THE ABCs OF PERSONAL BRANDING
“Just be YOU."
“Find your WHY.”
“OWN your narrative.”
“Your brand is your PROMISE.”
Excuse me but… huh?!
This is The ABCs of Personal Branding. 26 letters, 26 ideas, and a much less complicated way to understand what personal branding actually is.
We’ll go letter by letter, from alignment and brand identity all the way to websites, X-factors and zeal.
There’s nothing to complete and no homework waiting for you. Watch, think, steal an idea or two for your own brand, and enjoy the process.
By the time we get to Z, personal branding should feel a whole lot clearer than it did at A.
1.
GO LETTER
BY LETTER
2.
DEMYSTIFY
BRANDING
3.
ENJOY THE PROCESS
Here's how it works:
Watch. Read. Ponder. Repeat.
The ABCs are divided into seven videos, with a quick recap after each one.
There’s no homework and nothing you need to hand in at the end. Take what resonates, think about how it applies to your own brand, and keep going when you're ready.
A through Z. That's it.
Before we get to A...
I'm Jonathan Tilley, a Personal Brand Strategist and Squarespace Web Designer.
I've been doing personal branding since before we called everything a personal brand.
I've worked in this space since 2010… through online courses, strategy, messaging, brand development and websites for people building businesses around who they are and what they do.
And somewhere along the way, personal branding became a thing.
“Find your why!”
“Own your story!”
“Be authentic!”
Okay. But what does any of that actually mean?
That's why I made this video series.
Twenty-six ideas that, together, give you a much clearer picture of what personal branding actually looks like in practice.
Let's start with A.
A–D, in a nutshell.
Four letters down. Here’s what we’ve covered:
A is for Align: Your personal brand works best when who you are, where you're going and how you're showing up are moving in the same direction.
B is for Brand Identity: Messaging, visuals and design give your brand an identifiable shape. They're how the intangible becomes recognizable.
C is for Curate: Personal branding isn't about sharing everything. It's deciding intentionally what belongs in public and what stays yours.
D is for Design: Typography, color, photography, layout and visual choices should support the brand you're building… not distract from it.
Four letters down. No action required.
You don't need to turn every idea into a to-do list.
Maybe something clicked. Maybe something challenged the way you've been thinking about your brand. Maybe you're just enjoying the alphabet.
All perfectly acceptable.
Next up: E, F and G.
E–G, in a nutshell.
Three more letters, three more pieces of the bigger picture:
E is for Elevate: Elevating your brand isn't about becoming louder or more impressive. It's about intentionally raising the quality of how you show up and how your expertise is experienced.
F is for Focus: A strong personal brand makes it easier for people to understand who you are, what you do and why it matters to them. Clarity gives everything else somewhere to land.
G is for Growth: Your personal brand isn't supposed to stay frozen in time. As your work, expertise and ambitions evolve, your brand should be able to evolve with you.
Not sure what needs your attention first?
That's exactly why I created Brand Clarity Bootcamp.
It's a free, two-hour guided audit of your personal brand designed to help you look at what you already have, spot what's working, find the gaps and decide what actually needs your attention next.
No ripping everything apart just for the sake of starting again. First, we figure out where you are.
No guilt. No shame. Just clarity.
H–K, in a nutshell.
This batch brings the person behind the personal brand into focus:
H is for Humanization: People connect with people. Your experiences, stories, quirks and perspective give others something human to connect with beyond what you sell.
I is for Image: Your image is the impression people form through everything from your appearance and photography to your profiles and online presence. Whether you're intentional about it or not, people are forming one.
J is for Join: Personal branding doesn't happen in isolation. Being part of the right communities, conversations and networks puts you in the places where meaningful connections can actually happen.
K is for Kindness: How you treat people becomes part of how they remember you. Your reputation isn't built only through expertise; it's built through the experience people have with you.
The “personal” part matters.
You can have beautiful photography, polished messaging and a perfectly designed website and still somehow feel completely absent from your own brand.
Personal branding isn't about manufacturing a more impressive version of yourself.
It's about making it easier for people to see, understand and remember the person who's already there.
Okay. L through P.
L–P, in a nutshell.
Five letters this time… and some of the biggest building blocks of a personal brand:
L is for Leverage: You don't start from zero every time you enter a new chapter. Your previous careers, skills, experiences and knowledge can become some of the most distinctive parts of what you bring to the next one.
M is for Messaging: Messaging gives language to your brand. It's how you communicate what you believe, what you do, who it's for and why someone should pay attention.
N is for Narrative: Your experiences aren't just a collection of unrelated events. The way you connect them creates a narrative that helps people understand who you are, how you got here and where you're going.
O is for Online Presence: Your online presence should feel like a recognizable extension of the person someone would meet offline. Your website, social media and content all contribute to that experience.
P is for Patience: Personal brands are built through repetition and consistency over time. Not every post, website update or decision needs to produce an immediate result to be doing its job.
Enjoying this? There's plenty more where it came from.
JTTV is my free video library where I talk about personal branding, websites, business, creative work and all the decisions that go into building something around who you are and what you do.
Some episodes teach. Some dissect. Some show you the work behind the work.
No particular order required. Pick whatever catches your attention.
Q–S, in a nutshell.
Only three letters, but they get right to the heart of how people understand and remember you:
Q is for Questions: Good questions uncover the things you've stopped noticing about yourself. Your experiences, opinions and seemingly ordinary stories can contain some of the most interesting material in your personal brand.
R is for Reputation: Your personal brand is what you intentionally put into the world. Your reputation is what comes back after people have experienced it… and you.
S is for Storytelling: Facts tell people what happened. Stories give those facts context, emotion and meaning. They're one of the ways people remember not just what you said, but why it mattered.
Got questions that are specific to your brand?
At some point, general advice can only take you so far.
If you're trying to figure out your positioning, messaging, website, offers or simply what the hell your next move should be, you can talk it through with me.
My Discovery Calls are free. We'll look at what's going on, where you're trying to get to and whether I might be the right person to help.
T–V, in a nutshell.
We're getting close to Z. Here's where these three fit:
T is for Transparency: Being authentic doesn't require giving everyone access to everything. Transparency is choosing what you're comfortable sharing and being honest and consistent within those boundaries.
U is for Brand Usability: A beautiful personal brand isn't much use if people can't figure out what you do, where to go or how to work with you. Clarity and functionality are part of branding too.
V is for Visuals: Photography, wardrobe, color, typography, graphics and design create visual signals before someone has read a word. Together, they help make your brand recognizable.
Starting to see the bigger picture?
A personal brand isn't one big thing you get right.
It's the cumulative effect of a hundred smaller decisions… what you say, what you show, how you work, how things look, what you keep private, what you become known for and how people feel after interacting with you.
No single letter creates the brand.
They add up.
One video left: W -Z.
W–Z, in a nutshell.
And here we are… the final four letters:
W is for Website: Your website is the piece of your online presence you actually control. It's where your messaging, visuals, work, offers and personality can come together in one intentional experience.
X is for X-Factor: Your X-factor usually isn't one magical thing you need to discover. It's the particular combination of your personality, skills, experiences, perspective and way of working that makes you difficult to replicate.
Y is for Yardstick: A personal brand should ultimately support something. Your yardstick is how you determine whether yours is doing its job… through enquiries, opportunities, recognition, revenue, engagement or whatever success actually means for you.
Z is for Zeal: Enthusiasm is contagious. When you genuinely care about your work, your ideas and the people you serve, that energy becomes part of how people experience your brand.
And that's the alphabet.
Twenty-six letters later, hopefully personal branding feels a little less like "find your why" and a lot more like something you can actually see.
Because your personal brand isn't one tagline, one logo, one Instagram feed or one perfectly polished story.
It's the cumulative experience of you… what you believe, what you say, what you show, what you make, how you work and how other people experience all of it.
You don't need to tackle all 26 letters tomorrow.
But I'd bet there's one letter you now see a little differently.
Start there.
Where do you want to go next?
You've made it to Z. Where you go from here depends on what you want.
You: “I want clarity.”
My suggestion: Brand Clarity Bootcamp
Take a proper look at your personal brand with my free two-hour guided audit. See what's working, spot the gaps and figure out what needs your attention next.
You: “I want more free videos.”
My suggestion: JTTV
JTTV is my free video library where I go into personal branding, websites, business, creative work and a look behind the work I do with my clients.
Pick an episode and keep going.
You: “I want to talk.”
My suggestion: Free Discovery Call
Got something specific going on with your brand, business or website?
Tell me what's happening and let's see whether I'm the right person to help.
