Who is in your circle? Do they help you move forward or do they hold you back?

Jamar Jones, who runs branding and media organization Foureva Media and wrote the book, “Change Your Circle, Change Your Life,” helps his entrepreneur clients monetize their brands and build their businesses. Part of his process is having clients ask themselves questions such as:

Who are the people in my life?

How am I connected to them?

How much time do I spend with them?

Are they aligned with my goals or at least champions of them, or are they “vampires” who drain my energy?

These questions build crucial self-awareness, Jones tells “Professional Photographer” podcast host Pat Miller on the episode “Build the Circle that Books You: Networking with Photographers.” “… Oftentimes we go through our life, we’re trying to figure out, ‘How did we get here?’” he says, and part of that discovery means evaluating our current circle. “We allow these people into our life. Besides your family, you allow these people into your life and you’re wondering why you’re stuck or why you’re at the point you are in your life,” he continues. “And a lot of times, it deals with your current circle. And we’re also trying to figure out how to get into new ones.”

James then has clients consider what kinds of “circles” would help them move their goals forward. “The essence of ‘Change Your Circle, Change Your Life’ is being on purpose and by design, changing your circle with intentionality but also constantly evaluating your current circle to figure out who needs to be there, who needs to kind of have some separation and who needs to get the boot,” he says. “It’s a beautiful process and framework that I live every single day.”

Your network is part of your personal brand, and the stronger that network is, the sooner you can close what Jones calls the credibility gap: the amount of time between when someone is introduced to you and when you two connect, such as them becoming a client or you purchasing something from their company. “The gap is trust and actually … positioning around who you are,” Jones explains. “And the faster that you can shorten that gap, the quicker people are going to be able to present opportunities to you.”

Bring Your Authentic Self

Every piece of what you put out into the world—for example a social media post, an email, a phone call—is part of your brand, according to Jones. He cites Disney World as an example of a strong, positive, well-planned brand experience. How does that concept transfer into the “amusement park” of you? He brings Miller into the example. “So, think about yourself like, ‘Hey, I invited somebody to Pat’s amusement park. What’s the experience like?” Jones says, adding that top-quality brands are confident in their identities and consistently present themselves. “What do you want them to learn first about you? What do you want them to know and where do you want them to go to get to building more trust with you?”

In the “noise” of social media and other marketing, many entrepreneurs focus more on keeping up with their competition than they do on what sets them apart, James says. “We’re looking too far outward at what everybody else is doing and trying to copy it instead of looking at the greatness that we already have within us and saying, ‘How do I display that more?’” Change your thought process and you can change your brand strategy, he adds. And if you are stuck or discouraged or think no one is interested in what makes you unique, mentors can be key. “Sometimes, people just need to hear it,” that they should feel confident sharing what they have to offer, he explains. For example, James says, with his help, a client realized that he had reached over 35,000 people through his work “and he had never realized it up until that moment. And he was like, ‘Wow, I am kind of like, I’m a big deal.’ … It took that time and space for us to pull that out of him, right? And give him that time and space to really think about the things that he’s done.”

This is the power of the right people in your circle, James says, as long as you are true to yourself. “You’ve got to be yourself and as authentic as possible. … I’m more talking about the things that make you unique, your gifts, the things that make you different, those are the things that you want to really put out in there into the forefront, even when you’re entering these new circles,” he explains. For example, James recalls being told that if he wanted to gain more corporate clients, he should lose the “hip-hop vibe” of baseball caps and hoodies. “I was miserable. I kept putting on this façade, this persona out there,” he tells Miller. “I had the collared shirt and, you know, I had all the button-up website and everything. I tried it for a couple years and then one day I’m like, ‘This is not me.’ And the funny part of it is that once I switched back to what I know, that I’m comfortable in, the way that I want to present myself, more business came through the door.”

That works for photographers as well, he says: Stay true to yourself, surround yourself with people who will move you forward, and you and your business can thrive. “More photographers have to understand that clients are hiring you for your art style, for the uniqueness,” James says. “They’re making the decision to pay you because of how you do some-thing. … We’re missing [bringing to the forefront] the thing that makes us different, why they’re going to choose you.”

Melanie Lasoff Levs is director of publications.