Personal Brand Photography For Neurodivergent Business Owners

A case study with an autistic coach:

Are you a neurodivergent business owner afraid of booking a personal brand shoot? Getting a brand shoot can be overwhelming at the best of times, but when you add in autism, ADHD, AuDHD with sensory sensitivities, RSD, indecisiveness, and worries about being misunderstood, it can seem unachievable.

A few months ago I had a brand shoot with Alicja Nocon in central London. Alicja is professional coach and mentor and works with late-diagnosed autistic / AuDHD professionals to help them succeed in their careers on their own terms. Alicja’s work is influenced by her own late-life autism diagnosis.  You can find out more about her work here: Expand the Circle

I caught up with Alicja to chat about her experience of working with me, why she chose me as her brand photographer, what her specific needs were, and how she found the whole experience. Here’s what Alicja had to say:

Why did you decide to book a brand shoot for your coaching business?

I was conducting a business strategy audit with my mentor. It soon became clear that I could make a big difference to my website by simply upgrading an amateurish picture from a neurodiversity panel event  with a more professional one. That’s when I realised that I had a talk booked at a law firm in the city of London (meaning likely to be a lovely space!) in a couple of weeks and it would be an amazing opportunity to get some professional pictures from the event – if only I could find someone I could trust – and that’s when I got in touch with you!

What attracted you to working with me?

I’m easily overwhelmed by choice so I reached out to my coaching peer group and asked for recommendations. As a result, I ended up with a shortlist of 4-6 London-based photographers. I looked at their websites but found that yours reflected my business values and what I was looking for the most! Here’s why… 

1. Your offer is very clear with transparent pricing. I felt much more confident about contacting you knowing that your fees were within my budget – there’s nothing more awkward (for both parties) than having a nice chat with a potential supplier during an introductory session and then realising that you’re not compatible fee-wise.
2. Unlike many other photographers whose website showed corporate headshots and listed big corporate names, your website spoke TO ME – a female solopreneur looking for brand pictures that reflect me and my business. 
3. I browsed through the pictures you took for your clients and loved how natural they all looked. It felt like the pictures you took for each of your clients were unique – no cookie cutter approach here. That aspect in particular was very important to me.

What were you hoping to achieve from the brand photoshoot?

I was looking for a set of photographs to complement my website, building on the total website overhaul and brand refresh I did in 2023. I wanted the photos to be aligned with my brand colours and brand values while also ensuring they appeal to my target audience, that is autistic, ADHD and AuDHD adults. 

Many autistic people find eye contact uncomfortable – they find it overwhelming (too much information), threatening or just awkward. Similarly, autistic body language is often different because of differences in sensory processing. For example, I tend to sit crossed-legged when I’m working or lying down on my tummy when I’m reading and I often play with a fidget toy in my hands when speaking – all of these help me find my position in space and stay calm and grounded. I really wanted these aspects of different, but equally valid, ways of being and interacting with the world to be represented in the final pictures.

What were you most afraid of when looking for a personal brand photographer?

My biggest worry was that you wouldn’t understand what I was looking for. For example, I could find very few pictures online of “no direct eye contact” headshots or adults using fidget toys (also known as “stimming”) – an important part of neurodivergent expression and creativity. So yes, I was worried that my ideas would be lost in translation.

Even more importantly though, I was worried that you would tell me that what I wanted wasn’t in line with the norm or the latest industry trend. 

Luckily, both these fears were very much unsubstantiated!

How did you find the process?

I will be totally honest – I felt rather nervous at first but having our first Zoom meeting calmed me down. I appreciated your enthusiastic yet grounded presence and I really felt like you were keen to understand me as a person and what I wanted, but also needed, for my business to attract my target audience.

Communication: I thought you were really easy to talk to and to reach out to. We started our communication via email and soon moved onto Whatsapp and I found it really helpful – I can often get lost in the sea of emails. You were very clear throughout in terms of the requirements (eg what to bring for the photoshoot) and timescales (eg how long it will take you to process the pictures).

Clarity: I really appreciated you creating a Pinterest board based on our initial chat, I thought it worked really well. It enabled me to literally see what the end-product might look like and made it easier to communicate what I wanted – and didn’t want! 

Co-creation: During the photoshoot you kept on sharing the pictures you’ve taken so far. This meant that I was able to share, then and there, what I liked or didn’t like about the shots taken so far. On one hand this meant that I knew what we had already but also it informed the next shots, in terms of the angles, locations, clothing.

Creativity: I loved that you were very happy to experiment with different shots and locations, it added an element of fun to the process. The photoshoot didn’t feel like work to me – just two lovely women having a lot of fun with the camera!

Choice: The final product consisted of a package of 25 pictures. I loved how you shared the entire photo gallery with me and allowed me to choose the final pictures. I enjoyed the process and felt more in control of it too.

How do you feel about the final photos?

I love the final photos, they’re exactly what I had in mind – and more than that. When we started working together I had a broad idea of what I wanted and you’ve been able to deliver on that. But even more so, you’ve also offered your ideas and together we created a photo deck I’m very proud of and that is versatile, tailored to my audience (individuals vs corporates), service (coaching vs speaking) and promotion materials (main website vs blog posts / leaflets / pitch decks). The pictures very much capture who I am as a person as well as my business values. 

Here is a selection of my favourite personal brand photos from the shoot, with a bit of an explanation of how they represent me and my neurodivergent coaching business:

Headshots:

I absolutely love this headshot. I’m not looking straight into the camera and yet come across as warm and quirky. It also doesn’t feel fake or forced. I’ve been using this headshot everywhere I can – from my website to Zoom and LinkedIn.

I also wanted a more neuronormative,  corporate picture that I could use when pitching work to organisations interested in having me as a neurodiversity speaker for World Autism Acceptance Week or Neurodiversity Celebration Week.

With a coaching client:

All the credit for a set of pictures with a client goes to you, Sarah – and I’m so pleased that you suggested that I incorporate a set of pictures with a coaching client into our afternoon photoshoot. I’ve been using a variation of this shot on my coaching webpage and I love how it shows what coaching with me would be like – relaxed, friendly and enjoyable!

Presenting:

I ended up choosing about half a dozen pictures from the presentation itself – in fact, I really struggled to choose only so few, there were so many great shots! I love how I come across as natural and yet an expert, able to captivate the audience. I also love the backdrop of natural light – there’s an element of spaciousness in this picture that aligns with my brand values.

Background shots:

I think it will be fair to say that it’s our favourite picture from the photoshoot! I’ve ended up selecting several pictures like this where I’m not in the foreground, representing me finding peace in a busy, noisy world – with the aid of noise-cancelling headphones, fidget toys or the sunflower lanyard. I’ve used these pictures mainly on my blog posts and feedback forms.

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