When was the last time you posted a photo of your face on your personal brand? Gone are the days when a logo and offers were the identity of your business. As a personal brand, showing your face to your audience is a game-changing move. After all, people are hiring YOU. And before they do that, they must first know who you are. It's not vanity; it's letting people into your life and building a lifetime of trust and connection.
In this episode of The Pollen Podcast, Diana discusses the importance of showing your face on social media. As a personal brand, you—your face—represent your business. And people want to work with someone they recognize and feel a connection with. So don't miss out on this golden chance! You never know who will resonate with your posts and how you show up. 😉
Listen to this episode to learn how to show your face on social media for your personal brand!
Create your own creative entrepreneurship story of clarity, professional confidence, and profit. Join Diana’s 90-day group course Camp Clarity and learn everything you wish you already knew, like how to land dream clients, harness the power of social media, and make the money you deserve. Learn more here.
🔥Here are three reasons why you should listen to this episode:
Understand the importance of showing your face on social media for your personal brand.
Learn tips on how you can start showing your face on socials.
Find out how to deal with FFTs.
📘Resources
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🎧Episode Highlights
[01:17] Diana’s Nomadic Journey in Paris
Diana is currently in Paris — the longest stint of her European journey. She spent 3 to 5 days in each place.
It's always a different experience going to a city you haven't been to a lot, and recognizing you weren't the person you were when you last came.
Diana has made a lot of friends in Paris.
Her next leg is Colorado for the Diana Davis Creative Retreat, which is already in its final stage of preparations.
[04:24] The Personal Touch — Show Your Face on Socials
Businesses can thrive without showing faces on social media. But Instagram is a free marketing tool for creatives with personal brands.
As a personal brand, the person is hiring you. They're interacting with you, not just a brick-and-mortar store or brand!
Thus, if you're a personal brand, you miss out by not showing your face on social media.
People buy from people. You'd want to work with someone you trust and that has your best interests in mind.
Showing your face on social means letting people in on your values.
[07:42] Diana Davis: "Show up in a way where you let people in. You let people in on your day-to-day, you let people in on your personality, your values, what you value in your life and your business, what you share. So what does that look like?" - Click Here To Tweet This
[08:00] How to Show Your Face
Diana shows her life a lot because she loves building community.
[08:33] Diana Davis: "I would beg to say that I might even be more authentic on social media and this podcast than I would be with someone at a coffee shop. Partially because I don't have any dynamic to work around—no body language, no fear of judgment. It's literally just me dancing in a living room or sharing about a vulnerable subject." - Click Here To Tweet This
Start with small things. It could be taking a picture of your desk, taking videos, sharing places you go to, etc.
Tag relevant accounts and locations as you post and share because you never know who can reach them.
Make sure your face is recognizable on your profile photo. Also, show your face on your stories and feed.
People need to know who you are to get to know, trust, and eventually hire you.
[10:58] F*cking First Times
It’s never going to be easier the first time with anything.
You don’t have to feel shame for not knowing how to navigate something when it’s your first time doing it. Give yourself a little grace to figure it out.
Showing up gets easier once you get comfortable.
Take baby steps. Start doing it once a week, and show up with as much of yourself as you feel comfortable.
You show up to give value to your community. It’s not about being performative or gaining followers.
[13:20] Diana Davis: "You're doing a service to your community by showing up, and then also giving value. How can you tell your story also give value [and] come back to how you can help your client.” - Click Here To Tweet This
[13:32] Consistency is Key
Your intro post can be as simple as a photo of you with a caption of what you do and asking a question about your community.
Then, keep sharing from thereon. It’s all about consistency.
Look at Instagram as less personal and more as the marketing part of your job.
Enjoyed this Podcast on Showing Your Face on Socials?
Being a personal brand is not the same as running a brick-and-mortar business. Unlike the latter, where the logo is at the center of everything, being a personal brand requires more human connection—people need to know who they're buying from. Showing your face on your feed, stories, and reels can be daunting. But when you start seeing it as less personal and more for the benefit of your brand, then you can start showing up like the boss you are.
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Transcript
Diana Davis: So, we need to know who you are, so that we can get to know you, like you, trust you and hire you. I know it's nerve-wracking, but as Brené Brown says, FFTs — fucking first times — it's never going to be easy your first time with anything.
Welcome to Pollen, the podcast for creative entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Diana Davis, multi-passionate creative, business coach, Gemini, manifesting generator, matcha drinker and travel junkie. I'm also the founder of Diana Davis Creative, where I went from a six-figure photography business to coaching creative entrepreneurs like you. If you want to have a career and a life you love, you're in the right place.
On this show, I'll be coaching on all things creative entrepreneurship, and you'll hear stories from fellow creative entrepreneurs that will show you it is possible to do life the way you want to. They'll share the nitty gritty of their journeys, like the real shit, and how they are doing it differently. I'm stoked to have you along on this journey. Let's go.
Hello from Paris. Bonjour. I don't know any French. I've been meeting some French people and French-speaking people, and they tried to teach me things, and it just sounds like gibberish to me. It's really beautiful though. I actually came from Annecy, which I highly recommend.
Before that, I was in Chamonix, which I recommend even more, and on my way from Annecy to Paris, the train, I had this mom, maybe grandma, not really sure, reading in French a children's book to either her grandson or her kid. It was the most, just, meditative, beautiful experience. The sun was coming through the train window. I was just chilling. I didn't have any service or Wi-Fi. It was great. Anyway, French language beautiful, I digress.
So, I'm in Paris. This is my longest stent of my journey so far, maybe besides New York, but definitely my longest European journey. For the most part, I've been spending three to five days in each place, which can be a lot. It's really fun way to see a lot of places, but also, you're not really settling in and you feel a little bit of pressure to like do the things in the amount of days you have. When I got to Paris, which long winding road wasn't as planned, I was supposed to have a friend here. I wasn't even originally going to Paris, but it really worked out, and I trust in the flow and the universe's timing for sure.
But it was just nice to book two weeks and be able to settle in a little bit, really get my bearings, not feel like I have to see the town in three to five days. I've been to Paris before five years ago with my ex partner and my friends, Mike and Emily, who are on the podcast a couple of episodes ago. It's just always such a different experience when you come to a city, first of all, that you haven't been to a lot, and then also, one that you were a totally different person when you were in last time.
Paris has been amazing. I've made a lot of friends. It's been cool. I've even met some people who I've never met in real life on Instagram. We've been connected, and we've gotten to meet in person. So anyway, it's been awesome. My next leg is Colorado. So August 15, which maybe this comes out after that, I'll be in Colorado for my retreat, so it's coming up. We are less than a month away, super, super exciting.
I actually just got off a call with my team, my retreat planner, assistant Maria, who's amazing, and we're just finalizing all the logistics, the brand photoshoots, the shuttles, the hikes, the hot springs, all this stuff, so super fun. I think a future episode would be really good on running a team, probably, now that I think about it. But today, I would like to talk about why it is important to show our faces on social.
By all means, businesses run well, they thrive without showing faces on social. However, Instagram is a free marketing tool specifically for us creatives, specifically for us who have personal brands and when you are a personal brand and by that, I do not mean influencer, consultant, any of that — like yes, you can be as well. But if you are a woman running your business or a man running your business or whatever you identify with running your business, you are a personal brand.
The person is hiring you. So if you are doing the service, you are doing the photography, you are making the ceramics, you are the map maker, you're the consultant, you're the coach, you're the yogi, they are interacting with you in some way, not just a brick and mortar store, a brand, a logo, your personal brand. In my opinion, you are missing out by not showing your face on social media.
When I was a photographer in New York City, I realized how much competition I had, like a lot. There were so many more photographers in New York that were better than me, that were cheaper than me, that were willing to do it for free, let alone the people who were building their portfolios. So, you realize you can't just be a big fish in the pond of New York. You can't. Back in Montana, maybe, right? But in New York, you have to stand out somehow.
So, how do you do that? By being you. I'm sure you've heard coaches say a lot, “You are the secret sauce.” This is not new to anyone, but people buy from people. So if you are a photographer, for example, in New York City, where there's at least 10,000 other photographers doing exactly what you're doing — because there's 8 million people who live there — you have to show up as you, so people can get to know you, like you, trust you, and they want to work with you.
They want the Diana experience, right? So, that goes for any creative entrepreneur, even as far as like, I have my friend Stephanie Vale, shout out to her, I think I've talked about her before. In Denver, she's a real estate agent. She is a personal brand; people are working with her specifically. I was actually trying to buy a house when I was in Denver with my ex partner, and she was who I wanted to work with.
It wasn't even a matter of like the best rates or commissions, I don't even know all that stuff. I just wanted someone I trusted, someone felt held by, someone that I knew would lead me through this process, right, and not treat me like an idiot and explain things to me when I didn't understand and have my best interests in mind. I love Stephanie. She is a personal brand, too.
So even if you're a real estate agent, you're still a personal brand, and it's so important to show your face on social and not like a selfie in the bar bathroom. That's not what I'm saying, but show up in a way where you let people in. You let people in on your day-to-day. You let people in on your personality, your values, what you value in your life and your business, what you share, right? What does that look like? For me, I'm showing my life a lot.
If you follow me, you know I post a lot, and that's because first of all, I love building this community. I love having you all follow along and participate in this life with me, and I get to hear about yours, right? But, I'm also on there being really vulnerable and sharing about burnout and breakup and pricing and the struggles, too, right? So, you know I'm a real human because I am.
I would beg to say, actually, that I might even be more authentic on social media and on this podcast than I would be with someone at a coffee shop. Partially because I don't have any dynamic to work around, no body language, no fear of judgment. It's literally just me dancing in a living room or sharing about a vulnerable subject. That being said, showing your face, it's where it's at.
So if you have never shown your face, I recommend starting with a small things — taking a picture of your desk, taking a little video of your crystals. I have mine right here in my journal and like burning palo santo or whatever your vibe is. Starting with that. Sharing your matcha, sharing the places you're going, please tag the places you're going. You never know who will repost you and you might get a client from it. That happened to me.
I reposted or I posted originally about my photo equipment that I was using in my living room. Savage Backdrops was what it was called. I, then, got reposted by them and a client — who wasn't a client at the time — found me through that and signed up for Camp Clarity, boom, right? So as you're posting and sharing, also make sure you're tagging relevant accounts because you never know using location tags, doing these things.
But then, starting to just get a little more comfortable with showing your face, because it's important, and even showing your face as far as the little tiny circle in your profile, being your face recognizable, just laser talks about this a lot, no sunglasses, don't be doing a headstand, etc, because we want to be able to walk in a room, walk in a coffee shop on a blind date with you, and know exactly what you look like and who you are, right?
So, showing your face not only in the profile photo, but also showing your face on stories. Making sure your photo is on your feed, especially if you're a photographer, calling you out, don't hide behind other people's photos, right? We need to know who you are, so that we can get to know you, like you, trust you and hire you. I know it's nerve wracking, but as Brené Brown says, FFTs — fucking first times — it's never going to be easy your first time with anything.
Even picture, maybe trying to think like, I'm realizing my first flight was when I was 18, first flight ever, pretty wild. That's probably not the case for most of you. But, I can remember to my first flight and my first airport, how many people I had to ask to get to the right terminal and the right gate. I've never been inside an airport before. How am I supposed to know, right?
You don't have to feel shame for not knowing. It's like, “this is my fucking first time. I can give myself a little bit of grace to figure this out, maybe a little extra time even in the airport, and make sure I'm asking people and just staying humble.” So maybe, you were on an airplane at two years old. But if there's something else that you've done for the first time, which there absolutely is, your first drawing, your first painting, your first plant — maybe you killed it — your first, I don't know, driving for the first time, it's never gonna be easy.
So when people are like, “yeah, it's just really hard for me, I just have a really hard time showing up.” I say to them, “It gets easier. I had a hard time showing up when I first started, too. I was the photographer hiding behind other people's photos. I was the person not wanting to post my face at all.” Then, I realized people need to know who you are, because people buy from people. So, I encourage you today to just take baby steps.
Don't make a big resolution of “okay, I'm going to show up on social every day.” No, just take baby steps. Do it once this week. Maybe, it's your hand cooking something, and that's like as much of yourself as you feel comfortable showing right now, but it's human. Just remember, you're doing this for your community. It's not about being performative and gaining followers and all of this stuff. It's so people can get to know you.
You're doing a service to your community by showing up, and then also giving value, how can you tell your story, also give value, come back to how you can help your client. So, let me know how it goes. Post an intro post. That's what I have my Camp Clarity people do when they're first getting on social media. Just go post a photo of you and say, “Hey, I am here to start showing up on this page, and here's what I do. Where are you from? Have you been following me for a while? Drop it in the comments below.” It can be as simple as that, and then keep sharing.
It's all about consistency, so feed stories, reels. I get it. It's daunting, but if we look at Instagram, as part of our job, literally, the marketing part of our job. If we had a boss, we wouldn't be able to go, yeah, I just don't feel like it. Our boss would be like, you're fired. If we can just start looking at the stuff as less personal and more for the benefit of our business and for connection, then we can switch our mindset around it.
So when you do an intro post, when you post a story for your audience of yourself, tag me. I'd love to see it. I'd love to shout you out and share it. Let me know. So, go show your face. People buy from people.
