Create Your Personal Brand…then Be It!

  • 1 min read

I just finished writing my third book and included a section on branding. Putting it together was eye-opening because it forced me to think about my personal brand. After all, in telling other creative professionals how to innovate and advance their brands, I thought about whether I was following my own advice.

One thing I touched on were the components that make up a brand, mostly because it’s so hard to define a brand. It’s more than a logo or a website. It’s about emotion. It’s about loyalty.

That’s why it matters not only what you produce along with your brand, such as blog posts and collateral to represent yourself—it matters what you say as well. Literally. It goes beyond what you exude in your marketing efforts to the everyday.

Well, I want my clients to count on me for being straightforward in my business approach and in my writing. I think I’ve accomplished that one. Not only is my marketing collateral pretty succinct (I outline my business processes on my website so clients can get a feel for how I work), but I’m a pretty straightforward person to begin with. That carries over well for my brand because whether I’m doing a radio interview promoting my book, podcasting or simply talking to a prospect, it’s in my nature to be upfront.

That’s what you have to design your brand around—your innate characteristics. That way, whether a prospect sees your prepared collateral or catches you off-guard (say on the phone or at an event), you are your brand. No matter how you deliver it!

Author:

Kristen is a copywriter and author who enjoys what she does for a living. Kristen is also a Certified Professional Resume Writer. Kristen writes regularly for MediaBistro, SheKnows and FreelanceSwitch. She is a panelist on the biweekly, award-winning podcast FreelanceRadio. Kristen is the author of Ramen Noodles, Rent and Resumes: An After-College Guide to Life and her new book, It Takes More than Talent: Business Basics for the Creatively Inclined is due out in January 2013. She has been featured on NPR, CNN, MSNBC, and CareerBuilder; and also in the Boston Herald, the New Jersey Star-Ledger and in the Asbury Park Press.

Picture of Kristen Fischer

Kristen Fischer

TRENDING AROUND THE WEB

Behavioral scientists found that people who are drawn to big ideas, philosophical questions, and the inner lives of strangers share a specific trait with the most emotionally intelligent people ever studied — and it has nothing to do with IQ

Behavioral scientists found that people who are drawn to big ideas, philosophical questions, and the inner lives of strangers share a specific trait with the most emotionally intelligent people ever studied — and it has nothing to do with IQ

The Blog Herald
Psychology says people who regularly use these 7 phrases in conversation are much harder to be close to than they appear

Psychology says people who regularly use these 7 phrases in conversation are much harder to be close to than they appear

The Vessel
Psychology says people who educated themselves through reading, curiosity, and relentless self-study instead of formal institutions don’t think less rigorously — they think more originally, because they never learned which questions they weren’t supposed to ask

Psychology says people who educated themselves through reading, curiosity, and relentless self-study instead of formal institutions don’t think less rigorously — they think more originally, because they never learned which questions they weren’t supposed to ask

The Blog Herald
There’s a specific kind of person who everyone calls in a crisis and almost every one of them became that person not because they are naturally wise but because they grew up in a house where reading the room wasn’t something you did out of curiosity, it was something you did to survive

There’s a specific kind of person who everyone calls in a crisis and almost every one of them became that person not because they are naturally wise but because they grew up in a house where reading the room wasn’t something you did out of curiosity, it was something you did to survive

The Vessel
People who reach their 60s with the most energy, lightness, and ease almost always made these 8 quiet decisions in their 30s not because they were thinking about aging but because they were already paying attention to how they wanted to live

People who reach their 60s with the most energy, lightness, and ease almost always made these 8 quiet decisions in their 30s not because they were thinking about aging but because they were already paying attention to how they wanted to live

The Vessel
9 subtle signs a man has built his entire life around avoiding failure rather than pursuing what he actually wants

9 subtle signs a man has built his entire life around avoiding failure rather than pursuing what he actually wants

The Vessel
Load more
CATEGORIES
Explore