Our Clever collab Alycia told a funny story about giving your business some personality.
Anyone who read it (that includes you, right?) gets the point – You CAN’T appeal to everyone, but you HAVE to appeal to someone.
And simple as that seems, many people really struggle with how to make this work for them.
How much of your personality do you show? Where do you show it?
What if nobody likes it? What if the wrong people like it?
Let’s answer that last question first.
The wrong people are either 1. people you don’t want to work with (difficult, cheap, etc.) 2. people who don’t align with your brand (porn stars – unless they do align with your brand. In that case, carry on…)
If you’re getting either of these, your brand personality needs some adjustment.
Pretending, posing or promising anything other than what you can and want to do is going to get you into trouble.
So many small business owners are embarrassed of being small, new, imperfect, too creative, not creative enough, home based, part time, too casual – the list goes on.
So you brand yourself as something you think you need to be. And then the jobs you get make you miserable.
Stop it. Right now.
If you want to be successful and happy, you have to work with the right people.
The right people are the ones who get you. And the reason they get you is because you told them the truth.
So when you’re writing copy, picking graphics for your website or making contacts at a networking event – ask yourself “does that sound like me?”
And when people don’t get you, consider it their loss. [Lessons from kindergarten, right?]
As for the rest of the questions…
How much of your personality do you show? Well, I think this is basic social skill and common sense. Show whatever you feel is appropriate.
Where do you show it? Everywhere. Just adjust it to whoever you’re speaking to. Maybe you can get away with saying shit-balls on your blog but on your website it might be more appropriate to pseudo curse sh@# – they’ll get the point.
What if nobody likes it? Um-possible. You have friends, right? They like your personality. Wouldn’t it be way better if you got to work with people who were kind of like your friends?
