Building a career and life with chronic illness: Carrie Niederman's personal branding session

Caroline “Carrie” Niederman (Website | LinkedIn) is a professional speaker and advocate for those living with chronic conditions. A former veterinarian focused on horses, she had to retire from that profession due to a sudden onset of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which is one of a family of chronic illnesses that are not very well-understood. Recently, the rise of long COVID has brought more focus on these illnesses. Carrie speaks to medical professionals on how they can better serve patients with these conditions.?

In her photo session, we focused on capturing Carrie’s experience of her condition, as well as the ways she manages it. This interview (summarized and edited for clarity) is a conversation with Carrie about her experience of the photo session.

Tell us a little bit about your story, and why you decided to do a photo session

I used to be a veterinarian, with an equine (horse) mobile practice. And then about 15 years ago, I developed a chronic illness. As a result, I’m now retired from that profession, and I want to use my voice to raise awareness about chronic conditions.?

Nowadays, there is a lot more conversation about chronic illness, especially in the context of long COVID. I have myalgic encephalomyelitis or chronic fatigue syndrome, which is in some ways, I think it's the original long COVID.

These invisible illnesses are hard. I've learned a lot in being able to try to articulate to my friends what's going on in my body, and I want to be able to help clinicians see this illness so that then they can help the people with chronic conditions better. It can be frustrating when we look normal and yet we don't feel well and it's a tricky box to uncover.

I’ve been working on developing a speech and being able to tell that story as a professional speaker. During this process, I became aware of the value of being able to tell your story through photos. It's another way to express what’s happening to me, because my symptoms can be subtle. I wanted to capture my experience in photos. My hope is that people get to recognize those experiences in their friends, or clinicians in their patients.

From the beginning, I was clear that I don't want a website or speaker page that just looks like I'm always smiling and happy. Of course, I don't want to be down in the dumps all the time, but I also want to convey the reality of the life I have. That’s the goal of my brand.

What was the prep process like for you??

First of all, I had never done anything like your process before,? so I was a little bit intimidated by it. What is a mood board? How is it going to work? Will I be able to figure out the tech??

But as I got into it, I thought it was a terrific exercise. It made me start noticing the various emotions I wanted to convey in my brand, and then reflect on how I visualize that in my mind and how I could relay that to you. It captured and solidified ideas for me in a way that was much more powerful and effective than just talking about it. For example, I talk about how I get irritated a lot, but in the mood board, I was able to convey how exactly that feels.?

Once I started the exercise, I realized that it had so much value! I wanted to capture things for you, and it even became more fun some time. In fact, I revisited the board multiple times to work on it!. I’m really glad it's part of your process.

What would you tell clients who find the mood board a bit challenging? How should they start on it?

Yes, I can see why the mood board exercise would be a little anxiety-inducing because it involves thinking outside of the box. I'm a very linear, scientific kind of person. But through my illness, I've had to tap into more of my emotions and notice what my body's telling me. However, most of us live in our heads and we’re not used to following our intuition.

The first thing I want to say is this: you might not be able to complete the mood board in one sitting. I found it helpful to take breaks and come back to it a few times.

Start with one picture you like and go from there. I was so impressed with the range of photos available out there. Play with some words and phrases and see what comes up. It doesn’t have to be just one word or phrase. You can always ignore or delete photos that don’t feel right! Let go of the pressure to ‘do it right’ the first time.?

Take the time you need to do the exercise. Adding captions or notes to individual photos also helped me express myself better.

How did the day of the session go?

I've gone through a training program to develop my speech. In there, everyone told me to trust the process, and it all worked out! So I decided to trust your process too.?

On the morning of the session, you encouraged me to get there early, and then have some time to take a walk. That was very good for me. I had some anxiety that I was going to run out of energy, but we talked about this in advance. You had suggested that if that happens, we capture it anyway, which was reassuring. Ultimately, I felt like I was with friends.?

Initially I was feeling some (self-imposed) pressure to do it right, but that was quickly dispelled. You had everything organized and gave me a rhythm that was very workable. Even the makeup artist was perfect, I could relax with her and it set the mood. She was great at checking in on how I was doing. At some point, I just felt, “I’m in great hands, I’m just going to go with this.”

Once I had the makeup done, we had a moment where we just sat, took some deep breaths, and grounded ourselves for the day. To me, that’s the embodiment of how the rest of the day went.?

Every time we took a picture, you had a beautiful way of helping me tap into the emotion and then look at the camera. The emotion came across in a real, visceral way. Each time I did it, I gained more confidence and reinforcement that I could show exactly what I wanted to, knowing that it’s actually my real life unfolding in those moments. It made me feel powerful to realize I could convey everything I wanted to through photos.

We had put in a lot of planning in advance, and I knew you had a mental list of photos you wanted to take, in multiple places, but none of it felt rushed to me, which I appreciated a lot.

What did it feel like to see your photos for the first time? How does it feel now?

I hadn’t had a photo shoot in a while, so my initial reaction was a little bit surprised, “Oh, is that me? I guess that’s me now!” I thought I knew what I looked like.?

I shared it with a couple of friends, and they agreed that the photos capture how I look like today. They were amazed by the variety of photos and asked me how we managed to get so many. They also understood where I was coming from, that I wasn’t trying to capture all happy moments, and what the blurry photos meant to me.??

After that initial wave of surprise, I sat with the photos and began to realize how powerful it would be to convey this version of me out there, along with my speech. I’m excited to figure out how to share what we captured.

Would you recommend this experience to a friend or colleague? If so, what would you tell them?

Well, I would highly recommend it in a milli-second because I now understand the value of telling your story, even through photos, and how it can be done.

There’s a huge difference between what we did together, vs. just getting a few photos sitting happily and holding a cup of coffee.

It was fun, but it's also work. You have to really tap into yourself, take the time, and follow the instructions. I used to be an athlete and it’s like getting your game face on. When I drove home that day, I was tired, but also completely energized.

You can learn more about Carrie and her work on LinkedIn and her Website.

Watch the entire interview (20 min)

Interested in how you can learn to tell your own story and capture your essence in gorgeous photos that'll hook your audience? Check out the free resources on my website and connect with me on LinkedIn.