Your profile picture is telling your story, whether you meant it or not.
After three million years of socializing, we know how to read a face. We take expression, color, clothes, light, sincerity and irony, clarity and uncertainty, etc… and turn it into a story.
“This person is warm.”
“This person is funny.”
“This person is confident.”
A good picture showcases one of those. A great one shows several. The best make it look effortless.
You can’t outrun this. How you present online, like IRL, makes an impression. What you’re like and how much you care about shaping that impression. Authentic camera connection becomes authentic viewer connection. Awkward smiles in unflattering light tell strangers you’re awkward and shut down. If that’s your jam, break out the front camera, my friend, because the bar is low.
But most of us want to own our story.
We’re tired of being misread, miscategorized, written-off, and misunderstood. It costs us business, jobs, even dates. It’s exhausting never seeing yourself the way you see yourself.
So how do you change it? Work with someone who can shape expression, color, clothes, and light. Not just a technician, but someone who uses all that to tell your story. To let you shine through.
That’s authenticity.
It’s what stops the scroll.