Latest / Luxe & Legacy Podcast / Brand Alignment Isn’t Just Visual - It’s Moral.

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Brand Alignment Isn’t Just Visual - It’s Moral. · Luxe & Legacy Podcast

Welcome to the Lux and Legacy Podcast.
I'm Marie from Marie Elizabeth Photography.
And I am Amber from Light Live in Photography.
We created this show for photographers who are ready to run a luxury business with clarity, intention, and elevated artistry.
Each week we uncover the strategies behind high level brands from shooting and styling to client communication, to marketing, to designing heirloom products that increase your value.
If you want to attract aligned clients, produce, work with a recognizable aesthetic and build a business that supports the life you want, this podcast will guide you there.
Let's dive in.
Welcome back you guys.
Today we wanna talk about something that goes deeper than aesthetics, deeper than presets, fonts, colors, and even strategy.
We want to talk about alignment at the level that actually matters, the level of who you are and what you stand for.
So many creatives.
Think that brand alignment is just visual.
It's just pretty.
And yes, that matters, but the real alignment is energetic.
It's ethical.
It's emotional.
It's about what people feel when they interact with you, even before they can explain why.
The beauty about having an alignment with your values, with your brand is that all of your connections, all of your relationships with your clients and your audience, it's going to be deeper.
People are going to fall more in love with your brand, or maybe you decide it's not for them.
Based off your values, and that creates such a beautiful connection that allows us to make a difference even more in our work.
Yeah.
The truth is your audience is not just responding to your art, they're responding to you as a person.
And that's why social media has had such a massive impact on the business world is because people wanna know who they're buying from and they choose.
Based off that, they could have the same product offered by a hundred different people, and they're gonna choose who they align with to purchase from your tone, your values, your nervous system, your integrity.
Clients subconsciously choose people who they feel like they align with, that they feel emotionally connected to, and that they feel has the same ethical moral values as them.
Especially in the space of photography, you're being invited into their, their, their family.
Oftentimes, we feel connected to them in a much deeper way than most businesses are because we are photographing really intimate moments with family, motherhood, birth weddings, these are all really emotional.
Things that families share with us and they open up to us in a vulnerable way.
So they wanna know if they can trust you, if they can, if they like you for who you are.
And if not, that's okay.
They can go find someone else that they feel more aligned with.
Right and.
I've had throughout the years.
Many of my clients tell me they were drawn in, not just by my work, my images, but by the way I see the world.
Okay.
So, and this is all lighter stuff, of course, but my love for Jane Austen and you know, the English countryside and the Old World Romance, it shapes everything I create.
it's about not those.
Things or places in particular, but about the feelings that they provoke and provide this feeling of peace and.
A nostalgic old world, something that was once around but lost.
So it's that softness and sense of story that makes the photographs feel less like pictures and more like feelings people are drawn to.
And so that's on the lighter side of things, of course, right? People are gonna be drawn.
To things about you as a person and in terms of your values and your morals.
When you are sharing what you believe to be right from a place deep, you know in your heart it's going to just be just the strong magnetic pull to people who share those same beliefs.
And in the past week, I have had.
Clients message me telling me that, you know, they loved me before, but now they're going to be a forever client based off some that I have recently shared.
Yeah, and a lot of people think like, oh my gosh, I can't share this with luxury clients because maybe they disagree or whatever, but luxury clients, they.
You know, they vary as well in what they're aligned with, and they are still values driven.
So it's something I think people misunderstand about luxury clients.
They're not just buying something beautiful.
They're buying trust.
They're buying alignment.
They're buying peace of mind and.
They care how you treat people, how you speak, what you stand for, whether your values match theirs, because they're inviting you into their lives, their homes, their families.
And I also have had many people message me this week.
If you're listening to this a year or two from now, I don't know what's gonna happen.
We decided to talk about this topic today because it's been really heavy on our hearts and it's really, it's quite, it's quite hard for me right now to think about anything else.
It's hard for me to think about sharing pretty images and advertising for my business right now because I feel so heavy about.
What I'm seeing going on in a massive way right now in our country.
And I don't usually talk about politics online because that's very divisive, and I'm not here to be divisive.
I want to bring light and peace and joy to the world with my art.
But this is not about politics to me anymore.
You guys, this is about humanity and what's going on right now.
As we're recording, it's January 20, 26 and I just can't stay silent anymore.
And if people are staying silent, it may create misalignment with people who also don't agree with what's going on right now.
And they think that if you're being silent, that means you agree with what's going on.
So I just wanna say your brand alignment.
Yes, you don't, you don't wanna go off or be aggressive about, about things in your professional brand, but I do believe brand alignment includes moral clarity, not perfection, not performance, but being clear on who you are and what you stand for.
And over the past couple of weeks I've been sharing on my stories a lot in on content that does is not my usual content.
It goes much deeper.
It's about the current events and.
Uh, what I'm surprised about was how many people have responded thanking me, uh, for using my platform of over 30,000 followers to speak up for something meaningful, to do something good.
And I've heard from photographers whose own families are being targeted right now thanking me for speaking up for them when they feel like they can't right now.
And.
That matters to me.
Yes.
My following has slightly dropped from 31.3
to 31.1,
and I am completely at peace with that because what's happening right now is not about politics to me.
It's about human rights.
It's about people who, how they're being treated right now, and if someone is okay with what's going on right now, they're not in alignment with me.
And I want them to leave the space.
That's okay.
That is their decision.
So I wanna be very clear.
I'm not speaking out.
For a strategy of connecting with people.
I'm not doing this to build engagement or a brand.
I'm speaking out because I can't sit back anymore, doing nothing while I'm seeing constant barrage of, of videos, of people being dehumanized.
I believe in equality.
I believe in dignity.
I believe in protecting people from abuse.
I believe in supporting families and.
Keeping families together and staying silent right now would not be who I am.
And there's just, there's a lot going on right now in our country.
So I just want you guys to know that it's okay to speak out as long as you're, you know, doing, if you're doing it on your business account.
And as long as you're staying respectful.
I think that.
You can feel safe in, in speaking out and letting people know where you stand.
I was never a person of politics for years.
I am peaceful by nature, conflict averse.
I'm an Enneagram nine, drawn to beauty and quiet, soft.
I'm an introvert.
So for a long time I told myself that staying out of it meant I was choosing peace.
I was choosing calm, choosing kindness, choosing to focus on my little corner of the world.
And in many ways that's true, but I've come to understand something very uncomfortable, yet important, and that choice.
Was a privilege.
It is easy to be detached because my basic needs have always been met because policy was never going to throw my life into a disarray or threaten my safety, my family, my ability to work or my ability to live.
I could afford to look away and not be into politics.
What shifted for me is realizing that human rights are not political.
To me, it's a moral issue, and if you're a person of faith, there's simply a person who tries to live with integrity.
is usually a quiet obligation to stand up for what is right and name what's wrong.
And something too is I live and work in.
DC and politics is a huge part of the atmosphere.
So many of my clients have a political background, and I have clients from every Oli political background, including people deeply involved in public life and policy, and my view is at the end of the day, motherhood is.
A great equalizer.
It softens edges, it humbles us.
It reminds us of what matters.
And I will always serve mothers of all kinds because I believe dignity and care should never be conditional.
And because for me.
Choosing compassion, especially when it's complicated, is a way of activism and it still feels like the right thing to do.
So in summary of all of that, believe that it is important to stand up people who are hands of injustice it's a moral obligation.
I'm going to treat everyone the way I want to be treated, no matter what background they're coming from.
Making me tear up again, but seriously, I'm, I'm sharing we're, we are here today to just share a little bit and, and give you the permission to not be neutral because your brand is who you are and you are not neutral.
Whether your voice your values or not, they are already being felt people are choosing you not just for what you create, but who you are.
And when you allow your brand to reflect your conscience, you attract people who feel deeply aligned and you release the people who are not, that's not divisive, that's clarity.
That's attract and repel.
Yeah.
sharing values creates a different kind of connection.
One that goes deeper than choosing a photographer based off their style or their pricing.
So.
When clients and followers understand what you stand for, the trust forms more easily.
Conversations automatically feel safer.
The relationship becomes human, and at the end of the day, the human condition is so incredibly complex and we are all just seeking.
and love.
And so by achieving these deeper relationships with people we're serving, it allows us to do deeper work.
Yeah, and I just wanna give you some practical tips for sharing.
So when you're sharing on your business Instagram and.
We're, a lot of us right now are very upset, very deeply troubled by what's going on.
I just think it's, it's important to not get too preachy or aggressive or getting too you know, I, I do call my friends and vent in a way that I would not.
Vent on my Instagram.
So you don't have to debate with people who disagree with you.
You don't have to explain yourself to everyone, but you are allowed to stand up for something.
You are allowed to care deeply for our fellow mothers and humans.
You are allowed to let your work and your voice reflect your humanity.
And brand alignment isn't just visual.
It's moral and when you lead with integrity, the right people will always find you.
So at its core, the human condition is about wanting to belong, to be understood, to know that our inner world makes sense to someone else, and when we share values, it softens that loneliness that can just.
Kind of creep, you know, in our daily lives, it reminds us that we're not carrying our hopes, fears, convictions, and isolation.
So in that understanding, the ordinary and the daily becomes more meaningful and that connection becomes richer, and the experience of being human feels a little less heavy and a little more whole.
Okay, you guys, thank you for listening today to this incredibly sensitive and vulnerable topic that is on the top of the minds of all Americans right now.
If you are feeling like Marie and I and very heavy and.
And want to take some action to fight against what's happening to our fellow citizens, our fellow humans.
Right now here's just a couple action steps you can take one, I was, it was recommended to me to download a free app called Five Calls, and I thought it was very helpful because I could put in my address and find out.
We, who my representatives are and their phone number.
And it gave you some ideas of different optional scripts and what to say if you feel a certain way about what ICE is doing to people in our country right now.
So you can contact representatives that way or you can use the a CLU action center website, that's alu.org/slash.
Action.
You can support legal defense and direct aid with the National Immigration Law Center.
That's NIL c.org.
You can contact United.
We dream@unitedwedream.org.
And if you feel comfortable doing so, you can find local protests and actions through the A CLU chapter.
Or you can search immigration protests near me.
Please be careful if you do so.
Know your rights and share resources through the Immigrant Legal Resource Center, and please do not forget to vote at every election.
I know we tend to.
Often just vote for the presidential election.
But there are other votes right now that are massively important and there's one coming up very soon.
So research the candidate's positions on immigration enforcement and oversight and due process.
So these are just.
Some simple things that you can do to take action today instead of just feeling helpless.
So I hope that that helps you guys today and I really appreciate you all being here.
Marie and I just felt like today was a day where we couldn't just focus on the pretty, so.
Alignment in your brand, it, it runs deeper than that, and I hope that you all resonated with this message today.
Thank you so much for spending time with us today on the Luxe and Legacy Podcast.
We love being part of your journey as you build a luxury photography business that feels aligned and elevated.
Be sure to follow us at Light underscore Live in underscore photography and.
At Marie Elizabeth and if you enjoyed today's episode, we would be so grateful if you left a review.
It truly helps other photographers.
Like you discover the show and join this community.
Make sure to join us next week.
We have another conversation that's going to inspire and give you even more tools to grow your brand with confidence.
We can't wait to see you then.
Bye.