Can't think of what to post? Suck at creating content? Think your industry is boring? In today's episode I'm interviewing Jess from The Who Photography and Design and she's going to help you create killer content for your trade business
In this episode, we cover:
- The best way to avoid content blocks and save you time
- What not to do when creating content
- Jessicas top tips for creating content like a pro
- The tools you need to create killer content
WANT TO CONNECT WITH JESS? Website: www.thewho.com.au Instagram: www.instagram.com/thewho_photography_design
WANT TO CONNECT WITH ME? Website: www.thedigitalapprenticeship.com.au Instagram: www.instagram.com/thedigitalapprenticeship
WANT MORE? Download my free ebook, The Digital Marketing Cheat Sheet for tradies here http://www.thedigitalapprenticeship.com.au/ebook
SHOW NOTES (including a blog post of this episode and all links and resources) can be found here https://www.thedigitalapprenticeship.com.au/5
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Stephanie Trinder:
Today I'm talking to Jessica Roberts from The Who Photography and Design about how you can create killer content. Let's dive in.
Do you have dreams of growing a trade business using tools like social media, website and email? Do you want to learn how others have done it? Then make sure you subscribe to The Digital Apprenticeship. I'm your host, Stephanie Trinder, digital marketer with almost 10 years experience. When I was eight years old, my dad lost his building business and declared bankruptcy. He didn't have access to the business resources we do today and digital marketing was a foreign concept. This inspired me to use my skills to teach tradies like you how to achieve business success using short, really actionable, digital marketing tips and tricks. Welcome to The Digital Apprenticeship. This episode is brought to you by my free shortcut to digital marketing ebook, with 20 really practical digital marketing tips you can implement for your trade business. Grab them at thedigitalapprenticeship.com.au/ebook.
Hello and welcome to episode five of The Digital Apprenticeship Podcast. Guys, before we get stuck into today's episode, I just wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who has listened and subscribed to the podcast. In just 10 days we charted at number one on Apple podcasts for marketing in Australia, that's huge. It's the best kind of feedback that the content I'm creating is actually useful so thank you again. When talking to tradies about their content marketing, it's common to hear things like, "My industry is boring. No one's going to want to pay attention to me. I have no idea what content I should be creating or what content my audience will find interesting. Help." It's this kind of thinking that makes now a great time to learn about content creation because others simply aren't even trying. In today's episode I'm interviewing Jess from The Who Photography and Design and she's going to help you create killer content for your trade business. A big welcome to you Jess.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. Hello, how are you?
Stephanie Trinder:
I'm really well, thank you. Keeping nice and warm inside. It has been absolutely pouring down today. So a good day to do podcast with such a fabulous guest like yourself.
Jessica Roberts:
Oh, thank you. Yeah, it's horrid out there today.
Stephanie Trinder:
For those listening who don't know you, can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, cool. So my name is Jessica Roberts and I'm a photographer, first and foremost, but couple of years ago I started a company called The Who Photography and Design with Crystal Oliver, my business partner, and we create extraordinary branding for those that dare to be different.
Stephanie Trinder:
Awesome, and you definitely do create extraordinary content. I wish I had have found guys sooner. You are the one responsible for all of the branding across my website and my Instagram. Before I found you I was doing it myself or getting whoever I could find, my friends or my family to take photos. And since I found you it's just been so easy, you gave me a bunch of content to use, and it was so much cheaper than I thought it would be as well, which is an added bonus. So I really have you to thank for that.
Jessica Roberts:
Oh, that's really good. It's really funny because people do think it's like... Well, the thing is, when we do photography it's not just photography that we do because we do branding and design. We want people to have good photography, so we want it to be accessible and I guess we don't want it to be something they do just once, we want them to do it regularly. So that's why our price point is a pretty good price point, I guess.
Stephanie Trinder:
You even did a little bit of photography for my boyfriend who's a plumber and we used that photography across his website and his Instagram and it looks [crosstalk 00:04:42] so fantastic
Jessica Roberts:
He was such a natural. I think he thought he wasn't going to be like that and then he just got into it, loved it.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah, definitely. He hates being in front of the camera, he hates social media and you just made the process so easy for him. And that's why I think you're just such a great podcast guest to have on today's show, because I think a lot of tradies feel like he does. And a lot of them struggle with the content creation side of things because they just think, "Well, it's not the sexiest industry being in the trade profession." So what can they take photos of and how should they be taking photos of what they're doing? And so hopefully you can shine some light on that today for us.
Jessica Roberts:
That'd be really cool. Yeah, definitely.
Stephanie Trinder:
Cool. So, I guess we'll start with, why do you think it's so important to have good quality content?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, that's a good question. So I think good content really speaks to your audience about your credibility. If you have really crappy photos and... Or I mean, if say you're a plumber and you take a photo of a pipe, to you that's going to mean something but to your audience that's maybe not going to mean what you think it is, it's maybe not going to translate. So I think having really good photos, branding across the board, it speaks to credibility and that's why I think it's so important.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah, absolutely. And if you look professional, I think it makes customers feel more confident in your services and they can trust you more because you do have an obvious investment in your content creation and therefore that must translate to your services. Right?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, definitely. And it's all about connection. If you're taking bad photos of pipe or whatever it is. But why are you taking those photos of pipes? Who are you showing that to? And if it's your customers, I guess you've got to ask that question, why are you trying to connect with them? And how is that connecting through your photo?
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah, absolutely. I guess it comes down to why, and then knowing what you want to achieve through the photos that you're posting or through the content that you have across your website. What message are you trying to convey through the photos that you're posting? And it doesn't have to be all about your work, it could be behind the scenes and like you said, building personal connections. So maybe it's your team or yourself, or before and after photos. It doesn't have to be just the one thing, there's actually so many things you can take photos of.
Jessica Roberts:
So many things. And thinking of it from the customer's point of view, so if you do before and afters, how about showing the after first and then showing them before? Because that's looking at... flipping it and asking the question as to why you're posting it.
Stephanie Trinder:
I think that's one of the common mistakes I see actually is people will post the before photo before the after photo but it's really the after photo that's going to get everyone's attention.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. It looks neat and people like, "Oh yeah, that's really cool." Or connection like it could be a photo of you standing in front of the job that you've just done, some sort of a selfie and that's going to create connection because you're in it. But then the copy could just be as simple as, "This was this pipe that broke or whatever it was, and see this is how it looked when we were finished, but see that next photo, what a mess."
Stephanie Trinder:
Definitely. Having an understanding of what you're trying to convey and then I guess working backwards from there and then figuring out, "Okay. Well, this is what I'm trying to achieve. So what are the content pieces that I need to obtain to achieve that and to achieve the action that I want people to take after seeing that photo?"
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think with tradies as well, some of them might be in a big company and they might think, "Why would I need a social brand? Why would I need that kind of thing?" And I think everybody needs to have a social presence these days. And I think it's probably really an old fashioned view that you don't. Because if I was a tradie, say I was a carpenter coming out of trade school, whatever it is now, I would be on social media and I would be sharing that story now because people love to grow with someone. And people that become experts, become experts because they're good at communicating that.
Stephanie Trinder:
Like you said, maybe you were that old school mentality and you don't have social media, you might've been doing really well for yourself but then something like COVID happens, [crosstalk 00:09:30] which is what we're going through right now. And then, perhaps your jobs are put on hold or they don't go through with certain projects and you've always relied on word of mouth and referrals. And now we're in a climate where everyone's online, we're online more than ever and that's just work and eyes that they're missing out on now.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. I mean, I know that when I hire someone, if it's not what of mouth, and even if it is word of mouth, if I go to... I do a check and I see what their social profiles are like. And sometimes the friend that's recommended them is good enough for me to think, "Okay, I'll still hire them," but I think that's... I mean, I'm 40, so I think the people that are younger than me, it's definitely a change, it's a changing attitude. I'm totally up there with the tech but I think that definitely people younger than me will be better than that and they probably won't hire people if they're not on social media.
Stephanie Trinder:
I'm all about reviews, seeing people's work online. I'm currently renovating a house and I found all of the materials, all of the trades that I need online through digital marketing, through their digital media. And that's really important to me and I don't know what I would do without digital media.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, definitely.
Stephanie Trinder:
So we alluded to one of the common mistakes that people make on social media, particularly tradies, putting the before photo before the after photo in a carousel.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. It's not just tradies though, lots of people do show the worst thing first when they should be showing the best thing or the most connecting thing first.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah. I mean before and after, that's what it's called but in the world of social media we want to do things that stop people from scrolling. We want to grab their attention while they're in the fade. So, given that as being one of the common mistakes, what else is on your not to do lists?
Jessica Roberts:
Well, Stephanie, you said before you had a lots of different people taking photos for you. That inconsistency sometimes can come across. Some people are really good at it and that's... But sometimes having that inconsistency of different, I guess, styles of photography through presets. Presets, in my opinion, are big no-no.
Stephanie Trinder:
Presets meaning filters?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, filters. Oh my goodness.
Stephanie Trinder:
Filters. Please, if you're using filters and you're listening to this, stop! [crosstalk 00:11:58]
Jessica Roberts:
I guess [inaudible 00:12:02]... Well, with branding, it's really important to be consistent. So if you're going to use a filter, use the same filter but I would suggest not using them because it takes away from connection, it doesn't create connection and that's what you're trying to do through your social media.
Stephanie Trinder:
I agree. We'll come back to branding in a minute, but I agree with the comment on filters. I also think it creates inconsistency [crosstalk 00:12:25] because people aren't always using that filter. So there'll be a few photos and then all of a sudden, bam: they hit you with a filter. And when you look at the feed, their profile as a whole, I don't know, something about it just looks really cheap. It [crosstalk 00:12:40] doesn't match.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, the other thing with that is black and white photos, I would just say no. Just straight out of the camera, keep it just the same sort of lighting if you can, because anything else that's different from that will be jarring to whoever's looking at it. [crosstalk 00:12:58] I do... It's really hard because I did my brother's branding and photography for his business, he's got a dog washing business. He basically was just like... But he's quite creative and he's good at writing, but he's taking all of his photos and putting filters on them, making them black and white. And he's like, "Oh, but I want to have some creativity in what I do." And I'm like, "Start your own personal page, man." We've created these cool templates that go with your branding and then you're just doing these jarring photos with filters. Consistency is huge.
Stephanie Trinder:
Absolutely. What other common mistakes do you think of?
Jessica Roberts:
I think poor quality or just bad composition, not giving the photo context. So taking something really close up so people don't really actually have any idea what it's all for. And I think with trades, I try to understand when I have a trade person comes to the house, what they're doing and stuff. But from an outsider who's not a tradie I think... Sometimes I follow a few tradies on social media, like my neighbor's a plumber and sometimes I'm a bit confused about what he's actually posting.
Stephanie Trinder:
Even the opposite of going in too close, maybe coming out too far and then the photos become really cluttered and you're not really sure what you're focusing on.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, that's so true.[crosstalk 00:14:22]
Stephanie Trinder:
I find that's a really common one as well.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, definitely.
Stephanie Trinder:
When it comes to the photos that you're taking, you said briefly about your customers might not understand what you're taking a photo of, but you do. I think in that context it's important to understand who your ideal customer is, because maybe maintenance or the average Joe isn't your target audience, it could be other tradies. Maybe you're winning work for a building company in that instance they may know what you're taking photos of. So, it's important to understand [crosstalk 00:14:56] who your audience is.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. I hadn't actually though of that. Because if that is the case then they will understand how cool that particular photo is, or that particular job, and how hard it was and what an expert you are, so-
Stephanie Trinder:
I think another one to mention is, taking photos of the backs of people's heads or taking photos of the back of people. I see that quite a lot as well.
Jessica Roberts:
I think there's a few things that you should ask yourself when you're taking a photo. And well, I've just thought of this now. But maybe we could even break it down to three things. So, what am I taking the photo of? How is it connecting with my audience? So the back of a head really isn't going to connect someone, is it?
Stephanie Trinder:
No.
Jessica Roberts:
No. And I guess the third one could be, is the light good? Or something, I don't know, something like that.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah. Or, what action am I hoping that they'll take?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, that's a good one. I like that better.
Stephanie Trinder:
So, what am I actually taking a photo of? [crosstalk 00:16:00] Two, is this going to relate to my audience?
Jessica Roberts:
Are they going to connect with it? Yeah.
Stephanie Trinder:
And three, what action am I hoping that they'll take after seeing this piece of content? Are they going to comment on it? Are they going to save it? Share it with their friends? Is it going to be engaging? Are they going to send me a DM? And am I going to start a conversation with them or will they check out my website?
Hopefully it falls into one of those categories. I do just want to briefly mention as well before we go onto branding, posting irrelevant things or mixing your personal life with your business, sometimes that can work. This one is a bit of a gray area because, like you said, it can be important to encourage that connection, sometimes it works. How do you-
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. So when I do a photo shoot with someone, we you go through different themes, and we went through this. You filled in a questionnaire for us and-
Stephanie Trinder:
That's right.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah and you were a super star student by the way, it was awesome.
Stephanie Trinder:
Oh, thank you.
Jessica Roberts:
I think that's why we achieved so much in your shoot.
But in that, we talk about theme. So you might have, I think you probably talk about content pillars in your podcast.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah, I have an ebook actually, and I talk about content pillars and I talk about knowing your audience and-
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, cool.
Stephanie Trinder:
A lot of other tips. So if you're listening and you haven't already downloaded that, then you definitely should. It will give you the headstart that you need and [crosstalk 00:17:29] you can grab that at thedigitalapprenticeship.com.au/ebooks. So download that after this episode.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. So content pillars are so important. I actually don't think you should be on social media for your business or for your personal brand if you don't know what they are.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah.
Jessica Roberts:
Bold comment, but if you're winging it, you're probably posting irrelevant stuff.
Stephanie Trinder:
And just wasting so much energy and time trying to think of what to post. I'd be lost without my content pillars.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, definitely. So I think that when you said before about how sometimes people just post really personal stuff or too much at the same... I think that if it's done right, I think it can be okay. So it could be that your guy or girl who's a tradie goes and has a coffee every morning at their cafe. Now that could be a really cool content pillar. Maybe not every day, but once a week you could talk about that. Because that's connecting you with your audience.
I as a potential customer would connect to that. I as another builder or whatever would connect to that. It could be that you've got a dog and you really want to talk about your dog, again, really connecting. And that could be one of your content pillars. It depends on how often you're posting, but it could be something that you post about every four posts and that's going to be really consistent and your audience is going to get to know your dog, which is awesome. I think it's okay to have something personal. And I think most audiences really like to learn a little bit about you. But I think that you really have to just work out how often you're going to do it and do it in a bit more of a calculated way.
Stephanie Trinder:
For those of you who don't know what content pillars are, you can think of them as themes related to your company's values and your company's mission. For example, if one of your company's values is to educate, then you could have a theme for education and within that theme you would post DIYs and How Tos, for example. If one of your company's missions was to be a leader in your field, then one of your themes would be to post things that establish you as a leader. So for example, it could be tool reviews, it could be client case studies or testimonials, things of that nature. Usually when it comes to themes, you have three to five of them and they just help you think of the content to post and they keep you on brand and consistent because you just cycle through your themes each time you post.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, totally. And it makes it easy for you for yourself, it no longer becomes a chore.
Stephanie Trinder:
Another thing that we've been speaking about which we should probably help clarify before we continue is branding. So Jess, what is branding?
Jessica Roberts:
Okay. So branding is a really big topic and I'm going to say what I think branding is. There's probably some official or dictionary thing. So branding is what you see, it's any visual that you see that ties to a company. So most people think branding is a logo, and yes it is, a logo is of the branding. But your branding is... It's your logo, it's the color palette that you use, it's the fonts that you use, it's the photos that you use, it's the videos that you use.
Stephanie Trinder:
Basically, anything and everything that influences and manages the perception and response to your brand, right? And it differentiates you to your competitors.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. I think maybe the best way if you're going, "Yeah, that makes sense, but still, what is a brand again?" If you think of, most people know McDonald's, right? Unless you're living under a rock, you don't. But McDonald's is one of those brands, if you see the golden arches you know straightaway it's McDonald's. They have such a strong brand that anyone in the world pretty much would recognize McDonald's. You never see the big M, you never see that in any other color than yellow. So that's their color palette and they will have all their menus and their everything... If you go into one of their stores, you'll see their menus will have like certain fonts, everything matches with that logo and it talks to one another. And it also talks to their audience and it has that trust.
Stephanie Trinder:
And I think that gives your business an identity beyond the service that you're offering.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, definitely. I think a lot of people think, "Oh yeah, I like that color." Or, "I really think it would look cool if I had that illustration on something," with their business. You might like that but does your target market like that? It has to be much more than that. When we create a brand, we don't... We will ask you what colors you like and what fonts you like, what you're drawn to, but that isn't how we determine how we create logos or how we create graphics that go with that.
Crystal who is my business partner, she's the graphic designer. She's the most intuitive person I know. She takes a brief from questions and creates it into a visual thing that matches that, it's very clever. Basically, she listens to what the audience is and she won't just be like, "Okay, well that's a cool eighties retro font so we use that as the logo." She'll be like, "Well, so your audiences is usually grannies and you're trying to create that trust. So let's think about what colors they are going to trust." So she creates it so that when they see that it's going to feel familiar and it's going to feel like they trust you.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yes, absolutely. Just like your content pillars or your content themes need to be relatable to your audience, so too does your branding. Yeah, I think you've hit it on the head
Jessica Roberts:
So if you're just starting out as well. You don't have to pay someone, you can start... I know when I started my photography business 11 years ago, I can't even remember if I created it myself. I might've done or I might have just paid for a template at the time. But whatever you do create, so long as you create it in a consistent way, that should give you brand consistency. So that unless you choose and you choose two fonts to use, a header and a body... I mean, we know what talks to the audience and everything, but just as long as you choose that and then you-
Stephanie Trinder:
Stick to it.
Jessica Roberts:
Stick to it and stick to your colors and don't go rogue. You might have Canva and you might've gone in there and played, it's so easy to go rogue. Set up your colors, set up your fonts, set up your logos and only use those.
Stephanie Trinder:
Definitely. Canva, for anyone listening who doesn't already know, is a free graphic design application and I use it, I'm sure you use it Jess, although it sounds like your business partner [inaudible 00:24:28]
Jessica Roberts:
Oh, we definitely do use it for our customers. So when we create a brand, we always put everything into Canva so that they can run it themselves.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah. But don't go overboard, this is the message. It has to be consistent, it has to be consistent with your branding. So definitely have a play with it, but keep using the same colors, the same fonts and don't go overboard because that goes back to the common mistakes that we see of people using bad graphic design or getting too creative and becoming too colorful or a little bit too inconsistent with their content creation so-
Jessica Roberts:
That's a good point. And I don't know if the free version of Canva offers this, but if you pay $13 a month with Canva, you can actually have all of that set up in Canva so that's the only colors that you see. You can just pick your palette straight away.
Stephanie Trinder:
Absolutely. I have that set up for the brands that I manage, including my own. And even beyond that, you can then start creating folders and then saving particular-
Jessica Roberts:
Templates.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah to each folder so you can go back and use the same ones again.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah it's so awesome.
Stephanie Trinder:
And then that creates that consistency that we've been talking about. Another tool that I wanted to share with you guys is Coolors.co. It's an awesome tool if you have no idea where to start when it comes to selecting colors for your brand. It's a color scheme generator and it gives you the option to explore trending pallets or you can create your own. You can even pre-select a couple of colors that you already know you like and then Coolors will select other colors that match those preselected colors you've input. And I should mention it's free, completely free. I will link to Coolors as well as Canva in the show notes and you can find them at thedigitalapprenticeship.com.au/five, that's the number five. Jess, you've touched on some things already, but what would you say are your top tips for creating killer content?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. I think, really, the most important thing if you want to create killer content, it's really just having a bit of a plan. And that is listening to your, or sorry, downloading your content pillars ebook, because I think that if you understand content pillars, then you'll be able to create a killer like-
Stephanie Trinder:
Killer content. And just FYI guys, I did not ask Jess to say download my ebook.
Jessica Roberts:
But it's so important. Honestly, if you think, "Yes, this sounds like exactly what I need. This is going to make me stand out in my industry," which I think people are going to need to start to because things are changing, the tides are changing. COVID has changed things so much and you might not be working through stage four, we are in stage four lockdown at the moment, and you might not be working, you might be at home.
But this could be a really good opportunity to work out three things that your content pillars are going to be, three things that you're going to focus on in your business. And then work out how you going to photograph those? It could be... So I have taken lots of photos for tradies, and it could be that I come and hang out with you for a couple of hours and we take photos for you and then you have a whole lot of content and then you actually, you could get someone else to even manage your social media and actually talk to your audience if you don't have time for it. Or it could be that when you're on a job, you're just going to take photos and you're going to save them so that they're always there, you've got yourself a bit of an image bank.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah. I think that's a great tip. Now is the best time to start investing in digital marketing. And even if you're not at home, I think going through trade school, I know this was what Billie experienced, you don't realize what's involved in running a business. You have to be everything at once. And just, I think, accepting that reality and just accepting the fact that for maybe the first one to two years, you just need to hustle and you need to cover your digital marketing, your content creation is included in that, your admin and obviously the practical aspect of your work as well. And then beyond that, that's when you can start outsourcing that stuff because you're just super successful now and you have the revenue and you can start investing in those stream.
Do you meet people at their work site, if that's what they want [crosstalk 00:29:03] or do they come to you? How does that work now?
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah, no, I travel. And I come to work sites, I've done... I've been to a couple of... Photographed stuff for a couple of builders and just... I live in Parkdale on the Bayside so they've just been pretty local. So I've been given a few addresses to meet them at. And I have worked with an architect as well and that was crazy all over the place kind of stuff. But- [crosstalk 00:29:30].
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah I bet that would have been quite involved.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah it was cool though because it was the end, so it's when everything looks really beautiful. One of the things I was going to say, I just thought before when you were talking, I was just thinking about how we were talking about people that have an actual business. It triggered something, we mentioned it briefly before, if I was a tradie just starting out, either I was doing my apprenticeship or I'd just finished and I was working for a company, I really think that is the best time to start getting good with your content pillars and your social media, because one day you're going to be a business owner, I imagine that's the dream. That's what I would want to do. And it's all about habit and social media is habit and getting into a good rhythm with it.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah, definitely. And even if that's not your dream, I think it goes a long way when meeting new employers or meeting clients. So it could work for you even before the stage of owning a business.
Jessica Roberts:
Yeah. Because, say that you're an apprentice now and you're planning on being, I don't know, in another state doing, I don't know, whatever it is that you're doing. If you've got a really good online presence, your interview is already going to be sold for you. A lot of tradies talk about how some of their apprentices have been lazy or, I don't know, it's with anyone. But if you can show them that you're proactive and that you want to learn and you'll... It could be that you're showing them what you've learned that week. It could just be one post a week saying I learned something really cool this week and then people would grow with you. I think there's such an opportunity for someone young to do that.
Stephanie Trinder:
I guess leading on from that, if you could teach content creation in trade school, what would you put on the curriculum? What's one thing that you would want to teach about content creation to these tradies?
Jessica Roberts:
I guess it just depends on how long I had to teach, but I would probably break it down into a couple of modules and it would be all the things that we've talked about today. So I would start by talking about what your personal brand is. I've got a company and I still want to build my own personal brand because in 10 years time I'm going to be speaking on a stage somewhere. Everybody's got different dreams but if my business doesn't work out, which I don't think it's going to happen, I want people to know who I am. And I think if people know what my name is, then you're already halfway there.
So that's maybe where I would start. I would be talking about someone's personal brand and I think that relates to anyone, not as being a tradie, I think in life. I worked this out really young. When I was about 16, I worked at Toys "R" Us and I remember thinking what I put out there is what I get back. And if people perceive me as being amazing and then that's what they... I'm going to get more opportunities. So I think that's really, really important. Really trying to teach them in an engaging way about content pillars and breaking it down so it's really easy.
I also describe content pillars as themes. And I think tat if you can think about your life has themes, maybe not choosing lots to begin with, which three themes are you going to focus on and then how are you going to then communicate it? That's how I would... That would definitely be part of it. I think talking about photography definitely, because it's so important to... Well, the thing is, so these days everybody's good at taking photos.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah but I think that more and more people are becoming better at it, but I still feel like there are just those few things that people still don't understand, like lighting, which you mentioned.
Jessica Roberts:
And there's so many different things that I could talk about with photography. So that would probably be one of the topics I'd cover at school. But I think what you said about distractions in the back of photos is really important.
If there's a whole lot of rubbish surrounding where your photo is, that's going to be where my eyes are drawn to. So making sure that your eyes are drawn to where you want them to be looking, I guess, when you [inaudible 00:33:50] posting your photo.
Stephanie Trinder:
Yeah. I completely agree with that.
Jessica Roberts:
And then just lastly, I think what I was talking about with branding. Branding isn't just a pretty logo. Even if you've got the shittiest logo in the world, if you are really consistent with that shit logo, you've got a good brand.
Stephanie Trinder:
So to recap, personal branding is a big one, figuring out what your content pillars are and investing a little bit of time into improving your photography. Jess, if the listeners want to find you, where can they do so?
Jessica Roberts:
Just go to the website, it's thewho.com.au
Stephanie Trinder:
You can also follow Jess on Instagram @thewho_photography_design . Jess, thank you so much for being a guest on today's show.
Jessica Roberts:
It's a pleasure.
Stephanie Trinder:
You've shared a lot of great tips about creating killer content and I can't wait to see the listeners put it into action. Thank you so much again. I'll chat to you next time.
Jessica Roberts:
Okay, bye.
Stephanie Trinder:
I hope you enjoyed today's episode with Jess. If you're loving this content, don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you know someone who would find this app useful, please share it with them. I would be so grateful. Thanks again for tuning in, chat to you next week.