Episode Transcript
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Welcome to Power CEOs, the truth behind the business. I'm Jen Goday, your fearless host, entrepreneur, investor, and business strategist. Why are we here? Because iron sharpens iron. And when we bring industry leaders, investors, entrepreneurs who are really rocking it in the space to share what's working in business and maybe even some of what's not, we're all able to learn and grow. As a result, our businesses grow and the ripple effect impacts not only ourselves, our families, our teams and theirs, but also our communities and our world. Today you are in for a treat because we are going to dive deep into the power of visual storytelling, crafting your brand's narrative. It's so much more than just a photo. How does your visual storytelling define your brand? They say a picture's worth a thousand words, but in business, the right picture could be worth thousands of customers. The images you use in branding don't just represent you. They tell a story of who you are, what you do, and why people should care. Today, I'm joined by commercial photographer Douglas Burns to discuss how businesses can craft their brand story through powerful intentional imagery. Welcome to the show, Jen.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: It's a pleasure to be here.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Absolutely. So, Douglas, we talk about brand photography a lot in business, and we've talked about it a little bit on the show before. But so many people think brand photography is just headshots or product images. It's really about telling a story visually. What does that mean and why is it so important?
[00:02:01] Speaker B: Well, headshots are definitely a part of that story. Right. So you want to be able to, at the bare minimum, showcase who's leading your team, who's at the top of the ticket, who are the guys who help put the products and services together that serve your customers on a daily basis? So headshots are definitely a part of that story, but it can be so much more. If you are selling a product, especially, you need quality product photography to showcase on your social media, on your website, on your brochures, any sort of sales collateral. If you're selling a service showcasing how that service benefits your clients, benefits your customers, that's invaluable and that's all part of that branding aspect. So that we're telling your story to the people that you need to target and that you want to talk to.
[00:02:44] Speaker A: Yeah. And so how can businesses that are entrepreneurs who are watching today craft that consistent visual identity or even where do they start? How do we make that determination? I'm going to give you a. For example, brand colors are something that are talked about and Colors mean different things. My brand is power, so I'm always in powerful colors. Like how do people think about the visual identity of their business if they're watching today?
[00:03:10] Speaker B: If you're already working with a marketing team, you probably have already, you know, worked and probably tweaked or redesigned your logo. The colors on your website are a good place to start. The colors that you're already utilizing, hopefully you've got a brand, a brand kit that you're working with or that you're developing. And brand kits, look, they evolve, they change over the years. I'll give you a quick for instance. I have had the pleasure of working with the Houston Livestock show and Rodeo for the last 25 years. Their brand colors have changed at least four times in that 25 year period. So brand colors do change, they do shift depending on trends in the marketplace and whatnot. So don't feel like you're locked into something, but if you've got something that you're working with right now and you've established that brand. If we pick on McDonald's, for instance, red and yellow, you cannot. I mean, the golden arches, they're going to be really hard. They've built their brand around that color scheme. Right. It's a major part of who they are. United blue and white, very definite color scheme. And if you look at all their imagery, they're going to implement that in everything that they do. So if you're working with a brand identity already, if you've got a brand kit already to work with, that's a great place to start. If you don't have that, then it's time to maybe pause, take a look. Okay. Who are we trying to target? What is our message?
What colors are working already in our industry? If you're in the medical industry, for example, common colors, especially blues and cooler colors, tend to predominate. So maybe staying something within that safety net is a good place to work as well.
[00:04:44] Speaker A: Yeah. You know, I know you work with a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners, you work with a lot of teams and corporations.
How do you help the people that you work with to determine what do they want their ideal client to see? How do you help them bring that out so that you can help them along this visual storytelling?
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Well, I start with finding out what they're trying to say, right? Who are they currently targeting right now? Who is their icp? Who's their ideal customer that they're trying to target?
Once we know that, and once we know the story that they're trying to tell and Looking at whatever branding they're already currently working with, we can develop that story and develop those images. So if we're. Let's pick on somebody who manufactures something, showcasing their people, manufacturing the products that they're eventually going to sell is a big part of that. Especially if they're working on a new product that's about to hit the marketplace, show their team at work, but it's where are they along in that story if that product's already on the marketplace and it's already launched, but they're trying to push that out, showcasing the product in a new environment, showcasing that product, doing something that maybe we haven't seen, seen before, or that we've seen before, but showing it in a new way, in a new direction. So here again, we got to start with what's our end goal in mind, and then we work backwards from there.
[00:06:03] Speaker A: And, you know, a lot of times we talk about brand imagery and we think sometimes about how do we want to have our prospective clients feel? How are clients going to feel when they work with us? What are they going to see? What are they going to experience? How do you develop that through brand imagery?
[00:06:20] Speaker B: That's a really good question.
If you know where you're going, if you know what it is, if you're going for an emotional impact, knowing what that emotional impact would help. So if you're trying, you're a power play person, you're upfront business oriented, we're going to be looking for something that's a little more a matter of fact on our messaging. If we're working in, let's say, the nonprofit world, which I know we're talking business, but let's pick on the nonprofits for a minute. That's definitely a place for more of an emotional impact. And if you're doing something in conjunction with a nonprofit, you're partnering with a nonprofit, having a more emotional connection to what it is they're doing, how it affects the community, how what you're doing is impacting the local community, at the same time benefiting your customer base. What kind of emotional impact do we want to have? So it's knowing what direction we want to go, and we'll design that session around there. So it's stepping back, and it may be something, you know, we shoot something very simple and classic and clean, especially if it's more of a documentary approach.
But at the same time, how we compose that image, maybe we need to see more of the scene than a traditional portrait environment, which is very clean, on a singular individual or two. If we're seeing something where it's more environmental, we want to see your people interacting with that nonprofit or interacting with the community so you can pull on those emotional heartstrings just a little bit. Of course, lighting plays a big part into this. We talked about color, we talked about composition.
So it all blends in on what you're going to, but knowing what emotion you want to evoke, and then it's creating an environment on set that brings that emotion out.
[00:08:08] Speaker A: You know, I'm thinking a lot about television is like this, right? We talk about what do we want, how do we want to set the stage, do we want to be formal? Do we want to be relaxed? What do we want as the feel for our show?
And you're talking about a lot of the same concepts.
[00:08:24] Speaker B: It's the exact same concept and full clarity. My background is actually coming from broadcasting, so I.
[00:08:31] Speaker A: Well, there you go.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: This is where I got trained. This is where. And I still work in that world. But yes, it's exact same thought processes. It's just. The difference is when you're working in a video production or a broadcast, you're telling a story over time, a continual piece of time. Thirty seconds, a minute, five minutes, whatever the story length is. Whereas in photography, you're working in moments. You've got to freeze the frame and say this moment, whether you're capturing it or crafting it. And those are two different things, but they're both valuable.
You got to do that same story in a singular image or in a collection of images over the course of, say, a longer story piece.
[00:09:20] Speaker A: And, you know, I really like the direction that you're going because it's about, first we understand who our ideal client is. Then we understand who we are, what our values are and what we're bringing, and the experience that our clients have when they work with us. And then communicating to someone such as yourself, hey, this is the experience that our clients have. Our clients have this kind of feeling and emotion when they come to us. This is their pain point. This is where we interact with them, and this is the emotion they have when we leave. And you're able to capture that how.
[00:09:51] Speaker B: I'm trying to work and try to craft that versus capture that. And let me define what that. That difference is. When you're capturing something, usually you're at an event.
I'll pick on weddings because it's easy, and everybody knows what a wedding looks like. That's something you're not crafting very often. You're capturing something that's happening around you. And there's definitely times for that. Let's say you're doing something in the community at a pr, doing a PR piece or doing some community involvement. That's a time to capture what your team is working on. Crafting is taking a step back and really building that from the ground up. So that's where you're setting the stage, where you're really. You're playing with what colors are going to. Everybody's going to wear, what everybody's wardrobe is going to look like. What if you've got to show ppe, you know, let's make sure the PPE is just right and it's on brand. And we're not showing any logos that may not need to be seen.
Those are the types of things where we're crafting that. And now we're designing lighting that's going to work within that environment. So it comes back to, are we crafting an image or are we capturing an image? And both are valuable, both have their place, but what direction are we going? So if we're crafting an image, we have so much more latitude on what we can do, because we're basically playing. We're making something up within reason.
They say the camera never lies. That's malarkey. The camera captures what you placed in front of it. So if it's not in the image, if it's not in the frame, it doesn't exist. So we're crafting, we're creating a world that we can record photographically, but if we're capturing something, then we're looking at what's happening in front of us, and we're still thinking about those images that tell that story. But it's. What is it?
What's the focus of the image? What's the focus of the event? What's the focus of the day that needs to be captured and memorialized photographically?
[00:11:54] Speaker A: Thank you so much, so much in such a short period of time. I know we do have to take a brief break, but before we do, folks, this is an important conversation to have. It is time for you to look at your visual storytelling. When's the last time your headshots were updated? When's the last time you looked at your brand and asked yourself, do prospects. Do prospective clients, when they see my brand imagery, understand, see, feel and know what it is to experience working with us or utilizing our product? If the answer is no, you're going to want to stick around because we're going to dive even deeper with Douglas after these messages.
Welcome back. To power C is the truth behind the business. We are here with Douglas Burns. He is an expert at all things commercial photography. And before the break, we were talking a lot about how people connect with emotion, not just information. And we were talking about some of the ways that you can craft your photo shoots so that you visually storytell what it's like to experience working with you, utilizing your products.
So when, when we're thinking about this, Douglas, what are some ways that businesses can use facial expressions, composition, color background to visually communicate their brand personality?
[00:13:36] Speaker B: Well, let's, let's talk headshots for just a second because that's the first place most people look at. And if you're looking at your company about page and you've got headshots that are all over the place, some people are cropped really tight, some people are cropped really loose. The backgrounds are radically different. There's inconsistent lighting across the board. You're really sending a jumbled message to your client base. The first thing to do is to simplify that and give everybody a cohesive look. And if you work with a professional photographer, they can help you create that. In my studio, I'm often talking about virtual backgrounds so that we're talking a consistent background across everybody's image and that we can, because we're talking virtual, we can incorporate brand colors very, very easily.
That's a great, great place to start, is make everybody's headshot consistent across the board. That will make your brand look more consistent and eliminate visual confusion.
[00:14:34] Speaker A: And so while we're on this, like, there's so many things, headshots are one piece of this. Promotional images are a part of this. But pr, why do all of these different images matter?
We see brands using one headshot across every platform. On social media, they're using the same sort of images across the board. Is this something that we should be doing? Should we be thinking about it differently on different social medias or what does that look like for us?
[00:14:59] Speaker B: So, so I'm a big believer in, on the social media side, keeping your headshot consistent across all platforms. Right. Because it's part of your look, it's part of your brand. Of course, I've got this nice 6 inch long beard. Everybody just look for the beard, it's going to be hard to miss. But having that consistency across, especially if you've got a unique look, if there's something about your face, your personality, your wardrobe that speaks to you, if you're someone, there's a lady here in town that I did a session with. Big on these funky glasses. It's a big part of her personality. Well, guess what? Every time she put her image up there, it was the same glasses across all platforms. So that there's that consistent branding. We know immediately, hey, that's Jennifer. Different Jennifer, but we know that's Jennifer every single time. So having that consistency across all platforms, especially since if you're using your headshot for marketing purposes now, if it's a PR image, that's something entirely different. PR images can include headshots, but oftentimes we're Talking half length, 3 quarter length body shots, a variety of poses, depending on the PR message that you're trying to present or you're trying to produce. If you yourself are your own brand, let's say you're a solo practitioner like yourself, Gin is the brand in your case, then having a variety of images that speak to that brand that you can utilize in different places across the platforms, in different places on your website, in different places on your marketing and sales material for PR purposes. If you're sending out a press release and maybe you need to send an updated press release, you pull a second or third image that you haven't sent out before. That's a great place to utilize additional imagery for when we're talking individual portraits and individual shots.
[00:16:48] Speaker A: And, you know, I believe you have a book that adds more value. Absolutely. That people can have. How can people learn more about this?
[00:16:54] Speaker B: So face value, how to supercharge your business utilizing headshots. I wrote this book because a lot of people ask, you know, how do I dress, how do I prepare? And so this is a good primer on how to do that. It's available on Amazon for anybody who's interested.
But it gives you some tools to work with on how to dress, how to prepare yourself from the day before, how to work with a professional photographer, as well as some additional tips and tools. Once your headshots in the can, how do you can utilize your headshot across platforms? But I'll tell you another thing that you can do is how you can utilize headshots in your business to generate leads. And it's not just your own personal headshot that's doing that. It's using those headshots, giving away headshots at expos and trade shows and whatnot. It's a great way to guarantee people are going to be interested in talking to your people, coming to your booth and talking to your people.
[00:17:46] Speaker A: Well, let's dive into that just a little bit more because as we think about this, we're thinking about telling a story that's driving our leads, for example, through a marketing campaign and identifying that, hey, this is the solution. These are the people I want to work with. They share my values. This is the kind of company culture that I want to spend my dollars on. So what does that look like? What does that look like in the sales conversion or the marketing side of things from an imagery standpoint?
[00:18:15] Speaker B: So if you're at a trade show, I mean, you and I have both been to a lot of trade shows. So some of the hardest things to do is you have people just walk by your booth. You're spending a lot of money to have people just walk by your booth. You may not get the kind of traction that you want to get unless it's people that have, maybe you already have a current relationship with and there's nothing wrong with that. You want wanted to continue and build those relationships, but at the same time, you're there to showcase your company and you want to talk to more people.
Everybody has a pin with a logo on it. On my desk, I probably have 50 pins with logos on it. I couldn't tell you the name of a single company on it unless I'm looking at that pin and just whatever I'm grabbing, and I never look at the logo, I'm just grabbing the pin. Thank you for the pins, but I don't need another pin with another logo on it. If you're giving away something that people will value that they, that they can utilize right away, especially in the professional environment, if you're dealing with professionals, you're trying to attract professionals into your booth. Giving away something of value like headshots is a great way to guarantee traffic into your booth. And if you're smart, you'll have your people talking to the people waiting in line. Every time I've done this for companies and organizations, I have a line at least 15 to 20 minutes long, people waiting to have their headshots taken.
And so it's a great way to add value to the, to the event, guarantee people coming in. And then because of the way I work, at least I'm capturing the attendees name, email, phone number, and I can customize a form from there. So I've got a list then that I can hand to my sponsor for everybody that's come through, got their headshots and they can do their post event follow up, which is, you know, that's.
[00:19:51] Speaker A: Where, that's where the money's been, that's.
[00:19:53] Speaker B: Where the money's made.
[00:19:53] Speaker A: Follow up, follow up, follow up, folks. We talk about that all the time. So let's talk a little bit more about making a brand stand out. Because especially in social media. Let's talk about social media. It is a crowded marketplace.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Everybody's screaming louder, putting more videos out, doing more things, putting more imagery out. Like how? Like how do we stand out? Or how do we create brand imagery that stands out with our photography? What elements truly help make our brand imagery high?
[00:20:23] Speaker B: Converting here, again, it's storytelling within those imagery. So what are you trying to say within those images? It's more than just, hey, look at our people at this event. Nothing wrong with that. If you're doing that now, continue to do that, please.
But having additional imagery that speaks directly to your product, your service, that stops that scroll, having something that isolates the subject, that if you're showcasing your product, let's see that product, that product in a unique environment, let's see it maybe utilized in a way people haven't thought about before, leaving room for text, banner text on that imagery so that we can say, hey, look at us. This is something different, this is something new, this is something unique, or this is something you haven't thought of before. So creating those images that stop that scroll and being able to create that in a way that really shines and showcases your product or your service. And there's a lot of photographic techniques to do that. And it's not so much cell phone versus digital camera. I mean, I brought my monster today. But if cell phone is what you have, it's a tool. The camera's just a tool. The photography happens between that gray matter and between her ears. So it's learning how to utilize your tool to tell your story, but it's thinking about the story first and let that dictate the image that's created that you want to put on your social media. But having a lot of it, having probably five times as much as you think you need.
I'll go back to my broadcasting days.
We always overshot. We overshot everything because we never knew we didn't want to get into the edit and say, man, I really wish I had that shot.
[00:22:04] Speaker A: I completely understand. So I did lifestyle shot, like familial personal shoot recently, and they did 128 shots for four images. And so I totally get it. A little bit different lighting, a little bit different of a pose, a little, you know, you want a gesture from.
[00:22:21] Speaker B: Here to here can make a big difference in composition. You know, a head tilt can make a big difference in composition, especially if you're talking to people. If you're, if you're doing products, the way the product is turned might, you know, might affect how the composition works.
But like I said, having multiple images, having a variety, even within the same set, having a variety to choose from so that you have options then in your marketing, as you're building out your marketing collateral for text, for banner images, on your websites, for social media, having a variety to work with is extremely important.
[00:22:57] Speaker A: And folks, I don't know about you, but I've learned so much here. We've had other photographers on in the past, but we haven't ever dove as deep, deep into how do we think about this strategically? What I'm getting, if you're not getting this at home is when you think about your brand photography, your next headshot, your PR session, whatever you're looking at doing in order to uplevel your business, you have got to get with a professional, someone such as Douglas, who can help you plan this out. It's a strategy. We are strategically planning out the storyboard. We're storyboarding our business. A lot of people know storyboarding when we talk about making a movie or putting out content from an educational standpoint, but we're actually having a storyboard, the client journey, so that we can then have the photos that we want that are going to actually tell that story and connect, whether it's emotionally or see the gap, if you will, that your product or service is providing. So I really appreciate this. This has been really fun. We do have to take a brief break break, but we will be right back after these messages.
Welcome Back to power CEOs the truth behind the business. We are going to shift gears again because. Yes, you've got it right. We are on the AI moment of the week. It is 2025.
What's happening? And we have our resident expert in all things AI, Dr. Alan Badot. Welcome back to the show.
[00:24:56] Speaker C: Hi, Dennis. Great to be here.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: Okay, so give us the lowdown because it is 2025. We had some big lessons learned and what are we carrying forward? What is the future of AI in 2025?
[00:25:10] Speaker C: Yeah, I think one of the biggest things that we saw was really toward the end of the year, if you think about, you know, you started with when AI first was really starting to kick off. You had Google and everybody thought Google was going to dominate everything. And they had some slip ups and so did Microsoft. Right. They had some flip ups also. And then OpenAI just takes off and launches and really gets something that the others were not able to grasp on. And then all of a sudden, you know, toward the end of the year, you've got what we, we called the 12 Days of Christmas where OpenAI was releasing pretty much something every single day. But one of the things that we saw as they were doing that they made Sora, you know, available to the public. And what did it do? It crashed just about everything.
And you know, that's a, that's a challenge. But then also Google started to, you know, they were releasing their stuff and has, you know, the, the, the capabilities that they were showing and the user being the focus of the AI instead of just the AI itself is something you and I have talked about, gee, since we've started this. But really, you know, Google is really starting to embrace that. And I think going into 2025, folks are going to start to see that, you know, if you want to use AI1, you've got to make it really easy for, for the general public to be able to use, to interface with. And then the other part is that, you know, just building models for the sake of models is going to get to a place that it's just not economically viable. So you've got to think about other things that you're going to do, other ways that you're going to use it, and then really just building out what that portfolio is going to look like. Because just releasing models is probably not going to be the thing for the end of 2025. It's going to be that user interaction piece.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: You know, can we dive into that user interaction? I really wanted to talk about this because it's something that keeps coming up and it's one of the greatest features fears in business owners that are rolling out these applications. The fear that I don't know how to do this, the resistance to new technology and the change management piece. What are you seeing in that enhanced personalization? That enhanced. I'm going to use the word customer experience because it could be B2C but really the customer experience, when the customer is your team internally. What are we going to see that in 2025?
[00:27:42] Speaker C: Yeah, the greatest piece is going to be around. We call it human factors design.
How are you interfacing with the tool itself? Where are you putting buttons? What's the functionality of those buttons? How many buttons do I have to hit? Do I have to go into 50 different screens in order to get it to give me an answer? That is not what users want.
They want it easy. They want to be able to get an answer and they want to make sure that the answer is correct. So you've got to focus on transparency, making sure that whatever the AI produces, they can understand it and understand it quick. And then you've also got to be able to hit, you know, those milestones that the user wants as they're trying to get those answers. I always try to, you know, when we're designing things, you want to have that in about five or six clicks, quite honestly, or, you know, types of the keyboard, because beyond that it gets too complicated and anything too, you know, easier than that, they may think, oh, this is, this is, you know, too easy. It's Mr. Wizard type thing. I don't get to put enough input into it. I can't customize it enough for myself. I don't trust it. And that's the, that's the delicate balance. So between five, seven clicks, that's where you're, you're really searching for. And you know, as users interface with these things, with these tools, the tools and the numerics really themselves become significantly less important. They don't care if they're, you know, if you, the developer, are using OpenAI's model or if you're using Claude or Cohere or something else. They don't care about that. They only care about that they're getting the right answer for their problem that they're trying to solve. And so flexibility, being able to use multiple models, having multiple models interacting with each other is significantly more important to the user than what the model is itself. And so that's another big driver that we're going to see.
[00:29:38] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, I agree with you with everything that you said, and I immediately then go to the next part, which is the people part, because you're talking about making it easier for the user, making it more transparent, make it a 5 to 6 click MA maximum so that they can easily integrate it into their workflow. But the reality is, is now AI is making us so much more productive and we've seen some kickback on the, well, what do I do? I'm now overstaffed. How do I manage this? And so what do you think are we're going to see in 2025 on the people side of AI?
[00:30:17] Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's the biggest question that a lot of us have. There are capacity increases that a company are, they're, they're going to see and if they've deployed it the right way, then hopefully they've been able to project, you know, if, if they would have listened to us and they've gone through the Pilots and they've gone through all the test cases and they've gone through the users, then they should be able to predict, you know, my employee X is going to get a 30% capacity increase in his amount of work that he can do. I either need to go bring in more business to keep everybody busier or I'm going to have to start to reduce the size of my staff. And there's, there's, there's really no specific way that they're, that, you know, they're going to be able to handle it. It's going to be different for each industry as well. But you know, and this is a, this is a big, a big question mark that all of us have is that, you know, the long term viability of these, as it becomes more commoditized, there are going to be cost decreases. Of course, we always see that. But you know, what's that next thing that is going to change it so that it impacts the workflow again. And you know, there are a lot of different technologies. Convergence, you know, technology convergence is going to drive some of that. But you know, really if, like I said, if they've done it the right way, they should have some idea that they need to, you know, rain in costs or they need to bring in more business or they have the capacity now to bring in more business because that was a problem that many of them had, you know, as well. They just were turning down some business because they couldn't handle it and they didn't want to go on this big hiring spree because it was toward the end of the year. There's a lot of factors with that, but you know, those, those are just some of the, the things that we're all paying attent attention to right now because we know it's going to hit pretty soon.
[00:32:11] Speaker A: Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of the same things as well from the business side of things. And that leads me to my next question. And I think this one really is what we want to know above and beyond all else. And that's what can we expect long term, think beyond 25. I'm getting questions about what happens when AI in robotics that, that becomes more applicable and at a cost that makes sense for my business. And what do we need to start planning for long term in our like three or five year plan? I do a lot of work with companies and we lay out, yeah, we look at our strategic initiatives this year, but what do I need to start thinking about in the, in the three to five year horizon and, and Risk mitigate for or, or, or really pay attention to, I guess, because quantum computing, like there's so many things that go into this. So what do you see on your end with regards to the real long term, three to five year outlook on AI?
[00:33:19] Speaker C: Yeah, I think, you know, that that's a great question. I think what folks are going to have to start to do is be more creative in the solutions that they're providing and not be so market focused. Meaning I've developed this new tool, this new widget, whatever it is, this new piece of software and it's so specific that, you know, I can't take it anywhere else. And unfortunately, if you look at the past from software, from, you know, from data, from, you know, engineering, whatever, whatever that market is, health care, right.
That's how, that's how these companies were built. They grew, they were happy, they stayed in that market, they dominated that market and they were good to go. That's not going to be the case anymore. I think if you've got an asset management tool that does healthcare supplies, there's absolutely no reason that you can't use AI to penetrate a new market significantly easier and at a significantly less barrier to entry. And so what it's going to do, it's going to allow more cross pollination of, of these other markets that we always thought were on the outside looking in. But that's not going to be the case. And so companies are going to have to start to look at applying their technology to different scenarios, to different markets. And that is going to be their biggest way of growing. They're going to have to look at maybe even going into the government sectors or you know, some international type work that a lot of folks have been a little leery to get into. But that's going to, that's going to be it. Because what we know is, is that AI allows you to do it faster, it allows you to do it, you know, more economically most of the time if it's done the right way. And it really allows you to design your systems now so that they can support, you know, really these multivariable problems that you know, a lot of folks haven't been able to do in the past. And so I think that's going to be the biggest way for them to sustain growth as they, as they go forward.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: And we're about to have to break for commercial, but when's the time to get started? Because there's still people on the fence or who haven't even considered this because they think it's, you know a next year's problem.
[00:35:41] Speaker C: Yeah. If next year they may not, they may not be in business, quite honestly, because, you know, it's, it's moving so fast that you know, you can't afford to lose any market share anyways. But by the end of this year, it could be, it could be 50, 60% of their market that they may lose because you don't know what your competitors doing. You think you do, but you really don't. And if they drop something that's AI enabled and it's going to take off, it's going to go quick and the train is going to, you know, it's going to hit you and you're not even going to realize it until it's over.
[00:36:19] Speaker A: Oh, I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much for your expertise. And if you didn't hear loud and clear, ease of use, what's the easiest thing to integrate? How can we make this simple for our employees, our teams, our consumers to use? And if you're not on the AI train, this is the year to get on the train, learn about it, get it into your plan, plan for it, fund it. Because next year might be too late.
With that note, we will be right back after these welcome Back to power CEOs Truth behind the Business. If you're just tuning in, you're going to want to go to NowMedia TV, click on shows and catch the first half of today's show. It has been absolutely epic. And now we're going to tie in that first half with our AI moment of the week. And I'm going to ask Douglas Burns, who's here with me, commercial photographer. He's been so. You've been so great so far.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: I. But I'm gonna ask you about AI and photography because a lot of people are leveraging these AI images. It's all over the place. We're seeing these ads for AI headshots. Do a selfie and we'll convert it for you. When and where is there a use for AI in photography?
[00:37:52] Speaker B: Well, it's not going away. I mean, AI is here, right? I mean, it's been here for probably longer than we'd like to think about, but it's here. It's part of our world. We have to embrace it. So look, I utilize AI currently in my business practices. I use it in my office. I utilize the tools to help me create my own marketing materials. I'm using AI tools in my post production because it speeds things up, it makes my life easier as an artist, but it's knowing how and when and where to use it.
There are. If you're. When you're trying to develop the image itself, are you going to choose between an AI image or a photographic based image? I would ask, is there a reason to illustrate? I think illustrations are a wonderful medium and there's some wonderful, some artists out there who do illustrative art, at least that I have seen. AI is not yet where it's a repeatable process in developing images. So if you're wanting something to be able to repeat a style, repeat an image, go back and re edit in layers. Say I don't know that the tools are there yet.
They'll probably be there before too long, but they're not there at current. I don't think that they're there yet. But if you're needing to illustrate something, maybe that's the time to work with an illustrator or an artist to create that. But the question is, do you need to show authenticity or do you need to show a rendering? If you need something to show that's something very authentic, authentic in actuality, that's real, that's when you want to use a photographer. That's when you want to use actual photography. Working with lenses and lights and traditional photographic mediums, whether that's digital or film based, it becomes an artistic decision at that point. But if you're trying to showcase something that maybe is harder to photograph or you're working with renderings, architects have been used using renderings for years and using artists to draw out the renderings of their artistic what the building should look like when it's all said and done. If you're proposing something that hasn't been built yet, that's a great time to use an artist or an illustrator to utilize that. But as far as the AI question is, it's here. It's where are you using it in your business? Where are you using it in the creation of stuff? I'm using it now. Now. It's part of my workflow. It's not what I'm selling.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: And you know, that's something that's so incredibly important. And we talk about this all the time. It's not going away, folks. If we're not leveraging the tool, the people who are leveraging the tool are going to be able to do things faster, more effective, more efficient. They're going to be able to do more volume than us with the same amount of hours. And so it really is a competitive advantage if you're leveraging the tool, but know when to use it and know when to use an artificial intelligence image as opposed to an authentic image. I know one of the things that we talked about in the break, I can't stand when I'm looking and I've known somebody online and I go to meet them and I don't recognize them because they're either highly filtered or, or the image is 40 years old or, you know, or it's been AI and it doesn't even look like the person. And so it puts me at a disadvantage and I feel automatically a lack of trust.
So I really appreciate that. And I'm going to ask you, because we, we talked about this too. What are the biggest visual branding mistakes that you see businesses making with their photography and how can they fix them?
[00:41:16] Speaker B: I think one of the biggest mistakes that I've seen is choosing the wrong photographer. And it's not to say that they're necessarily a bad photographer and there's photographers at all levels depending on your budget. But the biggest mistake is choosing the wrong photographer for your brand. If you've got a highly polished brand and you're trying to showcase somebody at a very corporate or powerful level, the last thing you want to do is choose a photographer whose entire portfolio is lifestyle and light and airy and highlights that are overblown and no information in the shadows.
There's a disconnect if you're working on that. So making sure that you're working with the right photographer or a photographer that can match your current brand, because a lot of professional photographers can match looks and feels and whatnot. But I'm the first to tell you, look, if you're looking for light and airy, you're not it. I'm not it. That's not me. It's not what I want to produce.
I've got my own personal feelings about that style of photography. But, you know, finding someone that's on brand, I think is. Or the. I should. Let me rephrase it. Finding someone who's not on brand with your company, with your products or services, that's a huge mistake in working with a professional photographer.
[00:42:38] Speaker A: I couldn't agree more. And we talk about this all the time, folks. We talk about, who do we partner with in business. Well, this applies to your photographer, your videographer, anybody who's doing any of your visual branding and your marketing. If they're not on brand for you, then it's a mistake. It doesn't matter what the price point is. If they're not on brand for you, it's going to create that confusion and confused minds don't buy. We talk about that all the time. Confused minds don't buy. So, Douglas, we've talked about a lot of things today. We've talked about what is brand photography, what do we need? Why do we not just need a headshot? What are some of the other types of photography and how to go about strategically thinking about our brand image and the story that we're telling. Is there anything else that you really want our audience to know or do you have something that they could immediately take action on today that can move them forward with their image?
[00:43:27] Speaker B: I would say if you're looking for an action item, the first thing I would do is look at your website, look at your About Us section, if your C suite should be on your website, the personalities behind the company, and if you want to go beyond that, your senior executive level or even your whole team. Say you're a mid sized company and you want your whole team on the website. But take a look at those images, make sure those images are consistent across the board, that you don't have someone's vacation selfie as their headshot. I've seen that guys don't do that.
Making sure that there's consistency across the board.
That's on brand for you and your company. That's the action item, number one. Number two is take a look and take a step back and think about who you're trying to talk to, who you're trying to communicate with. What story do you want want them to know about you, your product, your company, your service and work with your photographer, work with your marketing department, working with your brand team to develop a story and storyboard, what that looks like so that you can start crafting images, crafting videos, crafting photography, crafting illustrations, whatever that may look like for you and your company so that you can communicate that effectively and ultimately grow your business.
[00:44:40] Speaker A: You know what I heard is take a look, it's time to take a hard look. If you're, your stuff is four, five, six years old, it is time to update some of that because guess what? Things have happened since then. We went through a whole pandemic in the last five years. So a lot has changed. So if you're, if your brand photography is a little aged, it's time to look at that. It's time to have a look and understand what it is that you want people to feel. What is the journey that you want to take your prospects and your clients on and document that visually? Because that story storytelling is so powerful and a picture is worth so many words and as we said at the beginning, lots of customers as well. Thank you so much for all of your expertise today. It has been really valuable. We've covered quite a lot. How can people reach out to you if they would like to learn more about maybe working with you or your book or some of the things that we talked about? Sure.
[00:45:32] Speaker B: So the book's available on Amazon. Face value, how to professional headshots can supercharge your business.
It's a quick, easy order. Available either on the digital format or as a real hard copy book.
As far as reaching out to me, my website's DNB.
There you go. DNBProductions.com and I'm eminently reachable there on the website and I'm happy to answer any questions you may have, whether we work together or not. Just ask, ask me a question. I respond to all my emails. I respond to text messages.
[00:46:07] Speaker A: You know, it's been really excellent speaking with you today because we didn't just get behind the scenes, we got behind between the ears with you. So let's see that camera. And what is it that we see when we work with you?
[00:46:19] Speaker B: Oh, the camera.
So this is my new, my new toy. I just got it this year.
But look, it's not the camera that takes the picture. I tell this, this is my biggest pet peeve. It's, oh, it's a big camera. It must take great pictures. Well, the camera serves my purpose as a photographer.
But what takes a picture here again is that gray matter in between our ears and behind our eyeballs. We have to. That's where the photography takes place. So whether you utilize a big camera like this or you're utilizing cell phone or an old style point and shoot, which is extremely convenient to carry.
You know, it's a tool to craft an image, learn to use a tool that you have or work with somebody who really like myself, who geeks out over this stuff.
But just recognize that this is a tool. This is where the photography happens and that's what we need to work on.
[00:47:12] Speaker A: Thank you so much. And so as we craft this story, folks, unfortunately all good things do come to an end, including the show. But I want to thank you once again for being here.
[00:47:20] Speaker C: My pleasure.
[00:47:21] Speaker A: And you, yes, you. Today is the day that we take action. You know this, you've heard this every single week. If you've been following me for a while, for years now. And this is just another show that you watch. If you don't take action. Today's the day to take action. Douglas gave us. Excellent action steps. Have a review of your brand photography. What are the images that are out there? Are they cohesive? Do they tell the story that you want them to tell? And. And are they communicating with your ideal client? If not, it's time to either reach out to Douglas or some or your photographer of choice and make something happen there today. Not tomorrow, not next week, but today. Because the magic happens when we take action and we move forward. So, without further ado, I know you can't believe we're coming to an end, but we are. But we'll be here, same time, same station, next week. Until then, go. Win today, win this week, and I'll see you next time.
[00:48:18] Speaker C: This has been a NOW Media Network's feature presentation. All rights reserved.
