Just Smile!
Recently, I decided to add some new pictures to my website and blogs. On a sunny spring day, I dragged my wife Janice (otherwise known as the ever-patient one) outside to take some photos of me with the digital camera.
Now I don't generally take a very good picture. It's not the oldness or the baldness that bothers me. It's the fact that I have no eyes. If I smile even a little, my eyes scrunch up into nothingness. It occurred to me that having eyes was probably better than having a smile, so I determined to settle on a Bruce Willis like smirk.
So off we went to do our photo shoot, with me providing regular reminders to "make sure I show some eyeball". Janice took photos of me by trees, fences, playgrounds, the old iron bridge down the road, etc. I was quite pleased. Bruce Andor... male model!
In all, she shot about 90 photos. The results?
In about a third of the photos, I looked like I belong on TV... the guy on the slab in last week's episode of Six Feet Under. Pasty doesn't begin to describe it.
In another batch, I looked like Lurch from the old Addams Family TV show.
There were a bunch in which I looked pretty good... except for the slight tomato-like quality.
It wasn't my wife's fault. They were great photos! It was just the material she had to work with. Of course, she didn't help matters by constantly insisting that I looked cute.
We finally found some photos that I was willing to admit were pretty reasonable.
What does any of this have to do with running a one person business?
As a soloist, you are, like it or not, the face of your business. One of the purposes of your website is to begin building a relationship with your prospective clients. Your photo is a key component of that effort. Prospects want to get a sense of you, a feel for what you're like... they want to get to know you!
But what if you're not that confident in your looks?
About six months ago, I had a conversation with a woman about the website she was creating for herself. The website highlighted her strong personality and personal style. Her logo and company name incorporated her personal name. Despite that focus, she was trying to decide whether to place a small photo of herself several levels down in the site or leave the photo off the site completely. She admitted that she didn't feel that comfortable with her appearance.
I looked at her photo. It was great! She looked warm and had a wonderful smile. I encouraged her to enlarge it to twice the size and plaster it prominently on her home page.
Since then, I've noticed how many websites for one person professional service businesses have either no photo or a picture that doesn't represent them well. I've seen lots of baby photos, line drawings, even people with their back turned to the camera.
I'll admit that some of these cases may be deliberate design choices. Some may also be unconscious choices. This is a sensitive topic for most of us. Few of us feel completely happy with how we look. But let me ask you... what's the effect on your business of being uncomfortable with yourself?
Certainly, the media helps to foster a lot of the unrealistic expectations we tend to have of ourselves. That's why I was pleased a few weeks ago when Oprah celebrated the fifth anniversary of her magazine. One of the segments showed how many people it took to produce one of her photo shoots. As Oprah said, "If you had 22 people working on you, you'd look this good too!"
The real issue is not photo or no photo. It's about claiming the self-confidence you should rightly have as someone who creates value in this world!
The simple truth is that none of us look as bad as we think we do, and I've never met anyone who didn't look good when they were smiling and feeling good about themselves.
So here's my advice... Put on a big smile, get that photo taken, and put it proudly on your home page. It may feel uncomfortable for a while but you'll get over it. And your prospective clients? All they will remember is that smile!
Now if I could only follow my own advice!
May 3, 2005 | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/t/trackback/4488/2391011
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Just Smile!:
Comments
Bruce! Hello!
ONe of the main things about having a decent photo taken is lighting. It's pretty much the ONLY thing. Try taking hte photos outside in the early morning or at sunset, it's what photographers call "The Magic Hour" That golden light is so flattering. :-)
I'm thinking about going down to "the Picture People" I had some pix taken of the small boy that came out just amazing.
http://www.picturepeople.com/
Best thoughts,
Marilyn.
Posted by: Marilyn Scott-Waters | Jun 6, 2005 11:56:18 AM
Hey Bruce!
Great picture.
I KNOW the feeling... I like very few photos of myself.
So, for now I'm settling for one I do like... even if I have sun glasses on!
Very nice Blog!!
Lyle Lachmuth
The Unsticking Coach(TM)
Posted by: Lyle Lachmuth - The Unsticking Coach | Sep 25, 2006 10:34:56 AM
Thanks Lyle! Great to have you back!
Bruce
Posted by: Bruce Andor | Sep 25, 2006 10:47:19 AM
