Visual Storytelling + Implementing Brand Attraction with Mallika Malhotra – PODCAST EPISODE 42

This episode talks all about visual storytelling – why you need to become the face of your brand, how to become more confident in front of the camera, and how to utilize brand attraction. We also talk about actionable tips and strategies that you can implement TODAY. Learn more about Mallilka HERE!

Visual Storytelling + Implementing Brand Attraction with Mallika Malhotra

Mallika Malhotra of MikiFoto + Co is an award winning brand builder, professional photographer, business mentor and author of The Brand Photography Playbook. After years of working in corporate advertising, she now helps women entrepreneurs master their story, show up as the face of their business and create their brand empires. It’s her mission to empower women to stop hiding and to start emerging as leaders. She is a strong believer in getting out of your comfort zone, taking action and implementing ideas. Her friends and clients call her the brand energizer! When she’s not taking pictures or building brands, she’s at home in Maine with her sons and husband, drinking coffee or red wine and dreaming about their next global adventure.

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BULLET POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE:

• What does hustle like a mother mean to you?
  • For me, it used to mean doing all the things and running on empty and embracing the chaos – kind of being everything to everyone.
  • Now, it means harnessing all of that energy and really focusing on one thing really well at a time. So hustle doesn’t have to mean busy. It just means working at a level of mastery and putting all of that energy into one thing at a time.
• I’d love for you to tell us more of your story and how you got started. You went from corporate to entrepreneurship – what did that transition look like for you?
  • Pre-kids, I worked in advertising in New York and in San Francisco and I worked on big beauty brands. But when my kids were young, I sort of opted out of that corporate world, like many moms do, and I decided just to be at home, but I always had that itch to really find something for myself.
  • When I was living in California and all my family was in New York and New Jersey, I had two sons, they were five and three, and I used the camera to tell their story with my relatives on the other coast.
  • That idea of creativity and storytelling just opened up a whole new world for me and really became a lifeline.
  • I realized the best photos were those that were grounded in strategy.
• Let’s dive into this visual storytelling because I love this phrase. I think it’s so powerful for business owners. So tell me a little bit about what that means and what that looks like for a business owner.
  • Visual storytelling really is the narrative of all the layers of your business. We can’t just rely on a one-dimensional headshot any longer, because many of us are in markets that are highly saturated. And so we need to have visual stories that help connect us quickly and on a deeper level with our ideal clients.
  • You want to be intentional. What is the story you’re trying to convey? What makes you different from other people? What is it about your process that you can share? So think about that and then take pictures of that.
• I hear a lot from my clients and from listeners that they are not confident in front of the camera. What are some of the ways they can really become the face of their brand?
  • If you’re not showing up as a face of your brand, then people might not be trusting you or they might not want to get to know you better because there’s no one to connect with. You need to be sprinkling your image every so often so that people know who the heart of the brand is. You always want to be reinforcing who is the person, the mastermind, the owner of this brand.
  • People are hiring you, not because of what you look like. They are hiring you because you are the best person to deliver the results that they are searching for.
  • The more clarity that you have around your message and your brand – that builds confidence and that helps people show up. So sometimes it’s not that you are insecure, it’s that you’re not clear on your message. So get clear on your message, revisit your why, and remember the transformation and the results that you’re delivering to your client and then practice. Get in front of the camera more often and it’ll feel more natural.
  • You want to be aspirational because you want to position yourself as a leader and you want to be authentic where you are yourself – approachable, welcoming, real.
• Tell us about brand attraction and what are some ways you can use it and implement it in your marketing strategy?
  • Brand attraction is really trying to draw the attention of the right clients. The brands that do this well are those that are mission-minded.
  • Create depth in your brand, by sharing what you believe in. Get really focused on your expertise and stop being everything to everyone.
  • If you have a strong point of view on something, it’s good to put that into your brand so that it will become memorable.
• What are some brand strategy tips that my listeners can implement today and take away from our call today?
  • Brand Strategy Tips and Questions to Ask Yourself:
    • What do you believe in, what is your mission? What are the values of your brand?
    • Who are you here to serve? Whose problems can you solve the best?
    • How are you different? What do you offer that’s different? Why did people choose you over someone else?
    • Really understand the results that you give to your clients.
  • Once you have done this work, it makes it so much easier to tell the story of your brand through visual storytelling.