“I’ve never had a photographer invested in MY ideas before” - Jenna’s personal branding experience
Jenna Strusowski, a sex and relationship coach based in Philadelphia, PA, during her personal branding session with Series A Photography.
Jenna Strusowski is a Philadelphia-based sex and relationship coach helping people have deeper connections, more intimacy and pleasurable sex. We had a really fun session in Fall 2021. In this blog post, I’ve summarized a conversation I had with her about her experience. The full video interview is at the end of the post.
What got you interested in a photo shoot?
I’m a sex and relationship coach, working on finding my brand and niche in the coaching industry. I’ve also been working on my website. In my industry, it’s really important, first of all, to be findable. People need to be able to find you, know what you’re about. As part of that, images are really important to me. When you see an image on a website or somewhere else, it does something to you emotionally. That’s what I want. I want people to feel connected to me in some way get a sense of who I am. Some of it comes through my website in my words, but it’s mostly through the images on there.
I want people to see my website and photos and get a sense of: this person will understand me, I feel really safe around this coach, I think she’s got my back. And she’s just a regular person.
For my shoot, I didn’t want photos that were photoshopped. I didn’t want just ‘sexy’ pictures. I didn’t want photos meant to deliberately manipulate people in any way.
Instead, I wanted pictures that just looked like me and broadcast my personality. I have a sense of humor, which is really important for me to convey. I want to feel very approachable to my clients, like, “I want to talk to her!”, a sense of warmth, like a gravitational pull.
Who do you primarily work with as a sex and relationship coach?
Right now, most of my clients are heterosexual men. I feel really empathetic towards men, because there’s so much resistance for them to reach out for help. Sometimes it’s considered weak or embarrassing; they might feel like they should know this stuff. I don’t have a definitive answer as to where that comes from, but I just want to help these men so much, get to their vulnerabilities and let them have their emotions freely.
I’m also interested in working with many different people; women, non-binary people and so on, but right now, it seems that heterosexual men are connecting and reaching out to me the most.
What has your past experiences with photo shoots been like?
Before I decided to start coaching, I was pursuing a career in acting. So I’ve had many experiences getting headshots and figuring out what kind of actor I was. As an actor, you are your brand, you’re trying to sell yourself. My pictures always came out very glamorous, staged and cute. But they never looked like me. And I never had a great experience with a photographer. I always felt very awkward. I still feel very awkward in front of the camera. That’s probably why the photos looked like that and I’ve never been happy with them.
Jenna had a terrible experience with a photographer and acting agent over a decade ago that put her off photo shoots since then. She felt uncomfortable and awkward in front of the camera, and was afraid that would show up in this session.
In my mid-20s, I had a terrible experience. I had a manager for my acting career. She sent me to a photographer and was absolutely livid when the photos came out so bad. I didn’t want to work with that photographer. I knew that photographer and wasn’t comfortable around him. But she insisted on it, and at that time, I was young and didn’t know my boundaries.
When she looked at the pictures, she was like: What the hell were you thinking about? There’s nothing behind your eyes!
Well, I wasn’t happy with myself and the situation, and I guess it showed. I hated that experience. That was 12 years ago, and that was the last time I had my photos taken.
Wow, I’m so sorry you had that experience! Given that context, how did the process you went through for our session feel?
I really enjoyed that! I was able to figure out what kind of pictures I wanted; for example, I realized how much color was important to me. Also, I’ve never had a photographer actually invest in MY ideas before, so that felt really comforting. I felt safe throughout the entire process. It was important to me that you wanted to get to know me first and capture who I am, instead of just showing up and start snapping pictures away.
I loved making the mood board! At first, I was like: Oh man, I don’t know what to do. Once I started following your instructions, it just clicked and it was easy. I really enjoyed that process. I want to make more mood boards for other things I’m going to be doing with my career or even my life in general. It sparks creativity for sure!
Jenna’s mood board was full of photos conveying serene calm, comfort in oneself, creativity and playfulness.
For me, what helped with creating the mood board was opening myself up to the process. What’s the worst that could happen? You find pictures you don’t like and you delete or ignore them. I put on music and got into the experience. There were some pictures I stared at forever because they were so beautiful. Not in the sense of, oh I want my pictures to look exactly like this, but it opened my eyes to what pictures could be like.
Normally, when you think of getting headshots, you have some specific ideas: I have to be in a suit, my hands have to look like this. But as I was creating my mood board, I started realizing that my pictures didn’t have to look a certain way at all.
Given your past experiences, were there any concerns that came up as the day of your session approached?
Oh yeah, for sure. I was worried that the pictures would come out horribly and I was going to hate them, especially since I spent money and was coming up all the way to New York. What if I’m just terrible at getting photos taken, and Raj just has no idea how awful this is going to be? He’ll probably realize that this girl cannot pose to save her life. All of these concerns were swirling around my head.
How did the actual photo shoot experience turn out?
I really enjoyed having my makeup done in the beginning. I’m so happy that’s part of your package.
Overall, I was surprised at how much emotion I felt during the shoot. There were moments of happiness, sadness and there was a lot of laughing; it was such a joyride! Being coached by you through the whole experience, and supported by your assistant (Veronica) was extremely helpful.
By the end of the shoot, I was excited to see what the photos would look like. The shoot was two hours long, but the time went by so fast. I felt like I had just spent an afternoon with two of my close friends.
What did it feel like to see your photos for the first time? Has that evolved as you’ve been with them?
When I first saw them, I had the same reaction I always had: Oh God, I’m so ugly. I started picking them apart and critiquing them.
But sitting with them for a while, I’ve really started to enjoy them. I show them to friends and people I know and they’re like: OMG these are beautiful! That’s you. You’re really laughing there and have that sparkle in your eyes. I’ve started to see what they’re seeing and the photos are growing on me. It might be a little vain, but it feels good.
I love the fact that they’re all so different and I have so many different colors and choices to pick from. I’m really proud and happy, and excited to use them for my website and Instagram stuff.
In particular, there’s one picture of me leaning back in a chair with my foot up. And my friends are like: That’s REALLY you. I love that the pictures show my playful, quirky side and are not all just, serious sexy businesswoman.
My favorite photo from Jenna’s session. I love the genuine joy we were able to evoke and capture!
Jenna’s favorite photo from the session. Her friends think this shows exactly who she is!
Would you recommend this experience to a friend? What would you tell them?
I’d highly recommend that all of my friends get their pictures taken with you, especially those who are looking for something different: more depth, more creativity. In my past experiences with photographers, there wasn’t any fluidity or flexibility. But in your process, it sort of just unfolds, it’s so organic. You never know what kind of pictures you’re going to get, but the greatest thing is not having these high expectations and then just letting the magic happen.
