What you need. Timeless expressions for effective headshots. I was not trying to match the Mona Lisa, but we make high marketing, right expression, top 1% images every day. I just pulled this un-retouched headshot of Stephanie from my files. Notice the similarities of the expressions.

EXPERIENCE OUR HEADSHOTS THAT UPGRADE YOUR FUTURE.

A proper professional headshot does not just fill a spot on a form, or a website, or a business card. Studies prove a headshot always evokes a reaction, and that a headshot is one of the most powerful marketing tools there is, and positively awesome - WHEN DONE RIGHT.

A Headshot has Two Great Powers:

        1. A proper headshot can immediately build a bridge of engagement where people see you, want to work with you, and connect with you. These rare headshots upgrade and jump-start your best relationship and financial future. 

                   o A famous portrait is the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, painted in 1503, and it has that awesome connecting face. Its power is so great it has drawn and amazed people for centuries. People never get tired of looking at it. Now that is the kind of marketing headshot you want!

        2. In the first few milliseconds of viewing a poor headshot it repels, where the viewer immediately looks away, and looks for other answers, puts your image out of their mind, and forgets your name. And this from what many would consider an OK or even a good headshot. The only thing worse is no headshot at all.

The First Type of Effective Headshot is Extremely Rare. 

They are found by random chance in some photography, even production pictures such as school or corporate staff pictures. Literally, one in a million.

Or intentionally created by those who produce actor headshots, and their skills are tested and proved daily in the cruel world of casting directors and audition submittals. Effective headshots result in constant calls for auditions. Ineffective ones are where the phone rarely rings. Few headshots are tested daily to such rigors. For realtors, you just never know unless your phone rings less. But if you never had an effective headshot, you will think it is normal.

The second type of headshot, the prospect-repellers, in all their various forms, are those most commonly found everywhere, including the real estate industry.

People see a proper and effective headshot with that extremely rare confidence and approachability by our coaching. They want to meet you, work with you, and call you. This is the power of our compelling headshots for you.

A typical review during my headshot and commercial photography sessions: "The difference between the other “pro” headshots I had and yours is remarkable!" The power is in the expressions we create together.

I create headshots that get Actors jobs, and I put that know-how into your realtor headshots. The result for you is more business and opportunity success. 

Look, an actor or model’s headshot has about 5 seconds to win the casting director for an interview. If that headshot does not grab them in the first few milliseconds, that opportunity is lost. 

If the headshot grabs the director, then the person has a shot at the interview. The headshot has done its job, and the next steps are up to the person, but at least they get the call. It is exactly the same when anyone sees your headshot. If it does not engage the viewer, they move on and you never know it. But if it engages the viewer, you are on your way! This is our expertise for you. This is the power of a top 1% headshot.

More Than One Smile

We human can discern every aspect of the human face, and are scanning continually to determine if we are in danger or what our next action should be. The expressions of the lips range from a frown with the lips curved down to a wide toothy grin with lots of teeth showing and the lips curved up. For marketing purposes, to capture attention in a positive way, or to set a viewer at ease when you are selling, the effective smiles are limited to only a few. We will describe these ranges of smiles to produce compelling, high-lookability headshots.

I’D LOVE TO HELP YOU. 

One of my greatest joys is the laughter and tears of both men and women as they see their headshot during our sessions. See the home page at my website for some of these reviews. www.DonMannPhotography.com

Our compelling, marketing headshots are custom-tailored to you and your objectives.

At Don Mann Photography your final digital images are ready for Professional use, LinkedIn profile, Social media, Website, Portfolio, Advertising and Marketing.

See our images at www.DonMannPhotography.com

Dos and Don’ts for a Real Estate Headshot That Works For You 24x7

Do: Look Your Best in Your Real Estate Headshot

Your real estate headshot should look like you on a good day. That means that you should do your hair and makeup with extra care, but definitely don’t go overboard. You don’t want to look fake in your real-estate agent headshot. If a prospective client meets you after seeing your headshot, and you look like a totally different person, this will break their trust, and could drive them away from doing business with you. 

Aim for a polished and professional look in your real estate headshot. Consider wearing a blazer, tailored dress, or suit in your photo. Even if you aren’t formal on a day-to-day basis, business professional clothes are ideal for real estate agent headshots. 

Just remember, your professional headshot isn’t a glamour shot. Your headshot is about presenting yourself as an approachable, reliable and trustworthy real estate agent. It is not selling your clothes, your jewelry, your make-up, or your hair, but you! And what you are selling is your ability to work with them, solve their problems, and for them to have fun doing it.

This smile gets its name from the Pan Am flight attendants, who were required to keep smiling, even when customers and circumstances made them want to throw peanut packets across the cabin. Widely regarded as forced and fake, the Pan Am smile is extreme with lots of teeth showing.

Studies show that when people are posing, they use extra effort to yank on their zygomaticus major muscle running vertically on each side of the face. As a result, the corners of the mouth are extra high, and more of the teeth are exposed. If a posed smile is asymmetrical, the left side of the mouth will be higher than the right side. 

The result is the classic forced smile made infamous by Pan Am flight attendants. Pan Am Airlines closed in 1991, but that insincere smile still lives on in multitudes of cell phone shots. And repels real estate prospects by the droves daily.

This smile has its roots in fear, and invokes fear in those who see it. It means untrustworthy and difficult to work with. It is the last smile a real estate agent should make, yet seems to be a standard in the industry.

Right Next to the Pan Am Smile is the Diva Smile:

Here the Diva smile is the mouth only, usually with a bigger, toothy smile than the Pan Am smile. According to experts like Barbara and Allen Pease ( The Definitive Book of Body Language ) a white toothy smile shows a fear response. If it has no connection to the eyes, it is read as fake immediately. Seen often in magazines and on television, and in real estate marketing. Fear is most easily transmitted to others. This puts fear-avoidance into the mind of the viewer as they look at your headshot, making them to turn away and avoid you.

The Diva smile invokes insecure and untrustworthy feelings. When seen on a yard real estate sign, where you see the face surrounding a big white toothy grin, repels most prospects, yet many prize this look in ignorance. Without the eye involvement it looks more like an animal baring it teeth to scare you away. How can this possibly draw prospects and opportunities to you? It repels them.

If you’re one of the nearly 13.8 million people employed in the sales industry, or if your job requires you to interact regularly with the public, you might want to reconsider relentlessly deploying the Pan Am or Diva smile, as it could affect your health, not to mention your income. It repels people, instills fear and anger whether in person or on the phone. And of course builds your own stress levels. Killing you daily! That is no way to grow a business.

A recent study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that people who have to fake happiness regularly at work often end up drinking often, or using other debilitating drugs, to hide the stress after they clock out.

The Grimace Smile

There are two major kinds of grimace smiles. The first is the forced smile seen above, with just the mouth involved, but not the eyes. 

There are days when you are in no mood to smile, and yet the situation requires you to present a smiling face. Or someone cracks a not-so-amusing joke, and expects, if not your laugh, then at least a smile. The soulless smile that you then flash is the forced smile. While your lips try to look happy and smiling, your eyes betray you are not.

Usually the grimace smile is straight across, teeth exposed in fear, but the cheeks are not identical. There is no eye involvement. And you look like you are, at best, in pain.

The second is an authentic smile where both the mouth and eyes are involved. While still an authentic smile, for most marketing purposes, it is too strong and not comfortable to business prospects. It is too eager and makes the viewer wary as to what is going to happen next. With all those showing teeth straight across, the grimace is still a fear-based smile. An approachable smile needs the corners of the lips to be upturned and the cheeks upraised.

Do: Think Happy Thoughts for Your Real Estate Headshot, and Never Just Say “Cheese,” "Yes," "Yippee," or “Jubilee.”

Did you know that the right smile can make you appear more trustworthy? In your real estate headshot, don’t be afraid to give a tiny smile to the camera. If you can laugh and bring a real smile to your face, prospective clients will be able to sense the authenticity in the photo. 

Ultimately, that means they’ll see you as trustworthy and someone they would want to work with. But don’t take the picture at the peak of the smile, but just before it fades away. This is the approachable smile you want in your headshots.

Business and Social Media Headshots

An effective business headshot is not a selling, dating or social media headshot, but can be similar. While explaining the differences can take time, we humans can spot them almost instantly. The dating, social media, authentic smile will include showing some teeth, while the business smile will have curved lips with little or no teeth showing. Both will involve the eyes and cheeks. 

To put it simply, a business invitation smile is less, and more reserved than a social media smile. We typically make a range of smiles for our clients so they can pick their favorites. Some for business, the others, are with more teeth showing, for social media.

In a business situation (such as a seller listing with you, selecting a marketing agency, a job interview, or a casting director going through a pile of candidate headshots) there is fear or extreme risk on the decision maker’s view. They have to choose right, or it will cost them.

Who they go with, or choose for the next step, is a serious decision, and if wrong it could haunt them for a long time, and involves risk in money and peace of mind. For many home owners buying or selling their home can be a financial life decision full of fears and concerns. This is offset by the potential for the right decision to improve significantly your financial condition and life happiness.

In a social situation this kind of stress is usually not there, such as viewing profiles on Facebook, etc. In these situations beauty and attractiveness are perhaps more important, but not business trust and competence. There may be other stresses, but usually not a lot of money at risk, or your reputation with others, much less your personal self-esteem as in business situations such as picking a buying agent or a listing realtor.

There is a service at photofeeler.com that claims to rank profile pictures, but the voters are not in critical business situations. Their results may be useful for social situations, but almost useless and counterproductive for critical business issues.

The focus of a social media smile is toward the one doing the smiling and not the viewer. A big toothy smile says “Look at me,” and not, “I can make a good difference for you, and I like doing it for you.” The focus of a business smile is, “I am approachable, I won’t hurt you, I can help you and solve your problems with skill.” Nothing about this is sharp black and white. it is more a matter of degrees. The issue is, do you want a lesser marketing tool of the social smile, or the higher marketing tool of a commercial business smile? What kind of results do you want? 

If you look at your headshot and say to yourself, "Oh, good, this shows me as pretty/handsome," then reconsider. In business the focus is not you, but the customer. If you look at your headshot and say, "I want that person on my team, they will get it done," you have a high marketing business headshot.

Realtor Comp Card

We see the same difference in modeling. Most model jobs are to sell lifestyle or products, and the image saying, "My life is better because of these things I am selling, so join me and get the benefits." For models we make shots with both kinds of smiles. The confidence and approachable smile saying, "I am good to work with, reliable, trustworthy, friendly and will do the job excellently for you, so pick me for this job." The other images are with the larger, more toothy social media type smile. 

The different smiles are put on what is known as a model comp card so casting directors can see multiple facets of the model. Typically for a comp card, we make images for a top 1%, high-marketing headshot fully on one side, and on the other side with 2-4 different near and far views of the model with social or selling smiles. Just like a professional headshot, making these comp card images takes longer than the typical 3-5 minute production headshot, and requires more skill, and yes, costs more.

This is very similar for realtors. A high marketing business smile to draw prospects, and then social smiles at an open house showing how great this property is. Just like you have different shoes for different purposes, so you should have different images (and attitudes) for different realtor marketing purposes. 

I just got a real estate mailer using these different style images. On the front was an attempt at a business headshot. And on the back was the realtor at an open house situation wearing a bigger social smile. On one side trying to say, "Choose me,  I can do it for you," and on the other side saying, "I can sell your property, just like I am doing here." In essence, this mailer was a real estate comp card to the casting directors, the potential buyers and sellers/clients.

We recommend realtors get 2-4 headshots so you have enough for your business sites and various mailers, along with several for your social media sites. Even more powerful is comp card portraits for selling-type images.

To help you get that genuine smile, think about a funny story or watch stand-up comedy before you have pictures taken for your headshot. Then start laughing. Feel the joy until you believe it, then put on a grin, and start laughing. For many this could include looking at pictures of babies or puppies. This is way beyond saying “cheese” or “jubilee,” which by itself, always looks fake, and repels prospects and opportunities. 

Do: Get An Expression Coach For Your Headshot Sessions

The sad reality is that there are few who know how to coach authentic expressions, so most headshots across all industries repel prospects and opportunities. Just take a few moments to look at most real-estate agency websites or LinkedIn profiles, and see all the door-closing, opportunity repelling headshots. 

Just as in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, and those with a high approachability and confidence headshot will tangibly experience the benefits of a proper professional headshot with compelling expressions – MORE business and MORE personal success.

I’ve seen numerous photographer websites where they talk about confidence and approachable-soaked headshots, yet have none, or few in their portfolios.

Of course at Don Mann Photography creating such door-opening, compelling headshots is our proven skill. And our clients reap the benefits in more business and personal positive results.

The above is maybe a rather large social media smile, but too much for an effective business headshot. The question is, "Are you happy about yourself or will you stretch to take care of me with skill and patience?" The social smile is on the edge of "No" for a business headshot.

Don't: Complicate Things

When it comes to real estate headshots, the simpler the background, the better. Keep your background simple. A simple white, gray or black backdrop inside a studio is always a good choice. If you want something less formal, going outdoors for a real estate headshot can also work, but not nearly as well. It usually puts too much clutter in the background. Such clutter pulls the viewer’s eye away from your face and away from your headshot, which is never good for you.

If you’re outdoors, opt for a simple brick wall or background of solid green trees, and make sure there aren’t distracting patterns, or people in the background of your realtor headshot. Here you want the environment in the background to be out of focus with no discernible patterns, and no bright spots or regions, or lines or features running through your head.

Props are also too distracting for a real estate headshot. Don’t sit at a nick-knack covered desk for your headshot, and don’t hold your pet in your photo. If you want to add personality to your headshot, try wearing your favorite color. Ultimately, you should be the focal point of your real estate agent headshot, so simplicity is key.

Do: Hire a Professional Photographer

Hire a professional headshot photographer to take your real estate headshot. Yes, it might be pricier than asking a friend to take your headshot, but the investment will be worth it. LinkedIn will tell you such headshots run $250-500. Your real estate agent headshot is one of your most valuable marketing tools, which means getting it wrong could drive away prospective clients and make you look unprofessional. Do not be penny wise and pound foolish.

Yes, you can get cheaper shots in a group where you are one of many running through the studio, but authentic, compelling expressions take a little time, which often will not happen in a typical 3-5 minute production headshot.

A professional should have a high-end camera, an understanding of lighting, and a proven portfolio of impressive headshots. Allow them to help direct your stance, the way you style your hair, and even your jewelry, outfit and makeup choices. 

A skilled headshot professional knows exactly how to get an awesome headshot, so splurge a little and let them take the lead. It will be worth it when you have an amazing, high-quality realtor headshot in your hands. Even better is your real business increases.

Look at this shot above on the left, notice how small the face, smile and eyes are compared to the rest of the picture. Want to drive prospects and opportunities to you, use a closer headshot such as above right.

Now the confidence in the eyes is readily seen, and the approachability in the mouth draws prospects and opportunities in. The smile is still too big for a powerful business headshot, but is already better than 99% of those out there.

Remember you are not selling clothes, jewelry, hairstyles, ear rings, dentistry, your teeth or your waist. You are selling you and your best points of internal integrity, trustworthiness and approachability. Don’t waste valuable picture space on distractions that let the eyes wander from you, the real gem in the headshot!

One More Thought on Smiles



We've seen lots of toothy smiles in this article. This includes even the second guy (lots of hair) above this paragraph. The problem is that a big smile in a headshot is not an effective, connecting, sales or marketing smile. It is too needy and fearful. It repels prospects almost immediately. Some slight teeth can be OK. Best is a tiny smile with slightly upturned lips and a squinch in the eyes to show facial involvement. This can be in the arena of a top 1%, high marketing, effective headshot. This is what we see in the guy just above this paragraph.

Don’t: Forget to Do Your Research

You shouldn’t go into a professional photo shoot just hoping for the best. Do not pick the cheapest one you can find. Take a look at other real estate agents' headshots to see ones with high lookability. Scroll through Pinterest, check out your colleagues’ real estate headshots, and do a Google search to look for ideas. Take notes on what outfits, poses, and backgrounds you like best for a portrait. For a true headshot a simple solid background is most effective, and usually requires a studio set-up.

Then, do your research to make sure you find a photographer whose both style and pricing work for you. Before hiring anyone, set up meetings with a few potential photographers to discuss what kind of real estate agent headshot you want. 

You need a photographer who can truly understand your vision for your real estate headshot. If you diligently do your research, you’re far more likely to end up with a headshot you love. 

The Return on Investment (ROI) for a top, 1% headshot is off the charts. A good realtor can make $100,000 to $500,000 per year. If your headshot cost you $2000, over the course of 2 years, the ROI would be between 1% to 0.001%. Nothing competes with this kind of ROI. Then consider it is 100% tax deductible, and the ROI is even greater!

The most expensive way to do it is to go cheap in cost and cheap on skill. It will cost you business and time, and if you ever do find a headshot expert, will cost you even more money and lost opportunities to do it right.

Do: Communicate Your Brand Message

Make sure you’re honest with your photographer about how you want (and don’t want) your real estate headshot to look. You are the representative of your real estate brand, and you need to make sure your headshot reflects what that brand is. 

If your brand is more buttoned up, you know you need to look professional in your headshot. If you’re more fun-loving and use bright colors throughout your brand, you may want to communicate that in your real estate agent headshot by wearing a fun (yet still professional) outfit. 

Consistency is key when it comes to your real estate headshot. Whatever your brand message is, with a little attention to detail, you can definitely communicate it through your headshot. You just have to make sure your photographer knows what your vision is. So speak up, and make sure you get a photo that fits with your brand. 

This "fashionable" headshot may make you and your mom happy, but is it an effective marketing headshot? Based on all the selections people make as evidenced on the Internet, billboards and LinkedIn, more than likely, not.

In the image above notice how the viewer's eyes are drawn to the yellow cabs, and the beam running through the ears of this guy with a nice enough social smile. Also notice that the face is so small in the image. This image does this person little commercial good except his mama may say, "Nice smile." If he was selling a travel image as a model, it's OK, but again the yellow cabs pull the eye away from the face. Bold ties and big jewelry do the same.

Don’t: Keep the Same Real Estate Headshot Forever

Lastly, keep your real estate headshot up-to-date. A photo that is too old will make you appear out of touch and careless, not to mention unprofessional. Remember a business headshot needs to be like you are now. As a general rule, it’s a good idea to update your real estate agent headshot every couple of years. Clients are more likely to trust you if you look just like your real estate headshot, so it’s worth the investment to get a new one(s) when you need it. (Best is annually.)

High-Marketing Realtor Headshot for success. This says you (the viewer) are important and I can get the job done for you the way you want it. It is not about me and about how I feel, but how I can satisfy what you want, showing perfect confidence and approachability.

How do you know it’s time to replace your real estate agent headshot? If your outfit is obviously outdated, your haircut has drastically changed, or your business seems slower than it should, you should get a new, but effective, real estate headshot. Or after reading this article, you suddenly realize you do have an ineffective business headshot.

Headshot photography is a sub-specialty of commercial portrait photography. Commercial means for business purposes. It takes years of practice to become expert at headshots for business. That's why I call them "top 1%" headshots because they are so rare.

So be aware that just because a photographer does weddings, family portraits, commercial, journalistic, fashion, real estate or newborn photography, it doesn’t mean they are proficient in creating high-marketing headshot photography. Compelling headshots are rare in the world of headshot photographers, so view a photographer’s portfolio before you make your selection.

If you are confused, drop me an email, tell me the name and website of who you are considering, and I’ll be glad to chat with you: Don@DonMannPhotography.com.

Now, you’re ready for your headshot! Just remember these dos and don’ts, and you’re sure to get a real estate headshot that will effectively work for you so you will love the business and personal results. 

Be Blessed! 

QUESTIONS?

  Phone: 302 - 561 - 5555 | Email: Info@DonMannPhotography.com | Rates & Booking