How Do You Conduct Your Orchestra?
Thoughtful, Grounded... and Beautifully Human. Portrait & Headshot Photographer | Sydney · Brisbane · Melbourne | Identity Work for Leaders Who’ve Outgrown Their Image
August 10, 2026
Have you been conducting your own song... or someone else's? It's a consistent theme showing up for many of my clients lately.
Either way... Turn your back for a moment.
In order to conduct the orchestra, we literally (and figuratively) have to turn our back to the audience. It's uncomfortable to stop looking for approval… to stop checking who is clapping, who is watching, and who is judging… and who understands what you're even building. But I can't lead the music if I keep turning around for validation. Because I know that every time I look back, I lose my focus and my rhythm… and I start adjusting for the people who were never going to understand my song anyway.
At a certain point, in order to master the language of our own identity, we have to turn our backs to the audience.
We have to stop creating content from a place of "always looking over our shoulder' because it will always feel off. Like hedging. The music will never have the flow or rhythm we were aiming for because we make the song about what we think other people need or want to hear.
But our song is unique, personal, distinct and precise. And we need to turn our backs in order to look upstream… into our own context. Giving ourselves the freedom to play the music how we want, for our own sake. Without fear of resistance or shame or "getting it wrong". Without the fear of losing credibility or undoing all of the reputation you've built for decades.
Sometimes we realise the song we've been conducting is actually someone else's. That's what my calibration phase is for. Way before we ever pick up a camera, I help you find that permission to turn your backs on the audience (just for a moment) and "what-if" your work for a moment.
Because if we just ignored the audience for once and finally let ourselves conduct - from our heart, from our heads… from anything that matters to us - the notes that we chose from that place can be very surprising.
And the music that those notes become is the most powerful, personal expression of our own vision and value. We just take the time to find those notes.
---> Click to find out more about finding those notes
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Here's a Challenge: Answer one question right now... without hesitation.
"Why YOU?"
I'm interested in your service. I've narrowed it down to 2 or 3... or 10 people. Why should I choose YOU?
Without borrowing generic language from your industry.
Without telling me about your framework (that's not actually any different than everyone else's if we are being completely honest).
Without becoming indignant for even proposing such a qualifying question (which is a response I get more often than I expected).
Because this question is exactly what potential clients are dying to know... even though they don't know how to ask it (or even realise they should).
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After a personal train-wreck in this exact situation where I failed a meeting in Dubai with a [minor] member of the Emirati royal family... I realised the only way the answer works if it's:
truly mine - 100% impossible to copy.
something personal & precise that a potential client can actually identify with.
Without ever being obnoxiously vulnerable and 'over-share-y'.
"HOW YOU do the thing... IS the thing."
But it has to be distinct in a way that leaves no question - that YOUR approach (and therefore outcome) is simply not possible with anyone else.
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I've created a process to start articulating this. It's called 'The Personal Calibration'. But it isn't about churning out more content. It's about sitting in your context. So that when you do go and make content, it's coming from a much more powerful place of your precise and personal vision & values.
It's a 10-minute activity, comprised of 15 forced choices. Simple, but profound. And then an unpacking call with me where you won't be digging for something buried. It's actually just the opposite. My process notices what's already lying right there on the surface... the gold you've walked past your whole career... and starting to name it precisely enough that makes you impossible to copy.
