Fun fact about me. I don’t like the whole idea of an ideal client avatar.

I mean, you do gotta kinda think about who you want to work with. 

But that’s hard to do if you don’t have any actual clients yet. Then you end up creating some weird frankenstein person who has one kid, is 37, and loves a chai tea latte at Starbucks. 

As if every 37-year-old woman with a kid and a love of chai is the same. 

I dunno… maybe they are. But, it all seems weird to me.

When you start a new job I’m guessing you don’t say to yourself, “Ok, I need to figure out what my ideal friend avatar is going to be so I can attract the kinds of friends I want.”

Odds are you just show up as yourself and then you make friends with the people who jive with you. When I was a teacher, that was the other teachers who wanted to sneak off for margs after school and talk smack in between mouthfuls of chips and salsa. 

You just kind of find your people. Or they find you. Then they’re your clients.

That’s how I approach branding. Especially for personal brands. If you’re client-facing (meaning they’re gonna have to meet with you eventually) I think it’s best to just let them know what they’re dealing with upfront. 😂

A fancy branding person would probably disagree with me on this, and I’m ok with that. 

All I know is that lots of clients come to me with a brand they don’t really love. They just did what they thought they should do, or what the last person they worked with told them to do. 

They’ll say things like, “Here are my colors, but I don’t really like that red one.” Or, “I only have 3 official colors, but I also use purple if I feel like it. Oh, and sometimes teal.” 

They don’t love their brand rules so they just break ‘em. Or at least bend ‘em a little. 

I love giving you the right to choose as many or as few colors as you want. I mean, I have SEVEN colors for my brand. Actually10 if you count white, black, and gray.

And guess what? My business is fine.

And guess what else… I don’t have to break any of my own rules because I built in enough fun so I can stick with it. 

As a lady with ADHD the fact that I’ve stuck with these colors since 2019 must mean something. Right? 

If you’re a personal brand I’d love to give you permission to create a brand that you absolutely love and not worry as much about who it’s going to attract.

I promise you that if you show up in a way that feels good to you, your people will see you and flock to you. 

xo
dd

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Client Feature:

Speaking of creating a personal brand you love… I wanted to show off copywriter Christy Cegelski’s brand that was based off the cover of the Duran Duran album Rio. How freaking cool is that? 🤩 After I helped her nail down her branding, I designed her 9 grid, a new podcast cover, and some Substack logos. If you’re ready to rewrite the rules of your brand… I’d love to help ya.