Introduction to Episode
Strategies for identifying and curating your brand. This podcast is for people who know what they do and are looking at how to show up in the world.
Podcast Episode Summary
You’ve taken the leap, and you know what you want to do. Maybe you are a chiropractor? Maybe you are a designer? Maybe you’re an SEO specialist? Maybe you are a writer? Maybe you are looking for a job? I wrote, previously, “7 Steps to Establishing Your Brand,” this podcast breaks down the steps ‘finding what you like’ and ‘deciding.’
I define your brand as to how you show up in the world. That is, whatever the thing is, you show up as you. The way you show up is your brand. The colors, the fonts, the imagery that you use, altogether, establish YOU.
So, what does it take to establish your brand? Let’s take a look at what you will be doing to show up as you… we will assume that:
- You have a website,
- You have a social media presence,
- You are emailing people,
- You print collateral, and maybe
- You sell things.
When you start figuring out how your look and feel will be, you also want to take an inventory of what tools you use. How do you communicate already?
Do you use things like:
- Canva for printing collateral,
- Over for creating social media posts,
- Word Swag for cute quotes,
- VistaPrint for your business cards,
- A label service for your product labels,
- MailChimp (ConvertKit, MailerLite, etc.) or just Gmail to send your emails,
- WordPress or Squarespace for your website,
- A Mac or a PC or your phone or something else?
When we consider your brand, we want to think about a few things. First, your brand is visual – it is your look and feel: color and imagery and fonts. It is how you communicate your message or the words you choose to use. And, all of this is based on your values. So you absolutely want to lead with your values.
Figure out your brand with a Pinboard
Pinterest is the easiest way to do this. Get your account, then set up a board called “Branding” with the following sections.
- Images
- Symbols
- Colors
- Typography
- Values
Next, explore. Scour Pinterest or the web for things you like. Those things are themes, literally things you like. When you lead with your values, you can begin your searches with your value terms. For example, I value sustainability, so I often will look for “sustainability.” This will usually give me pleasant, nature images. I choose the ones I like and pin them to the “images” section of my “branding” board.
When you are looking for fonts and colors, look for things you like, things you think go well together and look for contrast. Fat and thin, bright and neutral, tall and small, light and dark, etc.
For stock imagery, I like the following sites: Pixaby, Pexels, and Unsplash. To find colors that go well together, check out this beautiful tool by the Sessions, a design college. You need a minimum of two colors (light and dark). I would not encourage more than 6. This tool will give you the websafe identifiers along with print codes. You will need both based on how you communicate your message.
Go back to your tool inventory and compare your list of desired fonts and make sure they are available on all the tools you use.
Quotables
“When you pull it all together, it’s uniquely you.”
“There is only one you. I want you to do you and be you as best as you can.”
Recommended Resources
7 Steps to Establish your Brand: https://michellelasley.com/2019/12/establish-your-brand-in-7-steps/
Sessions Color Picker: https://www.sessions.edu/color-calculator/
Free stock photos
- Pixaby: https://pixabay.com
- Pexels https://www.pexels.com
- Unsplash https://unsplash.com
For more information about Michelle, Balance Shared, events, and projects, please visit www.michellelasley.com.
