How do you create a consistent and cohesive brand personality when you are a complex, multi-passionate creative whose mood changes daily, and whose interests evolve all of the time? That's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. I’m going to help you get crystal clear on your brand personality by figuring out who YOU are as a person, especially as an ever-growing and ever-changing multi-passionate creative.
When you think of your favourite artists, creatives, or brands that you follow online, it’s not their brand colours, their logo, or the aesthetic of their Instagram feed that draws you in and keeps you coming back for more, it’s their personality. It’s what makes them unique and it’s what people love about you, too!
But how do you create a consistent and cohesive brand personality when you are a complex, multi-passionate creative whose mood changes daily, and whose interests evolve all of the time?
That's what we're going to talk about in today's episode. I’m going to help you get crystal clear on your brand personality by figuring out who YOU are as a person, especially as an ever-growing and ever-changing multi-passionate creative.
Check out my previous podcast episodes mentioned in today's episode:
91. 15 self-discovery strategies for artists: How to build a creative business that works for you
56. Brand archetypes 101: What they are, which is yours, and how to use them
Join The Next Level Creative. The branding lab for artists and makers who are ready to take their creative business to the next level.
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[00:00:00] Introduction
When you think about your favourite artists or creatives to follow online, what is it that you like about them? Sure, you obviously like their work, but chances are the thing that keeps you coming back to engage with their work is them. It's their personality, it's what makes them them, and that's what makes them unique.
And that's what people love about you too. That's what keeps people coming back to you and your brand is you and your personality. But how can we create a consistent and cohesive brand personality when we are complex, multi-passionate creatives whose mood changes daily and whose interests evolve all the time?
That's what we are going to talk about in today's episode, so let's dive in.
As I just mentioned, when we are thinking about the people that we follow and engage with and love to follow online, the things that make us want to follow them and engage with them and keep going back for more is their personality.
It's the things that they talk about, the things that they love. Their specific way of being, the feeling that it gives you when you're engaged with them, when they show up on their feed, when they're talking on stories. That sort of stuff is the thing that makes you want to go to their profile or gravitate to their content.
When you want a certain type of feeling, when you want a pick me up, or a calming feeling, or a boost of energy. You go to a specific person or you watch a specific type of YouTube content because you want that specific type of feeling. You like their personality for that thing. People connect with people and it's our personalities that do that.
And so our personalities make up a huge part of our brands and that's what makes up our memories, and our thoughts, and our connotations, and our minds of a person, and of then a brand. That person's brand is the reputation that they have because of their personality. So, when you think of a certain artist or a certain creator, the things that come to mind aren't just the colors, the fonts, or the logo. It's how they make you feel the type of person that they are and their personality.
Whether they're a bubbly person a calming person a very confident person or a strong person. Makes up the connotations and the memories and the reputation that you think of when you think of that person and you have this too, whether you are aware of it or not, whether you have shaped it intentionally or not.
People have this association with you and they think about your personality when they think of your brand. And it's one of the most powerful tools that you have when it comes to your brand. So it's an important thing to be thinking about and to be aware of when it comes to your creative business and when it comes to creating your brand.
So, let's talk about why creating a consistent brand personality is important.
It's important because the way people see you shapes their perception of you and as a business owner, we want to make sure that we're clearly and consistently communicating the right things about our business, who we're attracting, and what we do.
We want to make sure that we're not communicating the wrong things, that people aren't getting the wrong idea, and that we're not leaving people really confused about who we are or that we're not attracting the wrong people or that we're leaving people with kind of a muddy, vague idea about who we are.
The best brands, the best creators, the best artists are the ones who have a very distinct, clear brand, who have a very memorable personality, who stand out from the crowd, who it's very clear who they are and what they're about. Those are the people who get remembered, those are the people who stand out, the people who you follow, who are your favorites.
You probably love them and remember them because they have a distinct personality. Right? If you think of people off the top of your head right now, who you follow, who you generally engage with regularly, chances are that's because they have a very distinct personality that's very clear, very consistent, very uniquely them, very authentically them.
I know authentic is a buzzword, but they're not afraid to be themselves and they just are that. They are very unafraid to be clear about who they are for and who they're not for their values are very clear their vision is clear all of those things are very very clear so as a business owner you need to be clear on those things too and have a brand personality that is clear to your audience. So your audience can have the same feeling that you do to your favorite artists and your favorite creatives, right? And go, Oh, that's someone I want to engage with. That's someone who has a personality that I want to connect with. That feels like someone I want to be friends with, or that feels like someone I want to spend time with, or I want to give my money to. Someone who has similar values to me, whose personality resonates with me, and that's someone who I want to engage with and follow.
So having a clear, consistent brand personality isn't just about shaping yourself into some mold or anything like that. That's not what this is about. This is about making it clear who you are, and who you are for what you do so that your audience can know that you are someone they want to engage with.
It's also something that's really helpful for you, right? It's helpful for you to understand that I don’t want to feel like I'm all over the place and I'm confused about who I am, and I don't know what to say, or how to show up, or what to share about myself, or what I'm supposed to tell people, or what parts of myself I can share or not share. When you have figured this stuff out and you've understood what my brand personality is and who I am, it's much easier to be able to create content and show up online confidently, and to be able to have a clear direction when you have this figured out.
[00:07:04] What brand personality isn't about.
Let's also quickly talk about what this process isn't about because I know this can be really challenging to think about and to approach because it feels very restricting and it feels a little bit black mirror-ish sometimes when approached in the wrong way, but this process isn't about being somebody that you are not. It is not about shaping yourself into some mold to become presentable or to become quote-unquote “the right way”, or become some brand that is not you.
That's not what this is about. It's also not about restricting who you can be. So it's not about placing yourself in some box that cuts off parts of you that you're not allowed to share or anything like that. That's not what this is about. It's not about never changing who you are. So it doesn't mean that because you've put yourself into this brand, that's fixed in this place, that you have this brand and it can never change. You're never allowed to evolve as a person. That's not what this is about either. Brands can and should change in my opinion because you as a person change and evolve and grow. This process for me, in my opinion, is about really understanding who you really are, what you want to communicate about that with the world, and how to do that clearly and consistently.
So, just as a reminder, it's not about trying to be somebody you're not. It's not about restricting who you can be and it's not about never changing who you are. All it is about is about really uncovering who you are, how you want to communicate that with the world, and how you want to do that clearly and consistently.
That's just what I wanted to clarify before we dive into how you want to do that, because I don't want you to panic and worry that having a brand and having a business means that you can't be yourself or that you have to restrict yourself. I think. The opposite is that, especially as a creative, you are the person behind your brand.
And we want you to be able to feel comfortable to be yourself and to. Feel like you can create content that feels good to you and to show up in a way that feels good to you, because that's what's going to make it fun, consistent, and sustainable when it feels good and you aren’t trying to force yourself into something that you're not.
[00:10:00] Evolving and changing as a multi-passionate creative
I also want to talk about how you are supposed to create a consistent and cohesive brand personality when you are a complex, multi-passionate creative, and things change, and you evolve, and you adapt. And I think this is the thing that people kind of misunderstand about brand personality.
And as people, the things that we are interested in might change, and the things that we try to change, and our passions change, and our hobbies change, and all of that sort of stuff changes. Who we are as people changes. But our values, the things that are really important to us the things that are at the core of our personality those things often don't change too much. We can create a pretty consistent, cohesive personality around those things. Create a brand around your values and your personality, who you are as a person, and then still let your interests and your hobbies and your passions and your curiosities evolve and change over time and still let your moods change every day.
That's how you can create a consistent, cohesive brand personality, even as a multi-passionate creative whose interests and mood and things change and evolve is to look at your brand as a person and realise that your values, your vision, who you are, and who your brand is at the core is not going to change. Mostly, it might change slightly and evolve but. Things day to day can evolve and can change and will change.
Okay, so now we can dive into how to actually do this, how to figure out your brand personality, who you are, and what makes you unique, and then how to sort of clarify that and Make it super clear for you and your audience.
The first thing that I will say is that if you want some help with this process, then you should join the Next Level Creative because the first signature course inside The Next Level Creative is called Map Your Brand Magic. It’s about clarifying your whole entire brand, but we have a specific module all about your brand personality.
So you can go through all of these exercises that are set out with exercises and processes and all of the resources there for you to go through. And I'm here to help you do them. You can send me what you've worked on and I can give you feedback and we can work on them all together and in the group to help you to figure out your brand personality together. So if you want to do that, the link is in the show notes, and I would love for you to join us. I can help you to uncover your brand personality and that would be great, but I'm going to talk you through some of the steps that you can go through right now.
[00:13:49] Self-exploration and self-discovery
So if you want to DIY it, here are some of the steps.
First things first, figuring out your brand personality is just a lot of self-exploration and self-discovery. So you're kind of going to do a little bit of journaling and understanding who you are. So I have a whole other episode called 15 Self Discovery Strategists for Artists: How to build a creative business that works for you. The link is in the show notes. So you can go and listen to that episode or read the blog post and do some of those exercises. And that will help you to get to know yourself, figure out some of the things that make you unique, and that will give you a good starting place to just learn a little bit more about your personality.
When you have done that, there are some specific brand personality techniques and strategies that we will talk about now. The first thing is to ask some of your friends family and audience, how they would describe you. So you can just go and talk to your friends and family, ask how they would describe your personality, and ask them to give you keywords, sentences, or phrases.
You could also put it out on social media, put a little question box on your Instagram stories put up a post, or put up a thread or a tweet. Ask your audience how they would describe your brand or how they would describe you as a person. That is a really great way to get insight into how people already describe you or how they already perceive your brand.
You will be surprised at how people already describe you and how they already see you. This is what I was saying about how you already have a brand. People don't think they already have a brand - YOU DO and you already have a brand personality that is out there and you might want to change that.
So go and find out how people already describe you. You might think that you are quiet and reserved or super bubbly and you. The people who know you or the people who see you online think the opposite.
Then I would choose five words that you want to describe your brand's personality and five words that you want to describe what your personality is not.
I say five words because you want to make it quite specific. If you go with more than five words it ends up getting very vague and very muddy. But five words is a good amount of words to keep it quite specific so that you'll end up with a list that is like, okay, my brand is bubbly, fun, friendly vibrant, and warm, for example.
And that list will help you anytime you are writing something designing something, or making anything. You can have that list of words up next to that thing and check does it feel bubbly? Does it feel warm? Does it feel vibrant? And then the list of things that your brand should not feel like is equally as helpful.
So you want to pick words that are not obvious. Don't pick words that are like, I don't want it to feel boring, or I obviously don't want it to feel ugly. Pick words that are like, I very specifically don't want it to feel like this, this will change depending on everybody's brand. I recently just worked with someone who wanted their brand to kind of feel elevated and well-made, but they didn't want it to feel luxurious and glamorous. So their specific words were like, not luxurious, not glamorous. So think about how you specifically don't want your brand personality to come across.
[00:18:01] Brand archetypes
The next thing that you can use to identify your brand personality are brand archetypes. So I also have an episode all about brand archetypes that I will leave a link in the show notes.
But there are 12 brand archetypes and brand archetypes are basically the concept is that in every Story, movie, book, or anything like that. There are 12 personalities that show up basically everywhere. So if you think of any movie or any book that you've read, you will generally see. The same characters show up, you will see like the hero, you will see the wise person, you will see the lover, you will see the jester these are common characters that show up and these common characters help us to understand.
Brands and people and they're a useful tool as a brand to be able to categorize yourself and to understand how your brand works and shows up in the world so you can figure out what archetype your brand personality fits into so you can have one or two and so you can have one or two and you can figure out what percentage of both yours is.
Mine is The Creative and The Magician. So I am a combination of these two brand archetypes. These archetypes tell me is that my brand personality is driven by certain things because the magician is driven by certain things.
That I have fears driven by the magician, same with the creative and it helps you to just understand your personality a little bit more and give kind of parameters and guidelines to your personality to help you understand it a little bit more. And it's similar to, I guess, personality tests, and that it's not a rule. It's not telling you that you are this thing and putting you in a box to tell you that you cannot be anything else. It's just to help you understand YOUR personality a little bit more and your brand and your business a little bit more and to help you to give some direction in your personality. It helps to put yourself in the shoes of that archetype and go, okay, if I'm creating content from the perspective of the magician, what would the magician do? Or what would the creative do? What would they say? So that is how the brand archetypes are helpful.
[00:21:06] Brand persona
The next thing that you can do is also to personify your brand. So to give them a personality in the sense of giving them kind of a name or a type of person. So for example, your brand could be The Bad Influence Best Friend, or The Hilarious Big Sister, or The Kind Cool Kid.
Someone when I was doing an interview described me as the cool kid at school who was still really nice to you. And I was like, that is the nicest thing you could have ever said to me. That's the kind of thing that you can do to help you just put yourself in the shoes of a character that can be really helpful to personify your brand and help you to figure out what would do if I was this person instead of your brand being this big thing that's hard to understand and hard to figure out. Like, how do I talk as a brand, or how do I how do I show up and how do I create content as a brand instead of you just. Give yourself a personality and figure out like, okay, my brand is a person. My brand is the hilarious big sister, my brand is the bad influence best friend. That can be really, really helpful too.
[00:22:42] ISMS
And the last thing that I think can be useful in terms of helping you figure out your brand personality and giving you a tool to use when you are creating content and making things for your brand is your isms.
This is something that I use all of the time, and I always include it in my brand strategies and people love them. What is an ism? You look through all of the content that you create, this is not just social media, but emails, text messages, DMS, social media content, all of the things, and find words and phrases and sentences that you say all of the time that makes things sound like you.
For example, I have things like “freakin, obvs, sounds good, hey team, heck yes, this gal, or ya gal” These are things that I call Moxie-isms or Hollie-isms, that if I'm stuck or I am creating content that I think sounds really dry or doesn't sound like me, I can pop some of these things in or I can swap some things out. These things will automatically boost the content make it sound like me and add some Hollie personality in there.
So if you are in that position, you are stuck making things sound like you and stuck feeling like your personality isn't in there. Add your personality back in there with some isms.
[00:24:40] Document
So, when you have done all of this process when you've done some self-exploration, you've written down your five keywords of things that your brand personality is and isn't, you've figured out your brand archetype, you have a persona for your brand, and you have a list of you isms, these are some really great basics that you can have written in a document.
It could be just a Google document, Canva, a PDF, or whatever you want. This is the basis of a brand strategy, a brand voice, and a brand personality guide that you can then use whenever you are creating content, whenever you are making something new, whenever you're writing an email, or whatever it is that you want to do.
Infuse with your personality and make sure that it is on brand and consistently you. The question that I sometimes get or that comes up for me sometimes or for people that I'm working with is what happens when you are not feeling great, when you're not feeling like you when you are not feeling a hundred percent, when your personality is just not there.
This is when you lean on that brand strategy. This is when you return to that document and you go, okay, I'm not feeling like myself. I feel like trash. I don't feel like showing up, but I have this document, I have this guide. What is it telling me to do? I'm not here 100%, but I have this document and this guide is here.
So your brand strategy will tell you what to do. If you have content pillars and you have topics that are listed out, those will give you things to talk about. Your brand strategy that you have just created in terms of your personality will tell you how to talk about it. And if you have templates and guidelines.
Set up that will make it easier to create without having to start from scratch. And if you don't have any of those things set up, then again, I would totally recommend that you join The Next Level Creative because I can help you set up all of those things. Your brand strategy, that's what we do in phase one. Your content pillars, that's what we do in the third phase. That's all about the marketing side of things and then setting up your templates and guidelines and having systems set up so that when you're not in the best place, or you want to. So in order to scale your brand, that's what we do in phase four of The Next Level Creative. So all of those things are a huge part of The Next Level Creative, and I will help you set up all of it and be by your side the entire way so that you have me on call to ask questions, give you feedback, and be your handy dandy brandy gal at all times, as well as having a group of creatives who are also going through the process in doing it as well.
So that is the process, those are some tips for how to figure out and uncover your unique brand personality and why your brand personality is so important, what figuring out your brand personality looks like, and what it isn't.
I hope this episode has been helpful as always. If you have questions. Please always hit me up on Threads or Instagram, or in The Next Level Creative. We have conversations about each podcast episode also so you can chat about the episode there with us.
Hope you've enjoyed this episode and I will see you in the next one.