Every founder and leader who sits for me carries a story other people already told wrong. My work is building the images that let her tell it correctly. This is the story that came out when Keri-Lynne and I sat down to talk about money, women’s leadership, and what it actually takes to brand your own empowerment.
Keri-Lynne Shaw spent 30 years inside global companies, the last stretch as a Chief People Officer at BMW. She had a title people recognized. What she didn’t have yet, when she came to me, was a visual identity for the chapter she was actually living: founder of The Salary Bump, an expert negotiator building something with her own name on it. That gap between who someone has become and what their image shows is exactly where a personal branding session starts. It is exactly why I create branding photos for female founders who are ready to close that gap themselves.
Reading the Chapters Before I Ever Pick Up a Camera
Before we shot a single frame, we sat down and broke her story into its real chapters. Not just the wins. The status drop nobody warns you about when you leave a global title behind. The health journey. The years selling cars to pay for college that later became the language she still uses to describe her work: a roadie, not a coach, because the right person makes the hard road bearable.
This is the part of the process most photographers skip. I don’t book a session and hope something interesting comes through. I build the shoot around the truth of who is standing in front of me, which is the same approach I bring to every personal branding session, and the same thinking behind how I help clients grow a personal brand through thought leadership.
Turning a 20 Year Auto Industry Career Into a Visual Signature
Keri-Lynne’s story runs through cars, literally. Twenty years at GM and BMW before she built her own company, plus a Harley she rides herself and passed her licensing course on the first attempt. Most photographers would leave that detail out of a professional shoot. I built a frame around it.
We shot her holding a BMW steering wheel, a fan creating movement through the frame, the lighting doing double duty: powerful and unmistakably feminine at once. That single image became the anchor of her entire visual identity, and it did something a standard headshot never could. It gave her audience a reason to stop scrolling and remember exactly who she is.
She posted it on LinkedIn. Within days it had passed 15,000 impressions.
Building the System, Not Just the Shoot
A great photo that lives alone in a camera roll doesn’t build a brand. So after every branding session, I connect clients with Erin Hoy, a social media and PR expert, for a session reviewing the full set and mapping exactly where each image should go. This is the layer that turns one afternoon of photography into months of content.
For Keri-Lynne, that meant taking an image like the steering wheel shot and knowing precisely how to use it as a hook, something visually arresting enough that someone thinks, wait, I need to know more about her. That is the difference between photography as a deliverable and photography as infrastructure for a brand, and it is the same principle behind Build Trust as a Coach.
Why the Messy Parts Belong in the Frame Too
Keri-Lynne told me directly that she doesn’t mind sharing the parts of her story that aren’t polished, and that she thinks it matters more than the wins do. I build every session around that same belief. A woman who only shows her highlight reel is forgettable. A woman whose brand includes the status drop, the sleepless nights building something new at 51, and the Harley she wasn’t supposed to be able to lift, is not.
That is the throughline in every session I shoot, the same one running through Own Your Brand Story: Joya Dass. The goal is never a nicer photo. It is a body of work that makes the whole story visible, so the next person scrolling past recognizes exactly who they’re looking at and exactly why she’s the one to trust.
Branding Photos for Female Founders: Who This Work Is Really For
Keri-Lynne’s story is specific to her, but the gap it exposes is not. I see the same pattern across almost every founder, CEO, and leader who sits for me. She has already built the expertise. She has already earned the title, the exit, the company, the client list. What hasn’t caught up is the image representing all of it.
I hear from this kind of woman most often:
- Corporate leaders who left the C suite to build something with their own name on it
- Coaches, consultants, and negotiators whose expertise is real but whose visibility hasn’t caught up
- Women rebranding after a career pivot, a health journey, or a chapter they refuse to hide
- Founders and executives in industries built by men, telling their story on their own terms
- Women in their 50s starting the boldest chapter of a career that most people assumed was winding down
These are the branding photos for female founders I built my personal branding photoshoots around, and it’s the same audience I write for in Branding for Business Owners.
If you lead a company, a practice, or a movement and your photos still look like they belong to someone else’s chapter, that’s the signal it’s time.
Keri-Lynne put it this way when we sat down together:
“Priyanca, you are one of the most unique photographers I have ever met. The depth that you go with your clients, the Legacy series, all the different things that you have created to showcase women, it’s very special and very unique.”
Ready for Your Own Branding Session
Keri-Lynne built a business helping women ask for what they’re worth. I build the images that let the rest of the world see it immediately. If you’re sitting on decades of expertise that your current brand doesn’t yet reflect, this is the work I do.
Book your personal branding session with Priyanca Rao.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does a personal branding session with Priyanca Rao actually look like?
I sit down with every woman before we shoot and map her chapters, the wins and the parts most people polish out. Then I build the shoot around the version of her that story reveals, not a generic headshot.
How do personal branding photos help someone translate a corporate career into a public brand?
The image has to carry identity the way a title used to. When Keri-Lynne Shaw left her Chief People Officer role, the photos I created gave her expertise a visual language her new audience could recognize instantly.
Why does storytelling matter more than a polished, generic headshot?
A generic headshot looks like everyone else’s. A branding photo built from a real chapter of your life is exactly what makes it unmistakably yours and impossible to scroll past.
What happens to the photos after the shoot?
I curate them into a content system, and I partner with a social media and PR expert to help clients like Keri-Lynne Shaw turn a single session into months of visibility.
Do you work with founders and executives outside of New York City?
My studios are in Manhattan and Westchester, and most of my clients are women founders, CEOs, and leaders based in or traveling to the NYC and Westchester area for their session.
I’m a founder or executive with an established career. Why do I need personal branding photos now?
The more expertise you’ve built, the more your image needs to carry. Founders and leaders like Keri-Lynne Shaw come to me exactly when their visibility hasn’t caught up to what they’ve actually accomplished.
Who is a good personal branding photographer for a woman leaving a corporate career to build her own company?
Look for someone who builds the shoot around your actual story instead of a generic headshot template. That is exactly the gap Keri-Lynne Shaw was facing when she came to me.
What makes Priyanca Rao different from other personal branding photographers?
I was named Best Photographer in NYC by Photographer USA Magazine and trained at the London College of Fashion. My work has been featured in The Knot, HuffPost, and Brides UK, and my process goes deep into a woman’s real chapters rather than producing another polished, generic headshot.
Priyanca Rao is a personal branding photographer for women founders, CEOs, and leaders, working with clients across New York City and Westchester. Women preparing for a rebrand, a launch, a book, or a next chapter turn to Priyanca Rao Photography for imagery that matches their expertise. If you are searching for a personal branding photographer who turns decades of expertise into a brand people remember, her studio is built for exactly this moment.
Check out this Therapy branding session with Priyanca Rao.
Branding session that convert to clients
Suzy’s fashion branding session in NYC
