Branding for Creatives + Creators (build brand like crazy)
Don’t worry about creating a personal brand, just share your lifestyle.
Your creative brand identity already exists. It’s who you are naturally——how you live.
You are an ambassador for a particular way of life.
Your perspectives, experiences, values, beliefs, passions, projects, style and vibe. Your life is your brand (not the over-curated idealized version of you).
Does your life feel messy and scattered though? Perfect. Me too.
All you need to do is define that messy lifestyle (for content alignment, clarity and audience targeting) and then share it.
This is how I’m approaching personal branding for creatives, creators and multi-passionates (especially), because it’s what’s finally working for me.
I could never choose one thing, much less define who I am——until I shifted focus to my lifestyle.
So if this is resonating, then keep reading and let’s unpack the easier (more real) way to build a personal brand.
Table of Contents
What Is Personal Branding?
Personal branding is the intentional strategic act of expressing your value (Harvard).
A lot of experts also define personal branding as your reputation online.
But forget the words. I think you know what it is.
Let’s look at the new perspective.
Lifestyle Sharing > Personal Branding
I suck at personal branding. It didn’t solve my multi-niche, messy life problems. But lifestyle sharing did.
I think this is actually closer to personal branding’s original intent anyways.
Unlike traditional branding (which is a bit soulless and corporate), personal branding for creatives is grounded in a real human’s life.
The lifestyle.
This approach to creative branding is for anyone trying to grow online but feeling confused and tired about personal branding:
Artists
Authors
Musicians
Art galleries
Dance studios
Fashion brands
Content creators
Bloggers and writers
Explore more:
➤ How to Succeed as a Creator
Benefits of (lifestyle) Branding for Creatives
Clarify your style and epic uniqueness
Build human trust and authority
Attract fans of who you truly are
Differentiate and stand out
No faking or over-curating
You cannot be copied
Boost confidence
Be memorable
It’s fun
Elements of A Creative Lifestyle Brand
I am many things, all layered on top of each other.
You
You gotta show up. Even if you’re anonymous or using an alter ego, you’re needed on set for production.
Infuse yourself into everything. Who you are on the inside (personality, etcetera) can guide your tone of voice, content style and more.
The world doesn’t need another copy. It needs you.
Your Life/Journey
Now, how do you live?
No matter how boring or beginner you think your life is, you have unique experiences and insights to share.
Somebody somewhere is waiting for you to show up with your boring life and random hobbies.
The more you share your life, stories and plots emerge. You get better and more intentional. Focused.
But to start, if you’re breathing, that’s your greatest asset.
Share your life——even especially the awkward and real parts.
Explore more:
➤ Creatorship = The Hero’s Journey
Your Thing(s)
Your thing is your craft——your art. It’s what you’re making.
This is probably the whole reason you’re building a personal brand…the thing(s) you most want to be known for and attract fans around.
Ask yourself: what would you want to show up first on a Wikipedia page about you?
This is the creative asset that people can hear, see, watch or buy. If you’re a painter, this could be your artwork. If you’re a musician, it’s your music. And if you’re a writer, maybe it’s your books.
So what’s your thing?
Your Look
Your look is your visual identity——your vibe and aesthetic. It’s the external image you have and includes things like your style and taste, brand elements and vibe.
It can be one of the first things people notice about you…or what comes to mind first. So it’s kind of important (but it’s also fun and creative).
What’s your (real) style and vibe?
I talk more about finding your vibe later.
Explore more:
➤ Fashion + Creativity
Your Creative Assets
Your personal brand assets is stuff like your social account(s), content, projects and website.
If you’re just starting out, I’d say keep it minimal (e.g. 1 offer, 1 audience, 1 project, 1 platform…).
But I’m not saying you need to niche down either. After all, this whole site is built around multi-passionate growth online (learn more about choosing a niche as a multi-hyphenate).
But less is definitely more if you’re just starting your brand.
Personal Branding for Creatives (6 kick-ass tips)
1. Don’t be Perfect——Be Messy
Perfect is duuuumb. Super unrelatable. So don’t try to do that.
Perfect takes away the very thing that makes you human…the thing that is brand.
It also creates friction, delay and inaction.
People want to see the real story, your quirks and all the beautiful messy stuff in between.
So throw away the corporate polished look. We’re building a human brand. Disrupt, make a mess and stumble with a smile. Be punk about it.
This is your story. And no, it’s not perfect. If it is, then get out of your comfort zone and do something awkward and new.
2. Stop Caring About Your Brand——Build Something + Share It
This is the secret sauce. Stop caring so dang much about your brand.
Instead, start making and sharing projects.
Or at the very least, start documenting your life. Then look for ways to turn parts of it into some creative project, series or core offer.
Your brand exists, naturally——again, it’s you and your lifestyle. But the more you try to “create” it, the less you end up creating the things that really matter (the projects and creative work).
You end up creating an idealized personal brand that’s not exactly true.
(I fell into this trap…I built a brand image around the things I wanted to do and the person I wanted to be…not who I actually was or what I was actually doing…whoops)
So the best path to more honest creative branding is to focus less on the actual branding and more on the creative work.
This will tell your story. Actions speak louder and clarity and truth come after doing.
3. Know Own Thyself
Good personal branding is just self awareness. It’s knowing (and owning) what you’re good at, what you’re bad at, your habits, your guilty pleasures…all of it.
And hint, nobody wants the polished filtered version.
Besides, a creative brand built on a lie would be weak and difficult to sustain. Your personal brand should feel effortless and fully represent who you are.
People want you, not someone else.
Authenticity (ugh, buzzword I know) is the degree of ‘you-ness’ in your content and brand.
This level of honesty may be the secret for how to succeed as a creator.
So here are some ways to know thyself (and totally own it):
Meditate on it
Follow the intuitive hits
What are you naturally good at?
What are your guilty pleasures?
What are your personality traits?
Think, how do you want to be seen?
How do you act when no one is around?
Identify your quirks——own your quirks
What would you do without the pressure of money or metrics?
4. Define Your Lifestyle (brand)
Even if your lifestyle is sporadic and multi-niche, you probably have throughlines that connect everything.
These become your brand themes, which are universal elements that connect everything you do. They’re like bridges between different realms in your storyworld.
For example, one of my personal brand themes is travel. I write about it, do it and it shows up my art and music.
When you clarify your brand themes and main domains (the stuff you like or do the most), you define your lifestyle in a more cohesive way.
This leads to easier audience identification.
Say your passions are the Japanese language, cars and fashion. A throughline could be something related to urban cultural aesthetics (think Tokyo vibes) or Japanese design.
So your audience could simply be people who (also) love the Japanese style.
How you package that shared love (cars, fashion or language) doesn’t matter as much.
Brand themes become the style and aesthetic of your work and brand. Your audience are people who resonate with that (lifestyle vibe).
5. Find Your Vibe
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Your vibe is your visual identity, style and taste. It’s often the first thing people see or think of.
It’s not just you as a creative person. It’s also your creative work and projects. They have a style…an aesthetic.
In my opinion, it’s how you make people feel.
Your creative work matters more, but your image is powerful too.
Your vibe includes stuff like:
Your fonts
Your story
Your packaging
Your editing style
Your brand colors
Your tone of voice
The images you use
Your style and taste
Your fashion or “look”
For example, my images use a lot of real photos I take while traveling and artwork I make. I also use layers and big block fonts (inspired by my love for editorial design).
So, what’s your visual identity?
If you’re not sure, don’t worry. Just keep showing up, making things and sharing them. Your style and vibe will emerge.
6. Play the Long Game
Growing a personal creative brand takes time. So stay patient and play the long game.
Think in years, not in months.
Ignore the clickbait videos promising rapid results.
It’s easy to forget how long it actually takes to become an overnight success.
Brand is built slowly over time.
But remember, if your personal branding is a true reflection of you and your life, then it should be easy. So playing the long game is simply remembering to share it…with all of us.
I’m waiting.
No really, share your links below :)
Alright, that’s all I’ve got. Much thanks for reading and happy brand-building——later ✌️
