From street to people with Morgan Nesbitt

Written by Megan MacNeill

From street to people with Morgan Nesbitt
June 15, 2021

Have you ever stopped to think about how crucial photography is to personal branding?

No, really think about it!

Personal branding is all about YOU and believe it or not your face is your very own logo so you want to make sure you have it captured professionally.

And, in this technologically evolved world in which we live in, this means that most people are going to see your face through some visual representation of it online, and you can’t imagine how important that point of first contact is.

Which is why wonderful photographers like Morgan Nesbit exist, to help you portray yourself in the best possible manner when showing yourself to the world, and to give you some awesome tips on how to manage your image on the Personal Branding Exposed Podcast!

Capturing The Streets

For the last five years Morgan has worried himself with the growing homeless population of Perth and overall degradation of the city in all its expressions, so he decided to pick up the camera and do something about it.

The way he found to do it is to use his skill as a photographer to highlight the problems the city has been going through, attracting criticism and praise from different groups, which is another way to say he did his part in breaking the silence on the subject.

Now, just like any brand, our personal brand is always going to come with a certain theme attached to it, for Kris Levy, for example, that theme was the military community, where for Morgan it is the struggles of Perth’s “invisible” (read ignored) side.

He is addressing a problem common to many of the cities dwellers, and attracting people that see this same problem and have similar views about it, and he is doing it through his craft.

And that is personal branding done right.

The Kraken Rises!

Eventually we started talking about the commercial aspect of Morgan’s work as a photographer, more specifically,  this awesome Kraken photoshoot that I saw over at his Instagram page, which, as he explains, started out with a gift.

“It was a beautiful summer afternoon” Morgan recalled as he told me about the day he decided to take this beautiful bottle of Kraken spiced rum he had gotten for Christmas to the beach and do a photoshoot.

The pictures came out amazing, and being satisfied with his work, phase two began, which involved “spamming kraken to acknowledge my existence”, he is still waiting for the call from them.

By itself this story is hilarious, but it also serves as a great example of how you grow your brand by interacting with others, you can’t expect that people just get interested in what you have to offer, you need to show interested as well.

Personal Branding Photography

Morgan describes himself as a fairly introverted person, the type that finds in his work an excuse to retreat into his own mind and allow himself to focus on concepts and ideas that are important to him.

This description, however, may sound contradictory to that of someone that would work on an entirely “people-focused” field such as Personal Branding photography, which brought me to ask Morgan about how he came to see it as something he could do.

“ I kind of just fell into it” he explains, a client of his needed branding photos, and he found himself needing to get out of his comfort zone.

As it turned out, he had a knack for it, which got him to dive deep into what personal branding photography is, and as time went on, it became a passion.

And it shows, from dressing a masseuse as a superhero, with boots, belt, and cape, to putting a businesswoman on her desk in the middle of the street, being unique is the name of the game.

What matters is that your out there, and that you are yourself.

Having a Goal

As Morgan started to detail his process for working with brand photography clients, he mentioned that one of the things that he would try to get from his clients was a clear idea of their end goal.

Which, is actually a great thing to keep in mind if you are building a personal brand, that is, what are you trying to achieve?

What does the finished image of your personal brand, or your community, or your identity look like?

If you are going to do personal branding right, there are some things you need to have as a north such as your target audience, the message you are trying to put forward, what aesthetic you are going to adopt and so on.

Authenticity

The word “authenticity” has been overused to the point where it’s become a cliché, yet like so many clichés it has a drop of truth to it, which is why it was somewhat unavoidable in my talk with Morgan.

We talked about the need to accurately portray who you are without concern for what people may think, which can be a source of anxiety for the shy or self-aware portion of my readers, but hear me out:

Portraying your true self on camera is a great way to get rid of the boring people you don’t want to work with, while simultaneously attracting those that you do.

Similar people attract each other on the internet, it’s somewhat unavoidable, so when you contact a wonderful photographer like Morgan to portray your true colors, you are signaling to people like yourself that you have something of interest to them.

Your resume is secondary to your taste in music, your work is secondary to sharing common passions with the people around you.

Conclusion

Getting to talk about personal branding through the lens (pun intended) of someone as creative as Morgan Nesbitt has been a pleasure, and I believe that we were able to bring some amazing tips on how to approach personal branding.

Hopefully, our talk has drawn your interest to the subject, and if so, feel free to have a look at the rest of the content available on the website, you’ll find dozens of guests just as cool as this one.

And, if in doing so you find yourself looking to try out personal branding for yourself, (or for your entire company) you can start out by subscribing to my workshops and courses right here.

Book a Discovery Call with me and let me help you build your brand while you sleep!

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