I am a branding expert. I’ve created brands for businesses and nonprofits. I’ve even created a brand for my own coffeehouse 100 years ago. Now, it’s time to create a personal brand for myself again, this time as a freelance brand strategist. And I am lost. I don’t know where to start. I don’t know who I am. Ironic, huh?
This one feels so much more personal than my coffeehouse, although that brand turned out to be very reflective of my personal style at the time. That was an accident. I’ve learned alot about branding since then and I don’t want to leave it to chance.
If you don’t know, a personal brand is a summary of who you are, what you do, your mission in life and/or work, the values you embrace, and the way you demonstrate those values. Just as a company’s brand helps to both communicate the value they bring to customers and stand out from the competition, my personal brand can do the same. In short, my brand is my story.
I know my story, obviously. I just don’t know what to share or why anyone would care.
However, I’ve written blogs on how to develop a personal brand and how you just follow the steps. So let’s just take my own advice and try this…
Step 1: Who am I?
What motivates me? Creativity, independence, peace, solitude, social impact
What are my strengths and weaknesses? This is a hard one for me. Ambition (both a strength and a weakness), perseverance, creativity, love of storytelling, self-doubt, imposter syndrome
In what work areas do I excel? Writing, strategic thinking, storytelling
What work drains my energy? Teamwork, repetitive writing like product descriptions, graphic design
What work environments do I work best in? Solitude!
What industries or sectors are the most interesting to me? Nonprofit social justice and social services; marketing agencies; women-led small businesses
What do I want to do right now? Make a living helping brands deliver relevant and meaningful content
What do I want to do in the future? Live at the beach making a living helping brands deliver relevant and meaningful content and drive social impact
Where do I want to be at the end of my career? Happy working for myself
What impact do I want to have? Driving positive results for my clients and making life better for women and girls
What do I want to be known for? Excellence and creativity
What strength or benefit do I offer that sets me apart from others? My experience, dedication to excellence, enthusiasm for storytelling, and creativity
Step 2: What is My Niche?
There is this cool exercise I’ve written about before where you start with a broad category you have experience in, such as marketing or software development. From there, narrow down the category at least three times until you land on the best niche for you. Here’s mine, I think:
Marketing → strategic brand marketing → brand content marketing → content marketing for B2B and agencies → content marketing for B2B and agencies through e-books, blogs and articles
This is the work I’ve been producing most often so I kind of fell into this niche. I like it. I’m good at it. But I would love to work with nonprofits and other social justice agencies to make more of an impact. I’m just not sure if I can make a living at that. Maybe I can do it on a pro bono basis.
Step 3: Who is My Target Audience?
Ok, this one is easy in terms of defining my current clients: B2B and agency leaders/marketers. The tougher question is where to find more of them. I’ve been lucky to find clients online so far through Upwork and national organizations like Together Digital. Now that I’m legit doing this full time, I’ll need to find other sources locally. Time to network!
Step 4: What Is My Value Proposition?
A value proposition is the one thing about yourself that offers value and sets you apart from others. It’s your promise of what you will deliver to your clients. Think of it as the headline for your LinkedIn profile. Right now, my headline is “Freelance Marketing Writer & Strategy Consultant/Digital & Traditional Marketing/Branding”. While it is correct, this is not at all personal to me. I need to work on it.
There are a couple more steps after this one but I need to stop and digest what I’ve done so far. This is a lot and I want it to be right. I feel like I’m missing something. More to come soon.
