The Branding Trap

There’s a compelling argument for consistent representation of your personal brand across various channels (including consistent messaging, visual elements, and overall identity).

But it’s the breadth of your skills and experiences that informs and inspires your unique ability, attitude, and approach as a solopreneur, freelancer, coach, or creative.

For instance, some friends (and critics) tell me I create “brand confusion” when I post about my life as a musician or grandfather.

However, my long career as a professional guitarist and teacher shapes how I approach my work as an encore life coach.

Music-making requires connection, collaboration, creation, and communication. Approached with gratitude and generosity is how it’s done best.

Not to mention that musicians do their work out loud and in public, cultivating the courage, vulnerability, and presence necessary to do work that matters.

See the video for a demonstration.

And being a full-time grandpa is the driving force behind why I do what I do (and how I do it) when it comes to structuring and executing my business strategy.

 

It takes time for solopreneurs, freelancers, coaches, and creatives to embrace the idea that they are a brand, and I’m not asking anyone to deny the importance of branding.

However, thinking beyond brand is where you’ll likely find the idiosyncrasies and “weirdness”¹ that makes you the one-and-only best choice for those whose lives and business will be enhanced by the difference only you can help them make.

After all, branding isn’t the story you tell other people about yourself. Branding is the story people tell themselves about you.

When you show up as a multi-faceted, fully integrated human being embracing all of your gifts and talents, it’s easier to align the story other people tell themselves about you with the story you’d like them to believe.

What innate talents, tolerances, and temperaments inform and inspire your personality, perspective, and approach to what you do and how you do it? What’s your weird? How might embracing it more fully enhance the story your ideal audience tells themselves about you?