The Ultimate 15-Minute Personal Brand Audit Checklist

FREE DOWNLOAD

Discover What’s Holding You Back from Being Seen as an Authority

1/05/15

5 Reasons Your Inner Game Changes Everything

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been doing a lot of internal personal development work. In our culture today, Personal development or self help seems to have a negative connotation as if “something is wrong with us” In the grand scheme of things, no matter who we are, we all have blind spots we cannot see about ourselves. Blind spots that hold us back from our full possibility. The only thing that holds us back from our dreams is us, meaning our inner game. We are emotional beings, the single thread that connects us all as human beings. Emotions are what drive us, and if we can learn to steer then we can achieve greater results in our lives from deeper connected relationships, to leadership and running empires. Honing our inner game is what will take us to the top. Emotional intelligence is the most important intelligence we can have as human beings living in a relational world.

Here are 5 reasons developing your inner game changes everything:

1. More Power – Accepting that we are responsible for everything that we create in our lives we take the power to create what we want. While circumstances might not always be in our favor, we ultimately have the power to choose what we do with what we are dealt. Getting to that place in our lives can take a lot of internal work.

2. More Confidence – Self worth, and what we believe about ourselves is what drives us, and most of the decisions we make. When we believe we aren’t worth something, then we act differently. Self worth is a belief that we create, and operate from. It’s a deep lining and a lot of times subconscious thing that we don’t even think about consciously. Most of us don’t want to admit we don’t feel worthy of success.

3. Deeper Relationships – Relationships are the essence of life, and what keeps us all going. It’s what keeps us connected. We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know” Deep relationships with other people is a reflection of our relationship with ourselves, our internal relationship. The better our relationship with ourselves, the better our relationships with other people will be. The better our relationships are, the further we will get in life.

4. Less Stress – What you resist persists. We are the creators of our stress, and mostly due to not letting go of the things we can’t control. We get worked up and over think things most of the time. Overthinking is the ‘art’ of creating problems that don’t exist. aka STRESS. Letting go of these things consciously and subconsciously will lessen the stress in our lives. It’s one of the biggest things I’ve been working on in my life. It takes a lot of conscious effort.

5. Better Results – Lets face it, our lives are our results. Happiness, relationships, money, family, career, etc. etc. Our results are based off the actions we take to get those results. Those actions are based off the decisions we make to take those actions. Those decisions are based off our internal conversation/thoughts. AKA our inner game. We have around 100,000 conversations in our heads a day, and on average 80% of those conversations are negative and subconscious. If we could A: learn what those conversations are(our blind spots) and B: how to change them, we can achieve better results across the board.

Our thoughts are our inner game. If we can learn to master our thought life, we can master our lives. Shift our thoughts, and change what we attract into our lives. I have seen first hand how that’s been at play over the last year. It is some seriously deep work, but the more I’ve worked on it, the more I find myself riding the wave of synchronicity and attracting bigger things into my life. The moment you think you’ve got it mastered is the moment you don’t.

I went through an emotional intelligence and leadership training over the last couple years that is like an emotional gym to learn more about myself. It was powerful. If you’re interested in knowing more, feel free to get in touch with me.

Here are a few of my podcasts that dive deeper into strengthening your inner-game:

Quddus – The Power of Vulnerability

Preston – What You Resist Persists

Sean – Overcoming Fear

Jim Kwik – Unlock Your Inner Superhero

LET'S CONSPIRE & CREATE

CULTIVATING YOUR VISUAL UNIQUENESS AND STREAMLINING YOUR BRAND'S EVOLUTION

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been doing a lot of internal personal development work. In our culture today, Personal development or self help seems to have a negative connotation as if “something is wrong with us” In the grand scheme of things, no matter who we are, we all have blind spots we cannot see about ourselves. Blind spots that hold us back from our full possibility. The only thing that holds us back from our dreams is us, meaning our inner game. We are emotional beings, the single thread that connects us all as human beings. Emotions are what drive us, and if we can learn to steer then we can achieve greater results in our lives from deeper connected relationships, to leadership and running empires. Honing our inner game is what will take us to the top. Emotional intelligence is the most important intelligence we can have as human beings living in a relational world.

Here are 5 reasons developing your inner game changes everything:

1. More Power – Accepting that we are responsible for everything that we create in our lives we take the power to create what we want. While circumstances might not always be in our favor, we ultimately have the power to choose what we do with what we are dealt. Getting to that place in our lives can take a lot of internal work.

2. More Confidence – Self worth, and what we believe about ourselves is what drives us, and most of the decisions we make. When we believe we aren’t worth something, then we act differently. Self worth is a belief that we create, and operate from. It’s a deep lining and a lot of times subconscious thing that we don’t even think about consciously. Most of us don’t want to admit we don’t feel worthy of success.

3. Deeper Relationships – Relationships are the essence of life, and what keeps us all going. It’s what keeps us connected. We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know” Deep relationships with other people is a reflection of our relationship with ourselves, our internal relationship. The better our relationship with ourselves, the better our relationships with other people will be. The better our relationships are, the further we will get in life.

4. Less Stress – What you resist persists. We are the creators of our stress, and mostly due to not letting go of the things we can’t control. We get worked up and over think things most of the time. Overthinking is the ‘art’ of creating problems that don’t exist. aka STRESS. Letting go of these things consciously and subconsciously will lessen the stress in our lives. It’s one of the biggest things I’ve been working on in my life. It takes a lot of conscious effort.

5. Better Results – Lets face it, our lives are our results. Happiness, relationships, money, family, career, etc. etc. Our results are based off the actions we take to get those results. Those actions are based off the decisions we make to take those actions. Those decisions are based off our internal conversation/thoughts. AKA our inner game. We have around 100,000 conversations in our heads a day, and on average 80% of those conversations are negative and subconscious. If we could A: learn what those conversations are(our blind spots) and B: how to change them, we can achieve better results across the board.

Our thoughts are our inner game. If we can learn to master our thought life, we can master our lives. Shift our thoughts, and change what we attract into our lives. I have seen first hand how that’s been at play over the last year. It is some seriously deep work, but the more I’ve worked on it, the more I find myself riding the wave of synchronicity and attracting bigger things into my life. The moment you think you’ve got it mastered is the moment you don’t.

I went through an emotional intelligence and leadership training over the last couple years that is like an emotional gym to learn more about myself. It was powerful. If you’re interested in knowing more, feel free to get in touch with me.

Here are a few of my podcasts that dive deeper into strengthening your inner-game:

Quddus – The Power of Vulnerability

Preston – What You Resist Persists

Sean – Overcoming Fear

Jim Kwik – Unlock Your Inner Superhero

1/05/15

5 Reasons Your Inner Game Changes Everything

Blog

infuse your vision with a fresh breath of  creativity and vitality

BOOK A BRAND PHOTOSHOOT

GET THE DETAILS

GET THE DETAILS

infuse your vision with a fresh breath of  creativity and vitality

PODCAST

BRAND INTELLIGENCE

CREATIVE INTELLIGENCE

LIFE INTELLIGENCE

Over the last year and a half, I’ve been doing a lot of internal personal development work. In our culture today, Personal development or self help seems to have a negative connotation as if “something is wrong with us” In the grand scheme of things, no matter who we are, we all have blind spots we cannot see about ourselves. Blind spots that hold us back from our full possibility. The only thing that holds us back from our dreams is us, meaning our inner game. We are emotional beings, the single thread that connects us all as human beings. Emotions are what drive us, and if we can learn to steer then we can achieve greater results in our lives from deeper connected relationships, to leadership and running empires. Honing our inner game is what will take us to the top. Emotional intelligence is the most important intelligence we can have as human beings living in a relational world.

Here are 5 reasons developing your inner game changes everything:

1. More Power – Accepting that we are responsible for everything that we create in our lives we take the power to create what we want. While circumstances might not always be in our favor, we ultimately have the power to choose what we do with what we are dealt. Getting to that place in our lives can take a lot of internal work.

2. More Confidence – Self worth, and what we believe about ourselves is what drives us, and most of the decisions we make. When we believe we aren’t worth something, then we act differently. Self worth is a belief that we create, and operate from. It’s a deep lining and a lot of times subconscious thing that we don’t even think about consciously. Most of us don’t want to admit we don’t feel worthy of success.

3. Deeper Relationships – Relationships are the essence of life, and what keeps us all going. It’s what keeps us connected. We’ve all heard the saying, “It’s not what you know, but who you know” Deep relationships with other people is a reflection of our relationship with ourselves, our internal relationship. The better our relationship with ourselves, the better our relationships with other people will be. The better our relationships are, the further we will get in life.

4. Less Stress – What you resist persists. We are the creators of our stress, and mostly due to not letting go of the things we can’t control. We get worked up and over think things most of the time. Overthinking is the ‘art’ of creating problems that don’t exist. aka STRESS. Letting go of these things consciously and subconsciously will lessen the stress in our lives. It’s one of the biggest things I’ve been working on in my life. It takes a lot of conscious effort.

5. Better Results – Lets face it, our lives are our results. Happiness, relationships, money, family, career, etc. etc. Our results are based off the actions we take to get those results. Those actions are based off the decisions we make to take those actions. Those decisions are based off our internal conversation/thoughts. AKA our inner game. We have around 100,000 conversations in our heads a day, and on average 80% of those conversations are negative and subconscious. If we could A: learn what those conversations are(our blind spots) and B: how to change them, we can achieve better results across the board.

Our thoughts are our inner game. If we can learn to master our thought life, we can master our lives. Shift our thoughts, and change what we attract into our lives. I have seen first hand how that’s been at play over the last year. It is some seriously deep work, but the more I’ve worked on it, the more I find myself riding the wave of synchronicity and attracting bigger things into my life. The moment you think you’ve got it mastered is the moment you don’t.

I went through an emotional intelligence and leadership training over the last couple years that is like an emotional gym to learn more about myself. It was powerful. If you’re interested in knowing more, feel free to get in touch with me.

Here are a few of my podcasts that dive deeper into strengthening your inner-game:

Quddus – The Power of Vulnerability

Preston – What You Resist Persists

Sean – Overcoming Fear

Jim Kwik – Unlock Your Inner Superhero

1/05/15

5 Reasons Your Inner Game Changes Everything

infuse your vision with a fresh breath of  creativity and vitality

BOOK A BRAND PHOTOSHOOT

masterfully aligning perception and reality through personal branding 

GET THE DETAILS

Hey! I'm Nick.

PHOTOGRAPHER
BRAND ALCHEMIST
TEACHER

At vero eos et accusamus et iusto odio dignissimos ducimus qui blanditiis praesentium voluptatum deleniti atque corrupti quos dolores et quas molestias excepturi sint occaecati cupiditate non provident, similique sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollitia.

GET THE DETAILS

infuse your vision with a fresh breath of  creativity and vitality

LET'S CONSPIRE & CREATE

CULTIVATING YOUR VISUAL UNIQUENESS AND STREAMLINING YOUR BRAND'S EVOLUTION

read the latest

Entrepreneur using AI-powered tools and custom GPTs to streamline business tasks and save time

TL;DR – What You’ll Learn in This Post AI Isn’t Optional Anymore If you’re running a business in 2026 and not using AI, you’re already behind. That’s not hype. It’s just the reality of how fast things are moving. Whether you’re a coach, creative, consultant, or brand builder — AI is how you stay lean, […]

Nick Onken directing a personal brand shoot in an editorial studio environment

Because this isn’t just a photoshoot. It’s a portal. If you’re here, you already know this isn’t about taking “pictures.” It’s about capturing essence. Crafting identity. Transmitting the frequency of who you are becoming. This is more than a brand refresh. It’s a visual rite of passage. And it begins with a simple, sacred step: […]

Personal brand shoot showing client in an iconic outdoor location reflecting their story and energy

TL;DR – What You’ll Learn in This Post Your Brand Lives in a Specific Universe A personal brand isn’t just what you offer — it’s the world you create around your work.That universe gets defined through imagery. Not only your presence, but the environments you inhabit. The textures that surround you. The quality of light […]

A visual comparison between traditional headshots and editorial-style brand photography for personal branding

You’ve probably seen both. You might even think they’re the same thing. But there’s a fundamental difference between headshots and brand photography that changes everything about how your audience perceives you. One simply shows your face. The other tells your story. What Headshots Are Actually For A headshot has one job: identification. Think of it […]

Alyson Stoner dancing with a red umbrella on a Brooklyn rooftop during a personal brand photoshoot by Nick Onken

TL;DR – What You’ll Learn in This Post You Are the Brand If you’re still hiding behind your offer… If you’re still using a cropped wedding photo for your headshot… If you’re still telling yourself you need to “figure it all out first”… Let this be your permission slip: You are the face of your […]

Tattoo artist Balazs preparing his tools in studio as part of a creative ceremonial tattoo session

TLDR | What You’ll Learn in This Post This Wasn’t Just a Tattoo I’ve wanted a tattoo from Balazs for years. Not because he’s popular, but because I knew this guy was channeling something real. When the time finally aligned, I didn’t just walk into a session. I stepped into a portal. The Intention: A […]

Entrepreneur being photographed in a curated natural light space, styled for brand authority and emotional presence

If you’re an entrepreneur, your personal brand isn’t just a logo — it’s your face, your energy, and the story you’re telling in every scroll. So when it comes to choosing a personal brand photographer, you don’t need someone who just “takes nice pictures.” You need someone who knows how to translate your identity into […]

Elevated personal brand client standing in a design-forward modern home filled with natural light and styled with intention

TL;DR – What You’ll Learn in This Post Your Location Isn’t Background — It’s Identity Where you shoot isn’t just about what looks cool. It’s about resonance. It’s about embodiment. It’s about visually designing a space that holds your energy. “Your brand visuals don’t just show who you are — they show the world you […]

Personal brand client in a curated studio setting, captured mid-movement during an Elevated Realism™ photoshoot

A personal brand is not your logo. It’s not your colors. It’s not just your website. Your personal brand is the perception people have of you when you’re not in the room — shaped by your presence, your visuals, your voice, and how consistently you embody your values. It’s who you are and who you’re […]

Creative entrepreneur enjoying morning sunlight through a large studio window, surrounded by curated objects that reflect a creative lifestyle

TL;DR – What You’ll Learn in This Post Your Brand Isn’t a Feed — It’s a Frequency We’ve all seen it: the influencer with polished photos but no soul. The brand that feels like a mask. That’s not personal branding — that’s performance. A real personal brand? It’s how you live. It’s what you do […]

Personal brand client looking out over a vast landscape, symbolizing expansion and self-leadership through identity

A Brand Isn’t Just a Logo — It’s a Mirror Your personal brand isn’t a website, a color palette, or a polished grid. It’s an evolving expression of who you are — and who you’re becoming. More than that, it’s a container. A space that calls you to rise. To embody your message. To stay […]

Nick Onken photographing a client mid-movement during a personal brand photoshoot with studio light and expressive storytelling energy

Let’s put it this way: If you want stiff headshots in a gray suit against a beige wall — probably not. If you want a photoshoot that feels like an editorial spread, emotional breakthrough, and creative awakening all in one — then yes. Nick Onken is very good at what he does. What Makes Nick […]

A side-by-side comparison of a dull, flat brand photo next to an expressive, vibrant Elevated Realism™ image

Most First-Time Brand Shoots Miss the Mark — Here’s Why If you’re preparing for your first brand photoshoot, you’re likely focused on the obvious: outfits, lighting, maybe even the perfect smile. But what actually makes a photoshoot land is much deeper — and most people don’t know what to look for. And unfortunately, that’s why most first-time […]

About the Blogger

I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here. 

I was born in a low middle class conservative religious family in the suburbs of Seattle. Art was and always has been my passion, and more than that a way of life. Starting as a graphic designer, I taught myself photography, built a commercial/editorial business shooting for the worlds biggest brands like Nike, Coca-Cola, Adidas and more. I've also had the opportunity to photograph the world's biggest celebrities like Justin Bieber, Usher, Jessica Alba and more. I've curated a lifestyle around creativity and have learned a lot along the way which I get to share here. 

NICK'S STORY