This is for my fellow multi-passionate entrepreneurs out there. You know who you are. You’ve got multiple side hustles going on top of running your main business. You have a wide range of skill sets that you want to use, but maybe they don’t all fit together under one business. You are interested in multiple things and don’t want to limit your business to just one, but what do you do? What is the missing piece to the puzzle that will bring all of your various passions together without having a TON of separate businesses? Well I’m happy to say that after years of searching, I finally found the piece I was missing the other year and it has been game changing ever since. My brand changed, my ideal client changed, my marketing changed, and all for the best, while still allowing me the freedom to do everything that I dreamed of. I no longer had to limit myself or run multiple different businesses. I was able to streamline everything for my dream client, put all my skills & passions to work, AND it even allowed for me to expand into areas I never even imagined before. So what’s that missing puzzle piece to marketing when you’re multi-passionate? Creating a personal brand. So let’s dive into what that means and what it really looks like.

WHAT IS A PERSONAL BRAND?

Okay, before we get started,I first need to throw this out there because I don’t want you to get it twisted. This is in no way me giving you legal advice on how to register or structure your business. Make sure to talk to your lawyer for the best way to go about doing so in your own state or country! This is more to get you thinking about the possibility of how you can combine your passions & skills under one “umbrella” if you will, to streamline your marketing and get crystal clear on your dream client. I know people who create a personal brand to market with but still have all of their businesses registered as separate businesses and I know others who have everything registered under their personal brand. That’s not a decision for me to make for you or help you with. Again, please talk to your own lawyer about what is best for YOUR business or businesses in relation to your state and your business goals.

What I CAN help you with is using a personal brand to market your multi-passionate business in a way that easily combines all of your passions & skills and hones them into the specific RIGHT person. Now, with that disclaimer thrown out there, let’s get into it.

& I want to start with what IS a personal brand? I swear I’m not being a smart ass when I say this, but it’s exactly what it sounds like, it is YOU - your own personal brand. YOU - your face, your name, your personality are the brand. Now i know what a lot of you are thinking, especially my fellow introverts out there…. You’re thinking “omg I could never be the face of my brand. I want to hide, I don’t want to be “insta famous” or whatever, I just want to put my head down and do my job, using my logo as my brand face.

Trust me, I know that feeling. That was me for 8 years in my business when I was a portrait photographer. I mean that was literally my job, hiding behind the camera, so it made sense. BUT looking back, I can honestly see how much that truly held me back in more ways than one. It forced me to create multiple businesses for each of my passions, because they didn’t all fit under “portrait” photography. It also really boxed me in, because each business was SO specific. AND it made growing my business SUPER difficult.

Because people didn’t know who they were investing in. All they saw was a logo and the pretty pictures I took, but they had NO CLUE who I was, what my mission was, if their personality matched with mine, or literally any reason to trust me. They felt like they were purchasing from a faceless company instead of a small business run by one woman, who put her blood, sweat, and tears into every aspect of it.

And this all boils down to the know, like, trust, factor. This is the concept that your audience must know you to like you, like you to trust you, and trust you to buy from you. And let me tell you, the moment I became a personal brand, the know, like, trust factor became so much easier. When I decided to be the face of my brand, I showed up more. My audience started to see my face, realizing I was a real person running the show, and not some corporate team of a faceless entity. They started to get to know me because I felt free to post more about myself and my personality. They started to like me, realizing they could relate to me, get answers back from ME, not from a random customer service rep or social media manager - but legit voice messages in dms from me. And that started to build trust within my audience wayyyy quicker than any marketing campaign, portfolio shoot, or special sale I had ever run. Converting to a personal brand really allowed me to use social media for what it was created for: being social & forming relationships, which was a huge factor in growing my businesses.

HOW TO USE A PERSONAL BRAND TO MARKET YOUR MULTI-PASSIONS

Now that you know what a personal brand is, let’s chat about how to use it and how it can help you expand. So when we talk about how to use it, there are two topics that come to mind - how to use it for combining your multiple passions & skills and how to use it to market those passions & skills. Let’s start with how to use it to combine your passions & skills.

So I want to take you back to baby entrepreneur courtney jo. She was running a photography business with dreams of also: running a stock photography shop, helping create content for other female entrepreneurs, helping to manage social media accounts, coaching other women to help their businesses succeed, and sharing products & services she loved by using affiliate links. What baby entrepreneur me couldn’t figure out, was how to combine all of that into one business. It definitely didn’t all fit under my photography business, so the only thing I knew to do was to make them all separate businesses. That’s crazy and was soooo much work. It stressed me out soooo much. Think about how many businesses that is to track & run PLUS have separate social accounts for PLUS manage all of the clients, handle all the marketing, coordinate all the calendars. It wasn’t productive or a smart use of my time.

That’s where the personal brand can alleviate all of the trouble. All of those ideas didn’t fit under the photography business, but they did fit in the general sense of ME. That’s why I went with a personal brand. MY photography? It’s by me. My social media management services? Yepp, it’s me. My coaching services? I mean, you get the picture at this point. All of those passions and skills fell under the category of ME helping women to create content to market their business strategically online.

I knew my general target audience were women running their own businesses who needed my creative mind to help with frustration when it came to their marketing. So when I looked at it from that higher level, I saw all of my passions & skills fall underneath it. Branding & content portraits plus stock photography, social media management skills, the business growth & lessons, and even the tools & products that helped me in my business - they ALL fit under my personal brand of Courtney Jo and all aligned with my general target audience. They were no longer separate businesses but now different services or products my personal brand could offer, all while my general target audience got to connect with ME, not my logo, online.

Which brings me to part two of how to use a personal brand - and that’s using the personal brand to market your passions & skills. Because personal brands don’t hide behind logos. YOU are now the face of your brand, and if you want to really leverage the know, like, trust factor, you gotta show up. So one thing a personal brand easily allowed me to do as far as my marketing was to actually visually show up. Yes, i’m talking about pictures of me. On my website (beyond that tiny one on the about page), in my social media posts, in my stories and IGTVs, in live trainings and so much more. People got to see me and my personality. They got to meet and connect with the woman behind the account. They were able to form a relationship with me, which is really what exploded that know, like, trust factor. It also made content creation a hell of a lot easier. I could now batch my photos to quickly create & schedule my content. I didn’t have to set up stock photos or go out searching for some to use. I didn’t have to dig through my archives of portrait client photos to use. I didn’t have to spend hours creating every damn graphic post in photoshop or canva. I could plan out a list of 30 photos of myself I wanted to post in the month, batch shoot & edit them in an afternoon, and then get them scheduled.

Having a personal brand also really changed my mindset on showing up to market my business. Before, I thought I had to show up as the super professional looking photographer aka perfection. Because it had to match my brand aesthetic, right? Now, I know I AM the brand, i know that my lack of perfection and honesty is PART of my brand. It’s a huge part of my brand’s mission & values to let other women know that you can show up and have success without having to be perfect. This mindset shift is what allowed me to show up on stories in a room that’s badly lit, or a picture that’s a little blurry. It gave me the freedom to show up on an IGTV or a live training in the facebook group with no makeup, a get shit done type of messy bun (you know the one I’m talking about), and still wearing my pajamas. Because I know that my personality, my voice, my zone of genius is what makes my brand. It’s that connection to me and my message not my perfect aesthetic, that forms the bond between me and my audience. When you’re a personal brand, the ONLY thing you need to show up as, is yourself. Period.

And yes, ANYONE can do it. Are there people who show up always looking dressed up and put together? Yes. that’s their personal preference. Are there also people who show up as a complete hot mess and still have people connect with them? YES! It’s not how you show up, it’s THAT you show up. If you’re sitting there right now thinking, “I could never do that, I don’t have my shit together enough. Who would want to listen to me anyway? Who am I do to this.” I can assure you that those are all lies you’re telling yourself in order to feel safe. Because my instagram feed is FILLED with women who share their mess online. They show up sweaty with no makeup right after working out. They show up crying, reminding me it’s okay to share your emotions. They show up with messy houses, bad lighting, poor audio quality, and a feed that isn’t curated in any way , and I still love them. You wanna know why? Because I connect with them. There’s something about their personality, their story, or their content that I relate to or enjoy. And a lot of these women have more followers than the average influencer. So please do not tell yourself that you have to be perfect to have a personal brand. It’s actually the complete opposite.

HOW A PERSONAL BRAND CAN HELP YOU EXPAND

I want to wrap this up by sharing how I was actually able to expand even further with a personal brand, which is the exact opposite of what I initially thought a personal brand would do because I have a feeling you might be thinking the same thing. So when I transitioned to a personal brand, I honestly thought that this was it. All the passions I wanted to put together under one umbrella were it. Theres no where to really go from here, which I was fine with at the time because those were all the passions I had (which admittedly, was a lot haha). The longer I used a personal brand though, the more I realized how much potential it created for expansion.

Once people know you, like you, and trust you, then you can start branching out into areas you never thought possible. I never intended to start a podcast when I used a personal brand, but it gave me the freedom to do so. I never intended on creating a patreon to provide all my services & coaching at a more affordable rate, but again, it gave me the freedom to. I never thought I’d be able to create online courses & master classes, or even digital products, but the personal brand allowed for me to expand into all of these areas I never dreamed of. & it’s all because of the know, like, trust factor.

It’s literally no different than your favorite influencer or youtuber. They create content. You consume the content, get to know, like, trust them and then you love them so much that you’re up for whatever they put out. That’s why youtubers can drop merch and have patreon communities. That’s why influencers can collab with big brands for their own products. It’s not because they’re “internet famous”, it’s because they have an audience who loves them and wants what they have to offer because they KNOW, LIKE, & TRUST them because of their personal brand. This is not a marketing tactic reserved for celebrities, influencers, and youtubers. It’s a psychological concept that literally ANYONE, any business can use. So why not you?

Do you see now how powerful a personal brand can be? It can free you from perfection, establish the know, like, trust factor a lot quicker (are you getting tired of that phrase yet? haha) and it can be an amazing way to be able to bring all of your passions & skills together into one marketable brand!

Now that you know how to market your many passions, want to get a jump start on your instagram posts? I’ve got an entire YEAR (yes, 365) plug & play instagram posts created just for you WITH a proven marketing strategy & they’re just waiting for you to copy, paste, & post! Click the link below to unlock the year of instagram posts!

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