Do you have a professional headshot?
Research shows that having professional photos can enhance your personal brand, improve your reputation online, and generate more activity on your social media profiles. In this episode, you will learn how to take a good headshot.
Our host and CEO Porschia, alongside our guest, Mo Lima, will share their insight on the significance of professional photos.
Mo Lima is a Certified Professional Photographer who, after nearly 20 years in Digital Marketing, reimagined a career for herself in photography. Today, she runs an independent portrait studio in Alpharetta, Georgia that specializes in headshots, business portraits for entrepreneurs, and personal portraits for individuals and families—offering hair styling and makeup, plus session-design consultations.
What you’ll learn:
- Why professional headshots are important
- Misconceptions executives and professionals have about headshots
- Tips on how to take a good headshot
- Why having a professional headshot is beneficial on LinkedIn
- How professional photos build trust
As a thank you for listening to this episode of the Career 101 Podcast, we are sharing our FREE master class – Career 911: Solving the Top 5 Challenges Executives and Professionals Have! It’s a training based on solving the common problems our clients have experienced to reach their goals. You can get access to the master class here!
Episode Transcript
Porschia: [00:00:00] Today, we are talking about Professional Headshots 101. How to take a good headshot with Mo Lima. Mo Lima is a certified professional photographer who, after nearly 20 years in digital marketing, reimagined a career for herself in photography. Today, she runs an independent portrait studio in Alpharetta, Georgia, that specializes in headshots.
Business portraits for entrepreneurs and [00:01:00] personal portraits for individuals and families offering hairstyling and makeup plus session design consultations. She wholeheartedly believes that her job is to make clients comfortable during their photo session and to see them overjoyed with the outcome.
Because Mo has a background in marketing. She understands that a consistent presence online and in print is essential for her business clients. Images often establish a first impression, creating a true, consistent impression that represents her clients values and message, ensuring that they’re seen as reliable professionals.
Hi,
Mo: Mo. How are you today? Hi, Portia. I am great. Thank you so much for having me here. I’m excited about this podcast.
Porschia: That is great because I am excited to have you with us to discuss professional headshots [00:02:00] 101 and how to take a good headshot. But first we want to know a little more about you. So tell me about seven year old Mo.
Mo: Seven year old Mo was shy and quiet, but very creative. I always seem to have some kind of entrepreneurial spirit, even at that age. And I, at that age, I taught myself how to macrame and made bracelets and chokers that I could sell to my classmates. So that was my way of engaging with folks.
And that was back in the seventies. So it was really cool to have a macrame choker. Let me tell you.
Porschia: Yeah. Chokers were all the thing in the nineties as well. So I remember the chokers. I don’t know what happened to
Mo: those. Oh no, they’ll come back again. I don’t
Porschia: see them anymore, but yes, they should come back again.
So Mo, tell me, what did you want to be
Mo: when you grew up? When I was I was fascinated by human [00:03:00] psychology because I saw a copy of psychology today at a friend’s house when their parents had it and I just thought the cover was amazing and I didn’t really know what they were saying in there, but I was fascinated by it.
I knew something about understanding people and how people interact and engage and I begged my mother for a subscription.
Porschia: That is cool. So what was your first job?
Mo: So actually I went to school for psychology, though I didn’t stay in it. My first job was with a career counseling agency after school, and I administered the Myers Briggs tests. I don’t know if you remember those. They don’t use them as much. I think they still use them, but not as much.
And that was my first adult job before I fell into marketing. That
Porschia: is very cool. So yes, I’m actually a master practitioner of the MBTI, the Myers Briggs type. Oh, look at that. So yes, I know it well, and use it with our [00:04:00] clients. And it is a great tool for career counseling and career coaching.
And one thing, Mo, that I’ve noticed, so I was actually a psychology major undergrad and just in finishing. My, my master’s in what they call industrial and organizational psychology, but one thing that I have noticed from psych majors is a lot of them do go into marketing. And I was talking to another coach.
Yeah, I know now. And she was a psychology major in. College and then went into marketing and became a marketing executive. And I’ve heard people say that, this psychological kind of tendencies and things that you learn really help in
Mo: marketing. Well, now you’ve made it all make sense for me.
Porschia: Yes. It all makes sense. So Mo, tell us about some highlights or pivotal moments in your career before you started your own business. ,
Mo: I always was trying to figure out what I should do, [00:05:00] what I should be, I didn’t have a definitive direction necessarily. Like I said, I fell into marketing.
It was something that I was interested in and worked on, but I also realized at one point that technology had started to become really important. And so I decided that I needed to understand computers, and so I got an A plus certification in building computers, and I also got a networking certification, so I understood how all of that worked, and I could then shift To more digital marketing and understand how to engage with people who were programmers and, different types of I.
- folks and I thought I could speak their language.
Porschia: Wow, you are multifaceted Mo to dive into, really the technical side of things. That’s really brave of you. That’s so
Mo: cool. [00:06:00] Yeah. I like taking a chance and going out there and taking risks. It’s, part of the life well lived, yeah, absolutely.
Porschia: And that leads me to my next question, Mo, what has been your biggest career challenge so far before starting
Mo: your business? So, I think my challenge was probably around just trying to remain relevant and, shift as I needed to. And we moved from New York and I had to start my career all over again in Atlanta.
So, that move was pretty big and that was a big challenge for me. But. I learned to shift. Like I said, taking risks is important and knowing not having no fear is also important to overcoming challenges.
Porschia: Wow. Yeah, that’s a cross country move. And I’m so glad you touched on that Mo because we have a lot of [00:07:00] clients specifically a lot of our career coaching clients who are in that place that you mentioned where mentally they have to decide, Hey, I’m going to take this.
Big risk and I might be completely changing careers or going down a completely different career path than I had imagined. So yeah, thank you for sharing that.
Mo: Yeah, that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow.
Porschia: I do. So what motivated you to start your own
Mo: business? Well, that was another thing I just.
not exactly fell into. I’d always loved photography, always had a camera when I was a little kid, was the one that took all the family photos. I was never in any of them. I was always behind the camera. But at one point I decided I wanted to set up a little studio in my home. My poor husband had to give up part of his man cave for that.
So he’s been very supportive. And I then learned [00:08:00] that my employer was laying off people who were 55 and older. And at the time, I fell into the category and I thought I’m going to take what they give me, my parting gift, and I’m going to start my own studio and get my professional equipment and just do what I love in my retirement in my early retirement.
So that’s. Why? That’s how I got into the business. But I also decided I wanted to get certification cause I’m big on, if you’re going to do it all the way, do it big. And I got my certification in professional photography as well. And so this is something that I love doing and I love learning more about for years and I’ve been in business now full time for five years.
And it’s been a wonderful journey, and I am enjoying what I do, and that’s just so important
Porschia: in life. [00:09:00] Yeah. And I’m hearing this pattern, Mo, that you are not afraid to take the risks, and so that can be really important for people to hear. And something else I want to dig into as well, when it comes to, you deciding to take that risk and start this photography business.
I know that your background was in marketing. How did you decide to focus on photography? I know I can hear that you love it, but one thing that comes up with a lot of our clients is that they might, let’s say they have a marketing background and they think, well, photography It’s a little more risky than, traditional marketing and they might feel like it’s not a, I’ve heard people tell me it’s not a real business.
It doesn’t feel like a real one doing art or photography if they come from the business world. So how did you say photography? Is it
Mo: right? Yeah, that’s a great question because, photography, [00:10:00] so many people are. If they don’t take it seriously, don’t know how to create a living wage from photography, but I wanted to incorporate what I did for marketing and what I learned in digital marketing, marketing into the photography business. , for instance, for headshots or business photos, I incorporate metadata. Which, a lot of photographers don’t do or don’t know anything about so that these pictures can be searched on and found easily online. I create, optimized images for clients so that they work well online for their online marketing.
Porschia: Oh, wow. So, Why do you think professional headshots are
Mo: important? That is a very good question. Some people don’t think they need a professional headshot, so I’m glad you asked. When you put effort [00:11:00] into anything that you do, It shows. When you have a professional headshot, that goes to show the effort that you will give to prospective employers or clients.
They can see that you care about your image and that you, in turn, will most likely care about the work that you do for them. It builds trust. When you have something that’s less than professional it speaks to your brand and you don’t maybe want something that speaks negatively to your brand.
You want something that speaks positively to your brand. I
Porschia: agree. And one thing that when it comes to, building that trust and professionalism, I see that a lot with LinkedIn. So we talk to a lot of our clients about their LinkedIn profiles, and we also help with what we call LinkedIn makeover services.
And A common question is, do I need a professional headshot for LinkedIn? And [00:12:00] I generally say, yes, it needs to look close to professional if it’s not one. And I have actually, pass along your information to some people before who asked me about headshots. But I think for LinkedIn, like you said, and online purposes, just having, That professional headshot shot is vital.
Something else, Mo, and I don’t know if you’ve heard this as well. I heard this years ago, so I don’t know what the most current stat is, but it was by LinkedIn, and they were saying that profiles with photos were like 10 times more likely to be viewed than if someone just had a LinkedIn profile without their photo.
Mo: So think about it. Would you buy something online if you could? See what it looked like. It’s that might not be a great comparison or very flattering comparison, but it’s true. I mean, if I’m not going to, I’m [00:13:00] not going to engage with someone if I can’t see what they look like on LinkedIn, I feel like they have something to hide.
Porschia: Right. And back to that trust that you mentioned as well. So Mo, how do you approach a headshot differently than other types of
Mo: portraits? So headshots for me have a very specific use. It’s less of a creative medium than something that conveys connection. So for headshots, for instance, the background, I usually recommend that the background is solid background or very muted, so that it’s not distracting at all.
For a headshot, you need to be the star of the picture, not necessarily the background. Some people want a nice outdoors background, which is great, and it might make sense for someone who’s doing real estate, but if you’re a financial advisor, having your headshot done outside doesn’t make any sense at [00:14:00] all.
What are you doing out there? It’s very distracting. Why aren’t you taking care of my money? So, those are some things that I think make a headshot more professional, also building connection, looking directly into the photo into the camera and showing personality and engagement.
.
Porschia: So some executives and professionals are [00:15:00] apprehensive about getting headshots because they don’t think that they will turn out well, or they think that they might not look good in the photos. So from your perspective, how do you take a good headshot?
Mo: Yes, I get that. A lot of people have had bad experiences with headshots.
Either the photographer is clicking through several people at a group team headshot session and doesn’t have time to connect with the person. I do my headshots at the studio and I spend more time with clients so that they can start to feel comfortable. I have recommendations for them about how to prepare and what to do.
So that they do feel comfortable and can trust me because trust goes both ways. They need to be able to trust me and they need to feel like they are trusted and they feel good about the environment there and that they have a good experience and can relax. And [00:16:00] so I will.
To make them have a better experience, I think is something that create a better photo. If you are relaxed in your photos, you’re going to look better. I recommend that people actually practice. in the mirror before sessions. A lot of times people that haven’t had their headshots taken in a while are surprised at how they look.
If you haven’t had your headshot done in 10 years, you’re going to look very different and you’re used to seeing that old headshot, but you need to really come to grips with how life has changed you and be familiar with your smile. Practice in the mirror ahead of time. That always, I find that’s always helpful.
Yeah. Yeah, that is great.
Porschia: And one thing, Mo, and I don’t, I’m sure you see this all the time, I’m a blinker, , so I definitely blink and mess up [00:17:00] photos all the time. What would you say, someone who’s a blinker, how can they take a good headshot?
Mo: There are tricks to that. So one of my tricks, and I’ll give it away, is if I see a blinker, I have them close their eyes.
And just close your eyes, we wait for a beat, and then I say, open your eyes and look directly at the lens, and you can’t blink when you’re opening your eyes, right? Huh. I love it. I love it. I
Porschia: need to remember that. Thank you. You have helped me and the other blinkers out there. And you’ve already started doing this, but I want to know, what are some other tips or recommendations that you would share with people to help them maybe prepare for taking
Mo: headshot?
Thank you. So, drinking lots of water helps, believe it or not. I, that’s one of the recommendations I have for clients is the week leading up to a headshot, drink lots of water, moisturize their face. It [00:18:00] helps the skin look dewy and very nice. And I do offer professional makeup as well, and that can work wonders for people.
It’s usually people that are not used to wearing makeup. Sometimes, they might want to not wear too much makeup. So, that’s helpful. Feeling comfortable in front of the camera is so important. So you have to be happy with the way you look. And I usually tell people We usually try different facial angles different people like the way they look at different angles.
And I find that a lot of times people favor their left side. For some, I don’t know why, but that tends to be their best side. I’ll take a look and see, and I’ll ask them even beforehand to decide what their best side is. And one of the other things I always tell people is to stand up straight, like their mama told them, stand up straight from the spine, but, so that you appear taller so that you have more presence in the photo, but [00:19:00] relax the shoulders so you don’t look tense and avoid raising eyebrows.
People are listening to me and the natural pose when someone’s listening to you is for them to raise their eyebrows. , I’ll remind people just, relax your eyebrows. But one of the, one of the things I hadn’t mentioned, and this doesn’t have to do with preparing, but just a tip for people that want to get their headshots done or want to use a photo and don’t know which one to use.
Lighting is key. To headshots in particular. Lighting is everything. Photography, the word photo means light in, in ancient Greek. So, that’s where it comes from. And it’s the word photography means drawing with light. If you don’t have good light, you can’t have a good headshot.
Porschia: Wow. I hope everyone was listening to that great list of tips [00:20:00] that you gave out.
And then the knowledge of the word photo and photography, that is helpful. I was just listening, Mo, and, I think that I favor my left side, like most people, it sounds like that you talk to, I don’t know. I mean, I’m not going to stop a photo, but if someone asked, I would lean that way.
And I, something else you said about. Lighting specifically. I’m in this mode because last month I just attended the graduation ceremony for my master’s program. I’m looking through the photos that they took because they always have photographers on site and they want you to buy their photos and the lighting was not good.
And I have a few more days to make this decision, but I’m leaning towards not buying anything because the lighting just wasn’t good. In my opinion. So, I mean, they do have it where you can buy the digital negatives and doctorate up yourself, but then I’m I’ll take my mother in law’s photos [00:21:00] over me.
Yeah. So what you said about lighting, it’s just so funny because I was having this conversation with my family members about those photos. So I’m glad that you make sure the lighting is right in your studio.
Mo: Yeah. You knew there was something wrong with those photos, but you didn’t know what it was, right?
Porschia: Yeah, it just, and it makes a difference, I think, between when people are like, hey, I actually want to invest in these, and they’re, or if they’re on the fence, like I am, they’re like, yeah, I’m not really sure it’s worth it.
Yeah. So, Mo, tell us more about MoLima
Mo: Photography. Yeah. , I own an independent photography studio in downtown Alpharetta. And I think it’s beautiful. It’s a boutique space. And right now I, I photograph a lot of women and, who bring their families in as well. I do a lot of, Men’s headshots as well.
[00:22:00] And I also do specialize in photographing men on their motorcycles and women on their motorcycles. That’s off there to decide, but that’s a lot of fun. And I offer Hair and makeup, like I said, as well as a studio wardrobe that people can choose from if they want to do something that is more of a legacy style portrait that I offer especially for women.
I’m doing a project right now that’s entitled 50 over 50. It’s not unique to my studio, but I I think I do it best. And It’s, it results in a magazine that I create for the studio, as well as a gallery exhibit that we’ll have probably this time next year or next year sometime and and in my studio, I have.
A nice area for dressing room makeup. I offer clients coffee or tea or whatever it is to make them [00:23:00] comfortable. I try to create a relaxing experience so that they feel good and relaxed and comfortable and they can trust me and trust what I do and then they can see the results for themselves.
So, and I offer wall art. Albums for families, and I only use the best quality. That’s something that’s important for me. I want to have these photos last for a guaranteed 100 years, if they’re treated right. Because I think years from now, when digital styles or digital formats have changed those photos that you have now, you won’t be able to access, or they won’t look very good, or but you’ll always be able to hold a beautiful fine art print.
And enjoy that and pass that down to your family. Wow.
Porschia: That sounds like a great experience. Number one that you are providing for your clients. I just love hearing you talk about photography and photos and the meaningfulness behind all of [00:24:00] the choices that you make. It’s just amazing. And it’s great to hear.
So thank you. Yeah, we will be providing a link to your website and other social channels in our show notes so people can find you online. But what is the best way for someone to get in
Mo: touch with you? I am active on LinkedIn. I have a page on LinkedIn. Email is a great way to contact me. And also on Instagram.
Porschia: Great. So I have some other career focused questions, Mo, because you’ve had such an interesting career. I want to know, what are your thoughts on work life balance? do you think that it exists?
Mo: I believe that it’s changed a whole lot since, the pandemic, to be honest, it feels to me like from people that I’ve talked with, I keep in touch with some old ex co workers, and it [00:25:00] just feels so much like people have a lot more work life balance than they once did.
It depends on what you do, like an entrepreneur is probably not going to have too much work life balance. It’s a lot easier when you work for a company, I think, in my opinion. That’s just, what I’ve seen. Yeah. I agree
Porschia: with that. It’s harder to build that in and you’ve got to be a bit more intentional, I think, when you’re an entrepreneur to shut it off, right?
And stop working. Yeah. So what is your definition of career success, Mo?
Mo: I think is a really good question because it means something different for everybody. For me, career success is when you are doing something that gives you joy or makes you feel purpose, but is also sustainable and [00:26:00] can earn you a living wage.
It’s great if you love acting, but you just can’t make enough money, then that’s not, my definition of career success. It has to sustain you in many ways.
Porschia: How do you think executives or professionals can get a positive edge in their career?
Mo: I think that mentorship is so important in getting that edge.
I always hear stories from successful people who have had mentors that can help them throughout their careers throughout whatever their job function is. It’s great to make that connection with someone and, you can go out and choose your own mentor, anybody who will agree to mentor you, they can open up a whole world to you and also be that [00:27:00] advocate and take you down a peg if you need to be taken down a peg sometimes.
Porschia: Yeah. Mentorship is so important for people. We have a couple of episodes on mentorship and I completely agree with you, Mo. Mo, you have shared a lot of tips with us today and I’m sure that our listeners can use them to be more confident with their headshots. We appreciate you being with us.
Mo: Thank you so much. I thoroughly enjoyed it, Portia. [00:28:00]
