Should You Put Your "Real" Personality Into Your Brand?

Does green tea ever taste like armpit to anyone else but me? Here, taste it-

It’s like…

… It tastes like BO.

I did dip my armpit in there.

It’s cold.

Hey, it’s Marie Forleo and you are watching Marie TV, the place to be to create a business and life you love. And this is Q and A Tuesday. Today’s question comes from Lisa and she writes, hi Marie, I’m pretty clear on my business idea, but in my writing and marketing I keep freezing up in the voice department. I have a very in your face kind of personality. People say I’m funny, but it seems like the minute I start trying to write on my blog I get stuck. In my head I say, okay, am I going to be like Chelsea Handler and just put it all out there? Or do I need to rein it in and be more professional? My question is, will my brand’s voice still be authentic if I sensor myself and hold something back? Should I show my real personality or come up with one that’s more appropriate?

Lisa, this is a fantastic question. Now, the good news is you don’t have to choose between your real personality and an appropriate one. Let me explain what I mean with a little story about something that just happened a few months ago. So I usually love riding bikes, but in the city I get a little afraid of bikes. Why? Because there’s crazy cab drivers, everyone is always texting, no one’s really paying attention and I really like my life. All right, first sunny day of spring, Josh is like, hey, we’re going to the movies later, do you want to go City Bike over to the movies? I’m thinking beautiful out, I’m with my man, all right, why don’t we give this a try. So I’m feeling safe. Get on a cute little City Bike. Josh is on the City Bike, we’re riding across the city in the West Village, everything’s going great. We cross over, we’re on Bleecker Street, right? Josh is driving. All of a sudden a taxi pulls over into the bike lane, cuts off Josh. Josh stops short, I stopped short behind him and then another biker behind me stopped short behind me. Now, the moment I stopped short, I hear the guy behind me start screaming at me, basically berating me for stopping short and not getting into an accident.

Without even thinking, not even a second went by, I turned around and verbally tore him a new butt hole. I had no control over myself, it was like an exorcist moment, an expletive after expletive after expletive just came out of my mouth. Now was that the authentic me? Yes, because it actually happened. But I don’t speak like that every day and it’s certainly not in my brand voice. Here’s a thing that you need to get. We all have multiple personalities. I mean, I have my hanging out with friends personality, I have my Marie TV personality, I have my Kuma mama personality. Kuma you so cute, I love you. Who’s a cute boy? Who’s a cute boy? And I have my City Bike personality and clearly she ain’t nice. They’re all authentically me and they’re all slightly different, like different facets of a diamond.

So Lisa, you have to get clear on which facet of your diamond do you want to showcase for your business. Here are two keys that’ll help you decide. Key number one is get clear on your dream. So I want you to think about it this way, do you want your business to be appropriate for cable or network or maybe even PBS? Do you consider yourself more prime time or are you late night? You brought up Chelsea Handler who is an amazing example. So Chelsea is clearly talented, she’s very successful and she has a very distinct brand voice. Now, the choices that she made may limit not only where she’s shown, but also who watches her. Now for contrast, consider Ellen DeGeneres another majorly successful, hugely talented woman with a unique brand voice. Ellen is super funny, but she always keeps it kind and clean. Except for that one time in ’92, standup routine, she did let out one F-bomb, but she’s clearly evolved her brand since then.

Chelsea is late night cable and Ellen is prime time network. Now one is not intrinsically better than the other and they’re both completely themselves. And get this, both of those women have multiple personalities. They have just chosen the personality that they most want to showcase.

Key number two is be clear on your audience. So who do you want to reach and who are you okay repelling? About a year ago we started getting notes in from our viewers letting us know that they love to watch Marie TV with their kids. And I’m talking tiny, cute little babies all the way up through teenagers. And once I realized that parents were watching Marie TV with their little munchkins it really inspired me. It also got me more clear on our audience. Since 98% of what we teach here on Marie TV is appropriate for any age group, it made us more conscious. So sometimes when I do let out a little Jersey, we add an adult language warning or honestly, I consciously tone down my language because of this fact. Is this still me? Yes, it’s still authentically me, but I am aligning my brand voice with the audience that I want to reach and the dreams that I have for myself and my business.

So there you have it, Lisa, two keys to help you make some clear decisions about your brand voice. Now if you want to dive deeper and learn how to write in a way that’s authentic to you and makes people want what you sell, go check out TheCopyCure.com, it’s a new training program I’ve been working on for years and I think you’re really going to love it.

For now, let’s wrap this up with something I really want you to remember and yes, it’s a tweetable. Showing your personality doesn’t mean you have to show everything. That was my A to your Q, Lisa. I hope it helps.

Now, I would love to hear from you. Do you ever struggle between what you consider your real personality and the one that you show in your business? What say you on this topic of brand voice? As always, the best discussions happen after the episode over at the wonderful land of MarieForleo.com, so go there and leave a comment now.

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