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135. How “personal” should your brand really be?

Episode 135 • 9th April 2025 • Brand Your Passion • Maker & Moxie

Have you ever heard people tell you that you need your brand to be personal and that your audience want to know and connect with the person behind the brand? That is true and all well and good, but how do you know how personal to be? Are you supposed to share every thought you've ever had or tell the world when things happen in your personal life?

Document what you had for breakfast, even if that's nothing to do with your work? In this episode, we are gonna talk about how personal your brand really needs to be and how to find a balance that works for you. So let's get started.

Finding the Right Balance

How personal does your brand need to be? Basically, we know that people connect with people. That is true. So yes, your brand needs to have an element of that personal connection, but how much is the right amount of personal in your brand? Annoyingly, the answer is that there isn't really a right answer

The most important thing is that whatever you are sharing and how much you decide to share. It needs to be authentic. If you really don't wanna share something forcing that is not going to work, it's gonna feel forced and you are not gonna have a great time. Your audience is gonna be okay, why are they sharing this?

It's not gonna work. So you really need to figure out where your boundaries are when it comes to your personal brand and what you are willing to put out there. The most important thing. Other than it being authentic, it's just that people know there's a real human behind this business. So whether you just introduce yourself every now and then you show your face you show yourself working on what you're doing, like that can be the minimum.

Just so people know there's a human behind this. And then. You can go upwards from there. You can share a little bit, you can share a lot, you can share everything. And I'm gonna talk to you about how to figure that out in just a second.

Tailoring Your Personal Touch

I think it also really depends on the type of business that you have.

So if people are hiring you to work directly with you, it does help to be a little bit more personal so that they can get to know the person that they are working with. So if you are a service provider, if you are a coach or something. It can be really helpful because you wanna know that the person who is hiring you or the person that you are hiring is someone that you are gonna connect with and that you're gonna work with really well and that you wanna work with, and that you're gonna gel together, that you have common interests or things like that, that are gonna make it a fun, great experience.

So if you have that personal touch in your business, then having a bit of a personal touch outwardly can be really helpful. If people are buying from you, from your solo creative business, then a balance of personal is really good. Just again, so that people know if I'm buying this print or I'm buying this thing for my house, or I'm buying this piece of apparel, whatever they're buying, I'm also supporting a person and I wanna support that person because I know who they are and I connect with them and I know why they're doing what they're doing, and that resonates with me.

So having. A balance of that and making sure they know who you are and know why you're doing what you're doing. All of that stuff can be really good if people are buying products from you as a solo creative business. If you have a bigger business where maybe you are not the face of your business someone else's, or there's more than one person behind your business, then a little personal can be enough just for people to know who founded this, who started this, are there people doing this so that they know who's behind the business. But it doesn't necessarily need to be as personal. You don't need to be sharing as much personal information.

Hopefully that helps a little think about what type of business you have and then what that means in terms of how much you might wanna share or how much is good to share. And also, we are gonna start thinking about the level of personal that feels right to you.

So let's dive in.

Deciding What to Share

How do you decide how personal you want your brand to be? The most important thing to remember here is that this is ultimately your decision. You get to decide what you share and what stays private. Nobody else, even if you see other people sharing certain things or talking about certain topics or being super personal or not personal at all, that doesn't matter.

There is no one rule for what you have to share, what you don't have to share. It's totally up to you with marketing your creative business, the goal is that you enjoy marketing your creative business so that you wanna do it more, and so that you feel good about telling people about your work and you and the things you do.

So if you are hating it, that's not gonna work. So this is ultimately your decision. So how do we decide that number one. I just said it doesn't matter what other people are doing, but it can be helpful to look at what other people are doing. What I would recommend doing, number one, is look at the people that you feel connected to as a personal brand or as a brand with.

Personal elements and why you feel that way. So if your favorite artist is, sharing stuff about the books they love to read and the art that they love and their chronic illness or something, what is it about it and what is it about what they share that makes it feel like it connects to you?

Could you or do you want to share in a similar way, maybe not necessarily the same topics or the same interests or the same exact way, but are there elements of what they're doing or how they're sharing or what they're talking about that you want to achieve as well? So that's number one is just to look at the people that you feel connected with and why that happens and what you could take from that and what you could learn from that.

Number two is to review your brand values, what fits with your values, what doesn't? So if one of your brand values is creativity, for example, and hopefully a little bit more detailed than that, but say it's about creativity. Are there things in your life that fit with creativity that could be great to share?

So I just said with the previous example, maybe you talk about the art that you love, your favorite artists going to your local art gallery, your creative process. These are all things that fit with your value of creativity. And so that is a really great way to figure out, does this align with things that matter to me and that are important to my business and the way I wanna do things, maybe you have another brand value.

And you have things that don't fit with that brand value. So for you, it's like positivity, for example. And so sharing really negative things while yes, we wanna share the truth and be honest and authentic, maybe it doesn't fit with your brand and how you actually wanna show up and what you wanna talk about

so have a look at your brand values and think about what fits with them and what doesn't. So then we wanna think about, okay, what topics do I wanna talk about or could I share? These could be things that you love, the things you're passionate about, the things that make you happy, the things that relate to your business.

For example, the books you're reading, the gardening you are doing, your trips to the local bookstore, your daily cup of tea, and your most cherished mug, your new piece of art, your favorite creators. These can be things that you love that are. You are passionate about, that you wanna talk about because you love them and they make you happy.

And also they might relate to your business, which is a bonus, right? If you are something I've thought about before is that I collect mugs. I have a somewhat problematic collection of mugs. And I collect a lot of handmade ceramics, something that works for me and that is something I could share is my collection of mugs because it connects with my value and my interest in creativity and

supporting local artists. It's also something I love and that makes me really happy and that I can talk to anyone about any time. I can talk about tea, I can talk about mugs. What a dream. So that's an example of something that combines. The things that I love and that make me happy with my business and my brand values.

So have a think about what you love, what you would be excited to share, what would make you really happy, and what maybe relates to your business as well.

Setting Boundaries

Then we wanna set some boundaries about what topics you will and won't talk about. For example, maybe you will and are super happy and would love to talk about your creative business, your creative process, your hobbies and your chronic illness.

But you won't talk about your family. You are like, that is private. That's personal to me and I'm not gonna include my family 'cause there's nothing to do with my business and it, I don't need to and I don't want to. So there you have some pretty clear boundaries about, okay, happy to talk about these topics.

I'm not gonna talk about these. That makes it really easy for when something comes up and I think, should I share this? Or someone else is talking about this, does that mean I have to? You can say, no, actually, I know my boundaries and I know the topics that I'm happy to talk about and not happy to talk about.

So that can help you make a decision. Last but not least, you wanna always ask yourself why you are sharing something. So when you come to a point where you're like, okay, I think I'm gonna talk about this thing, ask yourself. Is this something I'm passionate about? Is that why I wanna share it?

Is it something that connects to my business? Is that why I wanna share it? Is my audience gonna relate? Is that why I wanna share it? Do I have another reason for sharing it that maybe doesn't fit actually? And so asking yourself these questions and asking yourself, why do I wanna share this piece of information?

Why do I wanna share this topic? Why do I wanna share what's going on? And if the reason that comes up is. It doesn't feel good to you, then maybe you don't actually need to share it. If it's something that you're like, oh, I'm sharing it because I'm, I wanna bitch about something, or I'm sharing it because I want people to feel sorry for me, or whatever it is.

Maybe those are reasons that. Aren't the best reasons to be sharing what you're sharing, but if you are, you ask yourself why and you think, actually, this is something I'm really passionate about and I wanna talk about it. Or, this is something that connects to my business and I think it'll be really important to talk about.

Or, this is something I know my audience is gonna relate to and I feel really excited to talk to them about it. Those are reasons that are like a hell yes. Let's share it. Let's talk about it. So every time you go to post something a little bit personal that you're not sure about. Ask yourself, why am I sharing this piece of information?

Journal Prompts for Clarity

There are some journal prompts that I came up with based on this stuff and some other thoughts that could be helpful for you to figure out what feels good to you and what doesn't. So let me read those out to you and you can pick any that feel like they would be helpful for you.

Number one, what personal things do my favorite creators share that make me feel connected to them and their work, and why? Number two, what are some non-work related topics that I would love to talk about? Number three, what are some of my favorite topics, hobbies, experiences, or other things? Number four, where do I feel pressure to share things that don't feel comfortable to me, and why do I feel that pressure?

What could I maybe do to ease that? Five. If I look at my brand values, what are some things I could talk about that fit into each one? Number six, what are some topics that feel too personal for me to share and why? Number seven, what things have I talked about in the past that my audience resonated with and engaged with me about?

Number eight, what things have I talked about in the past that did or didn't feel good to share? Number nine, what do people ask me or talk to me about outside of work? Number 10, what personal topics do I think my ideal audience would love to talk or hear about? Those are just a few, some more might come up for you as you start writing and thinking and processing this stuff.

But I hope that those will be helpful for you to get started figuring out your boundaries for sharing personal things on social media.

Examples from Other Creatives

Also wanna share with you some examples of artists and some of the personal things that they share so that you can see, okay, this is what this person is sharing, this is what this person is sharing, and I want you to listen to these and see how you respond and think about would you share this?

Would you not share that? Why would you not or why would you try to learn a little bit from these topics? These are all. Previous guests on the Brand Your Passion podcast, so you can go and listen to their story as well and learn a bit more about them and the stuff that they share and how they share it.

But I thought these would be great examples to think about this topic. Evie Kemp has recently been sharing about the process of being diagnosed with A DHD. That's something obviously very personal, but something that Evie is talking about and sharing and going through the whole process with her audience about.

Emma Smith has recently been sharing her travels to Japan, so traveling is something that's not necessarily work related, it's a personal experience, but it's something that they are sharing and it's fun to share and people love to see it. Meg Lewis has been sharing their fitness journey as well as things like their outfits and their dog and daisy braid has talked about their experiences with skin conditions and trying to heal that moving house and the recent hurricanes across Australia.

So those are some examples that you can think about.

Would I share about my process of being diagnosed with ADHD or other kind of mental health things? Would I share about my travels? Would I share about my fitness journey? Would I share my dog? Would I show my outfits? Would I talk about my skin conditions?

Would I talk about moving house? These are all things that you can think about. Would I share those things, would I not? Why? What feels good, what feels too much? And hopefully that can help you. And as I said at the beginning, you can do this with your favorite artists as well and why you feel connected to them.

So to summarise, yes, your brand needs a personal element so that you can connect with your audience, person to person, but the amount and way that you do that is really up to you. You can use all the tools I've just shared with you to help you figure that out and come up with your own social media strategy that works for you.

If you would like help or feedback or advice to, or to hear how other creatives are approaching this so that you can feel confident in the content you are sharing, then please come and join us in the brand Your Passion Collective. We are talking about things like this all the time in there, on our calls and in the community.

And in fact, this very topic came from conversations in the community. So head to brand, your passion.co and start building an unforgettable brand alongside your favorite creatives right now. Otherwise, I hope this episode has been really helpful. Hope that it's given you some tools and some things to think about and some ways to approach how personal your personal brand or your brand needs to be and how much you want it to be.

As always, keep being creative and I will see you in the next episode.

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