I think we've become a little too obsessed with blank slates, starting the year strong, mid-year resets, ending the year with a bang… you know the drill!
The truth is, that “new year, new me” energy from January has worn off by now, and what you're left with is your endless to-do list and a goal-setting doc you wrote once and never looked at again.
So instead of another reset, I'm giving you a summer deadline to work out why your personal brand doesn't feel like it's fully you yet, whether that's the name you show up under, the content that doesn't quite match your polished brand shoot, or the pressure to answer some deep "what makes you different" question you don't actually need to solve.
Because your brand is a work in progress, not a finished product, and it's about noticing what's not pulling its weight and adjusting from there!
Sometimes what's holding your personal brand back is something as simple as the name you're showing up under.
I touched on this with Katie Pannell a while back, but the short version is that you can:
I've watched a lot of people make that switch publicly lately, in one direction or the other, and it's admittedly the hardest part to work through: figuring out why your brand doesn't feel like where you want it to be, and what's actually missing.
Which is why I'm giving you a deadline: summer. Because without one, "fix my brand" just becomes a permanent line item at the bottom of your to-do list, and I think most of us need a deadline to actually move.
A lot of people assume building a personal brand comes down to content, and sure, content matters. I'm not a content strategist, and there are people far better suited than me to walk you through themes and messaging.
What I see, as a designer, is what happens *after* the content strategy part is done: you've written the caption, planned the carousel, and it's time to actually put the thing together... and it all looks a little mismatched. So you end up right back where you started, which is not posting.
You already know people buy from people, which is why you show your face instead of hiding behind a portfolio or faceless reels. So you post the casual, real-life stuff, the "here's me being human" photo dumps, because it feels honest and low-lift, and doing something beats doing nothing.
But that content looks nothing like the polished shoot you also paid good money for. The shoot's gorgeous (and exactly the brand) but it's *too* polished to sit next to a selfie in your Stories.
Now you've got two separate visual worlds that don't talk to each other: the expensive stuff that feels too precious to use casually, and the casual stuff that doesn't match the vibe you paid to build. Showing your face starts to feel vain, and not showing it feels cowardly. The good photos feel wasted, and the everyday ones feel pointless.
The fix isn't more content. It's a design template for the lifestyle content you're already posting, something that blends your branding with your off-the-cuff photos.
Take a monthly dump format, since most people are already posting some version of it. A polished shoot feels "branded" because someone styled it, graded it, made it intentional... so borrow that intention for your dump carousel:
Don't reinvent this every time you post. Repetition is what turns it into a recognisable style your audience starts to expect, a designed container that means your morning coffee photo and your paid shoot can live in the same universe, without you needing to overthink either one.
A lot of people also assume what's standing between them and the brand they want is some deep, unanswered question, usually some version of "What makes you different?" which might be the worst question EVER to ask any online service provider.
Search "personal branding tips" and 9/10 times you'll land on a journaling prompt encouraging you to write your life away, like the real problem is some hidden essence you haven't found yet...
I'm all for reflection. It's the first thing I do with any rebrand client. But as my friend & mentor Alice Benham says, action creates clarity, not the other way around.
You need to DO something. And chances are you've already done the target-audience work. You know your niche. You know what you sell. What's missing is the push to show all of that with your actual personality attached, without turning into a 24/7 content creator whose feed reads more "influencer" than "service provider."
One more thing while we're here: putting thought into how your content and visuals fit together doesn't make you any less authentic.
Authenticity was never some pure, unfiltered version of you. That would mean documenting every second of your life, exposing everything, and being uncomfortable constantly, which none of us actually want.
Caring about how your words land or your visuals look is a sign you care about the experience you're creating for your audience and clients, not evidence you're faking something.
You find your voice, and your version of authenticity, by saying what you came to say, using it, and then noticing how you feel afterward — before you even check how it landed with anyone else. It's a feedback loop you run with yourself every time you post or hit send, and it applies just as much to the design choices you make.
I always open my Instagram Stories with "Good Mornin'," so I made it a transparent-background Canva sticker, and now it's a visual shorthand my audience recognizes.
My podcast manager (and past Extravaganza client) Adrienne Cruz, whose brand runs on a summer-brunch theme, reacts to messages with champagne glasses. I react with the circus emoji by default.
So if you came into this hoping for permission to blow everything up and start over... I don't have it for you. Your personal brand is a work in progress, the same way you are. The job isn't rebuilding but noticing what's not pulling its weight and adjusting from there.
If you want help figuring out where to start, send me a DM saying you listened to this episode, and I'll review your profile and post design and send back one thing you can improve, no strings attached.
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✦ Episode 022: Time For Your Brand’s Mid-Year Check-In: Here’s How To Do It
✦ Episode 045: Your (Personal) Name Isn’t Your Brand, with Katie Pannell
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Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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