12 Post Mini-Series: Exploration of the personal BRAND

The year was 2020 and the concept of Influencers was still popping up all over social media. If I don’t want to be an influencer, do I still need to have or be a BRAND? What does that mean for the regular folk? Is it, in fact, just an audio-visual resume? It is becoming more common and re-posting of memes and making snarky comments on Facebook is no longer cutting it. ⠀  ⠀
 
I have taken a course (on this in the future post) called Instagram 101 from a local Influencer just to see what it is like to work the Instagram, to better understand what it is all about, and I came out with some great new tidbits of info. During the class, I asked this question: “what if I do not have a business… how do I create a brand which might eventually become one?”. ⠀  ⠀
 
According to Goldie Chan, who writes for Forbes.com, having a brand is the difference between “Who are you?” and “Thank you for being here” in your career (perhaps, even life) and I am looking forward to exploring this concept.⠀  ⠀
 
✨Is the personal brand as important as the resume? ⠀ ⠀
✨Is it skin and bones behind future successes on social media?

Click here to get your free Complete Guide to Building Your Personal Brand! Just kidding; I am not there yet. Are you? Every time I google anything about a personal brand this is the first message that comes up. At which point in your social media ‘career’ do you need to focus on completing such a guide? Should this be a new built-in feature of @Instagram?
 
By the end of this 12 Post mini-series, I will have my brand guide. Most likely I will have an easy to check off guideline.  
 
Have you ever tried one of these guides? What would you recommend? Comment with your most useful info. Help me out with this conversation.
 
Until the next post, where I want to talk about CLAIMING YOUR NAME on social media, think about 3 things that your brand would consist of. Use the branding words included in the next slide for this exercise.
​

Step One: Claiming Your Name​

This is where the hard work begins because right from the start you need to lock in your own identity in the form of a name. You need to be searchable on the Internet. You are the maker of your dreams - make sure to get it right so your dreams know whom to follow.
 
The problem with claiming your name is sitting down and working through your insecurities, owning who you are or at least who you want to be, and making sure that the name you choose will become your self-curated social media identity.
 
Are you ready?
 
Just remember, there is only one YOU and you are unique!
 
*Pick the name
*Do your research to make sure that it is not being used
*Buy the domain (in case your business blooms)
*Have fun with it
*Always dream big and plan for the future
 
I mean look at my account, I created this name 10 years ago while writing a blog about living life during a recession. I still use it today @daysinnightsout because it supports my identity even though the circumstances have changed. 2020? Or have they?

Figuring out who you are.

This is one of the reasons why I wanted to explore social media as a way of building up my new identity. For those that are too young, for those that just spent years focusing on their babies, for those that just never bothered and now all of a sudden want to connect with new people, for those that started selling products on-line but don’t know where to start, for those older adults that have been stuck at home and realized that there is a whole tech-y world out here...
 
There are so many of us that just don’t know where to start!
 
It’s hard to figure out who you are on-line because first you need to figure out who you are.
 
@_happyasamother does a great job in asking the right questions in her post. Check it out on the next slide. 
 
Just remember that all your little quirks are your best accessories. 
 
Your life stories is what people want to learn about. You are who people want to follow. 
​

Step Two: create content with purpose
​

​You are working on figuring out where you stand, you are trying to research yourself and own your own name. The next step is to focus on what makes you feel passionate. Which of your stories do you want to share with the world. It doesn’t have to be the world! It can  just a few of your closes friends. 
 
What do you think your purpose is? 
 
Mine has been changing over the last few years... it’s been a mixture of struggling through the loneliness of mom-hood and slightly crippling anxiety to fining a place, a voice, and learning to take up more space as an empowered female. 
 
Everything changes when you are ready to trust your own power. The future is female. No, the future is yours. 
 
🌿I want you to find your happiness by finding delightful ✨snippets of yourself through love 💖 beauty💋 and technology🚀 so you could live your most ✨✨confident creative unforgettably joyful life✨✨. 
 
 
The beauty of Instagram is that it acts like a digital vision board... you put out what you want to see. You create, you share the most positive snippets of your days, and by doing so —> you attract, you magnetize, you ask for the things you crave and you will receive them.
 
Images are powerful. Step into your passion. 

Step Three: just do it!

You’ve claimed your name, you are figuring out your purpose, NOW is the time to just start. Changes are hard but exciting. Embrace the changes that you are making and your world will open up. 
 
Mine did! Two years ago I would have never thought I’d be putting my face out there on social media. I was shy (not in person but in body). Anxious. Not trusting any types of online relationships. 

I worked on learning more about it and have made many new friends (especially on Facebook). 
 
In the last year, I have taken two courses from @brittanykolbasocial. The first one was on Vision Boarding put on by the @realbizmoms where I wanted to see if I am doing it right. I’ve created a vision board and wasn’t sure if I am manifesting what I wanted correctly. This little pre-Covid get together proved that my original plan/vision was working, but I had to create one that could focus on smaller goals. To this day I still have it on my phone. 
 
The second course was Instagram 101 and it was a great little introduction on how to work the ‘gram. Perfect for someone who is starting to run a business or wants to create the right type of feed for their followers. 
 
I still have many lessons to learn and focus on growth but currently I am trying to figure out what it is I want to do.
 
Just do it! I am just doing it! Are you? The hardest thing for me to do a year ago was to put on some #Younique makeup and explain to people what the product is like on FB LIVE; today I am passed that. I’ve got some makeup skills, some people skills, some photography skills, I’ve met some amazing people, and overall I feel that I am becoming a better version of myself. 
 
Just do it! Put yourself out there and the Universe will reward you for it. Even if it means getting out of your shell a little bit: new lipstick, new dress, new skill. Start something new.

Step Four: Hard Work & Focus
(read: CONSISTENCY)  

​This one is about creating the right habits and staying consistent. Just like with diets and exercises - creating and posting content becomes a habit after a while. 
 
✨In reality this is the key to every success story✨ 
 
New material keeps people interested and helps the creator to stay motivated. It needs to be eye-catchy and exciting. It needs to pull on some heart strings. 
 
For me it is all about beautiful makeup, dreamy love poems, positivity, kindness, and life transformative  micro-changes. 
 
This is what I need to work on daily. This is the step that I need to focus on the most. 
 
What about you? What habits do you need to work on with your social media adventures and in your real life? 
 
Save the quote in the next slide. Save it! Print it. Write the date on it. Start working on your mini-goal. Check back in six months. Call me. 

Step Five: Get Organised 

​Take the time to go back through your old social media accounts. Decide what doesn’t work for you and your newly refreshed personal brand ideal. Get rid of everything that you do not like. Keep things that encourage you and that show the best of you to yourself and others. 
 
Get an organizer: digital or paper. Start putting down your ideas and goals. Bite-sized. Something that you can cross off at the end of the task. And cross that off very soon because you want to feel that sort of success immediately. Inspire yourself!
 
Get organised and you will have time to start living a more delightful, more creative, more freeing life. 

Step Six: Use tools to simplify

​You can’t create everything on your own! You should try your best to create authentic content but use the right tools! 
 
What is the best tool or app you’ve used in the past? 
 
These are the apps I am exploring to find my social media language:
 
✨PicCollage
✨Lightroom
✨CanvaStories 
✨Boomerang 
✨Remove.bg
 
These are my most recent tools:
✨iPhone 7Plus (yes, it’s old)
✨Awavo Active Stylus Pen 
✨UBeesize tripod and remote
 
There are so many amazing tools at your fingertips!!! Share what you use below. This list is a work in progress and as I acquire new skills and try new things I will be adding more information (maybe even to this post in comments 🤓). 
 
Here is a cliff-hanger for you: how does she make her paragraphs look so nice? 👌

Step Seven: Learn to Promote Your Own Self

​Branding at the end of the day is simply self-promotion. Work on promoting who you are without bragging. Share your ideas. Become a part of the conversation.
 
Your goals for self branding are:
 
✨personal Growth
✨business Opportunities
✨speaking Engagements 
✨new Partnerships
✨financial Increases 
✨remarkable Experiences 
✨dream job Placements 
 
Do something today that will make you terrified at first but will be an act of shameless self-promotion! 

Step Eight: Give yourself permission to grow

Step One: Claim your name
Step Two: Create content with purpose
Step Three: Just do it
Step Four: Hard Work & Focus
Step Five: Get Organised 
Step Six: Use tools to simplify
Step Seven: Learn to Promote Your Own Self
Step Eight: Give yourself permission to grow
 
It’s amazing how we get stuck in a concept and forget that change is good, change is refreshing, change is what moves us. 
 
Step Eight is a reminder that it is okay to grow and change as long as you have picked the right direction. 
 
Be okay to improve on things, change your style, or get rid of what does not work. Stay authentic and see what works best. Communicate that to your audience. 
 
Fragmented vision or not; one day it will all come together. Follow the 8 steps and your brand will pop. These steps are a combination of research done on personal branding and my own to do list of things I want to try in order to keep up with the Instagram Joneses. The best part that this list works for any aspect of your life. Follow the steps in the list and you will be in no time changed for the better. 
 
Good luck! Let’s reconvene in a month or two. 🚀
 
PS: for those who followed, the trick to beautifully spaced words in a post can be googled under Instagram Line Breakers.