As a modern photographer in this brave new digital world, to succeed you must create your own personal brand into yourself:

What is a personal brand?

ERIC KIM NECK STRAP MARK II x Ricoh GR II x RICOH MAFIA Artwear

A personal brand is creating a ‘sole proprietorship’ (one owner) — which is you!

And what is your most valuable asset? Your name! Your first and last name.

Why create a personal brand?

If you’re building up your own name and your own personal brand, you’re building equity in yourself.

The more equity you build in yourself, the more fame you will gain, the more influence you will gain, the more your reach, the more control you will have in your life, and the more power and happiness you will gain in your life.

What sucker mistakes do we photographers make?

We photographers often make the mistake of building our own kingdom on quicksand. We build our empires on the backs of big corporations (Facebook, who owns Instagram).

To take back control, we must build our own platform (our own website, build our own email newsletter, and to create substance via our own blog).

Own your platform; own yourself.

When we upload our photos to Facebook, Instagram, etc– we don’t really “own” the images uploaded to that platform. We are simply leasing the right to host our photos on that platform.

Generally speaking, the more open-source you can make your photos online, the better. This will help you by:

Allowing easier access for you to access your own older photos (photographs hosted on your own website or blog are probably safer than on your hard drive).
Allowing viral spread of your images: The more your photos spread, the more famous you will become, which will ultimately lead you to becoming more influential.
The more likely your legacy as a photographer will cement: The only reason I was able to do so many epic articles on the masters of photography is because the MagnumPhotos.com website did such a good job of making the photos easily accessible and open.

Always mention your first and last name

In my YouTube videos I always make a point of mentioning my first and last name (ERIC KIM) as much as possible. I want to brand my name into the minds of my viewers, followers, and supporters.

Consider in rap songs, rappers always love to mention their names in the beginning of songs. Why? This is the way for you to start recognizing their name, and to attach their name to their own work!

In other words, put your name on your work– it shows your pride in yourself and the pride in your work!

Don’t depend on anyone else

Thought experiment:

What if your personal success depended 100% in yourself.

Also, what if you weren’t allowed to collaborate with anyone else?

If so, that means the keys to success are 100% in your own hands!

“Eagles don’t fly in company.” – Fernandino Galliani

Woman in airplane. Sunset over NYC. Pentax 645Z

I generally think that collaboration is a good thing, but the notion of collaboration is often a crutch. The greatest philosophers in history never ‘collaborated’ when writing their philosophical thoughts. They were eagles, flying by themselves — solo.

eric kim color chroma airplane downtown la poles

If you decide to fly solo, that means that you aren’t dependent on others to help you build your own brand. It means, you become a rockstar into yourself, and when people follow you, they’re not following some anonymous big-corporation brand; they are building a 1:1 relationship with you — a relationship of mutual respect and trust.

Conclusion

To build up your personal brand:

Create a tightly-edited portfolio of strong images: Curation is key here. It means ‘kill your babies‘ (don’t keep your weaker photos). If you have a strong portfolio or collection of images, you will be able to better cement your reputation as a strong photographer. And the stronger you are recognized as a photographer, the more influence and power you will gain.
Stay in the game: The best way to measure your own personal success as a photographer is to NOT DIE! That means, never stop shooting! Never stop making new photos! Stay relevant in the photography game, by constantly creating new videos, new blog posts, articles, ebooks, and sources of knowledge and information.
Don’t become complacent: Always strive for higher levels and elevations. Don’t stay satisfied with where you are right now. Be grateful of your life journey, but channel your dissatisfaction to take you to greater heights!

BRAVE ON!

ERIC

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