For a long time, I thought my job was to create a great photograph of someone.
And yes, technically, that is still part of what I do.
But somewhere along the way, I became much more interested in what happens after I take the picture.
I kept seeing people I knew were incredibly accomplished, interesting, and good at what they did, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it from looking at them online.
I wanted to understand why.
After years behind the camera, I had become fascinated by the tiny cues that change how we perceive someone.
Expression. Posture. Eye contact. Clothing. Environment. Even how polished an image feels.
Change one of those things and the person hasn’t changed at all.
But our perception of them can.
That fascinated me.
So I started going deeper into human behavior, first impressions, and subconscious cues.
Why does one expression make someone seem more approachable?
Why can another make an incredibly warm person appear intimidating?
Why can someone look successful in a photograph, but not necessarily like the person you would trust to solve a complicated problem?
Why can an image be beautiful and still feel completely wrong?
And then my curiosity moved beyond the photograph.
Because today, people aren’t forming an impression of you from one image.
They are seeing your LinkedIn profile. Your website. Your bio. Your social presence. Your speaking page. Your photographs. Maybe an interview, article or podcast.
And their brain is putting all of those pieces together.
Often before you ever enter the conversation.
That changed the question for me.
Instead of asking, “Is this a good picture?”
I became much more interested in asking:
What is this teaching someone to believe about you?
And does that belief reflect who you actually are, what you have accomplished and what you want to be known for?
That curiosity eventually became Authority Image Architecture.
It is built around an idea I have come to believe deeply:
Design the subconscious cues that shape first impressions.
Not manipulate them.
Not manufacture a version of yourself that isn’t real.
Become more intentional about whether the cues people are receiving actually align with the person behind them.
And that led me to build the Authority Image Audit™.
The Audit looks beyond whether you have a “good headshot” and begins examining the signals across your online presence.
Because you can have a beautiful photograph and still be communicating the wrong thing.
You can look polished and lose approachability.
You can look approachable and unintentionally diminish authority.
You can have twenty years of experience and an online presence that somehow makes you look like you are still trying to establish it.
You can even have all the right pieces individually and still have them tell different stories when someone sees them together.
That’s what I want people to become curious about.
Not:
Do I look good online?
But:
What are my subconscious cues communicating before I ever get the chance to speak?
That’s why I created the Authority Image Audit.
It gives you a chance to see your online presence through a different lens, discover what you may be signaling and decide what you actually want to communicate.
Because people are forming an impression before you ever enter the conversation.
You might as well understand what is helping form it.
And yes, I still create pretty pictures.
But is that really what you hired me to do?
Now I’m curious about yours.
Take the free Authority Image Audit™ and see what your online presence may be signaling before you ever enter the conversation. It takes less than a minute.
Originally published on LinkedIn.
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