📸 Exactly How To Plan a Non Basic Brand Photoshoot

📸 Your lame AF brand photoshoot days are over 📸
Keep reading to learn exactly how I plan all of my non basic bitch photoshoots so you can copy my ass, finally get some brand photos that you’re in love with, blow up your social media, and best of all, completely reinvent the vibes of your business.

✏️ MINI TRAINING: Time to pull out your bougie notebook [THIS one is a new fave] and your Frixion pens. My email Mini-trainings are quickie, actionable lessons that I share that often include new concepts and approaches that I want to help you implement in your own biz so we can be rich badass CEOs together.

➡️ EXACTLY HOW TO PLAN YOUR NEXT LEVEL, STOP FUCKING AROUND BRAND PHOTOSHOOT & REINVENT THE VIBES OF YOUR BUSINESS ⬇️

Cause omg I’ve seen your brand photos and I know you can do way the hell better. Here’s how we’re gonna make that happen…

🚨 WHY YOU NEED TO BE PAYING WAY THE HELL MORE ATTENTION TO YOUR BRAND PHOTOS 🚨

If we’ve been hanging out for a hot sec, you know I’m obsessed with helping you go all in on creating the “vibes” of your business…and that’s because I know that that’s one of the easiest, low lift ways for you establish yourself as a trendsetting “category of one” in your industry.

This is a hill I’m totes willing to die on.⚰️⛰️

I know you’re probably thinking: “ok, cool e-dawg…but can you fill me in on exactly WTF the vibes of my business even are?”

Here’s the truth: your brand photos are one of the easiest and quickest ways you can reinvent and uplevel the vibes of your business in a strategic, impactful [READ: dolla dolla bills in your bank account impactful] way.🤑

I’ve spent thousands of dollars hiring all sorts of people simply because I immediately got full on addicted to their vibes. And virtually every one of my 1:1 coaching or intensive clients—even my masterclass students—will always comment on how they absolutely fell Travis-n-Taylor HARD for my biz vibes too.

I honestly believe that having badass brand photos will do the exact same thing for you.

First impressions count…A LOT. And the thing that often has the biggest impact on the first impressions of you, your personal brand and your biz are your pics.

FACTS.⬆️

So let’s go through your photoshoot gameplan step-by-step so that we can get you some dope AF photos like this one ⬇️ [which was taken on the streets of DUMBO, Brooklyn this summer].

**Also: fyi-zers, all this shit I’m about to share is all gonna apply to you whether you hire a photographer or do this all on your own. I always hire a photographer because that’s what feels good to me, but I will share lots of options for a DIY approach as well.

YOUR STEP-BY-STEP PLAN FOR A NEXT LEVEL, DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT FUCKING WITH ME PHOTOSHOOT FOR YOUR BUSINESS

⬇️ HERE’S A SPECIFIC EXAMPLE OF HOW I CREATED A CONCEPT FOR ONE OF OUR PHOTOSHOOTS ⬇️

When we were launching the Icon Agency arm of our business, I KNEW that the branding was going to be e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g…I mean we used the word “icon” in the name of our agency, soooooo.

Even though at the time we had yet to earn even $1 dollar with that new piece of our business, Greg & I decided to invest in a photoshoot as if we were already the million dollar, don’t fuck with us brand we knew we were going to turn into.

We chose to hire a fashion photographer here in Mexico City and treat this like a true magazine editorial shoot. However, we started with the concept and built everything around that.

This is the concept I sent to our photographer when we first started talking about working together [I literally cut/pasted this here from our whatsapp convo]: 

Erica & Greg Reitman are an international power couple team who’s traveling all over the world to try to find “icons” to work with and add to their “icon index” [this was something we invented to represent something like a “best dressed list” but it was for our biz]. This list is exclusive…and invite only, but getting on there signifies that you’ve reached a whole new level in business and in life. Our world…our space…the experience of working with us is elevated, luxe and unlike anything else you’ve ever seen before. Once you make your way into our world, you never wanna get out.A team of photographers and filmmakers are following us around on our worldwide adventure to document it all.

YOUR NEXT STEPS:
Start with these questions and do a brain dump on a google doc:

➡️ What are some words and phrases that embody the sort of pics you wanna create? [some of mine for our Icon Agency shoot were: CEO Millionaire, International business mogul, paparazzi, rich bitch, first class flights, power couple, indulgence, luxe, ladies who lunch, icon status, exclusive. I started with a brain dump of these words and phrases and then created the concept I shared above from there.

➡️ Use pop culture, location or decade references. Can you think of a movie or particular director [Nancy Meyers or Wes Anderson flicks], an era [i.e. 60’s mod or Y2k], a place [i.e. a Moroccan souk] or combination of elements [i.e. NYC city vibes in the 60’s with the Andy Warhol Studio 54 crowd] that you can use as a jumping off point for your photoshoot? Brainstorm all of your ideas

➡️ Is there a particular photography style you want to lean into? i.e. blurry photos, blown out flash, vintage pics, black and white, etc?

➡️ What’s coming up in your biz that you might need some pics for? Think ahead 6 months to a year. When we did our photoshoot in March of this year I had ZERO ideas for what my podcast was actually going to be about or when I was going to launch it. But I knew that launching it was a big goal of mine, so I decided to take some “podcast photos” anyway. Now that I have my snazzy new Podcast idea for Brand Pop [coming soon!] I can start using those pics.

➡️ Find a photographer to help embody your new vibes. Here are some different ways you could do this:

• Do a search on Instagram and TikTok for your city name + photographer [ex. Chicago photographer] and see if any of the peeps who come up in the results grab you.

• Reach out to anyone you follow whose pics you crazy love and ask them who their photog was. You also might make some dope new connections.

• Ask other creatives you know in your industry if they have anyone to recommend

💥 BONUS TIP: If you’re not ready for a shoot now but know that you’re gonna need to tackle this sometime soon, start saving inspo photos you see on Instagram. Create a collection called NEW VIBES PHOTOSHOOT and anytime you see a photo you love, a setup, a location, a style, a photographer you dig or anything in between, save it in there so that you can go back to it when you are ready to make some money moves.

MY BRAND PHOTOGRAPHER

In case you’re wondering who my fab photographer is, her name is Olivia Steuer—you can see her work HERE.

I’m so in love with Olivia’s work, I’ve now done 3 shoots with her—I’m basically in “can’t stop/won’t stop mode.” We even flew her down to Mexico City to photograph our Icon Agency founders at a retreat we had.

💥 PRO TIP: when you find a photographer who you truly, madly, deeply connect with, go all in on them. I can’t tell you how amazing it’s been to collaborate with Olivia on strategically establishing our brand, connecting with our audience and growing creatively.

She’s based in NYC but travels quite a bit [maybe it’s time to plan a fun trip to NYC and while you’re there you can do a kickass photoshoot?]. She also recently added a video upgrade option to her photog packages.

If you reach out to her, make sure to tell her I sent you.😉

⬇️ WANNA SEE MY PINTEREST BOARD? ⬇️

SPY ON all 223 PHOTOS I USED AS INSPO WHEN I PLANNED OUR BIGGEST, MOST EXPENSIVE PHOTOSHOOT TO DATE 👀

⬇️ Here’s the exact Pinterest board I created for that afore mentioned launch photoshoot we did for the Icon Agency [by the way: you have my full permission to steal any of my inspo, repin your face off and use as much as you want on your own Pinterest boards].

YOUR NEXT STEPS:
Create a fab new Pinterest board for your non basic photoshoot

➡️ In case you haven’t used Pinterest in awhile, you might not realize that you can actually create “sections” within one board to group and categorize things. I highly recommend you implement this on your board too to get more organized.

⬆️ There’s a screenshot of the board I created for our Icon Agency launch shoot, which you can see I divided into: style, nighttime inspo [we were going to do a part of the shoot at night but then decided against that for time reasons], detail shots, hair/make up inspo, studio shot inspo, apartment shot inspo [we spent one of the days in our apartment here in Mexico City, street/cafe ideas and then couples poses.

**NOTE: it’s really helpful to look for posing/inspo ideas that reflect the location/time of day you’re going to be in. Could I have taken an inspo pic for our apt and used it for some outside shots? Yeah, sure…but it’s sometimes way harder to do that. The nighttime photo inspo I pinned may or may not work for my day photos. Just be aware of this when you’re looking for ideas.

➡️ My recommendation [espesh if you are less experienced at the photoshoot creative direction thang] is that you pin EVERYTHING that you even think a teensy bit interests or inspires you at first…then later you can edit things down and eliminate images that are not quite as next level as you want them to be.

Sometimes with a shoot for myself or a client I really need to go through this process, let myself go on a pinning frenzy and then nail down the direction or style of the shoot I wanna go for.

💥 PINTEREST PRO TIP: when you click on a pin you love, the Pinterest algorithm will serve you up OTHER pins that it think you will also dig based on the photo you’re pinning. I swear: this is soooo helpful when doing photoshoot planning. Whenever you have a pin open on your screen, scroll down a smidge and you will see a “more to explore” section. I almost always find better inspo pics this way than doing a straight up search with the search bar.

Similarly, when you’re on a specific board and scroll down to the bottom you will also see a little section that says “find some ideas for this board.”

This is what you’ll see when you do that.⬇️

💥 BONUS TIP: If you just do a basic search on Pinterest for “brand photos” you’re gonna get a bunch of basic ideas right back. DO NOT DO THAT. Cause we’re way beyond pics of women laughing over salads with their laptops open and lame headshots that look like cheesy stock photos, amirite?

Here are some search terms I like to use on Pinterest if I’m looking for a quick hit of inspo:

YOU’VE OFFICIALLY BROKEN UP WITH ALL BASIC PROPS

HERE ARE SOME FUN IDEAS I SOURCED FOR YOU ⬇️

Look, I’m sometimes referred as the “prop whisperer.”🤣

And it’s basically cause I’m full on obsessed with always finding the most creative, totally unique props for all of mine and my clients photoshoots.

Depending on the direction of your shoot, you really could have SO much fun tracking down props that speak to your creative direction and vision [and, for the record, Amazon is my #1 goto spot].

I curated a selection of some fun props for you above that you can use on your next shoot. Some of these I’ve even used myself.

➡️ TIKTOK FAMOUS TEE SHIRT
➡️ POPCORN BOXES
➡️ HOW TO BUILD A GODDAMN EMPIRE BOOK
➡️ RETRO STYLE CASSETTE WALKMAN
➡️ PINK & BLUE HULA HOOPS
➡️ FUJI INSTAX CAMERA
➡️ OLD SCHOOL HEART TELEPHONE
➡️ 80’S STYLE BOOMBOX
➡️ FUCK OFF SOCKS

💥 BONUS TIPS: While Amazon is a killer resource, here are some more creative ideas for you:

• Hit up ebay for some fun retro props. You can see me with an Interview newspaper from the 80’s up in the pic of me in my cream suit in front of that dark brown wall. I want to order some Sassy and Jane Magazines for my next shoot [in case you’re not old like me, these were some magazines that had some big impact me back when I was a teen].

• What are your hobbies or fave things to do? What could we include in a few of your pics that represent you beyond your role as a dope CEO? Your pics don’t need to be all business all the time—your audience wants to get to know YOU. For example, I love to needlepoint, so I want to incorporate one of my needlepoint canvases in a future shoot.

• Can you get anything custom printed? Maybe you have a catch phrase you use with your audience that you cold print on a notebook or a journal? If I were doing this I might get something like “your brain is a dick” printed on a journal and use it when I’m creating any sort of mindset or journal prompt content. Moo.com is a great resource for doing stuff like this.

• If you’re incorporating a certain decade, what other things can you order to represent it? In addition to my boombox at my recent shoot, I bought some old digicams that I used too.

Here are a few pics from some of my recent photoshoots where I was using some cool props. Again, feel free to use these as inspo or steal any of the ideas for your own shoot.

I DON’T FUCK AROUND WHEN IT COMES TO RECOMMENDATIONS AND RESOURCES.

HERE ARE ALL MY BEST RIDE OR DIE RECCOS THAT I KNOW WILL HELP YOU BIG TIME AS YOU PLAN YOUR PHOTOSHOOT ⬇️

NOW THAT I’VE DROPPED ALL THESE PHOTOSHOOT VALUE BOMBS ON YOUR FACE, I WANTED TO INVITE YOU TO JOIN ME AT MY NEXT MASTERCLASS ON NOV. 16TH:
HOW TO CREATE THE VIBES OF YOUR BUSINESS

UHM, IF I GIVE YOU THIS MUCH JUICY FREE SHIT IN AN EMAIL, IMAGINE WHAT MY PAID MASTERCLASS IS LIKE? 🤓

I KNOW YOUR EYEBALLS ARE PROBS READY TO FALL OUT OF YOUR HEAD AND YOU NOW NEED A SNACK AFTER GETTING THROUGH THIS EMAIL ENCYCLOPEDIA. BUTTTTT I HAVE THREE HELLA IMPORTANT 💥 BONUS TIPS 💥 FOR YOU BEFORE YOU GET BACK TO YOUR SUITS MARATHON ON NETFLIX

Holy shit, this email thing is way the hell more fun that I thought it would be. But since this is a new project for me I truly, madly, deeply want to make sure that you get excited each week when you see my ass cannon ball into your inbox. So, if you ever have any thoughts, ideas, or feedback that will help me do tha [including specific ideas for things you’d like me to talk about, teach or dive more deeply into], please just hit reply and tell me everything. It really is me at the other end of this thing. And just so ya know: your opinion means the world to me. Love you. Mean it.💋

**If you missed last week’s email on my current “creative stack” where I shared alllll of my fave podcasts, books, creators and more, you can find that HERE.

**If you wanna do me a solid and spread the word about my Icon Status email, you can phone a friend, er, forward this to a friend and have them sign up HERE.