Every creator’s journey is full of landmarks. It could be the first time you wrote a poem, the first time you finally figured out a code for a big project, or the first time someone admired your singing, and you realized, “wow, maybe I’m good at this.” Regardless of the phase you are in now, there comes a point where you decide to open up and transform your creativity from a personal experience to a shared one.
At this moment, thoughts spiral and you ask yourself: How do I best present my work? How do I want to be recognized? How do I want to be remembered?
The idea of transitioning your creative work into a ‘brand’ can often be intimidating, but developing your personal brand can be a great way to unlock opportunities, discover collaborations, and broaden the reach of your work.
You might be wondering...what is it about a personal brand that separates it from other brands? The answer - you.
📍Identify Your Identity
Before starting, it's important to clear your mind and dive into a brainstorming session. Be introspective. Be open. Have no bounds!
Think about your personal ethos and purpose. Freely and instinctively write down the values and vibes that you want to project. This can be a whole page, a paragraph, a line, or even one word. Putting your thoughts down on paper can help you find the direction for your personal brand.
Be specific. Adam Smiley Poswoldky, author of The Breakthrough Speaker, directs his readers to “carve a niche, and then carve a niche within your niche. The best personal brands are very specific.” Focus on what makes you, you and highlight that unique edge in your personal brand. But also, you don’t have to have a niche, and if you do, by no means are you bound by it!
Tell your story! Because your personal brand is a reflection of yourself, the story of the moment, the people, or the place that sparked your creative spirit is an important one to tell. Don’t be afraid to break down your walls and be vulnerable! The courage and intimacy that you bring is what will create a connection between you and the person viewing your work. The more open you are, the greater the impact that you will be able to make.
👁 Visualize the Vibe
This is your opportunity to experiment, envision and engage.
Paint a picture! Make mood boards, mind maps, pinterest boards, physical sketches, or color themes. Find any visuals that fuel the inspiration behind your brand and use them to inspire your brand’s uniqueness.
Create your visual identity. Every brand has a color or a logo that makes them distinct, so find the sketches, patterns and images that reflect who you are and use them to represent your niche. Leave no stone left unturned! Try out collages or hand-drawn sketches, and experiment with singularity as well as combinations. Your creativity here knows no limits.
Focus on the big picture. Keep reminding yourself of your purpose and motivation and let that guide you in designing the visual elements of the brand. Between all the color and chaos, don’t lose sight of what your message really is. I recently spoke to Katie Tracy, a Youtuber and former Co-President of CC, who told me that growing up in the Philippines, she loved the summer-all-year-long vibe and wanted to bring that energy into her vlogs. While she experimented with patterns and themes in the beginning, she found that she kept coming back to bright and tropical colors because they were reflections of herself and the warm, friendly and approachable experience that she wanted her brand to radiate.
Enjoy the process. The process of watching your thoughts come to life in patterns and pictures does not happen everyday. Immerse yourself in the journey and love every part of it.
⚓️ Find Your Platform
Build the right foundation to trace your creative journey and establish your short-term and long-term goals.
Short Term Goals:
Define and know your audience. Be aware of who you are most likely to reach and develop your brand with that in mind.
Build your online presence. You can make a website, start a wordpress blog, grow on Instagram, start a Youtube channel, or even all of the above. Find the platform(s) that feel the most natural for your voice and your form of creative expression. Katie reflected, “people should pay attention to what kind of content they consume because I think the best content to create is similar to what you enjoy consuming.” She highlighted how creators could start on platforms that they themselves spend the most time on. With a strong sense of familiarity with the app, the creator will know what styles they can experiment with, as well as what works.
Long Term Goals:
Expand your outreach on multiple socials. Be sure to keep your message and your vibe consistent on all forums. This will help in people identifying and recognizing you!
Collaborate! Work with other creators so that you can plug one another and help grow each other’s reach.
✨ Stay Consistent and Grow
As you go about this long journey, remember to take healthy breaks every now and then, as it’s easy to get obsessive with social media. However, aim to steadily post on or generate activity around your personal brand. Keep your followers engaged and active!
Always remember to keep evolving. Embrace your personal growth and reflect that in the brand. Reinventing it as you grow will not only make it more interesting for those that follow your work, but will also fuel your motivation as a creator.
When I asked Katie for one final piece of advice for anyone starting a personal brand, she said “the start is always the hardest, but this is where you have to push through and keep reminding yourself why you are doing this. I always think about how I’m so grateful to my 13-year-old self for starting YouTube because I see my own growth through my channel and how it started.”
Feel free to pick and choose which elements of this list you want to experiment with, but always remember that your personal brand is yours.
Keep reflecting, expressing and creating!
Sasha
CC Writer
Sasha is a sophomore in Arts and Sciences from Pakistan majoring in Government. She is a content writer for CC but also loves playing guitar and writing on her blog.
Did this blog post supercharge your creativity? ⚡
We hope so. And we can’t wait to see what magic you make next. ✨
Take this email as the reason you’ve been searching for to dive into your next creative endeavor, and know that you’ve got a creative community backing you at every step of the way. 🙌
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