14/05/2026
“The creative adult is the child who survived.” – Julian F. Fleron
My portraiture is 'Identity Work' and that's not some half-assed marketing ploy. There is a complex human sitting in front of me. And I have to understand you in order to fully portray you.
So who are you - really?
It's fu***ng hard to answer. Most people can tell me who they're not. And IF we get to who you are, there's usually a '30,000 feet in the air' approach to the answer. Vague... Impersonal...
So what does work? Well, I've found a fun little trick that I've put into my 'Impossible to Copy' keynotes. We have to uncover some truth about WHO WE ARE.
"What did you want to be when you grew up?".
I wanted to be a brain surgeon. I was certain I would be. Considering everything I've done in my wildly varied career (none of which was actually brain surgery) I found some fascinating, common threads.
I wanted to get into people's brains and physically heal the way they experience themselves and the world. So now I have an elegant, personal, specific anchor (CONTEXT) to start writing some Content.
Sure there's loads of photographers... But what do you get working wth me? I can start to describe that from the perspective of a brain surgeon and suddenly I don't sound like anyone else out there. I've begun positioning myself as a 'category of one'.
I understand that for some it might be way too revealing or inappropriate to explicitly discuss what you wanted to be when you grew up. But you don't even need to.
You're now drawing on a very personal and specific context frame that carries the weight of the message. It's precise... and people feel that. They resonate with it. And when they reach out, it won't be becasue you the word 'Integrity' is on your website... Or that you have some industry qualification that means nothing to us outside of your bubble.
It'll be because they feel the connection... the alignment. Not in some hippy-dippy "oh the stars" kind of alignment. A real one. Honest and simple.
So... what did you want to be when you grew up? Try it out!