A Personal Brand Exercise For Sharing Yourself Online
February 13, 2013 Kathleen

I’ve got a worksheet for you try out today, the Online You Sharing Spectrum. We developed it while working on our Personal Branding Braid ECourse – but I’m sharing this one exercise out of all the others – well, partly as a sneak peek into the course, but also I think this exercise in particular really helps creative entrepreneurs work through two things I’ve been noticing from our clients more than ever lately:

1. They all have this deep desire to more accurately and authentically share who they really are 
2. But they’re scared

It can be confusing and overwhelming knowing what to share and how to share it when you’re at a dinner with friends – much less when you have the entire world at your fingertips. But I think nothing is more beautiful or powerful than getting to create an online space that’s so perfectly you, where you can capture, shape, and share who you are and what you’re all about. 

I do believe getting clear on your boundaries and creating within your limitations will make you more comfortable, and creative, with genuinely sharing who you are online.  Read on for the downloadable worksheet to start defining those boundaries, along with takeaway tips to begin more confidently sharing within those parameters. 

Where Do You Fall on the Online Spectrum?

Online Spectrum Worksheet

Downloadable Worksheet PDF: The Online You Sharing Spectrum

Straight from our Braid ECourse Personal Branding: Blending Who You Are With What You Do, from anonymous, to all out there – see where you land on the sharing spectrum now, and where you’d like to be in the future. Then list out some specific boundaries – the things you absolutely will not talk about online, the things you’re perfectly comfortable posting about, and finally the things you would like to talk about but feel a little scared. 

8 Tips on Sharing (and Shining) Online
You might even consider reading through these before you fill out your worksheet if you’re feeling stuck!

1. Sharing takes practice. Start small. You’re not immediately going to feel comfortable putting much of anything out there if you’ve never done it before. So test the waters with a Tweet or Instagram pic. Touch on topics before you dive into a full-blown essay on it. Sometimes a photo and one sentence will say more about who you are than a novel. 

2. Find your tone. Lots of people tell you to find your voice but I’m betting you already have a voice. I think you should focus on finding your tone. Is it sarcastic, dry, sweet, rough around the edges, funny, serious, sincere, vulnerable, bold, sassy, quiet? 

3. Learn how to listen. The great thing about sharing online is the instant feedback you get from your community. That feedback can come in the form of enthusiastic comments, “likes”, or even chirping crickets – those responses are valuable for helping you assess and calibrate what you’d like to share more or less of accordingly. 

4. Your corner of the internet will evolve and change as you evolve and change. I think part of the fear of sharing online is how permanent it can feel when you hit that “publish” button. I find fascinating about the internet is how ephemeral and temporary, yet archival, it is. 

5. It doesn’t always have to be deep. One of my most popular posts, to date, over at my personal blog was about my armpits. But guess who else is blogging about their armpits? No one. So even the little stuff can reveal lots about you and have readers thanking you for “keeping it real” without getting too terribly deep. 

6. Your goal is to attract or repel readers. I think we get most scared of sharing when we are afraid of offending someone. But if you’re everything to everyone you’re probably watering down who you really are and what you really have to say. Jasmine Star won me over at Alt Summit when she said this about building a personal brand: “My goal is to either attract you or repel you”. When you share your authentic self (the big stuff and the little stuff), the online tribe you were meant to have will not only be attracted to you and like will feel like they belong in your space.

7. Share elsewhere. You don’t always have to share in your own space. For example, I’ve felt the urge to write about my starter marriage – but my blog, a place where I celebrate the life I have created with my husband Jeremy, is clearly not the appropriate venue to talk about a failed relationship with my ex. So I’ve considered writing about the topic elsewhere – at a place like The Equals Record – a blog full of contributors who dig deep into the more complex issues of life. A place where a conversation about getting married (and divorced) young would be appropriate. And on the flip side – if I want to indulge in my consumer side I can curate a gift guide with a blogger like Meg Biram.

8. Be consistent. At the heart of any brand is setting expectations and then delivering on that promise. What do you promise to share? How often? And where? 

Lastly, here are some rad bloggers who all share who they are and what they do in very different ways (from private to all out there): 
• Danielle Krysa of The Jealous Curator – I didn’t know the author of The Jealous Curator was a woman until she emailed me on my birthday with a list of reasons why she was jealous of me. We’ve been friends ever since. But even before we got to know each other I learned a lot about Danielle just by getting to know what kind of art she liked, and why she liked it, every single day. 
• Sandra Juto – Sandra shares daily details from her walks, fika (that’s what Swedes call their coffee breaks) and work. She keeps her words brief but you feel like you’re in her whole world when you go to her blog. 
• Liz Fabry of EXACTLY – Liz is our Braid brand director and her blog captures the minimalist beauty (and mystery) that she exudes in real life. People live for her Weekend Breakfasts series – and on that note sharing what you’re eating is always a brilliant way to connect. 
• Megan Gilger of The Fresh Exchange – If you are wanting to share more and on a variety of topics Megan is the perfect example of how to do that with style and grace. She’s really great at keeping it real and making us all feel like we’re in it together but what I really admire is how she captures her content offline and then brings it to us as a beautifully packaged gift. 

Braid ECourse Personal Branding

If you want to know more about personal branding check out our Braid ECourse Personal Branding: Blending Who You Are With What You Do. This $75 ECourse is in session from this Friday, February 15th – 24th. You have through tomorrow to register! Pssst... Check out our guest post over at Freelancers Union for more personal branding tips and a discount on the course. 

Brand Exercises, Personal Branding
A Resolution for Routine
January 03, 2013 Kathleen

Happy 2013, creatives! Everyone is talking about goal-setting and intentions so I thought a post on feeling lazy and setting a routine would be a perfect start to a new year here on the Braid blog.

You see, a couple of patterns I’ve noticed in the creative entrepreneurs we work with:  
1. They all think they’re lazy
2. They all desire process and routine

The Lazy Factor

The Lazy Factor 
In a culture that glorifies 80-hour work weeks and six-figure salaries it’s almost impossible to not feel lazy. I think us creative entrepreneurs often feel lazy because our values don’t align with the nine-to-five hustle surrounding us – OR because we’re comparing our daily grind to someone else’s finished product. We think “if I could just put in a little bit more time” or “if I could try just a little harder my career would look so stylish and successful. I’d have an EBook, a workshop, and that super cool blogger in LA would be my new BFF. If I could just work a little harder and be just slightly more talented my life would look like Kinfolk.”

Or maybe that’s just me. But if this sounds familiar continue reading on. 

The Conundrum

The Conundrum
The thing I’ve found to be true is this ... “lazy” is essential to being creative. Even Albert Einstein said “Creativity is the residue of time wasted.” I mean... how many of your best ideas strike when you’re reading a novel, going for a run, in the shower, or even in your sleep? Oftentimes, it’s in the time and space that happens around the actual “work” in which creativity thrives. And when that space around the work happens haphazardly and all willy-nilly it feels like procrastination or downright laziness. But when the space around the work is structured or scheduled we call it R&R or down time. The truth is, you’re probably far from lazy. What you’re really feeling is the desire for routine. 

The Desire for Routine

The Desire for Routine
Every creative entrepreneur I know, and have worked with, desires process and routine. Process and routine are the antidote to laziness. I think of process as the methodical steps you take to solve any problem any time. The creative process keeps you from freaking out or feeling like you’ll never have a good idea ever again when it comes to doing the work. And routine is what gives our work and life a bit of structure. Routine and process, together, move us through the daily grind when all we want to do is wrap up in our coziest blanket, eat some dark chocolate, and watch a quiet Sofia Coppola movie. But what about the times when we don’t want to be full on “lazy” but we do want to check our Twitter, peruse Pinterest, write a blog post, read a book, watch a TED talk, work on some fine art, go to a yoga class, or even eat lunch? All these things sound pretty awesome, but they can make us feel scattered and lazy if we lack a routine. So the point is … develop a routine. It will make you feel productive during your work time and intentional with your down time.  

If the thought of developing a routine makes you feel tired here is a worksheet to help get you started with healthy habits, little rituals, and a schedule to keep you on track.

A Resolution for Routine

Downloadable PDF: A Resolution for Routine

Now you have a plan ... a roadmap for a routine. Now commit to it.

Let us know on Facebook what your resolutions for routine look like. And sign up for our Letters for Creative Entrepreneurs (in the left sidebar on the Braid site) to see what kinds of resolutions for routine Braid is making in 2013. 

And if you’re a creative entrepreneur who often feels scattered and overwhelmed, be sure to register for our Braid ECourse: Shape Up Your Content: Tame Your Ideas and Tell People How to Buy You. The ECourse is $75 and will be in session from January 11 - 20.

Braid At Life & Work, Brand Exercises
Which Kind of Creative Are You?
May 24, 2012 Tara

Last week Kathleen talked about creative rituals to help get over creative anxiety. Some of our rituals include feel-good ones like running midday to refuel the brain and obsessive-compulsive ones like methodically setting up the margins and rules on a blank document to help overcome getting-started inertia. Jonathan Field’s book, Uncertainty: Turning Fear and Doubt Into Fuel for Brilliance dedicates a whole chapter to this idea of ritual.

But there’s one blurb of a paragraph in there that we saw and immediately knew we wanted to expand into a visual branding exercise for creative entrepreneurs. Fields titles it “Identify Your Creative Orientation” and challenges the reader to “figure out which creative orientation fills you up and which empties you out: insight and big-idea generation, or refinement, expansion and production.”

Actions / Inspiration

 

Many Parts / Big Idea

Of course, like two tweens taking a quiz in a magazine, Kathleen and I immediately starting trying to figure out which orientation we were.  We both ping back and forth between big-picture mode and rolling-up-sleeves mode, but we decided if we had to generalize, that Kathleen is the big idea and I am more into the refinement and development of that idea.

Okay, another admission. Not only do we sometimes read just one or two sentences in a book and get a spark of an idea for a branding exercise... we also get inspired by these different kids activity books I have lying around, with these really cool drawing exercises. Because the truth of the matter is that kids are people, and most people (the neat ones) are still kids.

Included on my bookshelf is this giant activity book by the prolific Japanese children’s book author, Taro Gomi called Scribbles. He also wrote and illustrated, Everyone Poops.  Enough said, right? This guy’s life mission must be get people creatively unblocked. 

There is certainly a future 10 Minute Brand Exercise that’s gonna be born from the combination of Uncertainty’s business-book sense, and Scribble’s draw-it-out sense. In the meantime we just uncapped a Sharpie and did what Gomi’s book told us... and scribbled.

Okay, so back to the question. Which when you get stumped on a project or an idea, which creative method do you turn to? No cheating, you gotta pick one: honing in on the big inspiration or chunking it into tiny steps of execution? Tell us on Facebook or Twitter!

Brand Exercises, Resources for Creatives