When I first started Details and Swirls, I did not have a master plan for developing a personal brand and incorporating it into my business. Honestly, the thought of incorporating myself into my business terrified me! Once I slowly started to introduce more of myself and my personality into my business I noticed a shift. My audience began to understand who I am, and my business started to stand out as its own brand. 

There are so many beneficial reasons to begin incorporating yourself as a personal brand into your business. Incorporating a personal brand into your business is going to be the only way to distinguish your business from other similar businesses. There could be hundreds of thousands of similar businesses in your market, and people will sometimes downright copy your exact products! When you really think about it, there could be a million businesses just like yours, but there will NEVER be anyone like you, ever. How crazy are we to think that what we have to offer to the world, to our business, and to our community isn’t valuable enough to share? There is only one of you, and that in itself is enough to set your business apart from the rest.

Building a personal brand can seem overwhelming, and there isn’t a set roadmap to follow since everyone’s personal brand looks different. The best way to start is by slowly introducing yourself to your audience. How can you expect to feel comfortable sharing more about yourself, if your community does not even know who you are? For me this started with Friday introductions. I would pick one Friday a month to share a photo of just myself on my page. Not me with the products I sell, not me in action providing the service I offer, just me alone. I would share some facts about myself and ask my community to also share some facts about them! This opened up the door to communication outside of talking about my business, products, etc.

Once you start to feel comfortable showing up and showing your face, now you are able to start weaving in a personal brand into your business. I want you to think really hard about what makes you YOU. I know this sounds so cheesy, and you’re probably thinking I’m just a normal person – I’m really not that special…well that is wrong because you ARE. I don’t care if it’s as simple as your love for pizza, or reality tv, or Disney, or even your love for sparkly eye shadow. You want to establish some type of image or idea that people can associate you with.

Now I do not want you to get too caught up on establishing these traits and worrying about curating a perfect brand that embodies your personality, characteristics, and values. This can be overwhelming to wrap our heads around. Simply having the confidence to begin shining yourself and your personality through your business is enough to start incorporating YOU into your business

Your personal brand starts with being confident, believing in yourself, and being yourself.