Skip to content

brand sessions designed to keep your visuals aligned with your growth year-round— become a brand partner

⟶ Join the waitlist
Facebook Instagram Pinterest
  • Home
  • The Community
Chicago Brand Photographer & Coach For Women
  • About
  • Blog
  • let’s connect

Blog

Marketing & Visibility | Personal Branding & Strategy

Using Visual Content To Tell Your Brand Story

Stories have the ability to inspire, motivate, and touch your audience – humans love stories! Words are obviously an integral part of telling an engaging story, but images can further enhance its effectiveness. Images help your story to stick in…

Read More Using Visual Content To Tell Your Brand StoryContinue

Business Tips

Why Personal Brand Photography Makes Business Sense

As an entrepreneur, you probably encounter mentions of personal branding photo sessions quite often. So, it’s only natural to wonder whether it’s also something you should be investing in. To date, you might’ve been more focused on photographing your products…

Read More Why Personal Brand Photography Makes Business SenseContinue

Business Tips

Why Personal Brand Photography Is So Important

Personal branding goes so far beyond your website design, the fonts you choose, and your logo. It’s all about the story you want to communicate to the public. It’s about what you have to offer to your clients — the…

Read More Why Personal Brand Photography Is So ImportantContinue

Business Tips

How to Know if a Personal Brand Session is Right for Your Business

Nowadays, having an intentional personal brand is more important than ever. But does that mean that everyone needs to work hard at building their personal brand? How do you know if scheduling a personal brand photoshoot is right for you…

Read More How to Know if a Personal Brand Session is Right for Your BusinessContinue

Business Tips

How to Refresh Your Personal Brand in Time for the New Year

With only 2 months left in 2021, it’s time to start thinking about your personal branding goals for the new year. Is your brand as strong as you would like it to be? Do you need to make some adjustments…

Read More How to Refresh Your Personal Brand in Time for the New YearContinue

Business Tips

10 Ways to Build a Memorable Reputation

Your personal brand and reputation are what distinguish you from other professionals in your sector. However, it takes time and effort to build a positive reputation that sticks. Once you have it though, it opens the door to new jobs,…

Read More 10 Ways to Build a Memorable ReputationContinue

Page navigation

Previous PagePrevious 1 2 3 4 Next PageNext
Open post by ashleyrufino with ID 17852348568670195
We’re co-working again on February 18th and we’d love to see you there! 
If you’re tired of working alone, come work with us…
Bring what you’re working on. Work quietly or talk it out. Stay for an hour or stay all day. 
📍 @etherealconfections | Woodstock
🕐 10am-2pm
Well save you a seat! 

Comment “COFFEE” for the link to register for free!
Open post by ashleyrufino with ID 18070566014147387
“I need more visibility!” 
I’ve said it a hundred times. you probably have too.
But what if that’s not actually the problem? 
The Wrong Kind of Attention - Part 1 of 5.  This is part of a 3-week series on visibility strategy for creative entrepreneurs: stop chasing the wrong kind of attention, understand the visibility trap, and make sure your photos aren’t sabotaging everything you’ve built. #creativeentreprenuer #visibilitystrategy #personalbrandstrategy
Open post by ashleyrufino with ID 17847015975642268
Anyways…
Open post by ashleyrufino with ID 18088581545028261
I want my platform to be a place where people don’t have to guess what I stand for. I think a lot of us were trained into palatability.

Speak softly. Keep it positive. Don’t scare people. Don’t lose clients. Don’t “make it political.” Be marketable. Be digestible. Be the kind of woman people feel comfortable around.

And for a long time, that script worked. It kept doors open. It kept the peace. It made business feel safer.

But I don’t want safety that comes from silence.

Because silence is not neutral when people are being harmed in plain sight. Silence isn’t “staying in your lane” when your lane is built on other people’s displacement, fear, and erasure. Silence is not professionalism when it’s really avoidance.
Open post by ashleyrufino with ID 18037868129727990
I spent years trying to become the kind of person who could focus on just one thing. The kind with a clear elevator pitch and a recognizable niche.

Spoiler: compartmentalizing yourself is exhausting.

I tried to organize myself into neat lanes. To choose the right focus. To quiet the parts of me that wanted to make, build, and explore in more than one direction at once. I thought clarity meant narrowing. I thought maturity meant choosing one version of myself and letting the rest go.

None of that has ever actually worked.

The years I spent trying to consolidate, simplify, pick one thing? Those were the years I felt most stuck.

I still don’t have a neat answer for what I do. Quite possibly never will, but I’m learning that accepting how I’m actually built beats trying to force myself into a shape that doesn’t fit.

When I started to allow myself to work in layers instead of lanes… that changed the game.
looking for feel-good content, inspo + more?

follow on

Instagram

Look

around

for photographers
coaching
speaker inquiry
free resources
contact
client portal

Ashley Rufino is a Chicago personal brand photographer, coach + educator for female founders & photographers.

connect

elsewhere

tiktok
studio Ig
pinterest
youtube
linkedin

Copyright © 2026 · Chicago Brand Photographer & Coach For Women · Ashley Rufino · Bloom Creative · Website by Hello You Designs

Scroll to top
  • HOME
  • Meet Ashley
  • The Community
  • On the Blog
  • let’s connect