How to build a brand that feels like you
Start by writing your story
Hello and welcome to The Curious Marketer,
You might have found your way here by downloading my Marketing trends report If so I hope it made marketing your business a little easier. And I hope you will stay as I build this small community of female founders, solopreneurs and entrepreneurs. A space where we can learn, grow and share some of the challenges of going it alone.
The one thing I’m always asked by those in the early stages of developing their business is: how did I come up with the idea for The Curious Marketer? My answer is: it came from crafting my own story first.
Crafting and telling your story helps you gain clarity on what you want and helps you connect with your ideal clients and customers.
Crafting your story helps you get clear on what you stand for. The type of people and businesses that you’d like to work with and how you would like to work.
Telling your story gives people a reason to buy into you. It helps them understand what you do, why you do it and if you’d be a good fit for them.
Determining your values is one of the first steps in figuring this out and is an important element of your brand strategy. There will also often be some gold dust that emerges from this discovery from a storytelling perspective. If you want to see the story behind my values, keep on reading. But first, here’s a short exercise to help you determine your own.
The Curious Marketer started with some deep self-discovery. I went through this exercise well before I had the idea. I wanted to understand what mattered most to me, so I could build a business that allowed me to live my values and work with people whose values aligned with mine.
Start by writing a list of things you value. If you’re struggling for ideas, start with these inspired by Richard N Bolles: knowledge and truth, health and wellbeing, beauty and creativity, love and compassion, justice and morality, faith and forgiveness, joy and laughter, appreciation and contentment, respect for the environment.
Once you feel you’ve exhausted all possible options, write each one on an individual card. Then ask yourself ‘what do I most want to honour in everyday life’ with this question in mind start prioritising your values vertically from top to bottom. The top is what you value most and the bottom is what concerns you the least.
If you’re finding it difficult to prioritise one over the other, try laying those you’re conflicted about horizontally and ask ‘Do I value this more than the one above?’ If the answer is yes, place it above. When you’re doing this it’s important to go with your gut instinct not what you think you ‘should’ prioritise.
When you’ve got your values in order of priority, it’s time to think bigger. The order you have the cards above will be ‘me’. Write them down under that heading.
Now ask yourself ‘what do I want to provide or honour for the benefit of those around me?’ (This refers to colleagues, clients, customers and others in your community). Repeat the exercise above, and create a new list. Record the new order under the heading 'others'
Finally, ask yourself ‘what do I most want to contribute to the wider world?’ Repeat the exercise and record the new order under the heading 'world'.
Look at these three lists. What are the top three in each list? Are they the same or different? Which ones appear most frequently? Circle these. These will become your core values.
My values
I used the exercise above and got to these three core values. These helped me shape my business, and I use these as a guiding light when making decisions about the work I do.
Health and wellbeing – before I started The Curious Marketer I’d worked in big agencies and corporates for 16 years. Over time the pace, the volume of work and the culture took their toll and I burnt out. So I knew the next thing I did needed to be rooted in making sure that didn’t happen again. I also wanted to help take that stress away for others. Using my years of marketing expertise to remove the stress from marketing their business.
Knowledge and truth – I’ve never taken things at face value. I’m always curious to question things and understand something more deeply. That is true for me both in work and in life. I’ve found this to be a key skill in marketing strategy and writing. I like to understand the real problem a client and business are facing and then use my knowledge and expertise to provide solutions. From a personal perspective, I also love to learn.
Beauty and creativity – When I took my career break, I wanted to reconnect with who I was and what I loved to do outside of work. That's how I rediscovered writing. I’d studied English Literature at university and had freelanced on and off over the years, but I’d forgotten how much I love it. Now I help female-founded businesses get clear on their message and connect with clients and customers through storytelling.
I’d love to know your values. If you want to share please do so in the comments.
You’re busy, I get it. That’s why I’ve wrapped up the most important posts of the week right here so you can catch up without having to get caught up in the scroll.
My latest blog post on How to create a personal brand
This post on the 3 questions to ask when developing a personal brand
This post on the benefits of having a boot up routine
This is where I share the books, podcasts and articles that I think will inspire.
Some thought provoking questions for understanding yourself in this interesting article from Madeline Dores Substack
Things for knowing what you want – a collection of questions and notes to help cut the noiseThis brilliant piece on confidence
Three lessons I’ve learned about confidenceOliver Burkemans talking about finding the life task in his latest issue of The Imperfectionist
The imperfect art of delegation tells us how to navigate the inevitable challenges of generation and outsourcing on
If you’re curious…
I’m Rebecca, the writer of this newsletter. I’m a marketing consultant and content and copywriter for female founded small businesses.
Great advice!
Thanks Leanna, I don’t think we have time to be anybody else but ourselves and that goes for business too!