The Art of Personal Branding-From the Inside Out

Working with your true essence

 Working with your true essence

The two core personal branding strategies you need to know

Finding Your Core Self

Establishing Your True Comfort Zone

How your personal brand emerges from this inner work

Interpreting the results from you core personal banding strategies

Building Your Personal Brand

Your action steps

How we can help

There are two core personal branding strategies that are key to maximising your influence and impact. They are not the conventional concepts that you will find in most personal branding strategy advice. The conventional method is to use a string of adjectives to describe how you would like your personal brand to be perceived. A great exercise in and of itself it, it does not get to the very core of who you are.

Based on the work by Carla Mathis, one of only a handful of certified Image Masters worldwide, with whom I have personally trained one-to-one in her studio in Los Angeles. There is way of gaining absolute clarity about who you are at your core. This method does away with unconscious bias and environmental conditioning that we are all subject to. From our upbringing, culture, schooling, friends, family, society and now social media.

The two core personal branding strategies you need to know

The first is to build a personal brand from the very core of who you are. This will help you to be consistent and congruent in your appearance, behaviour and communication.

The second is to find and work from your own authentically true comfort zone. Boosting your integrity and trustworthiness amongst colleagues, clients, stakeholders and the public. The conventional use of the term comfort zone I find is more a description of where you habitually “reside”. A familiar place from which you emanate everything that you think you should be and think that you should stand for.

It will be easier to maintain the consistency, congruency, and clarity that your personal brand deserves. As you radiate authenticity and let your uniquely inherent qualities shine through.

Core Personal Branding Strategy
#1: Finding Your Core Self

1. Start with considering the things that you find visually pleasing. Consider which scenes you lovein nature, architecture, interior design and at. You could make a simple private pinterest board online or pint them off and compile a file. You can keep addinfg to this. In no time at all you will have a cohesive visual display of the the things your heart and soul find aesthetically pleasing.

2. Next note the reasons you love these particular images. Write down two to three words alongside each image. This could be to do with the colours and shapes, or the feelings and emotions they evoke. A theme or pattern will slowly begin to emerge. Like the flowing movement of dancers or a coast line. Or it could be the opulence of gold interiors. It could be the fun of fountains and onion domes. The dominace of mountains and strength of strong architectural designs. You get the idea.

3. Record your natural walk and talk. A strategy implemented by Edith Head, eight time oscar winner for costume design. This will reveal your natural manner and your inherent nature. A soft delicate voice versus a deep strong voice. A sprightly walk versus slow and deliberate footsteps.

4. Think of the clothing aesthetic that you love. Again this will show you textures, colours, styles, designs, and accessories that you have a natural affinity with. Be sure to make a note of the things you would never ever be found wearing.

Core Personal Branding Strategy
#2: Establishing Your True Comfort Zone

Your visual identity, voice and energy will become apparent through these soul searching exercises. Your mood board, example below, will give you the visuals and words you need that you know for sure are coming from the deepest centre of your inherent core.

Here’s a couple of useful links for creating mood boards online: https://milanote.com/ or https://www.pinterest.co.uk

In this way you will find your true comfort zone. A place from which you will flourish. A solid foundation from which to promote your skills and expertise. The natural flow of consistency, congruency, and communication from a place that you are comfortable is priceless. 

An authentic, congruent, consistent personal brand can emerge. From the visual identity exercise you can choose the font that you would implement in your on and offline marketing. The colours that you would use and the secondary and possible even tertiary elements.

How your personal brand emerges from this inner work

Taking the design lines, colours and words from the exercise in our example above would suggest using a bold and no nonsense font, no cursive writing. A substantial design in the marketing materials, using deep and warm colours. The tone could be friendly as there are cute elements within that board. With your dress style being city chic and sometimes smart casual at the appropriate time. You can see how your main elements are effortlessly dove-tailed into your complete brand image.

Your true comfort zone is a place from which you can build your personal brand. You will be able to let your personal traits and characteristics shine. Find the words that personify you the best. These could be anything from go-getter to calm and laid back, proactive to creative, thinker to influencer.

Choose between three to five words and add them to your mood board such as where you are when you are at your happiest and most fulfilled moments. Identify what inspires you the most. Really spend time away to reflect without interruption or other influences.

Interpreting the results from you core personal banding strategies

Your tone of communication for your personal brand message will be congruent with your inner essence. You will be able to choose the best social media platforms that enhance your natural flair. Marketing Personalities makes use of the Meyers Briggs Personality Types to identify which marketing techniques and social media platform would suit you the most. Brit Kolo from marketingpersonalities.com claims that

“you matter more than your ideal client avatar” 

Make use of psychological and psychometric tests to get to know yourself better. DISC which measures traits of dominance, influence, steadiness and compliance/conscientiousness; Meyers Briggs with the 16 personality types and the 12  Jungian Brand Archetypes. Whilst these are great tools beware of becoming overly rigid in compartmentalising yourself, they are great tools when used with care and can give you a sense of direction, remember there is always the exception to the rule and you are always evolving. 

Building Your Personal Brand

Upon this foundation of your core identity you can build your personal brand. Begin by feeling the mood and emotions intrinsically linked to who you are.

If your personal brand was represented by one piece of music, or a book, or a car, or an outfit, what would it be?

Woking from your core and natural comfort zone you can choose the marketing strategies and personal branding strategies that will complement your natural style the most. Maximising your natural strengths. Everything will become second nature. You will no longer be forcing yourself to do what the latest marketing guru has determined you should. The whole framework of what you are doing changes. 

Acknowledge and understand the stories of your life that have shaped you into the person you are today and you can market yourself from a place of familiarity and strength. With that insight you will find the inspiration to make the impact you desire. Marketing from the soul essence of who you are at your very core and your natural comfort zone

Your action steps

1. Schedule time out with no. distractions and create a mind map with you at the centre and brainstorm the things you love, that you connect with on a deep soul level and makes sure to ask yourself and note why.

2. Create a mood board of the things you find visually pleasing in nature, architecture, interior design, art, places, clothes, fabrics, patterns  and make a note of exactly why.

3. Make a collage of all the fashion, colours and styles you love without limiting them to what you think you know about your body shape or anything else you’ve heard from family, friends or the media.

4. Take the free Meyers Briggs, DISC, and Brand Archetype tests to gain a better understanding of your own psychology. It will help you to select the optimum personal branding strategies for you.

5. Assess the moments your performed your best. What were you wearing? What was the subject matter? Was it something close to your heart that you had a natural affinity with? Which foundational principles were you working with? Elements from your core self or from your newly identified true comfort zone?

How we can help

If you need more clarity or not sure where to get started take a look at our signature programme Personal Brand Power