05 🦜Finding Your True Brand Message and Personality

Welcome to October, which is Self-Promotion Month.

All this month we’ll be exploring the foundations of self-promotion because when you do it right it can result in big opportunities for you and your business.

Let’s get started on creating the momentum you need to make a lasting impact!

In this edition, we cover:

• Why we hide our truth
• A faulty maxim that leads to broken dreams
• An activity to help find your true brand message and personality
• A mometum-mantra to help you be seen, valued and chosen
• A story about how a budding author came out of hiding

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“Fake it until you make it”

We’ve all heard this maxim, and it’s often one we turn to when facing something we’re not quite sure how to execute.

However, when it comes to marketing and promoting your authentic value to reach a wider audience, “faking it” is destructive advice.

We’ve all been there, especially in the early stages of our business. We’ve tried to emulate the marketing strategies, presentation methods and language of the industry giants. After all, if it worked for them, it should work for me, right? I know I’ve been there too.

But when it comes to cold market strategies, capturing the attention of new clients who know nothing about you, they aren’t looking for a duplicate of someone else.

Especially when they’re considering investing their hard-earned money on something that promises to improve their business or enhance their life.

The key to winning over this audience lies in speaking with your authentic voice. It’s your unique perspective, your genuine passion and your real personality that will build trust and keep you true to your brand.

How to Find Your True Message

The question invites a deeper realization: Discovering one’s truth is a journey that has been conditioned out of us by society’s expectations.

Growing up, we’re frequently guided to downplay our uniqueness: stay silent, let others lead, don’t draw attention.

These teachings, over time, mold us to conform, compelling us to hide our true selves for fear of criticism or ostracization. The corporate world amplifies this narrative, valuing falling in line over individuality.

But, for us entrepreneurs, the story takes a different turn. In a marketplace teeming with capable competitors, authenticity becomes our most valued currency.

While the corporate realm may champion camouflage, purpose-driven entrepreneurship celebrates our courage to shine.

The key to purpose-driven success is to uncover what is truly unique about you. It’s what we’ve been helping trainees and clients with the better part of a decade.

Today we are sharing one of the activities from our authentic marketing training: True2Brand.

Timeline Activity: Discover Your Truth & Personality

Let’s embark on a journey to uncover your authentic voice by mapping out the meaningful moments and milestones in your life.

Step 1: Create Your Life Timeline

Grab a large sheet of paper or use a notebook for this activity and draw a horizontal line across the paper to represent your life’s timeline. Along this line, mark specific age points or significant periods, such as every five years (5, 10, 15, 20, etc.) or important life stages (like elementary school, high school, college, first job, etc.).

Step 2: Highlight Your Meaningful Moments

Think back to your life’s most significant moments and add them to your timeline. To jog your memory, consider the following prompts:

• Graduation, marriage, birth of a child, promotions
• Moments where you overcame obstacles or setbacks and felt proud of your resilience
• Instances of personal growth and self-discovery, such as learning a new skill or conquering a fear
• Hobbies, passions, or interests that have played a consistent role in your life, like sports, arts, travel, or volunteering
• Experiences that brought you immense joy, satisfaction, or a sense of accomplishment like a memorable vacation, winning an award, or achieving a personal goal

Step 3: Reflect on Your Timeline

Take a moment to reflect on your life timeline. What strengths and qualities were present during those meaningful times? Have certain passions or interests consistently been part of your life’s tapestry? How have these elements contributed to your sense of purpose and fulfillment?

Step 4: Uncover Your Unique Brand Voice and Personality

Now, consider what unique qualities, beliefs, strengths, or personal characteristics (“you’isms”) might be relevant to reveal through your brand personality. Think about how you react to life and what sets you apart. These insights will serve as a foundation as you craft your authentic and compelling brand message.

This journey of self-discovery will pave the way for you to speak with your true voice and connect with your audience on a deeper level.

Enjoy the process!

The Story of A (Hiding) History Mystery Author

Hi, I’m Trina Brooks, the Client Success Director at BOOM U Media, Co-Author of Midweek Momentim and a novelist with my first book coming out next month. Once I set the date of my book’s publication, I turned to mind to the next step, marketing.

I knew I needed to find my unique voice to stand out in the crowded world of murder mystery novels, which is the second most popular genre in publishing. I had giants like Agatha Christie, John Grisham, and Gillian Flynn to contend with, each with their distinct brand identities. So, I set out to discover mine.

I enrolled in Jill’s True2Brand training, which became my guiding light. It helped me unearth my true voice by uncovering the part of myself I loved the most.

I embraced the timeline exercise, delving deep into my past to recollect those moments that ignited the most profound joy. Like that bold decision I made at age 16 to enroll in theatre school, despite the lack of encouragement from others. Or the time I wrote and produced my own play, completely uncharted territory for me, only to witness the theatre sell out.

As I reflected, a pattern began to emerge. I started recognizing the values I admired in myself and where my true interests lay. The timeline exercise was like a mirror, revealing facets of myself I’d kept hidden.

Before, I’d never considered myself brave, and I downplayed my passion and expertise in history.

But by identifying these aspects of myself, I realized I was a history mystery writer, with a keen focus on the twentieth century and my characters embodied a quiet bravery that ultimately became their defining strength.

Defining my voice also had a ripple effect. It influenced the graphics, colors, and fonts I chose, and it determined my marketing strategy, including which social media platforms were best for me.

In the past, my decisions were shots in the dark, influenced by what I saw other authors doing. But now, everything from my books to my messaging, from my marketing strategies to my target audience, is intricately woven using my unique personality.

I’ve learned authenticity is not just about words; it’s about embracing your true self and allowing it to shine through every aspect of your work. Finding your authentic voice is not just possible; it’s transformative and becomes the foundation of how you pass through life and connect with others.

This Week’s Thinking Vitamin

If you’re familiar with Jill’s Thinking Vitamins Podcast or bestselling, book “It’s Go Time,” you’ll recognize the term “Thinking Vitamins”: a positive idea, continuously revisited, that reprograms limiting beliefs with empowering ones.

For this issue, our gifted True2Brand Energy Strategist and Coach, Margarita Angelatos, designed a special Thinking Vitamin aimed at helping you speak your truth, and be valued and chosen by those you are here to help.

“My soul’s truth has meaning and purpose: it speaks to and inspires my audience. I successfully communicate with value, honour and joy.”

To speed up the adoption of this idea, save this image (or take a screenshot) and set it as your homescreen!

Are you tired of not being seen for who you are? Or of wasting your precious time and money on marketing efforts that don’t pay off?

Are you ready to have your ideal clients hear you, value you, and choose you?

Our training True2Brand: Authentic Marketing for Purpose’Preneurs may be your solution. Below is a testimonial from a trainee who took it earlier this year:

I made big changes towards living my truth. I finally got past wondering who I want to work with, how I can help them, and what sets me apart from others in my field. I now speak about myself and my business with confidence and ease. I’m having fun marketing! My business is growing faster than ever: I am at nearly double the number of clients/program participants in just over 4 months!!! It is amazing. Thank you for helping me claim my difference in the world!

Sylvia Humble, Inclusive Song Leader and Creator of Sing Again

Learn more about the True2Brand Training.

Wrapping up this edition of Midweek Momentum!

We hope you enjoyed it and agree that “fake it until you make it” is bad advice. When it comes to effective self-promotion, nothing could be further from the truth. Getting in touch with your true self and message is the way to fast track your success.

Once you find your true voice and message, we suspect you’ll feel pulled by unseen forces to connect more intentionally with your ideal audience, which is why that’s what we’ll share in the next issue of Midweek Momentum!

Until next Wednesday…

Here’s to every small win toward a big dream,

Jill McAbe & The BOOM U Media Team

Jill McAbe: Founder, Educator & Author for Purpose’Preneurs

Margarita Angelatos: True2Brand Energy Coach & Strategist

Trina Brooks: Client Success Director & History Mystery Writer

If you’ve found value in today’s insights and if you know another thoughtful entrepreneur who might benefit from them, please forward this to them!

Do you want to read Trina’s book when it comes out and see how her marketing journey unfolds? Subcribe to receive Midweek Momentum Newsletter to your inbox.

Special Thanks to Linkedin and Medium for being the online homes to the Midweek Momentum Newsletter. Click here to read our previous issue: Why and When Purpose’Preneurs Need to Transition to Cold Traffic.

Special Thanks to Pexels and Skyler Ewing for the gorgeous photo of a hummingbird that we used as inspiration for this newsletter.

Special Thanks to Kartra for being the all-in-one provider of choice for Midweek Momentum and our training programs. If you are looking for a simpler, all-in-one website and email solution, we highly recommend them, this link gets you 30 days free to try it out.