Walking the walk: Sophia’s personal branding experience

Sophia wanted her photo session to capture her story of transformation as an entrepreneur across her different ventures.

Over three businesses that she has run, Sophia has finally emerged into her true identity.

Sophia Sunwoo is a startup guide, helping women entrepreneurs accelerate their sales and master their brands. A serial entrepreneur since the age of 19, she had impeccable credentials and enviable accomplishments in the startup world. In her late 20s however, she started feeling unfulfilled and burned out. Through an amazing journey of transformation, this led her to where she is today, working in alignment with her purpose and identity.

In this interview, we talk about Sophia’s journey and how we worked together to create a photo session that conveyed her entire story. I’ve summarized this interview here, with the complete video at the end of this post.

What role has entrepreneurship played in your life and where you are now?

My current business is a representation of who I really am, but finding it took a lot of struggle, pain and self-discovery. My first business was a clothing venture when I was 19 that I sold when I was 22. My second business was in the social impact field. I co-founded a non-profit that fixed broken water systems in low-income communities in Cameroon and India. So I’ve experienced a diverse gamut of entrepreneurial experiences, but it’s only now that I feel I’m stepping into my sovereignty.

Tell me more about that. How did you go from where you were to now? What happened?

Despite creating two really successful businesses and winning incredible recognition, Sophia felt unfulfilled.

All through Middle and High school, I was in college prep mode: SAT classes, art classes, violin classes — everything I needed to look good on a college application. But in exchange for that, I had abandoned every aspect of my actual personality and suppressed my identity.

The first business I created was actually an escape to step into an expression that felt more true to myself. Both my first two businesses were with co-founders, which is almost like entering into a marriage. I feel like I was too young to be carrying on conversations like that, but it forced me to grow. But I always struggled with sovereignty; I didn’t actually believe I could create a business by myself.

At that time, external validation was everything for me! I got so many awards, so much recognition, and as soon as I got those, the feeling of emptiness inside me was palpable. I started thinking, if I’m not ecstatically jumping up and down after getting all this validation, why did I put in all this blood, sweat and tears?

That was why this third business was so transformational for me. It wasn’t something I created for external validation. It was the result of a long and wonderful journey of internal processing in order to feel happy and validated within myself, regardless of what the world around me says. I feel like I’m stepping into myself and detaching from both my ego and the shiny things that entrepreneurs get when they’re successful.

What a fantastic and inspiring story! So what role does this photo shoot play in your journey?

I tell my clients constantly to convey their authentic self to the world. I realized I had to walk the walk!

As a solo business owner, it’s your responsibility to make sure that your philosophy shows up in every component of your business. I had spent a lot of time on my website and copy already. It was time to take care of the photo side of things!

Photos are really important to me because as an online business with clients all over the world, I need to visually represent myself in a way that really captures the essence of who I am as a person; a coach, a supporter and a community for my clients. Even on social media, people aren’t going to dive deeper into your captions or brand unless they get a strong visual cue that resonates with them.

Secondly, I have to consider the competitive landscape around me. How do I look compared to the other coaches out there? How do I articulate who I am as a business in a way that’s really going to resonate with the person I want to work with? I needed to be thoughtful about how I show up online so I can speak in a loud volume to my ideal audience, and photos are a critical part of that.

What was that process of creating your Mood Board like? What did you learn about yourself and what you value?

When I first came to you, I only had a very vague concept; I wanted my photos to go in a more editorial direction. Your process helped me flesh out the complete vision. You have such a beautiful process of putting together a storyboard for the photo shoot. Through your line of questioning and explorations and conversations we had together, I was able to go beyond just a superficial idea of what the photos would look like.

As I was creating my storyboard, it made me ask myself, “Who am I as a person?” It helped me understand the intentionality of the photos where all I knew before was that I didn’t like the rigid, structured version of most business photos that are out there. I didn’t want to do the coaching photos of me in front of a laptop, or more power poses. We talked about how the problem with traditional business photos is that they’re incredibly masculine. There are no feminine qualities that are brought into those photos, whereas I was looking for a more masculine/feminine balance.

As Sophia worked on her Mood Board, she connected with her desire to have a simple, curated color palette, poses that balanced masculine and feminine aspects, detail shots, and vulnerable, moody images. Check out her actual board here on Pinterest.

As I was selecting the photos, there were particular elements that started resonating with me.

I was drawn to a healer I follow on Instagram — to a series of photos she posted where she just used three or four colors in her photos. What appealed to me was her intentional curation of color, and the way she embodies that balance of masculine and feminine aspects.

“I drew inspiration from my personal life and wondered, what would it look like if I brought that to work?”

The poses that I was drawn to were also fascinating. I wanted poses that were simple and nuanced. For example, a power pose, but with hands placed in a way that are much more feminine. That attitude I desired was something I wouldn’t have caught unless we had talked about it.

I also loved the idea of close-ups and detail shots. My accessories are really important to me. I don’t wear anything on my body unless it has some kind of story or given to me by someone I care about. I realized it was incredibly important to me to think about how that would reflect in the photos.

And of course, there were the emotions. I found this photo of a woman sitting in a chair. It was an office chair, but she was was wearing a satin blue dress and looked completely comfortable and confident at the same time. There’s a poet I love who has very moody black-and-white photos that captured the emotional poetry side of myself that I’ve never really shown before.

So how did the actual photo shoot go?

I’ve done a lot of photo shoots in my life, because as an entrepreneur, I have to. This was the most fun photo shoot I’ve had! It was so cool and such a supportive environment. I showed the photos to a friend who’s a photographer, and she felt the photos showed a side of me that has never been captured on camera before.

You and your assistant were so great in setting up the shots in a collaborative, creative environment. I’m usually awkward in front of the camera, but you were both so wonderful in helping me fully express myself.

I was also really happy with the environments you set up for me; the beautiful setup on the floor, with the rugs, candles, plants and other beautiful items around my house that are really important to me. I’m super happy with how everything turned out.

Going into it, I had a vague idea of what the end result might look like, but the actual photos ended up completely surpassing my expectations and vision!

We created a set for Sophia that captured her current life; including all of her favorite items in her home: candles, books, plants and artwork.

Any favorite images? Interesting reactions from friends?

When she first saw this photo, Sophia found it a little challenging because it showed a sensual side of her that she had never shared or explored before. But as she sat with the photo, she grew to love and accept this side of her as a core part of herself.

They’re all my favorites, it’s hard to pick! You did an incredible job using the light, and directing me through poses that are different from anything I’ve done before. I also loved the reveal process because it allowed me to sit with each photo as you were scrolling through them.

Now that I’ve had a few weeks to digest the photos with my friends and with me, it has been really cool to experience how these photos shift in perspective and meaning.

For example, there was one photo that was a little triggering for me, it was so sensual and feminine. But as I sat with it, my thinking shifted to — no, this photo is freaking awesome. If you’re setting yourself up to be super vulnerable and authentic through your photos, some of them will trigger you. And that’s great because it means that you fully stepped into the experience of being as authentic and vulnerable as possible.

I’ve shared the photos with several of my friends and their reaction has been, honestly? Shock! Not shock in a bad way, but shock in recognizing that this is also who I am, and witnessing a side of me that they’ve never really seen before. It has been wonderful to be able to share that journey with my friends.

Would you recommend this experience to a friend? If so, why do you think it would be good for them?

Of course I would! I’ve already recommended them to at least 10 different friends!

The kind of people I surround myself with are people who have a similar journey to me, those who are exploring ways to be more authentic, to tell their story and show up in the world as their true selves. I think you’re the photographer for that kind of person; someone who’s a little quirky and not afraid to march to their own drum.

It’s rare to find photographers who are less obsessed with the superficial side of things. We all want to look good in our photos, but it’s also really important to go beneath those superficial layers and hit another dimension. It’s important to work with someone who can lead those hard conversations about who you really are, honoring all the sides of who you are as a person; good and bad. I think you really capture and honor that experience, which makes working with you really special.

Learn more about Sophia and her business at her website and on Instagram.

Complete video of my interview with Sophia

Want to try out the process I guided Sophia through?

Check out Find your Brand, a free self-guided exercise that’ll walk you through creating your own storyboard and uncover insights from it, in an hour!