7 Steps to Creating a Successful Personal Brand

Welcome to the Do It My Way Podcast. I know we’ve talked a lot about personal branding. It’s what I do a lot of coaching on and really just see a difference in businesses that have mastered personal branding. I wanted to share with you today seven things that make successful female personal brands. When I think of women CEOs and entrepreneurs that create a personal brand around their business, and just years of coaching them, it really boils down to these seven things of whether you’re going to be successful or not.

The first thing to do, if you’re thinking about starting a personal brand, and let’s go over what that is, that’s taking your skills, knowledge, and expertise, that’s packaging it and presenting it to the world, and making money doing it. Maybe it’s a brick-and- mortar business, and you’re the face of it. Maybe it’s an online business and you offer a service, or you’re selling a product online, and you’re the face of it. Maybe it is you being an influencer, a podcaster, a speaker, an author.

There’s all different kinds of ways to show up with a personal brand. If you’re thinking, “I am the expert in this area. People seek me out for this. I want to create a personal brand around it, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to start.” First you have to create your brand story. Think of three to five things that shape who you are. If you had to say there were three to five pivotal things in your life that happen that make you who you are, what are those things?

One story I always share is my parents divorced when I was in seventh grade, and I saw my mom become a single mom for the first time. She actually did not graduate from high school. She got pregnant with my brother. She had to get her GED, never went to college, raised three babies. We get older and she found herself 40 years old, divorced, needing a job, never having worked, but needing an extra income.

I watched that and I remember thinking at that young age that I was never going to be reliant on anyone else for money, for my financial state. If I needed to pick up and leave with my kids and go somewhere because that was the best thing for us, I didn’t want to be trapped and be without money and be at the mercy of someone else. I wanted to control my own destiny. That is something that shaped my life. You could say that’s a negative, poor me, and all of that.

My parents ended up having a great relationship and both being happier apart than they were together. We saw that. It wasn’t a terrible– It was obviously sad at the time because you want your parents just to be together, but it was reality. I watched my mom grow, and I watched her get a job and work 20 years in an industry and become in the management level, and really just starting at age 40, you’re like, “Wow, if you can do it, anyone can do it with no schooling and none of that.”

It really did shape who I am and how I work, my work ethic. I’ve always been a hard worker, and I’ve always been driven by money. Not to say that in a bad way, but in a motivating way. I’m going to do X, Y, and Z because that will help me and my family do X, Y, and Z. I want to send my kids to private school. I want to pay for their college. I want to do these things. You put these little goals in front of you and go getthem. That’s always been a motivator for me because I don’t want to be relying on anyone else.

Growing up, I want to be independent. I have a great relationship. We just actually celebrated 23 years of marriage with my husband, but he knew going in like, hey, we’re having separate bank accounts. I need my money. I’m going to work hard and do this. We have a joint savings, so don’t worry about that. It’s not a selfish thing. It’s just the way that we have always operated, and it’s worked out very well for us. We never complain about money. We never have arguments about money.

It’s just, he’s got his, I’ve got mine. We have shared together a common goal for the family. It works. That is something that is in my brand story. That has shaped who I am today. That’s made me a great entrepreneur. That’s made me a great worker and very goal-oriented. What are those things? It can be good, or it could be bad. It could be you were valedictorian of your senior class and you knew that you were going to go on and be just this genius in this certain area because of your academic level and all of that. It could be that.

It could be something tragic that happened. It could be a diagnosis from a family member. I’ve had a client that had a mom that had cancer very early on, and they had to become a caregiver and grow up really quickly. That’s going to shape who you are. Your life is not going to be the same because of that, but good can come out of that. Write down those three to five things. Just anything that sticks out in your mind that was one of those things that you remember, you’re never going to forget about your childhood and your life.

What was that? It could be a great accomplishment. It could be something that was devastating. Maybe you’re that hero. The story, it shows you down and out, and you got out of that place. You were the single mom. You were 40 years old without a college degree, without a high school degree. You had to go get a job and make a life for you, and you’re a single mom with three kids. That could be the story where you became the hero. You overcame a huge obstacle.

People love that. Think about weight loss. I’ve shared the story of Kay Koziol before, who’s the owner of Burt Boot Camp. She lost 80 pounds. That’s a great story. I want to be like her. I want to do what she did. If she can do it, I can do it. It’s that hero story. Maybe you were broke and you became a millionaire and you want to share the steps that you took to go from broke to millions. What was that path? That’s your story.

Or maybe it’s just a career path where you share incredible things that you’ve done, become successful in your certain industry. What were those steps that you took? The good and the bad and the ugly along the way. You want to be vulnerable. You want to relate to people. It can’t all be perfect, or no one relates to you. If you hear a story and somebody just had this perfect family, this perfect life, everything went their way, and they’ve made millions, and they met their perfect spouse, and they have these beautiful, perfect children, well, that’s not reality.

Nobody relates to that and that’s not going to be somebody that gets a ton of followers or has very much influence. Think of that. You’ve got to relate to people and vulnerably tell your story. Number two, you want to show up authentically as yourself. You can’t be a motivational speaker if you can’t motivate yourself or you can’t motivate anyone around you. If you are not that person, you can’t be a motivational speaker. It’s not going to work. You can’t be an expert in real estate if you’ve never had success in real estate.

I’m saying this, and it sounds very obvious, but I’ve had several people come to me and say, “I want to be expert in this or that.” I’m like, “Well, what have you done in that? What has happened in that industry? I want to know.” They’ll say, “Oh, I’m thinking about it. I’m getting ready to start.” That’s not success. It doesn’t have to be monetary success. Maybe you are an incredible baker, and you’ve made this cookie recipe and all your friends and family always want you to make cookies at their parties, and people start paying you for it.

That could be a success story. You are the expert cookie-maker or baker, I should say, obviously, I don’t bake because I’m saying it wrong, but you are the expert in that, and people seek you out for it. Let’s say you want to show up funny. Because all these funny memes and these people on TikTok and Instagram Reels, and they’re funny, and you want to try to be funny. If you’re not funny naturally, it’s not going to work. I’m not funny, really.

I think my friends think I’m funny sometimes. My kids definitely don’t, but if you are not that, you can’t show up as that. You just have to be you. Think about that. Show up authentically as yourself. If you have to ask people, that’s a great way to find out what should I develop a personal brand around? Ask people. What do people say you’re the expert at? If you had to ask the five people you’re closest to, your spouse, your mom, your sister, your best friend, what do they say that you’re the go-to for?

Maybe that’s what you want to develop a personal brand around, but it’s you being you. Number three is create a brand name that stands out. Names are hard. I have people that spend months on names, and we’ll do a branding session, and we’ll come up with all these names, and there’ll be some great options. Number one, you got to figure out you can get the URL for it. Go to godaddy.com, look to see if you can buy the website for not millions of dollars, somebody doesn’t already have it taken.

That’s always a factor these days, but also just something that’s catchy or meaningful to you. Just if I think of my two brands, so I have D2 Branding, and I wanted to be branding versus marketing because, to me, if you don’t have a good brand, marketing never works. It starts with the brand. I’m coaching personal branding. It starts with the brand. Even if it’s not a personal brand, it’s a product, the branding is the step one most important part, and now we’re ready to market and figure out the best avenue to get it out.

D2 is Deedra Determan, my name. D squared, D2. It was something that is simple. It’s easy. I didn’t want it to actually be my name, but I wanted meaning behind it. It’s easy to remember, D2. It’s easy to google. You’re not trying to figure out how to spell it. It’s not long. All these things went through my head whenever I was naming our digital marketing company. Then the podcast, I have a book coming out all under the brand Do It My Way. I’ve explained this story before, but if you haven’t heard it, Do It My Way is not necessarily about doing things my way, but when I started to do things my way is when I started to see success in business.

It’s all about following your gut, and it’s creating a brand or running a business with no regrets, hesitation, or fear. Women lots of times are fearful. You’re fearful of what people are going to think of you. You’re fearful of what your mom told you. You’re fearful of what your spouse is telling you. You’re fearful of society. You’re fearful somebody else has already done this, and they’re more successful than you. How are you ever going to do it?

There’s always that fear. Then you hesitate. You might have regret. Gosh, I regret doing that. Why did I post that? Why did I put that out there? Why did I expose myself to saying I was going to do a podcast, and then I showed up on my podcast, and I don’t think it was great. It wasn’t perfect. We all have those thoughts, but you have to– if you’re going to create a personal brand, you got to own it. You got to own it. That’s who you are. That’s what you’re doing.

That’s what you eat, sleep, and breathe. It’s all about this brand, and there’s no hesitation in it. That’s really the philosophy behind Do It My Way. It’s empowering female CEOs and entrepreneurs to do business on their terms. You call the shots. You control your destiny. No regrets, hesitation, or fear. That stands out. People will see it and say, well, do it my way. What does that mean? They might even be a little bit like, whoa, she’s real confident in herself. Do it her way. No, it’s about me doing it my way. You do it your way. That’s part of the name.

Create a name that stands out that makes people think, wow, okay, I associate that with her. Number four is invest in a logo, professional photos, and video. If you’re going to create this personal brand, the name is first, then we have to have a logo. We have to have something brand to you, and make sure the colors in the logo align with the look and feel you’re going for. With D2 Branding, we have a Tiffany blue and orange.

That really came from, I’m a big OSU fan, go Pokes. I like orange, and it’s orange you don’t see a lot in logos. I love that Tiffany blue color. I just think it’s a pretty color. The combination together, you rarely see. I’m a brander. I can’t have the same thing everybody else has. I wanted to put something together really simple like that. Then when we created Do It My Way, I use that exact same orange, the common theme of the orange that could go back and forth, but I used hot pink.

Hot pink is my favorite color. Anyone that knows me, I wear hot pink probably 75% of the time. My phone case is hot pink. My Stanley cup, I’m looking at right now, is hot pink. I love hot pink. It’s actually my color. If you do the color wheel, I’m a winter, and

hot pink is one of the best colors. Not only do I look good with that color in the background, it’s a happy color to me. With D2 Branding, I wouldn’t have done hot pink because we’re going after the masses. We’re going after men, women. You want it to be more universal.

Where Do It My Way, I’m coaching female CEOs and entrepreneurs. The podcast is for female CEOs and entrepreneurs. I can get away with something like a hot pink and orange, and it’s bright. It’s out there. If you know me, that’s my personality. I like bright. I’m a lot. I don’t want to hide behind muted colors. That’s not who I am. I laugh because my daughter loves muted colors and very neutrals. She’s gorgeous, and she looks gorgeous in them.We just had Mother’s Day.

I came out in an orange and hot pink dress. I’m like, oh my gosh, the fact that I found a dress in my brand colors, I’m not trying to match my brand, but I just love these colors. I have that dress on, and she’s in all white. That’s her. She’s white. She’s neutral. She’s blonde, and I’m dark hair. We’re like literally polar opposites. That fits her, and my brand fits me. You want to make sure that it’s the look and feel you’re going for. You also want something that complements these colors in your photo shoot.

People will say, what do I wear to my photo shoot? Let’s look at your brand colors because when we’re grabbing that photo, we’re putting it on video, we’re putting it on a graphic that’s going to be on your Instagram, the colors can’t clash. If you like to wear a certain color, I wouldn’t make a brand be something that doesn’t go with it or compliment it. That’s something that we look at a lot, and then pick a location that fits the brand.

Are you going for modern? Are you traditional? Are you conservative? Are you free will? What is your brand? For D2, our stuff is in a white studio, modern-looking studio. With the podcast, we have a white table, white chairs, everything is white because the colors are orange and pink. It’s a lot. Everything else needs to be a little subdued. The graphics will look good with that. It just looks modern and clean and slick.

Maybe you want to be outside in nature, maybe your pictures that goes you’re a health brand and wellness and one with nature or yoga or something like that. That makes sense. Just pick a location that fits the brand because I’ve had people show up. There’s a couple of studios we have in town. One is older, and it’s got a lot of furniture that’s like antiques, and things like that. It’s not my favorite place to shoot because it gives you that antique older look.

It’s just not my vibe, but I have had clients where it’s worked really well, like attorneys that were very conservative that wanted that old school more conservative look more traditional, and it turned out great. You just need to think about the location. It really is important. Then what props are you going to use? I am a digital marketer. I’m abusiness coach, so my props might be a laptop in this area. I might have my Stanley cup because I always talk about being healthy and drinking your water.

I might have a couple of clients that we have, or even staged people to be clients in a video or in the photography because I’m coaching people all day. I’m on a whiteboard, I’m coaching. I’m over Zoom, I’m coaching. That that’s where we want to show the brand. Just think about the reality of where you are. Maybe you’re always with a Starbucks, maybe your signatures, you love diet Coke, or whatever it is. Those different things will help as well.

Then number five, you want to create a website to sell your products or service. Now you have a name, now you have a logo, you have the colors of the brand put together. Now how are you going to get the word out? Where are we going to sell this product or service? A website is a great place to start with that. Number six, you want to create an online digital strategy to promote your brand and start making money. That’s the point.

Show up, create the brand, show up on social media or with ads, get your brand out there, be talking about solving the biggest problem you’re solving for your customer or your potential customer, and then you’ve got to start– That’s a way to start getting them in, indoctrinating them into your series, your email series, your tech series, your social media following, all of that because they’ve got to see you 7 to 11 times before they convert on average.

The goal is to make money. You build a brand to then make money. That’s the end goal. Then finally, number seven, is hire a business coach. If you need help growing and scaling and creating that time freedom and financial freedom, that’s usually the end goal with the female CEOs and entrepreneurs I talk to, a coach will get you there quicker. You don’t have to have a coach. I didn’t have a coach in the very beginning. I did when I was ready to scale to a million-dollar business. That’s what got me there.

I wouldn’t have gotten there without a coach because they see things that you don’t see in your business, and help you execute, and it’s an unbiased opinion. They don’t care either way. They’re not emotionally looking at your social media or at your plan and having an emotional tie to it. It’s just like, “Hey, I don’t think this works. Let’s try this or that.” It’s really great to have a coach in your corner.

Those are my tips for creating a personal brand and really making a successful female personal brand around those seven things. Those are the steps you need to take. If you need help with that, I want to offer that free consultation. I know I’ve said it several times, but go to d2branding.com, click on Get a Quote, and I’d be happy to sit down with you. We can Zoom, whatever you’re comfortable with, and really think of a strategy that would work for you for a personal brand.

If you enjoyed this podcast today, I would love for you to share it with your friends. That’s what helps us get the word out and help more people and empower more women. Until next time.