The reality is, other people will perceive you based on your appearance. How you are dressed, your outfits, your accessories, and how your hair is styled. And ladies, how much or how little amount of makeup you have on.

Again, first impressions are just opinions based on an instant visual assessment. The way you are dress can determine your self-esteemand your level of professionalism. You must ask yourself, how professional do you want to be perceived?

I am not recommending you spend 90 minutes getting ready for your day, but you must be aware that there is instant judgement based on your appearance. Create a personal style guide that you can constantly refer back to when making style choices.

Clothing. Oh my gosh. Such a HUGGEEE impact your clothing can make. Not just regarding materials of clothes and the styling, but even how your clothing smells and how it fits you. Is it ironed and neat? Are they baggy? If you’re a man and your suit isn’t fitted, it feels like you are lacking attention to detail.

Your clothing can play a HUGE role in your personal brand. I know when I see nicely dressed men AND women I think, ohh they are definitely important and successful.

I’m sure you hear stories all the time about how someone invests in that staple outfit/piece and it gives them so much confidence and the perception of their values instantly elevates because of the way they appear in that nice outfit.

How about your accessories? Or your lack of accessories? Personally, I am not a big jewelry person. However, I’ll always throw a piece of something on for photos and videos. It just looks a bit fancier in my opinion. Same thing with shoes. Find a pair that just make you feel amazing…whether you are a man or woman. Great pair of shoes will make all the difference.

When I see women all accessorized with their perfectly planned outfits I think WOW, she’s super stylish. Sometiems all it takes is that one accessory to pull a whole outfit together.

And lets not forget about stylish looking frames. It’s the one accessory I can count on to get compliments and create a great talking piece whenever I’m out and about. If you wear glasses, please invest in at least one pair of beautiful high end frames if you can afford to do so. I know I can instantly see when someone has a designer frame that is unique and suits their face well. You don’t find that off the $99 rack at your local glasses shop.

Your hair cut and your style is another branding element you can look at. Does your current cut and style say what you want it to say about you? While it’s not easy to instantly grow your hair out, you CAN style it the way you want…if not every single day, do it for your photos/videos. This is how people will see you anyways [Symbol]

Makeup…wow, I am a big believer in makeup. Even if you’re a natural “Idon’t wear makeup” type person. For your branding photos/videos…you need makeup. You just need to work with an artist that specializes in the no makeup look.

These are a few things that affect your everyday brand in person as well as your online brand. If at all possible, you want the two to match as much as possible. BUT if you had to choose one to go all out on, do it for your photos and your videos. This is how people will remember since it might be the first time they ever see you and it’ll be how they reference you later as well when they share who you are with others.

Homework assignment this week is to create a list of physically how you want others to see you. If you need help pulling this all together, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me and I will help you create a personal brand style guide. Think style guide for your business, but this will be for YOU. It’ll help guide your clothing style, makeup look, accessories and how to translate it to everyday wear and especially for your online presence.

As most of you know, Alimond Studio has always offered strategy within our headshot sessions as well as within our video shoots. However, we are stepping it up with now offering Personal Branding Strategies for professional that are trying to revamp their online presence. We are doing it for individuals that want to not just look good online, but want to truly show others why they are different than the rest.

Now this isn’t Branding for your Business. We have wonderful relationships with full Marketing agencies that we’d be happy to refer you to that are amazing at helping you in that arena. However, this is for YOUR PERSONAL BRAND.