How to start branding yourself

Alright, so we talked about the overall guiding principle about your “personal brand” and how it should align around a visualization of what your prospects want. If you missed it, re-read the last issue here. It’s pretty important.

But, now let’s move into the matter of mechanics. As in… HOW do you work this brand into everything you do? How do you communicate it?

Most people launch right into things like the logo… the tagline… yada yada. We’ll get to that later, but as you can see I really want to think about t he bigger picture first otherwise none of this really matters.

Your brand is (or should be) a part of everything you put online.

That includes your blog design, your actual blog posts, your social media posts, your tweets… everything.

Because your brand is WHO you are. It might be a strategically designed version of who you are (as we discussed from Frank Kern), but it is still YOU. And if it is YOU who is communicating out to the world online, then that YOU should carry through everything just naturally.

I think a useful first step to all this is to first line out exactly WHO YOU ARE.

Might sound weird or woo-woo, but all I mean is to line out those aspects of you which align or back up the image and mood that you’ve determined your brand should have. And you write down what those things are.

Create a document. Write down the visualization that symbolizes the end of the transformation you’re in the business of delivering. What does that look like?

Then, start writing down aspects of you that align with it. Think things you do, backstories, images, photos perhaps. Think about the mood and tone of your brand.

If we look at the Blog Marketing Academy, I discussed how the whole RV traveling aspect of my life ties right into the transformation I deliver through my business. So, anything with regard to that aspect of my life could tie into my brand. Images of us doing that would work.

As for tone, I’m naturally a pretty laid back kinda dude. So, that’s also part of my overall brand message. I want the BMA brand to be easy, approachable, laid back. I use colors to help with that (which we’ll discuss coming up).

Let’s change gears to other people besides me…

If you were in the natural health or weight loss kind of market, you’d want to have a brand which matches the end of the transformation. You’d want to personally personify that image in order to be congruent. Put bluntly, if you’re overweight and out of shape yourself, you’ve got a branding problem.

If you were a mom blogger, then the branding is simple. Be a mom. Images and mood of such a thing present themselves, really.

If you were in the personal development space, then again you should find out how best to personify the end of the transformation. Not only with images and message, but also personally.

Think about the TONE of your brand, too. And it really helps if it is congruent with how you are normally. Are you naturally the class clown? Well perhaps humor should be a bit part of your branding. For instance, I know one lady in the RV blogging space who is just naturally funny. And when she’s out there making content, she is lighthearted and funny about the RV life. She’ll make fun of dumping the tanks, for instance.

It comes down to BEING THE PART.

You’ve gotta be congruent with who your customers are trying to become. You’ve gotta actually be that part. You can’t fake it. You can’t really hide it. It needs to be real… and if you’re currently having to hide because of incongruence, then that’s something you’ve gotta deal with.

But, to begin the matter of mechanics… you should create a document to start making those notes of WHO YOU ARE. What’s the message of your brand? What’s the mood? What’s the imagery? What stories back up the brand?

More to come. Stay tuned.

Because I know some people get confused about those parts of them which are NOT congruent with the brand. We’ll talk about that next.

– David