5 Things You Forgot To Consider When Building A Personal Brand
With an emphasis on sustainability
Building a brand of any kind can have all sorts of complications, confusion, and frustration attached, especially if you’re someone who easily gets overwhelmed at the onslaught of information on this topic. I get it.
Your sensitivity shows me you care. You’re not here to just make a quick buck. How you show up matters, and the content you share matters. We need more people like you online.
Here are 5 things to consider when building a personal brand. This is perfect if you are yet to start and need to ground your thoughts, or if you have begun but are perhaps lacking the depth you know your brand is capable of.
1. Your driving force is deeper than a business or brand.
The question I continually return to when building my brand is - what lifestyle am I wanting to build? Why? Well, if I have a desire to build a business or personal brand, it’s for a reason right? And usually, 99% of the time, it is lifestyle related.
For me, having a successful business / brand, will allow me to have control - or at least significantly more control - over my life. I get to choose the hours I work, the direction of the business, and ultimately what my lifestyle looks like. Which, to take it one step further, would be freedom to flow between work, interests, hobbies, my family, friends, etc.
The lifestyle I am building is one where I love what I do because of the content of my work, but also the life I have fostered around it. I do more living than working, with a fair portion of that work being leisurely, and the larger portion - though challenging - is rewarding. Because of this my passion is poured into the business, my finances flow freely, I am surrounded by abundance, which ultimately, furthers my ability to explore and expand a greater capacity for life.
In writing down the lifestyle I envision alongside what I would consider ‘success’ in my business. I have clarified the driving force of my goals:
Freedom in travel / time / finances / business
Satisfaction, challenge and enjoyment in the work I do
A balanced lifestyle that prioritizes the home, family, leisure, and exploration
The time, will, and passion to learn and try new things with myself and people I love
Having this vision allows me to do a few things -
Ground the bigger picture.
When I get caught up in the muck of it all; working too much, burning out, or just feeling unsure and low, I can come back to the why. Not so it pushes me to go harder, but so it resets my priorities. If the life I want is one where I enjoy the work I do and I have freedom to rest and play, then why would I deny myself of that now? Grounding the why allows me to remove myself from a state of fear (pushing myself / ignoring my natural flow for fear I’m not doing enough to ‘achieve’ what I ‘want’) and to come back to gratitude (a place where I am aware of my blessings and can take a break when needed). The life you so desperately want is tangible here, now.
Re-establish the build
Here is a really awesome way to look at things; If you set impossibly high standards that you push yourself to create, the audience you attract will have high standards and expectations that extend to you - nothing wrong with that if that’s where you thrive. If you are, however, dedicated to the process, respect the flow of life, understand you must start somewhere, and you can be both dedicated, consistent AND have fun along the way, you will attract an audience that appreciates just that. You may even inspire them to do the same.
By committing to your truth, you create a community that supports your truth. Think of the relationship advice we most commonly give - be yourself and you will attract someone who loves you for you. There is nothing less sustainable or attractive than someone who puts on a facade of who they think you want them to be. Your brand is no different.
SIDE NOTE: Can you create an alter-ego that lifts you up, brings out your playful side, and allows you to explore? Absolutely. As long as you are not harming or deceiving anyone. Check out the drag community, they are experts at managing business and personal personas while remaining in their truth.
Refocus the present
When we are in business and build mode we are living in the future. Our minds are forward thinking; what’s next, what risks need to be mitigated, where is the next upgrade, what does tomorrow require from me, etc. Coming back to the greater mission brings us back to the now.
Unless your goal is to be all business and no life, then it is fair to assume business is only a portion of the equation, with the larger portion being the inner work that facilitates the choices, mentality, set of priorities, and balanced system that is capable of acquiring and maintaining said future life.
To not consider the amount of inner work required to reach this life, is, let’s be real, escapism. Business goals are a great excuse to not look at your shit. Your ability to enjoy the now is directly correlated to your ability to enjoy the reality you dream of. ‘I will be happy when’, ‘I will stop once I’, ‘I will be successful when’, all while your eyes are set in a blank stare as you momentarily escape into the life that only exists within the mind's eye. Come back to the driving force; A balanced lifestyle that prioritizes the home, family, leisure, and exploration. That is something you can work on now. If you can be bothered to engage in hustle culture but you can't be bothered to work on the root cause of your avoidance then you may not have it as figured out as you would like to think.
The overarching goal is always to enjoy life, feel a sense of satisfaction, have healthy challenges, grow, learn, evolve, love, and give back. This is your driving force. This is the full picture.
2. Your brand isn’t built from an idea of how you wish to be perceived.
This is closely linked to your brand pillars, or as I like to call them, motors of projection - we can figure this out together through my build a brand landscape clarity sessions. I like to look at the general energy before going down the path of refinement.
I want you to visualise what energy you bring to the viewer as they consume your content. This can be a colour, feeling, impression, but we want it to be below the surface.
Instead of they think I am ‘funny’, or ‘fun-loving’ I want you to look more at their individualised experience, ‘I open my audience to view life from a different perspective, I invite them into a lighter energy, emphasising the value of gratitude and play’. Don’t overthink it, the aim is less about compliments and keywords you would like to be perceived as, and more about the impact your content and energy is bringing to people, why they would choose to follow you, what gift your energy brings or the lasting impression you make on them.
Write a list. Remember this. We follow people because they add value to our lives. They inspire us, remind us, lead us, teach us.
Think less about how you want to be perceived (low vibe) and more about how your unique energy, gifts, and lifestyle can impact others (high vibe).
3. Prioritising approaches that are realistic, true, and sustainable for you IS the logical choice.
In the age of information we are constantly bombarded with ‘shoulds’ on the road to success online. Sally says to post every day, Nick says twice a day, then Natalie comes in with the more realistic approach of 4 days a week but adds the posts should have variety with two reels, two carousels, keep up on your stories, and including educational, entertaining, and specific content.. That’s also broad. It's overwhelming, and certainly not inviting. The hump of starting has now morphed into a hill. The cycle repeats every time you finally convince yourself to ‘just start’. I get it.
Let's look at it from a different perspective. What is sustainable FOR YOU will always be the smartest and more efficient choice. This might require you battling perfectionism, high expectations, impatience, and fear - there’s the inner work part of ‘success’ popping up again. But overall, finding an approach that allows you to return to the work IS the pathway to success.
Think of how much more likely you are to get a task done or become good at something where - combined with education and practice - you have the freedom to experiment, explore and play. The journey becomes that much more compelling. It is no different with your career, it's yours, and there’s no one size fits all, despite what we have been coerced in to thinking.
So if posting a wordless video of you painting once a week is the only thing that will get you to post, start there. Think of this new business and social media thing as a hobby you are exploring.
Finding what works for you will always be the smarter, more logical, and efficient choice.
4. The business and online world can be enjoyable.
What way of thinking, approach, belief can you repeatedly return to that will allow a lightness to return?
Look, we are in 2025. It’s the age of Aquarius. What does that mean? It means we are valuing ingenuity and individuality as a means of advancing the community. Capitalism, the top-down hierarchy, and the ‘stick to what works’ (which is arguable anyway) mentality, was so Capricorn. Aquarius says of course I value hard work, structure and systems that work.. But do these current systems and structures ACTUALLY work? Is there not a better, more efficient way? Then has the courage to out-cast itself in the pursuit of new knowledge to share with the collective. Both selfish and selfless, directed at an altruistic cause.
This last point is almost a combination of all that we have discussed so far. It is reflective of the overarching goal we are going for here. Not looking at branding, business, marketing, entrepreneurship as our ticket out of our current situation, but more so an investment that not only provides return via financial gain, but through the joyful pursuit of knowledge, entering in to challenges of skill and mind, meeting new people, experimentation, satisfaction, expanding a sense of self, creation, being of service.
What would you say has more longevity? A relationship built from the fear of being alone, and the goal of a ‘family’, or one where the partners primary goal reason for union is to enjoy the flow of life by each other's side. Your business is no different. Let’s start looking at things for what they really are.
5. Think of your business endeavours as 50% business and 50% inner work.
You’ve been hearing it throughout the whole article. Success, even if we are talking just numbers, is attained when we balance our efforts in the personal and business.
You cannot hold more money if you don’t have the capacity or nervous system to sustain greater amounts of money. You may gain it, but you will loose it just as quick.
You cannot hold fame without being able to hold the split of admiration and hatred.
When you are ready for the next level, the next level will appear.
The road map is laid out for you, follow the resistance. The blocks in the road show you, you are on track. Remember the finish line isn’t just being rich. It’s peace. That requires an attentiveness to your needs.
Hopefully this gave you some clarity on where to focus your energy, and a new more aligned place to work from.
Let me know your thoughts, questions or great advice you’ve picked up along the way by joining the conversation on substack! x