Your personal brand

When I’d first started out as a coach, I picked a business name rather than using my name, much like when I first started blogging and chose to do so anonymously. But the longer I’ve coached (like the longer I blogged) I felt I was hiding… and for no good reason. So, when I discovered I was able to buy my domain name in a .com format, I nabbed it and started to use it for my coaching business.

Hanging around LinkedIn – as I’ve been doing for the past year – you hear about all kinds of stuff on the periphery of business. Personal branding was one of those things. Initially, I didn’t give it a great deal of thought, as I had so many other things on my to do list.

Many months later, a friend and fellow coach shared details of her personal branding experience when working with someone I’d earmarked as a potential. And I have to say, it all looked and sounded rather splendid, so I actively put it on my list – even if it was a long way from the top.

Then, the person who’d done that rather splendid branding asked for beta testers for a new simplified and stripped down branding package. And as one of the reasons I’d not considered working on this right away was that I like fiddling around with graphics myself so wasn’t looking for the full works, I was delighted to put my hand up for the most stripped down option.

The only thought I’d previously given to “branding” was in the selection of colours for use on my website and in social media. Over the different iterations I’ve chosen those on the blue to green spectrum as, based on colour psychology, blue = trust and green = safety. These were also colours I wear – when I’m not wearing black, which is my go to.

Long story short – my personal branding turned out to be a most enjoyable experience.

As we’re in the same network, we got to know each other first over a gin & tonic, chatting about our backgrounds, life to date, how we felt about stuff, all that kind of thing. Once we got together to work, we discussed the business nitty gritty – stuff like my ideal client, the pillars of my business etc. Then we got to the good bit – what I liked in terms of design and style. And the first words out of my mouth were “I’d love a black & white site, but…” The thing is, my day job being in the IT world, I associate black & white as being a plain & simple business site – and I had my doubts it’s a look which would be attractive to the women I’d like to work with. So the idea got filed away, and we focused on my love of Art Deco styling – all angles and glitz.

The first mood board she produced was gorgeous, but I quickly realised that it didn’t really suit my ideal client – because it was far too masculine, so I asked her to change it to Art Nouveau, it being all curves, and decidedly more feminine. Fortunately, I also love that period, and from there, we’ve positively raced along.

Bit by bit, we’ve stripped away the colour, and I’m now re-building my website in monochrome. My branding is black & white… but layered over a pattern in a lovely smoky grey, into which I incorporate black & white photographs. And yes, I am loving being able to incorporate my photography hobby 🙂

All I can say at this stage, is that it feels right. In truth, whilst I’ve been trying to bring more colour into my wardrobe, I do always go Back to Black (hat tip to Amy Winehouse 😉 ).

If you were to be have a personal brand, what do you think you’d like? Colours, design influences, styles, fonts, the works…

© Debra Carey, 2023