I wanna welcome you back to another special episode of the Invest in Yourself, the Digital Entrepreneur podcast for the BrandUp Summit. Today, we have an amazing entrepreneur that I'm very excited to speak with. She's a little nervous, which is why I'm doing a bit of a longer intro to get her a little less nervous here. I have, Elena here, and she's gonna be talking to us about her brand, her her brand and what she's doing. So we're gonna start off with, can you give me a bit about yourself, Elena, so my audience can know some some info about you? Just 30 seconds. Nothing too long. Nothing too stressful.

Hello. My name is Alina, and I'm a portrait photographer. I work in 2 genres. 1 is fine art portraits for families and children, and the other one is personal branding for entrepreneurs and businesses, coaches.

I love it. So we're gonna jump straight into it because I'm I'm interested. What inspired you to start your brand, and what was your initial vision for your brand?

Transformation, like, a visual transformation is something with that always inspired me. And it started, with children when I, saw them grow through my lens. So they come families come with newborns and they grow. And years passed and they see how they become that beautiful human beings from little

Little little potatoes, if you will. Yeah.

And then when I started to work with my personal branding clients, there was as well a transformation, but, not their age transformation.

It wasn't a growth transformation. It was more of a personal transformation.

Yeah. Like a business transformation and their journey as well. So I really love to showcase the journey of my personal branding clients.

I love that. And you you're you have an excellent opportunity because you you're freezing moments in time with your photography. So you on they they can see how they were when they were just started to when they're finishing up with you, and they can see that growth, that transformation, as you said. And I think that's very important for, business owners to have and just to know, and they can see that transformation, that growth, and that, become a superpower with your your photography because that's what photography does. That branding, it makes you more solidified as the superhero of your brand. I wanna know because, obviously, English isn't your first language, and you're doing amazing, by the way.

Oh, thank you.

You're you're supreme. I don't know why you were nervous. Apart from a language barrier, what other challenges did you face in the early stages of building your brand and, your business? And how did you overcome some of those?

To be honest, the biggest challenge was self doubt and imposter syndrome. But I continue to work on that, and I participated in exhibitions and applied for different photographer related

Grants, contests.

Yeah. Contests. Yeah. Thank you. You're very welcome. And I got my accreditation, so that helped. And, also, when I saw my clients succeed because of my work as a part of that, it it also helps a lot. So I kind of celebrate their wins with them.

Yeah. And the other challenge is networking. So, I'm an introverted person, and it's very difficult for me to go networking, but it's necessary.

Yes. I I I can feel the nerves, and I have to say, you're doing a wonderful job. You're awesome. Your energy is enlightening enlightening. Sorry. You think a podcaster would know how to speak. But your energy is enlightening. I love it.