đ, Iâm Kimberly. Iâve been creating obsession-worthy brands for the past fifteen years. And now, Iâm giving away my secrets every week in this newsletter.
As you all know, brands are my business.
Most of my work centers around branding as it relates to traditional companiesâwith physical or digital products being sold to a consumer.
But many of the lessons from company branding can also apply to personal brands.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to sit down and talk personal branding on LinkedIn Live with The Cru.
Here are all of my notes I wrote up to prep for the questions in our sessionâwith some of my best personal branding secrets.
First off, what should a brand communicate?
A brand exists to inspire an action. And there are three things you need to communicate strongly to get people to act.
A Value: A crystal clear benefit
What are you adding to my life?An Aspiration: A hope for the future
What do you want our world to look like?An Emotion: A mental state
What will you make me feel when Iâm with you?
Why is it important to work on developing your personal brand?
One of my favorite quotes about branding is from branding legend Wally Olins. He said that âbranding is belonging.â
The best brands give you a feeling similar to belonging to a tribe or a religion or a family. Thereâs a commonality that draws people in and keeps them engaged.
Developing your personal brand both helps you decide where you belong, and communicates to others that you should be part of their tribe.
Your personal brand is also your gateway to making all sorts of meaningful connections:
Starting your own business
Selling yourself and your ideas at work
Establishing yourself as a thought leader, tastemaker, or influencer
Attracting the kind of people you want in your life
Forming the best relationships
In your field of Corporate branding, you talk about creating an âobsession-worthy brandâ. What does that entail? And how can those attributes translate to a personal brand?
An obsession-worthy brand is a brand that consumers get consumed by.
Theyâre SO into what you represent and what you do for themâthat they want to follow you, interact with you, tell people about you, wear you on a t-shirt.
If you can nail this âobsession-worthyâ factor, then who cares about the size of your ad budget? When your brand is âobsession-worthy,â your customers do the advertising for you.
So, the multi-million dollar question is⊠what makes a brand âobsession-worthyâ? And in all my years of experience, across so many different industries, the answer is the same.
It comes down to the genuine and authentic passion of the teams who have either founded or are running the brandâand how this passion connects with the consumer through the brandâs expression.
I tell every potential founder that Iâm working withâthis is your brand, itâs your baby, it comes from you. You need to have a tremendous hand in shaping it, and you need to understand it well enough to guide its current creative and its evolution.
This is why my Branding Sprint approach is designed to be both (1) highly collaborative with the founding teams and (2) highly focused on understanding the consumerâto make that magic connection that will lead to obsession.
If you could note four golden rules of branding, what would they be?
Hmm, I had not thought about âFour Golden Rules of Brandingâ before this question⊠but now that I have, here they are!
Know thyself
You have to be clear in your authentic reason for being and acting. And your reason canât just be âI want to make moneyâ.Know thy competitors
You have to be situationally aware.Know thy audience
You have to understand your people.Know what-eth youâre fighting against
You need to have a nemesisâsomething in your sights that youâre always battling. Otherwise, you donât have a plot that will keep people engaged with your story.
These four rules are are just as relevant for personal brands as company brands.
Letâs walk through the specific questions someone should consider when thinking about developing or refining their brand? What strategies should we use to identify the elements of our values and skills that we want to be known for?
For personal branding, I recommend a six part process.
Get clear on your values
It is incredibly important for all brands today to have purpose. Sit down and make a list of all the things you want for yourself, your community, and the larger world. Another useful way to get to your values is to use âbecauseâ statements and fill in the blanks: I want to do [thing Iâm working on] because [reasons Iâm doing it].Understand your audience
Who do you want to appeal to with your personal brand? Be as specific as possible. Then, dig into their mindsets. What do these people value? What frustrates them? What motivates them?Discover all the ways youâre different
Look at the competitors in your space. If youâre working on your personal brand, this could be other people in your field of work or other people at your company. Then, list out every possible way you or what youâre doing is different from themâin a good way.Do a S.W.O.T analysis
What are your greatest strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats?Position yourself
Using all of the ideas youâve brainstormed above, fill in this sentence. For my audience, my personal brand is the type of brand that delivers these special benefits, because only my personal brand is different in this way.Present yourself
What are some brands that you personally like, that are not your competitors? Make a list of five of them. Then, sit down and look at their websites and social channels and answer the following questions: How does their imagery feel? How do their fonts feel? How do their color feel? Look for the similarities across all five brands. This is an easy way to start pinpointing your style, so if you want to work with a designer on your brandâyouâll be able to describe what appeals to you personally and why.
We know that our reputation and first impressions mean a lot. But what if someone is looking to switch up their brand (transition careers, evolve into a new life chapter), how can someone start to do that?
You can always rebrand yourself! Soft skills translate across so many different types of careersâitâs just about nailing your story and how youâre telling it.
Concentrate on that ah-ha transitional moment. Thatâs often the most interesting. When did you realize you wanted to make a big change, and what was your motivation?
You can also talk about what you loved about your previous career, and how that has carried over into what youâre trying to do now. Itâs ok of the connection isnât apples to apples.
Hereâs an example I just made up:
I spent thirteen years working in construction. I loved working with my handsâand knowing that I was building something everyday. One day, we had just finished a house. I stepped back, and it looked amazing. I felt proud of the work. But I realized that I wasnât happy following other peopleâs blueprints anymore. I hadnât taken an art class since elementary school, but I started studying sculptureâand now Iâm still working with my hands, Iâm building⊠but Iâm also expressing my creativity and making my own drawings.
Now, if someone has their brand solidified, what do they do next? How do you get yourself and your brand on the right platforms and in front of the right people?
Get personal
Have 1:1 conversations. DM people who you think might be interested in you and your content. BUT before you message people, make sure youâve done your research. The number of canned messages I get on LinkedIn, where itâs super clear people have not really read who I am or what I do, is astounding. These kinds of communications are brand damaging, whether youâre an individual or a company.Pick one platform to concentrate on
Where is your audience most likely to be engaged with your topic, and where are your strengths personally? For example, donât try and do a video platform like TikTok if you absolutely hate yourself on video. It needs to feel fun and natural and good to you to be interacting in the space.Be a joiner
Forums and threads are powerful. And getting in the right organizations can be key too. Is there is someplace in the world where your audience is already congregating and/or seeking informationâand how can you place yourself there?
What are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about developing a personal brand?
Misconception #1: Branding yourself is being fake
The word âbrandingâ gets a bad rapâpeople think that itâs being inauthentic. But when done correctly, branding is a process that helps you understand yourself on a deeper level and ensure your authentic beliefs and skills are being communicated to the world in the best way.Misconception #2: Youâll look too ambitious
In preparation for this interview, I asked my my newsletter readers what they wanted to know about personal branding. And I was surprised to hear that many of them, especially women, were concerned that promoting themselves would be âoverdoing itâ and that they would look âtoo ambitious.â To that, I say âPleasepleaseplease, put that out of your headspace!â Itâs good to be ambitious. And if youâre concerned about the tone, remember that your brand doesnât need to bold and brash if thatâs not who you are. Your personal brand is the best reflection of you. Part of your personal brand can be being humble, if that is part of your personality and a quality you value.Misconception #3: You donât need to promote yourself if your work is good
No one is going to promote you but you. It would be awesome if everyone could just get A+s and be 100% recognized for the work, but thatâs not the world we live in. And the sooner you realize this, the better it will be for your career. You may luck out and find a fantastic mentor who has your back, but you canât count on that person for everything.
What advice would you give to someone who is struggling to identify what their personal brand should look like? What steps can they take to gain clarity and confidence?
Ask other people! This is usually one of the most rewarding and eye opening exercise I do with my clients.
It can be hard to sit down and write a bunch of great stuff about yourself⊠or say youâre good at things (hello, imposter syndrome!). But when other people say it and point it out, that can bring you both confidence and clarity.
Can you share some examples of individuals with strong personal brands and why you place them on the list?
Emily Weiss: She built the Glossier brand out of her beauty blog, which she built around her personal interest in what products people themselves loved. Her aesthetic, her tone, and her customer-centric, âdemocratizing-the-beauty-worldâ mission all line up in the best way.
Rupi Kaur: This poetâs voice comes through in more that her powerful words. From her fashion to her illustrations to her photos (a mix of glamour, relatability, and nostalgia), Rupiâs POV is clear and distinctively her own.
Petra Nemkova: Iâm a bit biased, because I worked with Petra on her brand Ace of Air, but I can 100% say that Petra has one of the most kind and genuine hearts of anyone out there. Her value-driven commitments to sustainability and doing better for people and planet come across in absolutely everything she does, from her charity to the brands she works with and even the clothes her precious son wears.
Thatâs it from me for this week!
If youâd like to watch the full âDeveloping Your Personal Brandâ Q&A session I did with The Cru on LinkedIn Live, hereâs the link.
Check out past issues of the Brands That Get You newsletter here.
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About Me
I help early stage founders create the kind of brands that get customers so obsessed, theyâll do your advertising for you.
Based on my experience founding my own consumer brand, I developed The Branding Sprintâa uniquely collaborative, streamlined, and agile approach to brand creation.
Click here to learn more about The Branding Sprint, or schedule a call with me.
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