3 Ways to Highlight Your Originality and Individualism in the Business Realm  

With so many solopreneurs out there (particularly in my field of business coaching, personal development and spirituality), the question becomes, is it possible to stand out? Absolutely it is. The magic lies in bringing out your personality in your brand – your unique you-ness, if you will.

There are three main steps to highlighting your distinctive individuality and weaving those attributes into your brand, and they are as follows:

Let Your Extraordinary Shine Through
Let’s be real – we’re all unique and singular, in so many ways. The crying shame is that we sanitize our personality for the sake of fitting in. I understand this on a deep, guttural level because I was bullied relentlessly in high school for being the odd one out. This resulted in my conscious decision to bury my real self and pretend to be someone I wasn’t for the sake of fitting in.

Why is this relevant to business and branding? Because people don’t buy “stuff” – they buy from brands that make them feel good. But if you’re diluting your personality, you simply don’t have a brand. It’s as simple as that.

So, once you’ve found your unique characteristics and quirks, share them with wild abandon on social media (which, incidentally, is why you’ll see a plethora of cat photos and comic book references on my channels). The great thing about this is that you’re not constructing an image that requires you to stay “on message” – you’re figuring out exactly who you are, and simply sharing it with everyone. The best part?  When someone asks how you designed your brand, you can honestly say, “I’m just being myself.”

Find your Voice
It’s so important that we find our own lingo. And as with finding our brand, it can’t be forced, it has to be genuine.

I see so many similar posts on social media and so much same-y website copy that it starts to feel like the movie Groundhog Day. The reason we’re all using the same lexicon? It’s because many of us have the same role models, particularly in the realm of personal development and spirituality. Admittedly, there are a number of people who do inspire me – but, honestly, I have since muted many of them and unsubscribed to their newsletters because I found myself subconsciously picking up on their language and using it, particularly when I was starting out. My content didn’t sound like me anymore.

You need to sound like yourself, so mute everyone else – yes, even your favourite guru. Especially her. Know that it’s not malicious, either. It’s for the good of you, your brand and, ultimately, your business.

Share your Shame
This sounds counterintuitive, so stay with me here. In order to stand out from the crowd and bring out the unique aspects of you through your brand, you have to talk about the thing you don’t want to talk about. And yes, it’s that one thing that popped into your head just now.

I know from experience that this feels absolutely agonizing at the time, and I still have moments when I write something personal, and wonder if I’m sharing too much. But for me, those articles and videos that had me sweating bullets when I hovered over the “Publish” button became not only my most successful pieces, but also my most rewarding.

How so? Because when I talked about the aspects about myself that I had kept hidden – specifically, addiction, bullying and depression – I felt free from my shame, and felt more empowered by having shared it.  In the wise words of Brené Brown, shame can’t survive being spoken about. It was absolutely liberating. And it was an additional bonus, and a revelation to me at the time, that those pieces drew people to me — and that I had found my audience.

Remember – while the aim of this is to build a unique brand, it goes without saying that you must remain honest and true to yourself during this process. Otherwise, you may wind up building something unique that bares no resemblance to who you are or what you stand for.

It’s very simple: the key is to be yourself, and allow others to see that.