Life Coach Branding Photos: Michele Waterman

Brand PhotographyClient SpotlightBay Area
Written By Bernadette Marciniak
 
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal dress. She has glasses and a big smile. To the left is a banner that reads "I love you" repeatedly. There are candles, and a Himalayan salt rock in front of her.

To be honest, Life Coach is such an understatement to who Michele Waterman is.

One of the most courageous humans we’ve ever had the pleasure of working with, Michele guides visionary leaders in the non-profit and B-Corp spaces, helping them cultivate the courage and confidence to create lasting change in themselves and for their businesses.

Because here’s the thing: non-profits ARE still businesses, and the most successful ones realize that and operate with that mindset.

A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket, and is jumping in a puddle. There are big green trees surrounding her.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal sating shirt and khaki pants. She has glasses on. She is speaking to another woman, who is brunette and has a white shirt on.

But Michele is not here to be a hard-ass — she’s also a mental health and disability justice advocate. She speaks her truth and guides her own clients to unearth that same bravery to live authentically.

AUTHENTICITY IN LIFE COACH BRANDING PHOTOS

Authenticity is a big reason Michele approached me when it came to her rebrand.

While her last set of branding photos were very polished and clean, they were heavily retouched and no longer representative of her mission and message.

She was clamoring for visuals that felt real and reflective of what she stands for. Michele is proud of her age and her body in this season in life — she wasn’t too keen on the idea of having doctored visuals that would appeal to some outdated societal expectation of anti-aging and fatphobia.

In that spirit, we opted to do Michele’s brand photo shoot at her home in the Bay Area, which was the truest representation of who Michele is and where she comes from.

We started with some headshots, incorporating a podcast mic as Michele is also the host of a podcast for visionary leaders called Courage Unlocked, and will also be starting a podcast with her daughter later this year.

A SF Bay Area brand photo of a life coach. She is blonde and wearing glasses, a teal shirt and khaki pants. She is next to a young brunette woman who is sitting. There is a podcast microphone and notebook in front of them.
A SF Bay Area brand photo of a life coach. She is blonde and wearing glasses, a teal shirt and khaki pants. She is next to a young brunette woman who is sitting. There is a podcast microphone and notebook in front of them.

We invited some of Michele’s clients and friends to join us for some shots that would illustrate Michele facilitating and leading an intimate workshop or retreat, as she plans on hosting these intimate events in the near future.

These shots also double up as “client interaction” shots, which illustrate Michele working with clients. Even though all of her work is virtual at the current moment, these shots are still great to tell the story + grow into if she does start offering in-person coaching.

A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal sating shirt and khaki pants. She has glasses on. She is speaking to a group of women. There are laptops and notebooks on the table in front of them.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal sweater, white shirt and jeans. She has glasses on. She is speaking to a group of women who are seated on a couch in front of her..
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal sating shirt and khaki pants. She has glasses on. She is speaking to a group of women. There are laptops and notebooks on the table in front of them.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal sweater, white shirt and jeans. She has glasses on. She is speaking to a group of women who are seated on a couch in front of her..
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal sweater, white shirt and jeans. She has glasses on. She is speaking to a group of women who are seated on a couch in front of her..

As a thank you, we grabbed headshots for all the participants who wanted them, which can be used on their social profiles and pitches as well. We also captured headshots for Michele’s kids for them to use in places like their LinkedIn profiles, as they begin job searching after college.

A SF Bay Area branding photo of a blonde woman, wearing a light blue sweater and shirt. She is sitting at a table.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a brunette woman, wearing a white button down shirt. She is sitting at a table.

As we moved to Michele’s desk for some working/laptop photos, some sweet moments happened as her friends got ready to leave. Michele found some baby picture of her children, and some hugs transpired as everyone filtered out after a fun day.

I kept the camera shooting, as your brand photo shoot day is an event in and of itself that deserves to be documented.

A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal dress. She has glasses and a big smile. She is showing a photograph to two other women.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal dress. She has glasses and a big smile. She is working on a laptop. There are candles, and a Himalayan salt rock in front of her.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal dress. She has glasses and a big smile. She is writing in a notebook. There are candles, and a Himalayan salt rock in front of her.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal dress. She has glasses and a big smile. There is a banner in the background that repeatedly says "I love you."
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and wearing a teal dress. She has glasses and a big smile. There is a banner in the background that repeatedly says "I love you."
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach's hands writing in a notebook. There are red tulips in the bottom corner.

We ended the day with some Bay Area family photos, because over here at Solhaus Media, we’re also about getting the biggest bang for your buck, while you build your business & create special memories with those who are closest to you.

We had some fun by the fireplace and then moved outside to skip around in puddles to finish off a beautiful day.

A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket. Her children sit beside her in a peach colored dress and denim jacket, and khaki jacket and jeans respectively.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket. Her children sit beside her in a peach colored dress and denim jacket, and khaki jacket and jeans respectively.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket. Her children sit beside her in a peach colored dress and denim jacket, and khaki jacket and jeans respectively.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket. Her children stand beside her in a peach colored dress and denim jacket, and khaki jacket and jeans respectively.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket. Her children stand beside her in a peach colored dress and denim jacket, and khaki jacket and jeans respectively.
A SF Bay Area branding photo of a life coach. The woman is blonde and is wearing glasses. She is wearing jeans, and a plaid jacket. Her children stand beside her in a peach colored dress and denim jacket, and khaki jacket and jeans respectively.

Speaking of making the most out of your day — Michele booked a full content day with us, so that she could also get a brand video done for her coaching business. We spent the first hour of her shoot recording A-Roll, and then made sure to capture B-Roll in all the scenes we did photos in as well.

The biggest lesson learned?

Go with the flow. We had also originally planned to frolic over to the state park nearby for some nature shots with redwood trees during golden hour.

The hour was not golden, nor dry enough that day unfortunately, so we ended a little earlier than planned and rescheduled that portion of the shoot to a later date. While your shoot may not go completely according to plan, it’s important to remember that we can only control what we can control (and, shameless plug, to work with a photographer who’s flexible.)

Want to get photos like these for your business? Click below to schedule a call to talk about how Solhaus Media can work with you to create powerful and authentic imagery.

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MEET BERNADETTE

A of Los Angeles brand photographer Bernadette Marciniak, a blonde woman in a yellow shirt holding a camera. She is standing in front of a wall of pink flowers.

Hi! I’m Bernadette Marciniak, founder of Solhaus Media, a woman-owned brand photography and video production company. We work with coaches, healers, podcast hosts, educators and creative business owners to create powerful imagery that converts audiences into clients.

Bernadette is a cat mom of two, who loves good pizza, craft beer and red wine. She’s usually bingeing on the hottest new true crime documentary, or finding solace in the upteenth repeat of Ted Lasso or Friends.

Solhaus Media is based in Los Angeles, the SF Bay Area, and New York City.

 
Bernadette Marciniak

Personal brand photographer for entrepreneurs who inspire & innovate

https://www.bernadettemarciniak.com
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