Define Your Message and Purpose
Part of creating your brand in a practical sense is taking the identity and
persona of your brand and turning it into an actual message. Brands often
have vision statements or mission statements that help convey what they are
trying to create with their brand. This message or vision statement clearly
tells people what they value, what they are focused on, and how they intend
to make an impact on their brand. Oftentimes, brands will have a single
statement as well as a complete message that they want to convey—and in
many cases, you can easily find this information on their website or simply
by asking them about it.
When it comes to personal branding, creating both a mission statement and a
message is a valuable way of clarifying what it is that you are doing in
messages that you can share directly with your audience. If you have a
website, you can always share this information on your website so that people
can easily see it and get a feel for what it is that you are creating in the world.
If you do not, you can always just keep these written down on a piece of
paper for you to read and pay attention to so that any time you are looking to
create something or do something with your brand you can refer back to your
mission statement and support others with it. Keeping these mission
statements and messages available can be extremely powerful when it comes
to branding and scaling so do not overlook this step, even if you think you
already have a general idea of what it is that you are creating.
Your mission statement should be around one to two sentences long and
should encompass a very direct and specific message in regard to what it is
that you are wanting to accomplish through your work. Your mission
statement is different from your slogan because it has more information in it
and it is presented in a more formal and professional manner, as opposed to
your slogan which is used as more of a branding or marketing tool than
anything else. So, make sure that your mission statement is more practical
and complete in regard to sharing what it is that you are all about and what it
is that you are seeking to accomplish through your personal brand.
Your message should be what change that your brand—or you—aspires to
create in the world. This can be a more elaborated version of your mission
statement and it should include information such as why you are passionate
