Your underdog success story is exactly what people need to hear right now.
If you have not noticed the big shift happening in online marketing right now, I urge you to start taking note and making your own moves to join in.
What is this big shift in the online business space? It is a hard lean into authenticity and cultivating an authentic brand story. One that is not based on a “fake it til you make it” approach or marketing with a luxurious branding scheme to appeal to clients interested in a “curated lifestyle”.
What small business owners, freelancers, digital content creators, and service providers should be focused on when building content and an audience is their own personal journey stories.
More important evidence you should know: “Getting with the times” is wise because this period of our life resembles past patterns in history. We have entered into (quite literally) a cosmic era that resembles the beginning of the renaissance period (all over again) after the dark ages. Have you heard of the phrase “Age of Aquarius”? It is the age of the creators and artists. A focus on artistry, individuality, and self expression.
This is such exciting news for modern creative entrepreneurs. Your underdog story intertwined with your creative brand is exactly the formula you should be focusing on to produce future success.
Here are 5 reasons why telling your underdog story will build a strong and sustainable framework for your creative business:
- In this new era, sharing what struggles you have gone through will quite literally change lives. It is going to be the empowered calling the next generation of creative entrepreneurs need to hear to also thrive. So when you plan out your social media posts and copy on your website, share what you have gone through in order to get where you are now. Even more, highlight the aspects of your life that were limiting and challenging. Being human and relatable is what your customers want to hear so they can support your journey forward.
- Representation matters. Your background, identity, and all the labels you identify with are so important to talk about. Sharing how you identify with your culture, your other identity labels, your orientation, religious values, social values, and other opinions that are a big part of who you are can absolutely be weaved into your brand story. You can do this in a way that is safe, relatable, and “professional” in terms of how you share. Remember to decide how you want to show up on social media and your website when you are planning out your brand mission & marketing plans. If you are already running your business and want to step out more authentically on your social platforms, you can still do so by starting to share more authentically about your personal identity in small doses. Other people who relate, identify, and desire representation will look up to you for sharing so openly and honestly who you are.
- Leading by example is also vital to encouraging your audience to follow you as well as strengthen their own presence authentically in their brand. I will give you an authentic example of my own for this one. I have ADHD and anxiety disorder. I openly talk about these pieces of my life experience to encourage other creative entrepreneurs who follow me on social media to keep showing up even if they also struggle with those conditions. I advocate for mental health awareness by talking about my own so others will not give up on their goals because of their own perceived obstacles. My underdog story is interlaced with my mental health struggles and the trauma I have been through, which I pushed myself to share because the alternative was hiding and giving up. This is an important part of my brand and without it, my brand would feel incomplete. My audience knows this and supports my journey but also shares their own more openly.
- Your underdog story shows your audience all the most important character qualities of leadership and perseverance. It is not an embarrassment to have come from poverty, traumatic experiences, or major struggles. The people in your life who ever made you feel insecure about those struggles were possibly a part of the abusive cycles you have had to grow away from. It is also possible they were characters caught in the earlier stages of their own abusive or harmful journey. But there is nothing to be ashamed of or feel insecure about. What you grew through, navigated, and eventually left behind made you so much stronger and wiser. Of course, going back to planning out your presence and brand story is vital when deciding the boundaries of how much you wish to share with the world. But being a content creator or service provider who openly shares about what they have overcome and what they have learned is so empowering to the audience that comes to support you. It is who you have become because of those experiences that they are so impressed by.
- Your brand should be built upon different aspects of who you are. To build a long lasting business model as well as a memorable brand story, you have to include your values and lean into authentic self expression. The one focus OR the multiple passions you have in your business get carried by who you are behind the brand as the creator and/or provider. Building a plan that goes months out into where you wish to show up on social media is not just about how much money you can make and how many subscribers you can get. The roots you plant are what grows the strong tree. So you should be mapping out the roots of what platforms you wish to be on long term, as well as what presence you want to create there. Sharing different parts of your business, from what goes into doing what you do to who you are as a person to who you are set on becoming as you rise — these are all branches that thrive when you know how you will be moving forward.
If you have read through this and feel so inspired to share your story within your brand, I want to encourage you to use one of these tools to get organized!
TRELLO allows you to make organized cards you can type on, make checklists, set goals, and map out your business on. You can create categories on the top row of cards [such as “Launch plan”, “Website”, “Tiktok”, “Instagram”, “Pinterest” etc] and then attach the details & files necessary below your category labels. I really love using Trello for my clients’ brand story mapping as well as keeping track of their website + branding content and design files. There are awesome free features and the paid plan is super affordable giving you upgraded features for scheduling and integrating other apps with your Trello boards.
THE CREATORS MINDMAP is a digital workbook I designed for you to print and use in your workspace. You can print out multiple copies of the 15 different templates that I included in booklet and place them into binders or on your wall. Write out your ideas, your message, your goals, what platforms you wish to use and how you want to show up authentically.
BOOK A SESSION with me to talk about your brand story and how you want to incorporate it into your brand. I help creative entrepreneurs build their brand at all different capacities. I have a background in graphic design, SEO, copy writing, website design, storytelling and blogging, marketing, and print.
I now focus heavily on creating digital tools to help my own customers do these tasks on their own. I want them to redevelop an intentional and authentic business model that incorporates their journey story and their best skillsets.
I wish to set up more creative entrepreneurs with the right tools, empowerment, and support to flourish. It is a part of my brand legacy to fuel the big shifts occurring by putting services, products, and empowered content on my social media platforms and website.
