Photography for Websites: The Secrets to Stunning Visuals with Karen Flower
As a renowned brand photography expert, Karen knows the art of creating a deep connection with your target audience through visually captivating branding.
Whether you're running a service-based or product-based business, having a curated collection of impactful images that align with your vision and values is essential for effortless business growth. Discover the power of confidently showcasing your brand, attracting your ideal community, and unlocking your full potential with Karen's expert insights.
I can’t wait for you to watch this powerful conversation about what makes impactful website photos!
Transcript below!
You can connect with Karen here:
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0:00
Unlocking website success series I'm particularly excited about this one
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because well we'll get into it in a minute but because I think it's a really big sticky point for people when they're
0:12
building their websites or designing their websites or working with designers and I also
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think that I'm just excited because Karen and I have been
0:23
crossing paths or referring each other work or and things for a good long while now and so having this conversation with
0:30
her particularly is really really exciting for me so before I get too much further Karen
0:37
do you want to introduce yourself well the part that everyone hates is that talk about yourself
0:43
um uh yeah I'm Karen I'm based in Kingston upon times that's just outside London and I'm a brand photographer
0:51
working with small businesses solo entrepreneurs and medium-sized businesses and that's whether you're a
0:57
service provider or a product based business so it's quite a variety
1:03
um yeah and I've been doing that for I'd say about four years or so because before that I
1:09
was about a photographer so it's been a photographer for quite some time but I switched into The Branding and personal
1:15
branding so just before covered ooh and why'd you switch
1:21
um I think I've been writing photography as I say for about 10 years and
1:27
um I it was it was becoming easy but also you book a long time in advance you
1:33
book some like a year year and a half in advance and it just it doesn't offer you a lot of flexibility
1:38
um and even though I was sort of like I still loved obviously weddings that are good fun and such high energy I just
1:45
started to think about I wanted to have something with a shorter lead time something whether it's more personal connection ongoing relationships because
1:52
when you do a wedding it's like a few years before they have a family or if you ever see them again so it's it's
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just like it's like a one-off you know and also I noticed is that um I had I came across a lot of business
2:05
owners you know your florists you have cake makers you have magicians DJs the whole you know you can imagine the
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number of people that are involved in planning a wedding and everybody needed images
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and obviously what happens a lot where the photographers say yeah yeah you can have some I've got some great photos of the you know couple with your cake or
2:23
you can just have pictures of a cake we do all those sorts of pictures as well of course I was thinking they don't
2:29
because you're getting photos from different photographers and there's no real brand there when you land on their websites it's a real mishmash of Styles
2:38
um and even though the product right you know the flowers might be stunning it's still the The Branding wasn't great
2:44
because it's just like well what you're really about because there's so many different types of photos and different situations and I just thought yeah I'd
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really like to help um small businesses to sort of really get that together and actually create a
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strong brand and have a like ongoing relationship with them so it started with me um reaching out to people
3:04
um networking and uh sort of like I actually cherry-picked some people I wanted to work with and
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um use that then as my sort of like my brand to build on then and yeah they went from there so
3:18
I'm sure that I have two thoughts there one is you're right if you're a business that has lots of different photos from
3:25
lots of different people it doesn't tell that consistent story about your business and that can feel
3:31
really off to a client and I think a lot of times people who aren't maybe in the creative
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industry wouldn't know why it felt off yeah but it does feel off
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yeah that's what I talk to my clients about as well when before we start uh planning
3:48
for a shoot and I do like a little visual evaluation on my website and it's
3:54
a lot to do with as you say when somebody lands a new website they don't know it might be something jarring about
3:59
it and they don't know what it is but it's not connecting with them or it's and then they'll they'll hop off and on
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what you really want the whole purpose of it is to connect with people so that they work with you
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um and yeah I think that's and it's hard to explain until you actually sit down and talk to clients that um having just
4:19
having photos on your website and having copy on your website is not enough it has to it has to work for you it has to
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do something and I said people you you know we know ourselves when we see something we like whether it's a we go
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to art gallery and see a painting we know we like it or we don't like it but it resonates with us and what you need
4:37
to do is obviously you have images that resonate with the people that you want to work with so yeah it's YouTube
4:43
there's it's not it's hard for people to put their finger on it but they know it's it's off somewhere yeah exactly I
4:49
think I think that's totally right my other quick thing it was I bet you another perk of doing this type of work
4:54
rather than weddings is that you're maybe not working as many weekends well I I know that that was the other thing
5:00
it's just like I did feel um yeah working weekends and then even
5:06
sometimes with family photography you know people that work midweek and they want to work weekends and I started to put boundaries in and then you just got
5:12
to a point where I thought no I want to have I want to have like a normal working week which is great and I love
5:17
it because it's like shortly times you really get to know people and you have like an ongoing relationship with them
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and yeah and I work Monday to Friday yeah yay So like
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um I have a lot of questions for you but I think in the basic terms
5:36
what is website photography right because we all kind of have an idea of what photography is but when it comes to
5:42
website photography specifically what is that well I guess um I'm gonna if you
5:48
separate it from like photos you use on social media because obviously when I work with clients we
5:54
everybody needs website photography and the social media side of it is like a bonus and we create enough content for
6:02
that but with website photography it's about creating a cohesive brand I think
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that's that's one of the key things is there has to be cohesive so that every page they land on on your website has to
6:17
to communicate that your values what you're about and also like you're building up that trust and if they come
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across different images on different pages then it's you know it doesn't say it doesn't work so it just it's not
6:28
cohesion I think that's with website photography and also um it's technically it's like having the
6:35
different sizes of photos and having you know a choice of photos that you might want to use as a header but I think
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website photography does come under the umbrella of like brand photography because that's what you're you know
6:46
obviously trying to create with clients but um yeah it's a lot of people don't think about website Photography in terms
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of how the images are going to be used they just think oh I need a good photo especially if it's like a brand photo
6:59
themselves but yeah it's a lot more that is 98 of why I wanted to have this conversation and to be very very honest
7:06
I have a lot of clients that come to me and they have gorgeous absolutely
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gorgeous photos but they haven't thought about how they want to use those photos so it could be that they really like
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sort of layered effects but don't have any white space in their photos or you
7:25
know or like they're they're too zoomed in and close up for me to be able to use that photo strategically or maybe they
7:31
have sent me loads and loads of stunning vertical photos but really love the idea of having those Parallax scrolling
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banners oh yeah um but have no no no photos that I can
7:44
use for that um and they've had this brand photographer do photos for them and but they haven't
7:51
really taken that into the concept context of a website um I think when I get photos from you
7:58
I get similar shots in different perspectives so I get vertical or horizontal I also
8:05
get what I think is really really special what when I get photos from you is that I also get these sort of behind
8:13
the scenes or like aesthetic shots that aren't necessarily always of the person
8:19
but it saves me from having to like okay well we need sort of a background photo here that isn't just your face
8:26
um and still trying to get it to match and fit that story and all those things because you're I always get those photos
8:33
from you yeah I think when I when I work with a client
8:39
we um we do take a deep dive into that brand and what they want what they want
8:44
to talk about uh what their themes are as well when we're talking to social media I want to talk about on their
8:50
websites but also like coming having a clear idea of um you know whose ID client is and what
8:57
they want to who they want to work with and I think to start off we start off with that um and then we have to think of like
9:03
that that Banner image that you talked about a header image which is above the fold you have to have something which
9:09
one people to land on your website they get an instant reaction to what you're
9:15
about um so that that wide Banner image is like super important so I do tend to
9:21
create like a variety of those again around The Branding that work that we've
9:27
done with each other and also um you know different backgrounds and setups and stuff but it's all very much
9:34
part of what they want to communicate and then they can they've got a choice but the the Obama image is it's like
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it's honestly it's like the most important thing because they if you did people then decide whether they want to
9:47
um keep scrolling through the rest of the page after they move on and it should really straight away say
9:52
something about you so I mean I've worked with people um obviously lots of people that we've we've worked with together and you know as soon as you
9:59
land on that site whether they're sort of like cool it's got cool Urban look about them whether they're sort of um
10:05
got a feminine brand whether they sort of a luxury brand and it's it's just you have to get that read straight away and
10:12
people will either say think oh yeah yeah this is this is what I'm after and then want to know more or they'll be
10:18
like I know against that attractive repair which is fine or they'll be like no this is not for me and then they'll
10:24
go elsewhere but you want to have some kind of reaction rather like well you know who's this what's this person about
10:29
but this um that horizontal shot because I did a documentary style wedding
10:35
photography like photogen listen for such a long time it was always about storytelling so it
10:41
wasn't like you know it's all very much like you know uh trying to Capture Moments throughout the day that were meaningful and also in a creative way so
10:48
I think I was so used to taking horizontal shots and storytelling shots
10:54
and having information in those pictures and where you place somebody in the frame and what that says about what's
10:59
going on so I think that actually informed my photography style quite a lot so I actually had to make an effort
11:06
to try and take portrait vertical um photos because I was so used to
11:11
trying to take these little landscape um panoramic shots all the time so I think that's why I've got this tendency
11:17
to nail those header images um I'll have to think a bit more about
11:23
the portrait stuff but I think I do I do see a lot of brand photography when it is very much portraits you know and it's
11:29
like you're limited down here for sure yeah I think the other thing that really stands out that is obviously very
11:34
clearly probably I would say probably very clearly from your wedding experience is that those those details
11:42
shots those sort of behind the scenes shots those those um
11:47
those kind of pieces you know because obviously when you're doing a wedding you're taking photos of maybe the shoes
11:52
and the flowers and you're taking a picture of the Rings and you're taking a picture of all these pieces the cake and
11:59
and you're doing that as a part of that storytelling thing you do that as well um we've had clients so I've uh that say
12:06
are like a stylist or something and you're getting shots of her handbag in her hand but it's a
12:13
gorgeous photo to have as a background or maybe not the most important piece um here and there but it's very clearly
12:20
still her and part of her story right yes yeah I do try to um that's that's a
12:26
partly social media partly for the website but I try to include the give those things details context as you say
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so it's not just like a handbag by itself but it'll be with I know you're talking about uh Joy yeah
12:40
yourselves give me a shout out Joey um but yeah that was very much trying to communicate how she as a stylist Works
12:49
um and also by giving her themes to talk about so when she is writing a blog when
12:55
she is on social media if she wants to put anything on her one of her website Pages she can that will tie in with all
13:02
the photos that we have of her as well and it's again reinforcing this message that she is an experienced uh sort of a
13:11
professional stylist and it's yeah there's detail images so like as you say they add to the story and I've done I've
13:16
done that with everyone I've worked with um and I see them when they send me when
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I I sign up to the email list and I see them popping up in their email list because they can then Place writing on
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it and I've seen you do it on people's website Pages as well where you can use some of the space in those shots to put
13:34
a bit of text or whatever yeah it's good I think I think it's easily again it's it's getting rid of this perception of
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brand photography is all about somebody looking very nice and looking at the camera and it's it's very a lot of
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generic images out there so I try to give like sort of quite a more of a storytelling approach to it so hopefully that helps anyway you're really good at
13:55
calling someone's personality through and their story um like I've never gotten photos from me
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that I'm like I don't know what to do with these like I always know you know um and I think I think it's really cool
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because I've had a few headshots done and I love the photographer I've worked with
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um that said I've made mistakes in those um things so it's probably I will say
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I'm also like a little overdue for getting another set of headshots done but that's the thing this is the first
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time I saw it as headshots yes yes like I need I need some head shots I need to look professional and it was very much
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I was really nervous um but it was very much like me and my laptop
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me and my laptop me in a notebook and I did a lot of prep you should know like anybody who knows me knows that I'm like
14:46
a freak right I'm like so I had a Pinterest board I had gone to TK Maxx and bought a bunch of props left the
14:52
stickers on that were all in my brand like burgundy and gold and those kinds of things just returned them all when I was done
15:00
um done all the all this prep but it's still at the end of the day the photos
15:07
just didn't feel very very me and one of the issues was I had
15:13
um glasses without glare coating oh I wore uh contacts and I just don't wear
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contact lenses very often and so there are very few photos of me in my glasses
15:27
um the second time that my photographer or Jillian I'll shout out Jillian's amazing if you're here in Northern Ireland she's fantastic but Julian Rob
15:34
uh the second time obviously I was a lot more comfortable with Jillian we had gone to lunch before
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um the second photo shoot turned out so much more like me there's a lot of really like awkward shots of me laughing which is very you know me telling
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stories and I'm like this and talking um a lot more just me pushing my
15:51
Brompton and me with my bag and there's some photos of me in my house and I work in my house right the first time I was
15:57
like oh I can't take the photos in my house like it just doesn't look and the second time I was like this is where I work right
16:03
this is the real story um but I thought let's get a lot of outdoor
16:09
photos this park I'm in every day by my house let's go there photos are gorgeous
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but do you know what's in every single photo a lot of green I don't have green anywhere in my brain yeah yeah and I
16:21
didn't think that through yeah so so this but they're still supporters are great for when you're
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talking about um things on social media because then you're you're still connected you're bringing your personality and what your
16:32
interest across but say for your website I think it's important that people don't necessarily choose their favorite photo
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they need to choose the photos that best match what their Brand's about
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um so it's exactly sometimes you know so when I do the talk through with uh people about their websites and the
16:51
images they've chosen and say like that's a great shot of you but it's all your whole website is is very pink and
16:57
feminine but yet you've got a picture of you sort of by a brick wall and it's like no it does it doesn't fit but I
17:04
said um I did a shoot yesterday with a um interior designer and her target
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market is high-end um she she's recently qualified a couple years ago and she's very much principles
17:20
so as I paired back less but better performance will functions like that
17:25
kind of thing so obviously it wasn't going to work to take photos of her in a park or out in
17:31
an urban street or in a loft apartment or anything like that so what we knew we wanted to do was to have quite a lot of
17:39
negative space around her and also to have some principle well you know you've
17:44
got the space but you've got like an object nearby um and it's so you're so reinforcing her
17:51
style of working with her photos of her so I I love that kind of thing when
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people tell me oh this is what I'm about and this is you know these are these are people I want to work with and then I have to think of a way to say okay let's
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make then the first of you connect with that so it's just so that's like yeah that's an example so when you land on
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her website which hopefully be ready at the end of July um she's she's you know she's got
18:16
pictures of Interiors but all the photos of herself that she's going to use throughout the website will tie in with
18:22
the pictures of the Interiors so it's not you know she hasn't got a picture of her with a coffee cup sitting on the
18:28
sofa it's you know it's very they're quite architectural which is obviously what she wants to get across but yeah so
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it is it's important to really say not go like choose pictures to think oh I look really nice in that one
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but we think okay you obviously want a picture of you looking nice but something that is part of your brand it
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works because it's there's a reason why it works I mean I've got focus on my website of me and they're they're
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deliberately set in London because I want to work with people in London I like working in urban environments
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um yeah so that's that's and it's the colors it all into you know it all tones in and also that even the pictures I put
19:05
my clients on my website even though I've got some really great photos of people I absolutely love in my portfolio
19:11
they're not going to work on my home page right it would just yeah it just wouldn't work so I think I've had to
19:18
because of that I've had to cut use canva to cut some of my photos of me out so that I can put them the photos of me
19:24
that actually look the way that I want on my website so like photos of me yes with my laptop but very clearly like my
19:31
laptop of me on my sofa and my glass of wine that I'm probably drinking if I'm working overtime and those kinds of
19:38
pieces that feel a lot more aligned for me um those are room places but if they're a
19:44
photo of me that'll look like I want it to look in a park then I've had to take the park part out right in some places
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on my website I also have found that um
19:56
like if I were to do another shoot I would probably either be booking an Airbnb so it still feels homey but it's a very
20:01
neutral backdrop or maybe find um luckily we get a lot of gray days in
20:07
Ireland so a beach that is this sort of neutral natural as well
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um but yeah I think there's so many considerations to take in
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um when you're doing photography for a website and I just
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I think it can be it can be a whole can of worms but it's if you think through it it can be so so
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so good because that combination of telling your story through your images which
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shout the loudest really like you need your coffee and you need your calls to action and you need the you
20:43
need the in my opinion the like automation or systems or structure to be
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really really simple and easy to use as well yes um that's like my whole thing but but I but you like all those pieces
20:59
are really really important but people are really really visual right yeah yeah which is why Instagram
21:06
works so well didn't that yeah it's yeah it's it is it's I mean it's um
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that's the first connection we make with anything is obviously visual um you know when we just think about how
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we shop ourselves if we're looking online if we're walking down the High Street is something that catches our eye first and also people's faces is another
21:27
thing that's uh the first thing people connect with but I've worked with um say a lot of coaches and service based
21:33
business I just want to mention a beautiful website you made for Georgie of chasing lobsters and I sent a lot of
21:40
my clients to this this is like this is our website should look um and with Georgie I mean so and again
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because I've worked with a lot of coaches and every coach has their own character and way of working and they
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you know their USP so this is why you can't have generic photography it has to be a story that's about working with
22:01
that person and one of the themes that um Georgie talked about is that she her
22:07
way she works is she invites people into a space she creates space for people
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so when we were doing the photography for that we had to make sure it felt light it felt spacious there was space
22:20
next to her she wasn't stuck behind things so again anyway I think oh that sounds like it's overthinking but but
22:26
again it's all this subliminal messaging and when people land on her website they
22:32
feel that they feel that sense of space they get that from the images and I I
22:37
probably sounds like I've been all Arty farty and stuff but no no I think the thing is what you're doing is saying
22:44
saying it without saying it right you're showing people who she is you're showing people how she works you're showing
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people what most importantly you're showing people what working with her will feel like yes
22:55
is the key right um and I think that that's very very we did do a really good job the two of us
23:02
together doing that with Georgie's site um and I get all the time I can't even
23:07
tell you how many times I get a potential new client call and they say I'm here because I love Georgie's site
23:12
and I don't know how many of those you've passed on or not like but like it happens a lot or George is your coach
23:19
and she says they say George is my coach I love her website can you please do my website
23:26
how fabulous it is yeah like um and I think the thing that I think a
23:32
lot of people get a little weird about is a couple things I do find a lot of times people
23:38
um get weird about having too many photos of themselves on their website and I don't really think there's such a thing
23:44
um because your face everywhere is showing the different aspects and sides of you and it's building trust with that
23:51
person the only thing that's going to build that trust better is video which I know you do some of those as well for
23:57
um the home page kind of banner um we've done some websites where there's a beautiful moving
24:03
um sort of video for people and that's always really really good too because I
24:09
think the more that people think they actually know you well and hopefully actually really do know you based on
24:14
that the more they trust you right um and I think the other thing people get really awkward about which I I can
24:21
understand because I would have said I probably would have been awkward about it too but I've started to have to
24:28
practice what I preach a little bit and that is putting photos of you that you
24:33
don't necessarily feel pretty in I love to put a photo um I have another client
24:38
and I think she actually vetoed the photo but she had a photo of her kind of going like like kind of a thing and it
24:44
just had so much personality in it and so much warmth and energy radiating out
24:51
of it um and I think in the place I put no it wouldn't work just anywhere but I think
24:56
where I'd place in a really strategic place and she was like no okay like
25:01
but I think sometimes those photos that you don't like I have a photo of me
25:07
that I use a lot where I don't think I liked it at first but it's me playing with my hair and I'm looking kind of at the ground and my face is kind of messed
25:14
up right like it's not like a normal Smiley but it shows
25:20
it like the more I looked at it the more I was like this is a really natural and warm photo of me
25:27
um and so I use it in a lot of places like my newsletter and places like that that I think showing off that sort of
25:33
warm maybe not as Polish place version of yourself it works really really well yes yeah is it is a couple of a couple
25:41
of things though the well you talk about like your warmth and the personality and stuff like this I
25:48
think this is why it's important for people to actually sit down and think okay what sort of character you know to
25:53
look at themselves and even ask their friends and ask around how do I come across because some people are like
25:59
um more introverted and quiet you know they want calm photos themselves but if
26:04
you want to have something that looks more informal and relaxed and has warmth and energy then yeah then your focus
26:10
should reflect that even if you say they're not like perfect and you know I don't I don't want like perfect photos
26:16
anyway they should you personality should come through but yeah so it's slightly off the cuff looking images
26:23
um but also but this thing about it's it really is hard when you first start having your photos taken and also when
26:29
you start sharing photos to yourself if it does feel weird I know that because I I felt the same way and then it's I
26:37
think what the boys do it the more you get used to it but also it is so so important I should say the more people
26:42
see you on every page of your website they yeah this is the connection it's you know they feel like they are getting
26:48
to know you because they don't just go to the homepage they will explore and they'll come back to it and they'll read bits and they'll have a look at every
26:55
time they're doing that they're feeling more familiar with you and they can only do that if they see your face
27:02
um I um it was my son's birthday a couple years ago you had a big birthday I wanted to get a special cake and I went
27:07
on Instagram I found this cake maker oh my stomach aches and they weren't cheap yes I had to get delivered to
27:15
where he was living with student a uni at the time and um I just and I I was
27:20
trying to find out about her and I just thought before I hand over quite a no big sum of money for this cake I didn't
27:27
get a sense of who she was there's there were no gorgeous pictures on the website gorgeous pictures on Instagram uh I
27:34
think somewhere I found her name um but there was just no pictures of her so I didn't know who I was paying who I
27:39
was trusting that we would deliver this cake for my son on his birthday and it was and I just
27:45
I just thought obviously she had a professional photographer do her other photos I was like no I can't email her
27:51
and say you need to get pictures up of yourself but it did it made me then it unnerved me not to me yeah and I think
27:59
that's another really common thing is that if it's a service-based business people are kind of like well I am selling me I've got to put my face up
28:05
but if you're a product based business it's just important it is right you probably aren't gonna have the same
28:11
number of photos of yourself up as a service but you need to have some at
28:16
least one on the home page and at least one on the about page like a minimum right probably on the contact page as well I would hope
28:23
um but because again people want to know who they're talking to who they're buying from
28:28
um and that about page should be that business story and you should have your
28:33
name in your face and if you have a team have team photos team bios again it does
28:40
all of that building connection thing I also think from my perspective and this is like a total side tangent really
28:46
quick it's just that like I'm really passionate about people who would
28:51
typically be classes like solo entrepreneurs myself included yeah not saying that we're solo entrepreneurs
28:58
because like I have two assistants no they're not full-time they're not staff but they're up on my website because I
29:05
have this two-pronged thing of like if somebody gets an email from Heidi I don't want them to not know that it's
29:10
really from me like it's from my team um and the other thing is is that I want
29:16
people to I just don't believe in this myth that we should all do it all ourselves right
29:22
and that's something that I think in my work I've seen a lot of people feel like they should be spinning all the plates themselves
29:28
um and it gets me annoyed so is is I think is this one of the things I
29:34
learned at the beginning um I it's when especially if you're starting out your business fresh or you're just like relaunching is yeah to
29:42
just to get the help um even if it's like just things around the house kind of have anything that frees up your time
29:47
to make you more of an expert at what you do is going to help drive your business forward even it's hard to think
29:53
oh I don't really want to spend money on this because it means there's less money in my business but it's counter-intuitive you have to spend
30:00
money to grow and um when I started my wedding photography business I wanted I
30:06
did invest in like a four-day weather photography course which is brilliant but they said I needed to invest in like
30:11
a whole branding thing myself and I I didn't and I just it's I think it slowed me down obviously I know better now but
30:19
but yeah it is it's it's um Tang intuitive to spend money when you're trying to make money but it does
30:26
it's if it's the freeing up of time the free and upper head space to make you better at what you do yeah I've talked
30:33
about this a few times on this series alone but I talk about it everywhere it's this triangle of time money and
30:39
energy that you have to be really intentional where you're spending it and my I am
30:44
been in a group program for the last
30:50
months called plenty and it's all about making money and how to kind of get unstuck in some of these things and it's
30:56
with a coach who's really really intersectional and just absolutely lovely and doesn't
31:03
be like you just need to make more money by making more money right she understands that that's not how this world works and she's fantastic and but
31:10
one of the things she talks about quite a lot is clearing the path and I think that's one of those
31:16
sometimes we hold on to money so tightly because we might need it right and sometimes we do but I think if you can
31:22
spend it when it's necessary or even sometimes fun
31:27
um you're inviting that money back in for example like I've just spent a bunch of money on branding things I just
31:33
bought a stamp for the boxes that I send my clients so like I actually have a couple here that I was doing one of
31:40
these Parcels for a client oh nice and did I send them that say open when you
31:45
when I launch your website and it's a bottle of Prosecco um there we go open on website launch
31:52
day and I was doing this for a client and I was like look as nice as I want it to like
31:58
inside's really nice it's got a branded bottle opener for my business and it's got these gorgeous branded cards that
32:04
say it's congratulations on your new website and the other side says it's time to pop the bubbles like and those are all branded and the outside of the
32:11
box felt crap so I've bought myself a stamp
32:16
yeah and I bought I realized I was nearly out of all these things so I bought new business cards new
32:24
boxes and fillers and those are fun it doesn't it's not a huge sum of money but it's money that sometimes you go do I
32:30
really need to spend money on this but those that little bit of extra brand experience for a client can make a big difference oh yeah you know
32:37
um having I felt the reason I started doing this is I felt when I finished someone's website I was like all right enjoy go off and celebrate this weekend
32:44
and that felt really weird but now I've given them a small piece of Celebration
32:49
and it doesn't cost me very much like I think each one of these boxes postage included is antenna like with everything
32:57
inside postage but it's just enough for a client to know I'm really thinking of them yes that's that I think that's really
33:04
important because then you're keeping up that connection and obviously you've already done a really good job and you've delivered what you said you've
33:10
delivered but it's just that yeah it's just the thoughtfulness of it and because I love all that branding stuff
33:15
I've done it for years I do it now with my clients and it's all you know I've got little thank you cards and the
33:21
matching wrapping paper and ribbon and the gifts and all that kind of thing um and when I had delivered weddings
33:26
um I always sent um it's like a box with like then it was like a USB and stuff but and like
33:33
um a really pretty Prince so I did get some hand printed uh photographs on the wedding and other little bits and pieces
33:39
that I knew they liked so because also you get to know them for the wedding day and stuff like this as well so and it's just that whole
33:45
something I know insane I really enjoyed working with you um yeah you know
33:52
and obviously we're talking mostly about photograph photography here on websites but this is a continuation of your brand
33:58
yes your I think the thing is is if working with you is lovely
34:05
people like okay if you do a good job people will respect that if working with you is absolutely lovely and that means
34:11
in my book that working with you is really easy um and you take those little extra steps
34:17
people are going to refer you right um if they feel like because you're gonna they're gonna remember it they're
34:24
real if you've created a memorable easy experience at that point you didn't just do a good job you've yeah done more and
34:32
I think that that is like and I swear we're bringing this back to
34:37
photography but like I think that people often kind of forget like I've had people say things like oh I saw burgundy
34:46
and thought of you today right literally I saw it and I because I wear it all the time and that's an intentional choice
34:53
I also love it it works both ways but but like my husband I was in the charity
34:59
shop the other day looking at another another burgundy dress like do you need more and I was like yeah okay I will
35:04
never have too much but by the time do you like red wine as well
35:11
isn't it yeah I do actually funny I drink probably more red white wine than red wine but that's not necessarily that
35:17
I like one more than the other it's just that white wine doesn't give me heartburn um so
35:24
but I think it's it's these things where if you can create this piece of a brand where you know you're packaging inside
35:30
your gift box or the emails your clients get when they um they work with you or the
35:39
it all connects back to exactly what they're seeing on their website you want from the time that they see your website
35:45
or social media from the first time that they interact with you that that brand experience consistency feel tone of
35:52
voice everything is the same the whole way through yeah yeah it's like every single touch point should be saying
35:57
things about your brand and they should be is that yeah let's go back to the photos it's creating that cohesion
36:05
um it right through from when they first Contact you right through to when you deliver
36:10
um and again when they see your stuff on social media because is this social media it doesn't have to be perfect I
36:15
know my my clients what what really makes me feel chuffed is when they use
36:21
the photos a lot of social media and it makes it easy for them to show up and to
36:27
you know just whatever they're talking about they know they've got images that match what they're saying so it makes
36:32
life a lot easier but it also just keeps reinforcing um it's not like who they who's hater
36:38
landed on Whose website they're visiting you know where they are um and what the person's about is just
36:44
over and over again it reinforces the message about the vision and the values and everything else that they've worked
36:49
so hard to try and get across but um yeah and let's say the photography
36:54
plays a big part of that obviously absolutely and like I've had and I think this is an experience that most business
37:00
owners have had but you when you are doing that type of thing there are people that are watching
37:05
um like I have a client who booked after following me on ever I didn't even know it she was over in America but she was
37:11
following me on everything she was following my newsletter my podcast she was watching looking at my socials
37:17
um and obviously my website and when it came time she's like this is this is it like so she waited she waited till it
37:24
was the right time and she knew because she was in um she was actually had like running her business on the side of uni
37:29
she graduated uni um spun up her business full-time and was
37:34
like all right I'm hiring her like that was it um
37:40
and so all those pieces matter um yeah I think it's
37:46
and I think you made another really interesting point there that I meant to make earlier is
37:52
um obviously we were talking about how vulnerable it can feel sometimes to have your to put your pictures out there to
37:58
put your face out there but I think when you get professional photography done it
38:04
makes it a lot easier because you suddenly have photos done in
38:09
an outfit you've picked out that you love at angles that really work for you in great lighting you may have taken the
38:16
time to like you know you've probably maybe had your hair done or makeup done or at least you feel you've done taken
38:21
the extra care with them that day and you have photos that really feel good so when you get asked to
38:30
or so for what your website right so when you're doing your blog or your website or whatever um it's so so much easier
38:37
you're creating a new sales page you've got all the imagery you need um for that new offer that you're
38:43
putting out there into the world but you also have things for if you
38:49
um are like I just got asked to do a workshop with women in business here and
38:55
one of the things they needed for me was a headshot yeah right you need a photo you need a good photo or I just
39:01
submitted myself for small business 100 I had to submit a photo I had a headshot and also I very intentionally always
39:08
submit the same headshot for those types of things yeah consistency yeah yeah yeah and I also use that same headshot
39:16
for things like um my email signature my the little circle that goes in my
39:23
emails when people see me um I you know all those kind of like account head like pictures that you need
39:30
yeah um so I think that that's one of those another piece of the consistency but it
39:36
does feel easier to show up if I had gotten that email that said do you want to do this Workshop
39:41
and it said provide a bio and a headshot I would have had to be like do I have a good one that's gonna suit
39:48
this yeah anybody would have been stressful because you think you're then thinking about well I've got to try and
39:53
create something and which one are you fiddling about well I do I think when you have a um a planned
39:59
um right ground photo shoot I mean the feedback I get is from people is how good they feel about the sounds
40:06
afterwards because obviously this is a leap of faith because you know people do feel self-conscious but I say I'm used
40:11
to working I work in a very relaxed way and it's not static it's not posed at all and stuff like this so you know you
40:17
feel like you're you're being yourself and one of the biggest problems I got from somebody is that
40:22
um I gave them back a piece of themselves
40:30
that's such a big compliment because they felt so good afterwards
40:35
um but I do think yes it's it's easier to show up when you know you've got like
40:40
a collection of photos or whatever that you've you know you can dip into um which you know whichever one you
40:46
choose is going to be on brand for you so you don't have to worry is this you know does this is this gonna work
40:53
um and also as you say when you're sending pictures out and I do the same thing myself I have a photo that I use almost
41:00
everywhere so then I'm recognizable so rather than saying like it's again like is that Karen oh I don't know she has
41:06
you know looks a bit different than that is that they know straight away it's me because they see it everywhere yep so
41:12
that's that consistency is important as well and obviously the variety comes in you know all the different pages and
41:18
socials and stuff but just to have some of those headline type of uh headline photo everywhere it helps yeah yeah
41:25
absolutely the other thing can I give us something about um clients and websites
41:30
and obviously people have you can focus at different times a year it's one of the key things that people are thinking
41:36
about what to put on their website is to go for what and I heard when I think a
41:41
blogging guest talking about creating Evergreen content um and that's the same for like photography as well so when you it again
41:49
depends what your brand is but you want to have photos on your website that don't look like oh she took that at
41:56
Christmas time um it's you know it's a hot sunny day on
42:02
the beach it's it's and then the other photos very different so it's you can create create Evergreen photos where they're quite they're neutral
42:09
um but they're you know they reflect your brand but they're quite neutral and then that way it doesn't matter when people land on your website what time of
42:16
year it's it looks it works you know oh yeah yeah I love that I actually had so
42:22
my second my the my most recent brand photo shoot which is still a fiddled
42:27
mostly still works for me for two reasons one I still wear similar glasses even though I've got new ones and two I
42:34
normally have my hair at this length I've actually in the past cut my hair semi-intentionally to keep it at a
42:40
length that is in the same as all my photos
42:48
like right above my shoulders and kind of here I know that it still looks
42:53
similar-ish yeah um and it's not to say that I've never grown up my hair like I had it quite long in the pandemic
42:59
but I don't think as many people were seeing me in person anyway so but that's just a
43:06
fun little thing like if I ever decided I was gonna drastically change my hair I know I would probably also need to get
43:11
new headshots and I think there are people with brands that maybe
43:17
they change their hair color a lot there's some women that do um or and that and and that's one thing I know
43:24
some people that that's part of their brand and that's okay like they have you know maybe they're they have photos
43:29
where they've got like bright purple hair and then they're blonde in another and whatever but they've been quite
43:35
intentional with showing that they do change their hair color a lot so if somebody hops on a call with them it
43:40
does if they have are there suddenly a ginger nobody bats an eye right
43:46
um but I think it's more common for somebody to say be blonde in all their
43:52
photos and then suddenly decide to dye their hair dark because it's Autumn and
43:57
they felt like it and then the kind of then people show up and they don't look like themselves yeah so I've come across that myself and
44:04
I've um so I've seen somebody's little headshot on Instagram or something and then we've had like a zoom chat and it's like they
44:12
it doesn't look anything like them and it's just like oh you know and I think it that's the other thing if when you do
44:17
it even if you have your photography done you know do it yourself or you have to pay for some type it down then it's it's got to feel and look like you where
44:25
you are now for its size they're good using an old photo when you say when you were like blonde and now you've got long dark hair
44:32
and people when they see you there's like a oh is this the same person but um yeah because obviously a lot of stuff
44:37
happens on zoom and people look so different so you still want to look and feel like yourselves and you know and have authentic photos so it's uh yeah
44:45
that's important part of it as well so you yeah you are your business I haven't even had that issue where I had a photo
44:50
on LinkedIn from my first photo shoot I've taken extra since when she did but and it was one of my photos without
44:56
glasses and people said that they didn't recognize me when I went to like add them or what does it request okay
45:03
whatever they call it this is weird or following me yeah they were like who is this person because they didn't look
45:08
like me without glasses because I wear them like 99 of the time right if I'm
45:13
going on the odd night out I'll put contacts in and that's it so
45:19
um okay so I guess my last question is obviously not every business is at a
45:26
place where they're ready to work with a professional brand photographer what considerations would you maybe or tips
45:33
would you give if somebody is at a place where they're just trying to see if this idea is going to work before investing and a lot of time you
45:40
know in money in Professional Services what do should they keep in mind while diying their brand or website photos
45:49
um right um so my screen just went off there um
45:55
so you again it's similar similar sort of principles so if you're going to sort of DIY your photography and you want to
46:01
set up you're going to get a template for your website then I would start with thinking about that
46:07
landing page Banner image so obviously it has to be horizontal think about creating space around yourself so if you
46:14
need to put writing in if you want to crop and quite everyone need to crop it to size can it all bow on our images uh
46:20
headers are the same size as photos and also phone photos particularly if you use those resolutions lower the the
46:28
dimensions are slightly different and sometimes you get some product websites and the the head images they're quite
46:36
narrow um so I don't know I've worked with people before and I've had to do Photoshop work for them to try and make
46:41
things fit so um yes I would say yeah creating space around yourself it does put yourself in
46:47
the middle or have at least try and create images related to the right you're just the left
46:52
um space above your head as well and don't have things going through your head think about think about what you're
46:59
trying to the most important is don't think about what you're trying to say so if you have a quiet calm brand then your
47:07
background and your lighting needs to be like that if you follow your outfits
47:13
yeah and the same with your clothings on and also bringing it as a simple tip it's just bringing some of the colors of
47:19
your brand into your clothing or the background then if you're if you're like a bold brand like let's take like say
47:25
holy taco yeah Holly and Co she's a British she Champions British businesses you know she's set up a lot in the house
47:31
two years ago I'm sure you know who she is everything about her is vibrant energy color
47:38
then if that's your brand then obviously that's the sort of background you want if whether it's going to be from a
47:43
colorful wall or flowers or whatever and yourself as well if you want to come across as like high energy then you're
47:49
Photoshop so you might want more fun photos you're not going to have like a quiet picture of yourself thinking a
47:55
thoughtful picture so you're going to send this but I've got a lot more energy so so to start off with you need to think about those aspects and also
48:02
all right when I work with my clients we come up with um like a client Avatar and
48:07
I always like have our Muse so if you think about who you're talking to somebody you'd love to work with and
48:12
have that person in mind whenever you should create photos or share photos on your website um and then so like the horizontal
48:19
vertical ones for some of the about me pages and some it's some detail shots so you know get your the self-timer set up
48:26
have pictures of you working what your whatever it is you do and it doesn't have to be the laptop you know it can be
48:32
if you're a florist you're doing something to a cake maker if you're if you're a coach it might be something
48:37
else you know make doing podcasts if you do Zoom calls and those are sort of things you can use on your about me page
48:43
and if not like your contact page have a photos of yourself on the contact page you know looking approachable and you
48:51
know easy to talk to uh that could that could be a sort of like a something that's more light-hearted or informal
48:57
but it's just having something all the way through and your sales page if people have gone through your home page
49:03
and they got your sales page and then their route so they're really you know you want people to really suffer think about working with you then obviously I
49:10
think you need to have quite the images there quite important as well so again if you're a service based business it's
49:16
important that they feel you get approachable type of photos and again depend on the format you might still
49:22
have a header on my page I've got like I still got a header image um and another page I've got like a
49:28
block of color with a portrait image in so it depends on what your your setup is
49:33
but again it's that every page pictures of yourself um and making yourself relatable but
49:39
thinking about you know the background the lighting you don't want Moody lighting if you're trying to get people
49:46
you know you've got a light easy going brand so it's the same
49:51
product photography so it's all those kinds of things but you can it's so much you can read online now um there's brilliant books on branding a
49:58
few and Hamilton is a brilliant person to go to for that but yeah read up about
50:03
branding and the sort of images to use as well and come up with words so you have what I do is when I go through
50:10
um branding with people we come up with words and we see if there's pictures that they we've taken and that they're
50:16
going to use match the words so again like we said mentioned earlier if you've got warmth energy
50:21
um so exciting if something is exciting if you're a exciting brand and all the colors and things like that go with that
50:27
and then some people might have like luxury calm easeful so it's just those
50:32
sort of words will always be in the back of your mind with everything you put on your website does that sort of like the sort of thing
50:38
you think yeah absolutely I think that's all really really helpful information for somebody who's just getting started
50:44
yes and I think there's obviously the technicals that can be Googled as well like how to get good light
50:51
all those kinds of things um that are obviously important too
50:56
um yeah I know what a challenge like I've
51:01
been doing my business and I'd say overall I have I'm pretty good at being really consistent with my brand however
51:08
um and I've chosen burgundy because I love it I wear it every day however I again in my plenty calls I was unpacking
51:15
a thing that has been affecting my business and my money and it's this idea
51:20
that I sort of have conformed moving cultures
51:26
and I've quite I've made myself quieter I'm moving cultures and so one of the
51:32
things that I've my entire life defined myself by is to I'm just a loud person
51:37
and loud except for I realize that very few people know that about me
51:43
um because my brand doesn't really convey it um because
51:50
I and that's something I'm learning to adjust and unpack and and such but I think for a long time I made my brand a
51:56
little like a little too somber and so that's why you'll see I updated my website at the start of the year and it's got
52:02
more um script fonts because to help balance my sort of dark somber colors that I
52:10
love um and I do tend to wear dark somber colors and I think it's because my hair's so bright
52:19
um and also because I'm pasting and bright colors can do funny things to me to me but um
52:24
but yeah so there's it's what we're saying is there's no perfection in any of this
52:30
um I've designed websites I've had a couple fantastic brand photo shoots done I've
52:37
made mistakes in both of them um I've learned from both of them I have
52:42
made mistakes in my brand as well um and my storytelling not only all of
52:47
that even taking the word mistakes out of it these things have evolved for me over time as well my personality the
52:54
services I offer what I want my business to be achieving for me who I want to work with these things have evolved as
53:00
well so I guess I'm trying to say all this to like take the pressure off of getting things perfect yeah I think what we need to
53:07
bear in mind is it's we're making this business work for ourselves yeah I think that's the thing
53:12
we have to think about all the time is just you know we don't don't let the business control us we are creating this
53:19
so we can have the kind of life we want and it's no it's this yeah take the pressure off as you say let it things
53:25
happen evolve and let things happen naturally and gradually um and you do you do change things you
53:31
know people change their brands sometimes they sometimes you know to go for an angle of their businesses and
53:37
that's just all part of what you learn when especially when you're setting up you know it's um yeah I think that's
53:43
what makes it exciting that's what makes it motive you know motivates you doesn't it because you think well I don't know where this is going to go but I'm going
53:49
to try this out and yeah and there's no getting stuck like even big big big Brands pivot they redesign their logos
53:56
they change their names like it's there's no there's no pressure that way yeah I think
54:06
try and stop myself from changing my branding because we take around with this like no I think
54:13
every about every other week I just find another script font that I'm like that one would go really well and then I'm
54:18
like no I'm sticking but I think the other thing is that I
54:24
love to be unique a little bit and so I find that the more popular my script
54:31
font has become the more I want to change it and it's so popular that my laundry basket we our laundry basket
54:38
broke a couple weeks ago and we had to buy a new laundry basket and the we wanted a really sturdy one so I got a
54:43
metal one and it has like a a liner and the liner on it as it says laundry
54:49
and that's in my phone I was like that's my brand fault
54:55
that's my script that's my accent font um but yeah it happens and someday maybe
55:02
I will change it but for now I've read a lot of consistency with it and I think I'm not I'm not ready yes yeah I know
55:11
thank you so much for coming on and sharing your wisdom a brow photography and storytelling and the
55:19
strategy and kind of the um technicality behind some of these things
55:25
as well um can you tell everyone where they can find you oh well yeah
55:30
um so uh Karen flower photography um it's my website and it's Karen flower
55:36
photography on Insta and I think it's the same one in LinkedIn as well I don't really hang out on Twitter I've just
55:42
joined this word sorry um but yeah I'm just but Twitter was good at the
55:48
beginning if you're starting out a business Twitter and threads are quite good because it takes the pressure off you you can just have conversations and
55:55
that that helped me a lot when I first started my business um obviously Instagram is a lot takes a lot more thought and work
56:02
um some days but um yes so camera flower photography everywhere if you put that
56:07
to Google that would be that's what will come up she does come up
56:13
I don't know what I put it in there for just a few minutes ago I put it in I think I was trying to copy your URL for
56:19
something and um and I was like there she is you're very easy to find which is good
56:26
news that's a good talking to you oh yes thank you so much for coming on yeah and
56:33
do watch the rest of your series because there's some brilliant articles on there as well in chats So yeah thank you thank
56:38
you all right bye everyone we'll talk soon see you next time bye.
