Branding yourself: The ultimate guide to effective personal branding
Is branding yourself the right avenue for your business? Is your personal brand as effective as it could be? Read on for the ultimate guide to effective personal branding.
The lights dim. A hush falls over the audience. As the curtain opens, a blinding light falls on your face. There is no one on stage but you, and everyone is watching. Starting a personal brand can feel like stepping out onto an empty stage with an audience watching your every move. It’s vulnerable! While you may have friends, employees, or partners in a supporting role, the words on the Playbill are your name. It’s your show. Your business is built on the ideas and mission of no one but you. It’s empowering and intimidating all at once. So: how do you give the performance of a lifetime—one that draws in your audience, tells your story, and moves people to want to work with you? Keep reading!
Who Needs a Personal Brand, Anyway?
Everyone and their sister has a personal brand in a sense. The clothes you wear, the music you listen to, the way you speak, and your Instagram feed usually have some level of cohesion that makes them essentially you. But of course, those things alone aren’t enough to turn your personal brand into a business. And before you do that, you need to be sure that branding yourself is actually the right avenue for your business.
A personal brand can allow you to connect with your clients and customers in a human, high-touch way. It can lead to a level of celebrity and create a beautiful legacy.
A personal brand is a business that is centered on the expertise of one person and has a key outcome that it offers to its customers. Think Brené Brown, Gary Vaynerchuk, Bill Nye, Martha Stewart, or Dave Ramsey. Personal brands work across a wide range of industries. Let’s play a word association game with each of the people I just mentioned.
I say, “Brené Brown,” you say vulnerability.
I say “Gary V,” you say hustle.
I say “Bill Nye,” you say science guy. (my fellow 90s kids didn’t even hesitate!)
I say “Martha Stewart,” you say homemaking.
I say “Dave Ramsey,” you say financial freedom.
This list shows that personal brands work best when they do two things:
They teach people how to achieve a specific outcome
The person behind them exemplifies that outcome.
So, as you’re discerning whether or not your brand should be a personal one, ask yourself these questions:
1. Do I have something to teach?
Generally speaking, personal brands teach; product brands sell. Of course, there is some overlap here, but the central offering of a personal brand is teaching, guiding, and coaching, often in the form of books, online courses, coaching, or keynote speeches. Do you have a story and a message that you can’t help but share? Do you find yourself talking to your friends about one specific topic? If so, you have something to teach!
2. Do I help people achieve a specific outcome?
In order to have a personal brand that brings in revenue, you have to get clear on the specific outcome you help people achieve. Teaching a specific outcome like “financial freedom” or “effective digital marketing” is the determining factor that can turn your personal brand into a thriving business.
3. Do I exemplify that outcome?
It goes without saying that as a personal brand, you need to empathize with your ideal client’s problem and embody the outcome you’re helping other people achieve. If you’re a confidence coach, your clients will expect that you have mastered a level of confidence. If you’re a financial guru, they’ll expect that you’ve achieved financial success. This is where your personal story comes in—it will be something that you share on your website, on podcasts, and on social media in order to connect with the right audience. Having a relatable story will create a strong bond with the people you’re hoping to reach, and you’ll know you’re ready for building a personal brand (and that you’re building the right one) when your life is aspirational for your clients.
4. Am I comfortable with visibility?
There are a whole lot of people who love the idea of having a personal brand, but when push comes to shove, they would rather work behind the scenes than take the stage. Having a personal brand and a big following is ultra-trendy in the age of Instagram Influencers and YouTubers—but it doesn’t work for everyone. As the face of your brand, you’ll have to be comfortable with being seen. (Or you’ll have to be really good at pushing through stage fright!) That means everything from video shoots and speaking to writing and being active on social media. While you can hire people to help you with all of those things, the business is still based on YOU. That means you’ll need to be the one generating ideas and being on camera. Be honest with yourself: Do you have the inspiration, confidence, time, and drive to be the face of your business?
It’s important here to note that your business can be named after you without being a personal brand. Take Lilly Pullitzer, for example. It’s her name, but it’s a product-based business. Or if you’re a graphic designer, you may use your first and last name for your LLC, but you’re not the central offering of your brand—your design work is. With Author Brand Studio, I made a conscious choice to create a brand that was separate from me and not attached to my name so that I could expand my team and function as an agency.
Clarifying the purpose of your personal brand
If I asked you what your business mission is, vague answers like: “I empower women to find their purpose,” while a lovely idea, isn’t specific enough. One-liners like: “I help women over 40 find their second career” are much clearer.
Ready to brand yourself with purpose and find your one-liner? Answer these three questions.
1. What do you do?
Most people when starting their personal brand try to do too much and be known for too many things. If a new visitor on your website can’t understand exactly what you’re going to do for them in five seconds, they’ll leave. It’s far more effective to become known for ONE thing, at least as you’re getting started. Once you build trust and a loyal following in a niche, you can slowly expand your brand to include more offerings, without losing that one key thing. It’s crucial to anchor yourself in the minds of your potential audience, because as soon as you go beyond one thing, they won’t remember anything that you do! Use this formula: I ____ about ____. I teach an online course about Facebook Ads, for example. Get clear on both your topic (that one word people should immediately associate with you) and the medium(s) you use to teach about that topic.
Jenna Kutcher is a great example of this. She started offering something specific — photography — then photography education. After that, she transitioned to being a digital marketing guru. She tells you clearly what she's here to offer, and while she has a variety of offerings (podcast, blog, freebies, etc.) they all revolve around some central themes. She's built an audience at every stage, and they've often grown with her. I still get lots of Instagram ads for her latest email marketing training, so she's offering me something specific, not just "Hey girl, wanna change your life and find your purpose?" She also knows that her niche is female business owners in their 20s-30s who want to multiply their marketing efforts. Because of this intentionality, she’s been able to create an empire—she has over 1 million Instagram followers!
2. Who do you do it for?
I want all the details! How old are the people you help? What’s their gender identity? What problem are they trying to solve? What are their dreams? What gets in their way? Once you have an answer that sounds as specific as “women in their twenties who are burnt out at their jobs,” you’re onto something.
3. Why does it matter to them?
Remember that specific outcome we talked about earlier? It’s time to figure out the root of why people want to achieve the outcome you’re promising. What is the desire or need that your business fulfills? What does your brand do on an emotional or psychological level for your clients? Maybe you’re helping those 20-something women move through professional burnout so that they can create a career that plays on their unique strengths. Maybe you are helping busy suburbanites learn how to plant a thriving vegetable garden so that they can reconnect with nature and become healthier as a family. My best tip here is to keep asking “why”—eventually you will find the core need you are meeting!
Branding yourself for your audience
Find Your Archetype
When branding yourself, the first thing to determine is your brand archetype. Full disclosure, I’m totally obsessed with brand archetypes. Neuroscience shows that consumers primarily make purchasing decisions through their subconscious mind, which is tied to emotional connection. This means brands that develop a strong personal, emotional relationship with their audiences are the most memorable and successful—and brand archetypes are a helpful framework for creating a distinct brand persona.
There are twelve of them, and they’re sort of like the Enneagram or Myers Briggs—but for your business. Here’s the quick list: Innocent, Everyman, Hero, Outlaw, Explorer, Creator, Ruler, Magician, Lover, Caregiver, Jester, and Sage. Check out my favorite resource for brand archetypes to learn more! A quick Google search will help you to figure out what your personal brand archetype is and how that informs the branding decisions you make. There are several other brand personality frameworks, so if you’re not loving brand archetypes, you can find a myriad of ways to humanize your personal brand for a deeper connection to your audience.
Hone your aesthetic
Once you have the foundational purpose and archetype of your personal brand, it’s time to make branding aesthetic decisions based on your audience. When you’re branding yourself, this can feel counterintuitive. Shouldn’t I make branding decisions based on what I like? you ask. While there may be a good amount of overlap between the colors and brand voice you like, your primary goal is to draw your ideal clients to you. I love all things Victorian and floral for example, but my ideal clients are bold entrepreneurs wanting to level up their branding. That’s why Author Brand Studio has bold fonts and bright blue rather than script fonts and rosy pink. Your brand voice will probably sound like you, but it will also be the kind of voice your ideal client resonates with. (Check out this blog for a step-by-step on building a brand voice that will magnetize your ideal client to you!) Creating a personal brand isn’t like decorating a home where you choose things based on what you like and what has sentimental value to you. Ultimately, every part of your personal brand—from your product names to the colors, fonts, and brand voice you choose—should appeal to your audience, not just have meaning for you. That doesn’t mean that you can’t be the Elle Woods of your industry though—your personality and style can set you apart from the humdrum of every other brand in your niche.
Work with a personal branding pro
When you’re building a personal brand, objective feedback is invaluable. At Author Brand Studio, we don’t just do design and website-building (even though that’s part of it.) We also provide foundational consultations to help you identify your niche. When people first come to us, they’re often drawing in clients that aren’t ideal, or they’re only reaching a fraction of the potential of their business. Usually, we find a lack of clarity around branding as the culprit, and our proven process helps translate who you are and what you do into a brand with offerings that your ideal client can’t resist. Doing this kind of work first can save you thousands of dollars, avoiding branding that doesn’t work and skipping right to the good part of a thriving personal brand. Ready to start your journey? The first consultation is free! Schedule a call with me.
