Reimagining legacy: Ejieme’s personal branding experience
Ejieme Eromosele is a senior Customer Success executive, startup advisor, investor and Diversity & Inclusion advocate.
Ejieme Eromosele (LinkedIn) is a senior tech executive working in the space of Customer Success. She has worked in management consulting, followed by a stint at The New York Times, and then landed in tech, particularly SaaS technology. By day she runs Customer Success for an early-stage startup. However, she has also founded an organization called Success in Black, focusing on Black customer success professionals and elevating diversity & inclusion.
From our very first call, I was struck by how thoughtful and intentional Ejieme is, and that was my experience throughout our entire process. It reflected in her mood board, her photos and in this interview.
I talk with Ejieme about her journey, why she decided to do a photo shoot, and her experience with the process. I’ve summarized the interview here, with the full video at the end of this post.
What got you interested in a photo shoot?
I’ve been thinking a lot about my legacy. We think of legacy as something to worry about towards the end of our live, and that’s important. But I also look at the idea of legacy from day-to-day. What are the things I do every day and how do I show up for people? I want to make sure that I leave the people I interact and connect with better off than before.
I also wanted to have a fresh perspective on who I am and how I show up in the world. I hadn’t had professional photos in a few years, so I wanted to use that opportunity to reimagine what legacy I want to leave. I want others to see me as I see myself.
As I’m building my new brand and organization, I also want to use the photos for my website, social media and other branding materials. The visual format can be so impactful in both seeing others and ourselves. I wanted to take it as an opportunity as a way to dig deeper and share myself in ways that I don’t often. For example, people often tell me I’m a bit more stoic and reserved, but I wanted to highlight other aspects of my personality.
Right now, I lead teams and many people assume I’m always confident and ready to deliver the right answer. But sometimes I don’t feel that way. Sometimes I need to give myself a pep talk too. I’m a strong woman, as are many women around me. We exhibit and exude strength, but at times we can also be soft and vulnerable and less confident.
Photos can really bring that multifaceted view of who you are in an interesting medium. The process helped me reflect on how I want to show up in the world, how do I really want to stand in full confidence even when sometimes I know I’m not?
How did the process of creating the mood board work for you? What was it like?
It was hard to get started at first. But once I got into the swing of it, I put myself in the view of the person that I was highlighting, and that brought the board to life. It was a little bit like manifesting. For example, I’m not Tracee Ellis Ross by any means, but thinking of myself as someone who might have a platform like her someday, being able to sit with that was really fun and inspiring! And then it got easier. I asked myself: How do I want to be seen? How do I want to feel? How do I want to be portrayed? It was a great exercise to expand my vision of myself through images of others.
What advice would you give someone who’s having trouble getting started on their mood board?
I would say, think of someone specific who brings you joy, or someone you really admire. When I started on the board, I was just scanning and searching for photos of, say, high-powered successful women. It was harder and it didn’t really resonate with me.
For her mood board, Ejieme started by focusing on Tracee Ellis Ross, someone she admires deeply as a successful black woman who’s also comfortable being who she is. Once she had photos of Tracee that she loved, she branched out and added some more photos she vibes with. Check out the board here on Pinterest.
I stopped that and focused on 2-3 women who I really admire and whose style I love. I love the visuals they put out. It made it easier to start with photos I actually love and build off there.
In summary, I’d suggest honing in on a few people whose vibe you like to get started and then find more photos like them.
What came up for you as the day of the shoot approached, and how did the actual session go?
We did the shoot in my house, and that was a nice touch. Speaking of showing up in a more personal way, what’s more personal than your home? My home is my office, working from home, the space plays different roles. For me, there was a deep acknowledgement that we were doing the shoot in my home, which is something not everyone gets to experience.
We did the session in Ejieme’s home, which let us capture elements of an actual day in her life and space.
The session itself was really fun! Being at home made it really nice and comfortable. Posing can sometimes feel awkward and weird. But you started with this exercise where we relaxed and got into the space. That was really helpful because after that, it didn’t feel contrived or made up. It was a fun experience overall.
What was it like seeing your photos? Did they accomplish the goals you had for the session?
Oh I was really happy with how they turned out! Having three different outfits in my home really told the story of day in my life. Waking up, getting started in the day, working from home and what it means to spend so many hours behind a laptop, and then the end of the day, a fun night out - almost like a date night. Besides the photos themselves, I loved the story that emerged from them. There were some that were serious and more work-mode, others that were more casual, the ones sitting in the living room reflecting on the day, and then the playful ones with the flowy dress that were outside in nature —gave a well-rounded view of my life.
Would you recommend this experience to a friend? What would you tell them?
I absolutely would recommend this experience! I’d say that it’s an opportunity to do some deep work, and have that work be visually represented. I have a lot of friends who are high achievers; we have these deep conversations about goals and where we want to be in five years. But a photo shoot like this is one way to capture who we are at this moment. I have no doubt that we’ll achieve all that we set out to, but this is a way to capture the journey and the moment that you are currently in.
