How to create a cohesive brand personality as a multi-passionate creative

People connect with people, and it’s our personalities that do that. But how do you bring that into your brand’s personality while staying consistent when your interests, moods and passions are everchanging?

The easy answer? Just by being yourself.

The more in-depth answer? By breaking it down into bite-sized exercises to get super clear on who you are and how that becomes your brand personality.

But why is creating a consistent brand personality important? People want to work with you and be within your circle because of how you make them feel by being your truest, most authentic self (buzzword, I know).

And they do this through their perception. The way that people see you shapes their perception of you. You want to make sure that you’re clearly and consistently communicating the right things about who you are, what you do, and who you’re attracting. You want to leave no room for people to get the wrong idea about you, your business, or your brand. You also want to stand out from the crowd and it’s your unique personality that will do that. Your personality, your passions, your interests, and your values are the makeup of who you are. You’re an individual. Showcasing those interesting sides of your personality will draw more of the right people to you who connect with what you’re putting out there. Like attracts like.

It’s not about shaping yourself into some mold, putting yourself into a box, or becoming someone that you are not. You are not a current trend and there is no “right way”.

As creatives, we can be complex, multi-passionate, emotional chameleons who thrive in change. We push the boundaries, we try new things, we experiment.

So, how are you supposed to create a consistent and cohesive brand personality when being “consistent” isn’t exactly what us multi-passionate creative do?

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Let’s figure out your brand personality, who you are, what makes you unique, and how to make that super clear for you and your audience.

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Before we get started, if you are looking for some extra help with this process, or want to go deeper into your brands personality, brand strategy and finding your brand’s magic, you should join The Next Level Creative where we will clarify your entire brand from A to Z and I’m your handy dandy brandy gal there to support you every step of the way, as well as being apart of an amazing group of creatives on the same journey.

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Step 1: Self-exploration and self-discovery

Figuring out your brand personality involves a whole lot of delving deep into the depths of who you are. Here are some of the ways that you can figure out your unique personality through self-exploration.

If you want more ideas and exercises on how to figure out your unique personality, listen to my podcast episode 91, 15 self-discovery strategies for artists: How to build a creative business that works for you or read the blog post.

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Get an outsiders perspective

The thing that a lot of people don’t understand is that you already have a personal brand. You really do. It’s how the people around you, work with you, or follow you online perceive you. This is why asking family, friends, business buddies, and people that already know you how they would describe you is a great way to gather an outsiders perspective on what that personal brand is. You can even put it out there to your audience on social media. Pop a question box on your Instagram stories, put up a post, or a Thread or Tweet, and ask your audience how they would describe your brand and you as a person from their perspective.

You can ask them:

• How would you describe my personality?
• What are some keywords that you think describe me?
• What are some keywords that you think are the opposite of who I am?
• Can you tell what my passions are? And if so, how?
• Do you think that my personality and brand are one of the same?

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From here, you can change how your brand is perceived, or maybe you want to lean more into those certain parts of your personality that really stands out already to your audience.

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Step 2: What your brand personality IS vs ISN’T

Choose 5 words that you want to describe your brand’s personality that matches YOUR personality. This could be fun, friendly, warm, vibrant, moody.

And on the flipside, choose 5 words that you don’t want associated with your brand’s personality.

For example, I recently worked with someone who wanted their brand to feel elevated and well-made, but they didn’t want it to feel luxurious or glamorous. So their specific words were not luxurious and not glamorous.

It’s important to keep the keywords quite specific so that you end up with a list that is very clear and not muddy or vague.

These keywords will help you anytime you write, design or create anything.

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Step 3: Brand Archetypes

The next thing that you can use to identify your brand personality are brand archetypes.

Brand archetypes are the concept that the same 12 personalities show up in many different mediums that we consume daily. From books, TV shows, movies, or theatre. You will generally see the hero archetype, the lover, the explorer, the outlaw, the magician, the jester… the list goes on.

These common characters can be used as tools to help you to understand your personality a little better. It’s important to remember that this is not telling you who you are or putting you into a box. It’s simply another way to get clearer on your brand personality and give you some direction.

If you want to learn more about brand archetypes, listen to my podcast episode 56, Brand archetypes 101: What they are, which is yours, and how to use them or read the blog post.

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Step 4: Brand Persona

Personify your brand by giving it a name. Yes, this might feel strange at first but by giving your brand personality a name, you are able to put yourself in the shoes of that character. Instead of your brand being this big, hard thing to understand, you’ll be able to ask questions that will give you answers that you can then run with when creating and getting clearer on your brands personality.

For example, let’s say your brand name is called, the Kind Cool Kid. You can ask questions like…

How does the Kind Cool Kid show up?

How does the Kind Cool Kid talk as a brand?

How does the Kind Cool kid create content as a brand?

How does the Kind Cool Kid interact with their audience?

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Step 5: Your ISMS

Your isms are a super helpful tool that you’ll use a lot in your business to make your brand personality unique and consistent in all of the places, all of the time.

But what are they exactly? They are words, phrases and sentences that are apart of how you talk naturally, everyday. They are super customised to your personality. Read back over all of the content that you’ve created from social media, emails, text messages, DM’s, products that you’ve created, and website copy. There will be recurring words and phrases that you will find yourself saying all of the time and people will know you for. THESE are you isms.

As they are super unique to you, give them a name. For example, I call mine, Hollie isms. I say things like “freakin’, heck yes, this girl or your girl” to name a few. These are very specific to me and my brand personality.

Popping these into your brand strategy or brand voice guide will make creating content that feels dry or is lacking personality so much easier as it will boost what you’re trying to say while keeping your brand consistent.

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Keep it some place handy

When you’ve done all of the self-exploration, asked those around you how they perceive you and your brand, written down your 5 keywords of what your brand personality is and isn’t, figured out your brand archetype, have a persona for your brand, and have a list of isms - it’s time to make sure that you have it all written down some place handy that you can grab at a moments notice when you need it. This can be a Google Doc, a PDF, Canva, or whatever works best for you.

This is the basis of a brand strategy, a brand voice, and brand personality guide. A toolkit in creating a cohesive brand personality as a multi-passionate creative. Your content pillars will give you the things to talk about, but your brand personality that you have just created will tell you how to talk about it.

If you are starting this from scratch or need someone to support you in your back pocket, I would totally recommend that you join The Next Level Creative because I will help you to set everything up the right way, from the get-go (and then some).