Brand Building: Living The Whole Picture with Jama Pantel
Brand Building: Living the Whole Picture is the go-to podcast for ambitious women ready to elevate their visibility, build authentic confidence, and become the face of their brand.
Hosted by luxury portrait photographer, author, educator, and former influencer Jama Pantel, this podcast delivers actionable strategies on personal branding, photography, and business growth—so you can step into the spotlight with clarity and purpose.
If you've ever felt unseen in your industry, struggled with confidence on camera, or hesitated to show up boldly, this is your roadmap to build a powerful presence that gets you noticed and respected.
Join Jama as she helps you build a brand that stands out, master your presence in photos and video, and turn your expertise into a magnetic business.
It’s time to stop playing small and start showing up like the leader you were meant to be.
Brand Building: Living The Whole Picture with Jama Pantel
Self-Care and Sustainable Brand Building: Why Slowing Down Is Strategic
Why Slowing Down Is Strategic: Self-Care and Sustainable Brand Building
Description:
If you’ve ever felt guilty for taking a break, even when you know you need one, this episode is for you. After a much-needed vacation, Jama is back with a grounded reminder: you can’t build a brand if you’re running on empty behind the scenes.
In this episode of Brand Building: Living the Whole Picture, Jama opens up about how stepping away created more clarity than any content strategy ever could. She shares what self-care actually looks like for real women building real brands, and why rest isn’t just restorative, it’s a business decision.
Because brand building isn’t just about what the world sees. It’s about what’s going on behind the curtain and if you’re not taking care of your energy, you’re not building something sustainable.
Timestamps:
– I’m back from vacation and here’s what I realized
– The guilt that creeps in when we try to slow down
– Why I chose not to batch before leaving town
– Self-care isn’t optional—it’s leadership
– What self-care looked like for me (spoiler: it wasn’t skincare)
– The clarity and creativity that came after doing nothing
– Taking a break helps your brand more than any checklist
– The truth behind Living the Whole Picture
– You are the core of your brand
– Pause vs. resistance: how to tell the difference
– Your permission slip to rest
– What’s next for the podcast (and a hint at a possible shift)
Key Takeaways:
- Self-care is strategic. If your nervous system is screaming for stillness, no template or productivity hack will fix that.
- The visible parts of your brand don’t matter if your energy is burnt out. Showing up consistently requires sustainability.
- Breaks are part of the process. When you step away, you create space for clarity and creativity.
- You are the brand. Taking care of yourself is brand building.
- Rest prevents burnout. It’s not a sign of weakness, it’s leadership.
Call to Action:
Take a minute today and ask yourself:
Is it resistance or is it depletion?
Then act accordingly.
If this episode gave you a moment to breathe or a reminder you didn’t know you needed, please share it with a fellow brand-builder who might be in the same season.
And if you’re enjoying Brand Building: Living the Whole Picture, leave a rating or review. It helps other women like you find the show. Thanks for letting me live the whole picture with you. Talk soon.
I'm back from vacation and it gave me this space to finally reflect on something I've been wanting to talk about for a while. We're 45 episodes in now and honestly it never felt like the right time to bring it up until now. So you know that feeling of guilt when you slow down, when you take a break, when you step back, even though you know you need it. Let's talk about that here. Hey y'all, it's your podcast Bestie Jama again, and today we're talking about self-care. After all, you can't build a brand if you're falling apart behind the scenes. And self-care, it isn't a luxury. It is true leadership. So here's the truth. Before I left for vacation last week, for a hot second, I thought about sitting down and batching out episodes and just squeezing something in, or even just recording quick on my phone while I was headed out of town. And honestly, my out of town episode that was under a minute, I sat down and did five minutes before I walked out the door on vacation. But I caught myself on the batching and asked why I really wanted to do that. Was it because I really wanted to connect with y'all or because I didn't want to feel like I was falling behind? So that question right there is what led to this episode. Because I don't want to build a brand that only looks good online while I'm running on empty behind the curtains. I want the whole picture to feel aligned. That was the impetus for the name for the podcast in the first place. And that means rest is part of the process. When we talk about building our brand, we often talk about content pillars and visibility and our offers and our strategy and all the things. But none of that really matters if you don't have the energy for it. And your brand can't be consistent if you aren't cared for. And no amount of Canva templates or pretty pictures or batching hacks can replace what your nervous system is telling you when it's screaming for stillness and to step away for self-care. Self-care looks different for everyone. And for me lately, that's looked a lot like going off the grid for a few days. It means going down to the beach and getting in some runs and taking some pretty pictures or flying off to Colorado to meet up with one of my run friends to you guessed it, run and do leaf peeping for the first time, and it was really pretty. It also means saying no to the pressure to batch my podcast episodes when I'm not sure what I even want to talk about, catching up on sleep and just all the things, giving myself permission to not have to create and not have to be on. And the crazy part is I came back clearer, more grounded, and even more inspired, and I knew I wanted to get this episode out there. Taking a break will do more for your brand than any checklist ever could. And honestly, this show is called Living the Whole Picture for a Reason. It's not about building the visible parts of your brand all the time. It's about what's underneath it and being real about what goes on to build a brand and to be in the business. You can have the best content strategy in the world, but if you're exhausted, disconnected, or questioning yourself every step of the way, you'll never feel safe or seen. So let me remind you, you're allowed to pause, you're allowed to reset, and you're allowed to be a whole human person, even while you're building something. Taking care of yourself is brand building because you are the core of your brand. So if you're in a season where showing up feels heavy, ask yourself, is it resistance or is it depletion? And what would it look like for you to care for yourself the way you care about others and about your goals? Maybe this is your invitation to pause, maybe it's your permission to slow down without losing sight of where you're going. Either way, I'm glad you're here with me. And I'll be back next week with more real talk, strategy, and support. Whatever direction this podcast takes next, which I'm kind of hinting at, I am going to probably take a pause when I hit a year in December. But thanks for letting me live the whole picture with you guys. Talk to y'all soon. Bye.
