About this column
Your business is personal.
If you’re reading this article, more than likely you agree with this statement.
As solopreneurs, microbusiness owners, the creatively self-employed — call us what you will — the onus is on us to decide where we draw the line between what’s on the table for ‘business’ and what we keep behind the curtain, or ‘personal.’
And when we consider this idea of being a ‘personal brand,’ or a business brand with a personal feel (like most of our clients at The Voice Bureau), the negotiation between ‘business’ and ‘personal’ gets all the more complicated.
Most of The Voice Bureau’s Right People clients don’t fight the idea of ‘being’ a brand. Around here, we hold that any individual or entity who shows up online, with a purpose, in any sort of a consistent way, is presenting (albeit unconsciously sometimes) as a brand. How you choose to live out your ‘brand’ is your business. (Pun intended.) Our clients tend to accept the idea that being a ‘brand’ comes with the territory of presenting value to the marketplace. Even if you don’t see yourself as a brand, other people will.
Over the past year, Tami and I have had many deep conversations about how we — and by that we mean all of us: she and I, and you (our reader), and our clients — show up online.
We notice what we choose to lead with in our brand conversations and we ask ourselves why.
A big part of our Empathy Marketing work is reverse engineering the rational and emotional logic that’s led a client to show up (or not to show up) online the way she does — both in search results, and more importantly, in her Right People’s realm of interest.
We’ve noticed that perhaps the most important part of leading a memorable, meaningful, and successful online business brand starts way before a Value Proposition ever gets clarified, before copy ever gets written, or before a website gets designed. It’s the inner work a values-based brand creator has to do to shape and lead a brand with strength, love, and intentionality, and be in integrity with herself every step of the way.
One Friday morning during our weekly collaboration call, Tami described this inner work to me as “developing the emotional competency to be a personal brand.” I just about fell off my chair.
I knew this was a conversation I wanted us to be part of — in public, with you.
We feel strongly about the need for this conversation today. We’re hosting three complimentary calls for our readership (and anyone else you might like to invite).
The series starts Wednesday, May 1st, PST. Details are here. We hope you’ll register and join us live or enjoy the recordings.
In the comments, we’d love to know:
What have you identified as being part of the Emotional Competency of being a personal brand? What goes into it, from your view?
Hello, you.
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Oh yes…I have so been thinking of these things lately and I definitely want to hear what ya’ll have to say about it!
Glad to hear this, Vivienne. I’d love to know your thoughts on the subject, too.
We’ve talked about this before, Abby, but I feel one of the key emotional competencies as a personal brand is having appropriate boundaries and knowing that I – while integral to my brand – am not actually my brand. There has to be some distancing from the work we do & offer and who we are.
Also the ability to adapt and not have a complete identity crisis along the way! What I mean is that with each iteration of your business, your brand reveals itself with more clarity…but that does not mean a personal makeover – you remain as a whole and intact person.
knowing that I – while integral to my brand – am not actually my brand.
You said it, Jo. This is why it pains me a bit when I hear people say, “I *am* my business.” Not exactly, though some people choose to look at it that way.
As a writer (memoirist, in fact), I have been making a living by sharing my life. It is a delicate balancing act at times, for an introverted, solitary person like me to also have an online presence that depends on my willingness to be open and vulnerable, to start the conversations that women want to have but often fear. My own fear is that, as my audience grows — which is a GOOD thing — I’ll feel like less of a person and more of a brand. So marketing my books, which is the same as marketing myself, isn’t something I’m entirely comfortable doing. Very much looking forward to the conversation.
A key emotional compentency for me is having compassion not only for myself when I really write some truly crappy stuff and delete it all, but also having that compassion when my clients send me an email that is filled with rambling. When I see those things in myself and others I stop and say “Self what is up- what are you not saying that needs a voice?” Then I take a break get up move around and come back later with a compassionate heart. At that point I am ready to read between the lines get down to the core problems that need to be addressed, changed or set asside because they need more time to brew.
“We’ve noticed that perhaps the most important part of leading a memorable, meaningful, and successful online business brand starts way before a Value Proposition ever gets clarified…”
Anddd….BINGO. I have only learned (and retained) this in the past year or so, and so far in Empathy Marketing, I’m seeing that this couldn’t be MORE true. And the reason it’s true is because of what you said next…
“It’s the inner work a values-based brand creator has to do to shape and lead a brand with strength, love, and intentionality, and be in integrity with herself every step of the way.”
My favorite word out of that bunch is intentionality. One of the first things I give my clients is an intentionality template – something that says “this is where I’m at emotionally right now AND in my business – THIS is who I need to be hearing from, where they are, and WHY I’m hearing from them. In 3 months, that may change – maybe even drastically, and that’s okay.
It takes an ’emotional competence’ to gauge if and when that template should shift and change, and why it’s necessary, but if you don’t have a starting point, that’s when you get overwhelmed. Constantly using & re-visiting it may not make us emotionally competent in totality, but it will help dramatically.
To me, that level of purpose & knowing – really of who is in or around your space and why, is a core emotional competency that can be the foundation of valuable, intentional, actionable work. To the introvert entrepreneur, this practice, combined with managing your energy appropriately, can make or break the ebb and flow that’s needed between the ‘personal’ and the ‘business’.