We’re in a day and age where people are tired of corporate greed, inauthenticity, and phoney personas. People are craving real, genuine connections with people. Businesses or otherwise.
How often are you scrolling your feed, and straight up ignoring the “helpful tips”, educational instagram posts, or promotion based posts because you just, don’t have the bandwidth to take that in right now. Because you’re tired of being talked at and instructed.
We’re in a day and age where people are tired of corporate greed, inauthenticity, and phoney personas. People are craving real, genuine connections with people. Businesses or otherwise.
How often are you scrolling your feed, and straight up ignoring the “helpful tips”, educational instagram posts, or promotion based posts because you just, don’t have the bandwidth to take that in right now. Because you’re tired of being talked at and instructed.
Personally, I have days where I’m scrolling through Instagram, and I’ll see an educational post, as one of the first posts I see. I have an almost visceral reaction and just don’t want to be on the app anymore. I just want to have fun on this app sometimes, not be taught all of the time.
And I know I’m not the only one.
Think about when Threads first came out, if you were a part of that. This time was incredibly reminiscent of old twitter and facebook. People just having a good time, not caring about what they’re saying, and just talking about their day. No promotions. Just general, casual posting.
People were posting to post, and to share their thoughts, beliefs, and feelings. There wasn’t an agenda or strategy behind posting. And this fostered genuine connections and interactions with people.
That’s what people are missing. So if you’re solely focused on selling and educating in your marketing - how will people get to know you? When, after all, they’re working with YOU.
I’m switching up my instagram tactics, and moving away from so many educational posts. I’m focusing on creating content that CONNECTS and INSPIRES my audience to take action. Because as a consumer - I’m never actually implementing the things that I’m reading on social media. I save them, sure. But they pretty much go in a graveyard of saved tips and recommendations.
Think about tik tok. For me, that platform is purely entertainment. Every now and then I see some really cool tutorials for stuff, but I’m not being talked at, or educated. I’m just having a good time and watching funny videos.
I bet you will see that your IG reels do far better when they’re entertaining, than when they’re purely educational. The owners of a business always have more followers than the business itself. Look at Kim Kardashian and Skims, for example. While Skims has 5.8 million followers, Kim has 364 million followers.
There’s a reason for all of this. People want to talk to and connect with PEOPLE, not brands or businesses.
A personal brand is a brand that has more personality and flare infused into it’s strategy than a purely strategic and market based brand.
These brands often have a “face”, or are a one-person show. So if you’re a one person service provider, maker, etc… you have a more personal brand. People see YOU, interact with YOU, and get to know YOU.
The flip side of this is a business that has a team (like, 5+) or is more of that corporate sort of energy. There may be a CEO, and they may be the spokesperson of the brand, but you’re not only interacting with them. They like to keep a more “professional” appeal and don’t infuse nearly as much personality.
As you’re evaluating where you fall on this spectrum, keep in mind that not every business has the same level of application of personality in their marketing, and it is important to recognize that it’s not the same for every brand.
Again, this is sort of a spectrum.
For example, let’s look at a standard, corporate law firm. This type of business will have the least amount of personality woven into their brand, if any at all. They’re very focused on being perceived as professional, reliable, and trustworthy. It would not be appropriate for them to suddenly have a very casual tone of voice in their messaging, or post super entertaining content, or have a really bright, bold, fun logo.
But if we look at a copywriter, we’re going to want a lot more personality infused in their brand compared to the corporate law firm. A copywriter is going to want to engage with their audience more and spend more time and energy connecting with their target audience in a more personal, relatable way. This copywriter can still be based in strategy despite bringing out more personality, as we want to make sure they are standing out amongst the crowd in the right ways.
However, there is still a bit more separation between their full blown personality and their brand, especially depending on if they are more of a team than just 1 person.
Now, looking at a photographer, we want even MORE personality. A lot of their branding is reflective of their editing style, which is typically also derived from their personality. A bright and bubbly photographer will likely have a bright and airy editing style, while a more bold and grunge photographer will likely have a more moody editing style.
For example, a “bright and airy” styled photographer may have more pastels, neutrals, and softer or simpler elements in their branding. Whereas a “bold and grunge” photographer may have darker, bolder colors in their palette, unique typography, and more textured elements in their branding.
If you’ve worked with a photographer before (or are one), you know how important the level of trust is between the photographer and a client. This person is taking pictures of someone, which can be a very vulnerable thing for some individuals. It is really important for a photographer to be able to connect with their audience and potential clients to be able to begin establishing this trust early on. The more that your personality can be infused into your brand, your audience will be able to get a true sense of who you are before booking a call or inquiring to work with you.
How will they know who you are or how you’re different, if your visuals and messaging are all stale and the same as everyone else?
Regardless of how much personality is infused in your brand, we still want to do the strategic work FIRST to figure out where you fit in your market. What kind of personalities do your competitors have? How do they showcase that within their brand? What colors and visuals are your competitors using in their branding?
Analyzing these aspects helps us know how you can stand out, where we can infuse more or less personality compared to your competitors, and which aspects of your personality we want to highlight in your brand and messaging.
One of the reasons that it’s so important to have your personality as part of your brand if you are sort of a more personal brand/business, is because that is what is natural to you, since it’s literally a part of who you are.
If you find that you literally hate a certain color and despise it with all of your being - you’re never going to be wearing it, and you’ll be less inclined to use it in your marketing. So we wouldn’t want to make that color one of your brand colors. It wouldn’t actually be used in an effective way since you hate it, and no one will associate it with you. So if they see it on your website, they’ll be confused with what you’re subliminally conveying through your color palette on your site vs. your social media marketing. It’s not going to match.
But if you’re constantly speaking a certain way, or wearing a certain color when you talk to people, it would make sense to them to see that in your branding and messaging if that’s already what they associate with you and your brand.
It really doesn’t need to be some super complicated way of infusing your personality. Think simple - what are you naturally already doing that you can incorporate into your brand to create more consistency with your audience?
For example - can you maybe speak or voice note your captions before you write them so that they sound more like you? Can you get photos taken of you that show more of your personality, interests, and quirks? Can you show more of yourself on your IG stories and your website?
These are some really simple, easy ways to add more personality into your brand without going through a whole brand refresh, if you’re not quite ready for that yet.
You’ve likely come to this decision because you’ve been playing small. Right?
You have these huge enormous goals (that almost feel unattainable at times), but the constant struggle of sharing your website or creating graphics or having people see your brand, when it just doesn’t feel like you anymore, is getting old fast.
You’re having conversations with people and booking clients, but something in your business just feels OFF because you’re just not the person you were when you first started your business as a fun hobby or passion project.
You want so much MORE in your life and business, but you feel so limited by what your brand is providing for you. You feel stuck in where you’re at. It’s like your current brand and web presence just don’t have the space for the growth you’ve been experiencing.
In your head, you’re already at that next level. But when someone asks about your website that is severely outdated and just doesn’t feel like you anymore, you shrink back to a smaller version of you. And when you’re in this space of growth and mindset work, you’re highly sensitive of the things in your life and business that are holding you back from your growth.
But your business isn’t supposed to be holding you back. It’s supposed to be propelling your forward!
So maybe it’s not that you need to throw out your whole business, burn it all down and start from scratch, or pivot entirely. Maybe you just need to find a bigger space to grow in. Maybe it’s time to grow, in a bigger pot. You’re in this for the long haul, and you have dreams that you’re trying to create. So don’t let a pot that’s too small limit how much you can achieve, and how big you can become.
Your business is this pot. If it feels too small and limiting, then maybe it’s time to switch things up! Maybe you need to stop limiting how much of yourself you put out there, and just be who you are and accept who comes and goes. If your personality repels people - that’s okay! Because that means you wouldn’t have worked well together anyways.
This same thing applies to your branding. Infusing your personality into your branding SHOULD repel the people that you are not able to work with. We want your brand, infused with your personality, to attract your DREAM clients and customers. The ones who hype you up, who keep coming back, who refer you to others, who speak your name.
THAT’s who we want to attract. And infusing more of your personality into your brand will do that! Think about how CONFIDENT you’ll feel, when you have a brand identity and a website that actually feel like you, that feel expansive, that give you ideas. And that confidence is what will help you MARKET your business, and promote your brand, and try new things that you weren’t comfortable doing before.
I’m working with a client right now who told me that when she received her original branding, she was excited, but pretty meh about it. It looked professional, got the job done, but that was about it. But the brand concept that she has been given after our work together? Completely different reaction. She feels excited, but on a whole new level. She’s literally obsessed with her brand and wants to show it off to everyone already. She has new ideas for how she can expand her business, she feels CONNECTED to her brand.
And that’s how everyone should feel about their brand.
You should never feel “meh” or neutral about your brand, especially if you are a personal brand. You deserve to feel amped, excited, OBSESSED with your brand.
Take this as your permission slip to acknowledge and place your feelings with your brand. It does not matter if you have a “close connection” to the person who did your brand/website. It does not matter if it was done 6 months ago or 5 years ago. If you don’t love your brand, or your website, you have every right to change it. You do not “owe” your previous designer anything. You’ve already paid them. You’re allowed to move on. They can still use it as a portfolio piece, whether it’s actively in use or not.
You come first. If you are not happy with your brand, please, I beg of you, work on finding the right designer who can not only help you create a brand that you’re obsessed with, but can help you feel excited, and obsessed about your business again.
I want to extend the invitation to you. If you’ve been feeling this way about your business, I encourage you to book a free, zero obligation discovery call with me. We will chat about your business, get to know each other, and talk about the magic that we can create together for your brand and website.
I have limited project spots available each month. Once you’re ready, we’ll get you in.
I just want every single business owner to be able to geek out about their brand, and feel excited to use it and show it off, and have a website that you’re obsessed with and want to show everyone.
Because you deserve that as much as anyone else does.
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