph you on a green or white screen in the studio and place you on any background. It’s an excellent solution for busy people or when you need a headshot for multiple uses.

If you need different backgrounds, we can switch out sets. If you need a transparent background or white background, we can remove the background. Say you're a real estate agent, and you want to get a shot of you pointing out a home or whatever that is, we don't even charge for that kind of stuff. We do this because we know how important it is for your business, and we want to build connections in the community. We want to get to hang out with you. If you're going to win, you need to book your headshot. We will make it super easy for you. Don't worry; of many of us, pretty much everyone has a little bit of COVID weight gain. If you need me to thin out your face or any of that kind of stuff with some beautiful lighting and a little bit of Photoshop, we'll dial it in.

So if you want to win, book yourself a headshot. I hope this serves you well. The link to book your new headshot for 2021 is right here https://www.michaelnegrete.com/xpheadshots.

The following people need a professional headshot; college students, actors, actresses, dental hygienists, dentists, lawyers, car salespeople, real estate agents, insurance brokers, mortgage, escrow, and even restaurant owners. If you want to enhance your brand and if you want to help your friends and family spread the love and tell them about my special offer. 

In closing, I was hoping you could do me a favor, smile at people, say hello, open doors for them, be courteous, be loving. Let's be connected, and let's help each other. And all my love to you.