With the Woman Wednesday series, CatMax Photography introduces you to exceptional female entrepreneurs who have gone through the CatMax Personal Branding Experience. Today, I invite you to meet Diamond King of The Real Diamond King.
Diamond King of The Real Diamond King, Photo Credit: CatMax Photography
Diamond King doesn’t neatly fit into one box. Yes, she is a yoga teacher, but she is so much more. Diamond is a guiding light in health, wellness, and spirituality. This true creative isn’t afraid to express herself (she loves karaoke so much she keeps a portable microphone in her car, “just in case there's an emergency karaoke session”) and has found a way to combine multiple interests into her brand, The Real Diamond King.
Her collection of offerings is deeply personal, as Diamond intimately knows the power each tool possesses to help us connect with ourselves. The balance they have helped her cultivate is exactly what she hopes to help her students and clients achieve. “Inner peace is the most important thing—not how much money you have, not who won the election, not what kind of car your neighbors drive—it’s inner peace. If I can help someone with that, even for a second, I feel like I've done my part while I'm here on earth,” she says.
Pursuing Her Passions
Diamond also recognizes the lack of diverse representation in the health and wellness arena, another motivator to launch her brand. However, her ultimate driving force has always been to assist others, with yoga being the initial vehicle for this. In her late 20s, Diamond transitioned from longtime student to instructor. She says, “Sound baths came a little later after yoga, but I kept meeting people that hadn't heard of sound baths or didn't know much about energy clearing, and I felt like it was my responsibility as a human to offer different modalities that would help people reach a state of peace and a state of grace.” As her mind and body knowledge has expanded, so have her offerings.
Photo Credit: CatMax Photography
A trained photographer with yoga instructor and hypnotherapist certifications, Diamond provides sound bath sessions with crystal chakra bowls, private yoga lessons, human design readings, Inner Goddess photo shoots, and more, including wrapped stone pendants, body products, and other physical items.
Reflecting on What’s Right for Her
Diamond’s journey as a creative entrepreneur hasn’t always been a smooth one, though. Running your own business can free you from the confines of the corporate world, but as many know, a ghostly pressure to conform with others in your field and the call of comparison can quietly fill the gap left by shedding the constraints of traditional work. Diamond says it’s taken time to shift her attention from what others are doing to purely on what is best for her but that she now feels more grounded and stable businesswise because of the change.
She tells other creative entrepreneurs who may feel that they are struggling or failing to banish thoughts of calling it quits and, instead, continue moving forward, playfully reiterating everyone’s favorite motto from Dory of Finding Nemo, “just keep swimming.”
In addition to learning to concentrate on what best serves her and her clients, Diamond has also taken the time to solidify her brand and carefully consider how she wants to be perceived, an accomplishment she credits to making her Personal Branding Experience with CatMax Photography such a success.
Some of Diamond’s favorite photos, those of her by the waterfall, are a perfect example of what the CatMax Photography Personal Branding Experience is all about. “They were photos that I would never think to do,” she says. “I would, of course, think to do photos of me doing yoga and playing my bowls but never me just being me...I think that's why I love them so much.” The goal of a custom branding photo shoot with CatMax Photography is to capture images that showcase not only what you offer but who you are and what is at the core of your brand.
Diamond advises others planning a branding photo shoot to be clear, direct, and confident about the images they want. “Be very involved in coordinating with the photographer and selecting the location, and also have fun,” she adds.
You can learn more about Diamond’s Personal Branding Experience and her business by watching our Woman Wednesday Video Q&A. Follow CatMax Photography on Instagram at @catmaxphoto and Diamond at @therealdiamondking.
