Sandy Grigsby: Personal Branding Image Expert and Founder of Briofive

One of the most authentic branding visionaries of modern time, Sandy Grigsby, has been working with celebrities, politicians, best-selling authors and industry giants for over 15 years launching their personal brands. As an actress and model, she draws from her own experience and is able to help her clients gain confidence, as well as visual sensibility.

I personally learned a lot from her during the short conversation. Like a supernova, a powerful luminous stellar explosion, she emits the same energy into a single instance that the sun will generate in over 1 million years. She gets to know her clients both inside and out and examines every single facet of their existence in order to help them succeed…

I want to start with a kind of a weird question. I want to know what the difference, if there is a difference, between branding someone in business and someone that’s a celebrity in the entertainment field?

It all depends on the goal and outcome – that’s what people don’t really consider. When people look at celebrities and how they’re branded, all they see is a status, since these celebrities will do things for shock value to get their names out there. However, in business, it’s dependent on the outcome that the person wants. For example, I work with a lot of entrepreneurs, and they all have different outcomes in mind. Some are interested in becoming speakers, so they’ll focus on speaking on stages. Others are in the process of launching a book, which means the focus will be on increasing their following. This is also why it is important to know the purpose and reasoning as to why they want to brand themselves. On the other hand, with celebrities, their focus is on the next big thing. They’ll brand themselves in a way to get that next movie role or that next project. Celebrities want to be seen and they want to be televised – they’re doing things loudly. 

So, you would use different techniques I’m assuming?

Exactly, and that’s what people don’t realize. A lot of my clients say they don’t want to be a celebrity, they also don’t want people rushing up to them for autographs and they don’t want to be photographed by the media. That’s when I advise them that they don’t need to be a celebrity, but they do need to be very strategic on the way they brand themselves. It all comes down to their focus and they need to be very specific. Some key things to consider include:

• Are you branding yourself as someone who is actively chasing a business? 
• Are you branding yourself as someone who is an innovator? 
• Are you looking to be someone who is followed because of your knowledge? 

I will brand my clients differently, depending on their desired outcome. Currently, I’m working with an entrepreneur who has a multi-million-dollar tech company who also works with huge Fortune 500 companies. This client doesn’t want to be involved in the public eye and he also doesn’t want to be an influencer with millions of fans. He’s not interested in writing a book or speaking on stage. Instead, he wants to leave behind a legacy and start new businesses. His brand is very important because if someone were to look him up, they need to see him as someone who is innovative and focused on the next big thing. This could lead to people wanting to invest in him, the technology, and the companies he’s started. That’s why the branding process with him is different from someone who wants to improve their following on social media. 

Let’s say you went through all this trouble to hypothetically brand someone, then all of a sudden, they say, “Wait a minute! We want to be branded in another way.” Do you want to kill them, or do you just start all over?

No, that’s never happened!

I do my best to bring out the best in that person. I’m not going to brand a client in a certain way if it doesn’t resonate or connect with them. This will only lead to the person changing their mind and they’ll be very unhappy with my services. Instead, in the beginning, I do my best to understand the person and who they are. I learn everything about them, including their fears, what they love and their inspirations. I also look at their style, how they dress and where they live. Once I learn those things, then it becomes easy for me to use that information and create a brand that’s going to work well for them. Ultimately, it is all about authenticity and making the client feel seen and understood. 

My process and work are different from the way that other people brand. Others in the same space will take a more superficial route that ultimately, doesn’t connect with their client. I also work on confidence building. Through this, I help develop and improve the person’s confidence in all aspects because everyone somewhere is a little bit low on confidence. And this is different for everyone. For example, some multi-millionaires that I’ve worked with are successful but they’re not confident in the dating scene. That’s when I step in and help them build confidence so that they come across more holistically confident, which bleeds into every aspect of their brand. 

This is very interesting to me because I work with celebrities all the time and every celebrity, I work with is really like a 5 year-old looking for approval.

That’s it. That goes exactly into what I’m talking about! When you lack confidence, you become like a 5-year, old who is looking for approval. I think Oprah also mentioned how even her most high-profile interviews ask her, “Did I do okay?”. They’re always seeking for that approval. However, if you’re fully confident in yourself, then you don’t need that approval. This is why I try to dig and see where it is that a client has low confidence in. Then, I help build that up so they can move forward, be stronger and more powerful than ever. Not only that, but they’ll no longer need the approval from other people. 

What sparked your interest in branding and marketing?

It was all an accident! When I was in University, I studied communications and international relations to get into television broadcasting and work as a foreign correspondent. However, I realized I didn’t love that space and I was only doing it to please my father. I really loved art, so I went against dad, studied graphic design, and I received a degree in visual communications. Upon graduation, I worked for a very high-profile celebrity photographer in Los Angeles whose clients were all well-known celebrities (Carmen Electra and Carl Lewis to name a few). During my time with that photographer, I designed websites for these celebrities. 

However, when I first started out, personal branding wasn’t a thing. Accidentally enough, I ended up doing personal branding websites without even realizing it. As the years progressed, I stopped working with this photographer due to unwanted advances. After that situation, I went on to create my own company, Briofive in 2005. At the time, I didn’t realize that the company name, Brio, meant confidence. Some of my clientele included retail shop owners, entrepreneurs, and small businesses. There, I helped them with their websites and focused on them being the business because people hire people not businesses. That eventually turned into personal branding, and it happened as a natural progression. 

So, what is personal-branding photography? 

Personal branding photography is a type of photography that brings out the best in the individual and their brand – in order to represent them properly so they can build trust with their audience. When I work with my clients, I work to understand the way that they dress because that is authentic to who they are. 

Through my work, I teach people how to create a look that’s unique to them, and something that they’ll instinctually love and will be able to duplicate. In the photo session, I take pictures of my clients in the dress style, hairstyle and makeup that feels true to them – that’s personal branding photography.  It is also photography that tells a compelling story about the person and who they are. 

Is there anything that I didn’t cover that you might want to talk about?

One thing that would be nice for people to understand is the difference between a personal brand and personal branding because many confuse the two. 

Also, I would like for people to understand why confidence is so important.

First of all, your personal brand is everything available about you, it’s what you share and what others say. This includes everything you create, like a website, or if you post stuff on social media/blogs. Really, it’s anything discoverable about you and what other people are saying. 

As for personal branding, it is the narrative that you create to tell a compelling story. You do some form of personal branding when you participate in a personal branding photo session or when you write a blog. You’re also doing personal branding when you update your LinkedIn profile and when you create videos for TikTok. 

Going back to confidence and why it is so important, it’s because people tend to hide their personal brands. They don’t have the confidence to write a bio and publish it. They also don’t have the confidence to write articles or post on social media. This also stems from feeling unsure about what you’re doing or because some might feel that they’re not pretty enough. However, if someone were to Google you and find nothing, they might end up with a negative impression of you because they’ll think you have nothing going on. So having the confidence to put yourself out there is the key element to powerful personal branding, and building trust and credibility for your personal brand!