Are all self-employed women ‘brands’?
Get past the 'ick' factor to attract more interesting, better paid work
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Good morning, Colleague!
Last week’s issue about my experience of burn out was the most popular to date. I had lots of emails from readers who are also struggling, so I just want to reassure you - you’re not alone. It’s so tough out there.
One thing I’d recommend, as weird as it sounds, is trying to separate yourself (and in particular your inner monologue) into ‘employer’ and ‘employee’. Remember that, while the employer might have strict goals and ambitions, they have a responsibility to the employee. Thinking of having an internal employee who I need to care for and treat well to get the best from them has often helped me to prioritise rest and tolerate my limitations.
Another thing that might help if you’re feeling flat is tomorrow night’s webinar ‘How To Stay Motivated When The World Is Chaos’. Tickets here or free to Full Time Colleagues. Hope to see some of you there.
Today I wanted to explore the concept of branding.
If you own a sales business, you’re probably comfortable with owning and running a brand, but for many sole traders (like me) who don’t have a separate product or company to back, the idea of being a brand in your own right can feel a bit, well…icky. I am certainly someone who tends to use the word in inverted commas.
Yet increasingly, it’s a concept I’m considering. I do, after all, have certain specialisms that I write about, and it would be lovely to become the ‘go-to’ writer for commissioning editors on those topics. If my personal brand was stronger, would I get more offers of interesting work? Would it be advantageous for time-pressed editors who I didn’t have an existing relationship with to just know: ‘Oh, for that topic, Lizzy Dening is the authority!’
The thing to remember is that branding is a spectrum. It’s not necessarily about Kardashian levels of world domination (more power to them, frankly), but it might just mean how the rest of the world thinks of you, in terms of work.
And if you do run a company, or a product-based business, it’s a topic worth exploring - what is your personal brand, and how much of your own life do you share with your customers? Get it right, and you could increase loyalty and future sales.
Paris embraces the ick factor
In the modern world, where most clients/customers/supporters of your work are likely to discover you online, it’s naïve to imagine that you don’t have a personal brand. You’re probably selective about what you stick on social media, use a different tone for different email recipients, and are already presenting a certain view of yourself to outsiders - basic forms of branding.
We’re all curators of content to one degree or another, and spending a bit of time getting past the ‘ick’ and thinking about what message you’re currently sending out about yourself could make a big difference in terms of attracting interesting work.
“It’s about clarity,” says branding guru and influencer Vix Meldrew, who runs Grow & Glow, a community to help business owners develop their brand. “Sometimes we just pootle along, but if you want to reach new people and you don’t have clarity, it’s hard to communicate what you offer. If you go to a new audience and you’re unclear who you are and who you serve, it makes their decision [on whether to work with you] more difficult.”
In short:
What are the things people can tell at a glance about the work you do, and, more importantly, the work you’d like to do more?
How do I work out my brand?
Working out your professional brand, according to Vix, means going back to the personal ‘why’ behind your business.
“Whether you wanted to bring people a new product, or a new spin on something; to leave a corporate job; to create space for a family…work out the reason for beginning your business. Start there, and then build a unique connection between your ‘why’ and your story.”
For example, if you escaped the rat race to move to the countryside, is the product you sell all about working with small, local suppliers and stockists? If you work with kids, did you develop your business to help you raise your own family? Even falling into something after redundancy (*Hello!*) can be part of the story – for me, it’s what gave me a push to try freelance life, and I never intend to go back to the office.
“It’s sometimes easier for people with product-based businesses to find that link,” says Vix. “But within service-based jobs you can still find it. If you’re a coach, for example, you could do anything from supporting teachers to working for sexual empowerment.”
In other words, your public story should relate to the work you want to do. What makes you an authority in that field? What experience do you have from your life that you apply to your business?
“The next layer is who it’s for. Who’s your ideal audience, and who will benefit most from your business?” says Vix.
Once you have a clearer idea of: your ‘why’, your story and your audience, you can start to communicate these better. Even if you don’t want to harp on about it on your website or social channels, it’s still going to be stronger in your mind, and help shape your tone of voice, goals and the choices you make day-to-day.
So, how do you start branding then?
As well as looking at the obvious, such as your website and marketing, branding really works when it goes deeper. “Your branding isn’t just your fonts and logos – it’s what people say about you when you’re not in the room,” says Vix.
How would a friend describe your business to someone else? When your professional brand is strong, your word-of-mouth referrals start to increase.
Feeling lost? “I always recommend a couple of books to help with branding: Start With Why, by Simon Sinek and Building A Story Brand, by Donald Miller. The first is great if you already have a business and want to get it on the right track, the second is more of a step by step,” says Vix.
The sharing sweet spot
While our focus is on your professional brand, an element of your branding does need to be personal. As they say: people buy people. One of the top mistakes people make, according to Vix, is hiding behind their work or product and not sharing anything about them. On the other hand, the other common error is over-sharing.
So how do you get it right? Ultimately it’s not as tricky as you might imagine – as I said, if you already run a personal social media account it’s likely you’ve set rough boundaries in your head about what you share (even if you’ve never consciously thought about it).
Or maybe you don’t really believe in boundaries, like this wall-flower
Have a look at people who are nailing it – the ones where you feel you have a personal relationship with on some level, but actually, when it comes to it, there’s a lot of things you don’t know about them. I really admire PT and influencer Alice Liveing (whose workouts have seen me through much of lockdown). As a follower I know certain things she feels anxious or passionate about, but her relationship with her boyfriend is off-limits to the public – I wouldn’t recognise him if I sat next to him.
Consider what makes sense for you and your brand. If you work with young families, you might want to share details of family life in a way that wouldn’t make sense for someone who sells alcohol. If you’re a business coach, people might be interested in how you structure your working day – which might be a tedious detail for someone in a different field.
We all have our own lines in the sand about what’s fair to share and what isn’t, but I think the main thing is feeling comfortable to share relevant vulnerability/enthusiasm when appropriate.
Do I need to specialise to have a clear brand?
Ok – so niching is a topic I want to deep dive into in future, as I am a bit obsessed with it. For the record: many people I’ve interviewed strongly encourage drilling down in your business to reach a really narrow group of customers/clients, or have found that their business really took off once they specialised. I feel, personally, that as a writer it’s a bit harder for me to niche, but I am constantly torn about whether running multiple projects is good for my career (and mental health!) or not.
For people like me – all hope is not lost when it comes to our brands, according to Vix. It just comes down to being smart.
She feels that many of the women who turn to her for help via Grow & Glow are better served when they set up clear and distinct separate brands for the different services they offer. For example, a photographer who does weddings, company photography and pet portraits might have more success with three separate brands, as clients are pretty unlikely to come to you for all three types of work. “Lumping them together is doing your business a disservice. If I come to you for one thing but see the others first, I’m less likely to become a customer. It’s easier to split this work into brands.”
This makes me think of authors who have different aliases - one of my friends writes books for children but also writes adult crime novels under a different name. Both sell brilliantly (he’s a genius) but it means that his audiences don’t get confused. (Of course, it helps for him that most of the ‘brand’ work is done by publishers…but you see what I’m trying to say.)
On the plus side, wherever you’re at with your brand, you can always change your mind. “I’ve pivoted about 400 million times since I started my platform,” says Vix, who started as a teacher and then made her name blogging about dating. She’s now married, so has clearly had to shift her brand considerably! “You need to check in with yourself, and whether what you’re doing still aligns with you. It’s the whole point of running an online business really, that you have that freedom and flexibility to change.”
And, above all, don’t get too het up in the process: “Give it a bash, and if it doesn’t go well, re-do it. Keep experimenting until you find the thing that snaps into place.”
Good advice for just about every element of business, really.
Don’t forget tomorrow night is our ‘How To Stay Motivated When The World Is Chaos’ webinar. Did you know there are five personality types when it comes to motivation? Discover the psychology behind yours, and how to harness it no matter what’s going on in the world. A great opportunity to bring back some enthusiasm for work during stressful times, and put your questions to an expert. Tickets here (or free to Full Time Colleagues).
For transparency, I’ve linked to the books mentioned via Bookshop.org which offers me a referral fee. I’ve actually started my own book shelf there with some other recommendations, if you’d like to check it out.