How to Build a Personal Brand: Step 1 Purpose

Before registering my company, I needed to know what my business was going to be. I knew it had to be related to writing and that I wanted to carry out two types of work: writing as a service for other businesses (retainer article/blog writing) and writing that I held ownership of (publishing). That distinction wasn't so clear at the time. In fact, only by opening my laptop today, was such an obvious separation made in this succinct way.

There were no specific goals set or plan outlined to achieve them if there were. Everything was a learning experience at this point and I needed some direction. Thankfully, Christina Colmer McHugh, the lead for start up initiatives at the University of Hull, put me in contact with Wes Henstock. 

Wes is the Founder of Confid3ntial and he taught me everything that matters when it comes to personal branding. I am going to break down the three statements that drive every action behind Pen Forge Collective and form the company's personal brand. Today, let's start with purpose.

Purpose

Where it starts

Purpose is both the simplest and most critical part of finding direction for your business. When deciding what it is we want to put our time and effort into, we are told that we need to get super specific. Purpose though, is very overarching. It's what your business should be striving towards every single day, and you should definitely make it something almost unreachable.

Another good name for an organisation's purpose is its North Star. It needs to be difficult to achieve in order to motivate you and send you on an adventure that will last your lifetime. The day you complete your purpose is the peak of your existence. Completing it early in life means it was not grand enough.

What is our Purpose?

What is Pen Forge Collective's purpose? "Enabling everyone to become a published author."

I think a lot about how we all have a multitude of stories and ideas, whether they are potential fiction or non-fiction. They exist in our head as thoughts ranging from very complex, intellectual ones, to basic but brilliant ones. Consider these stories as your universal author profile.

We all have a way of introducing ourselves and people can find out so much about us online. It is easy to construct a list of opinions about someone before you even meet them. So, what if everyone could be known for what they wrote?

Think about the people you know well, on a deeper level. How much time have you spent with them? Now think about all the books you have read, all the films and series you have seen, and all the audiobooks you have listened to. On average, how long do they last? Some of those examples might last a few hours and some might take a few months to finish.

If you spent a few minutes in conversation with someone for the first time you meet them, you probably wouldn't have a strong level of trust built up yet. After chatting with someone for a few hours though, you would easily be in the top 0.01% of people, in the world, who know them as well as you do now.

When you spend hours or months reading a book, you are actively choosing to spend time with the thoughts put into that book, meaning you will unintentionally spend time with the person who wrote it. Some of the best listeners are those who have the patience to read books from start to end. You are building trust with someone before you even see them in person. How intimately could you know someone from reading their book? All their inner speak. How they solve problems. What's important in their world.

I really want everyone to have the opportunity to present themselves through a book. The deep thought, employed across an extended period of time, makes it their most authentic self-representation.

Commercial Value

Helping people publish books is not simply an idealistic goal. It creates tangible value as well. Becoming a published author allows people to have real ownership of IP and a product that exists forever. It's one of the earliest stages of entrepreneurship. A real chance to have more than what a 9-to-5 can give you.

In order for your purpose to bring commercial value to customers and to your business, the value has to be impossible to ignore. Picture how the world would change if your purpose was achieved. Is the impact a positive one?

It needs to provide a benefit to someone else other than you, for stakeholders to believe in it. Clients need to believe it to purchase your product or service. Communities need to believe in it for the word to get out. Employees certainly need to believe in it to show up every day and create meaningful impact in the organisation.

This is true. It's not just philosophy. Companies with a strong purpose consistently outcompete others. The IDEO Design Director, Bryan Walker states that purpose driven companies have, "30 percent higher levels of innovation and 40 percent higher levels of retention."

Longevity

Finally, how likely is it, for you to carry your purpose statement into the future? We already discussed how it needs to be almost unreachable. You would think that is enough to give it longevity.

There are other roadblocks you need to consider. Businesses are known to change their purpose statement. It becomes less relevant, it needs to be rephrased with more progressive language, new technology has suddenly made the purpose achievable, or for whatever reason, it does happen. What will you do to make yours last longer?

To not change your purpose no matter what excessive change the world has gone through would be a harmful stance to take. You can compare this to the USA's constitution. The founding fathers left most of the constitution to be interpreted in ways that best suit the needs of the American people. In fact, it has never been replaced or rewritten. To make that sound a lot more impressive, since 1791, France has redone theirs 15 times.

Despite this, the founding fathers did not produce a completely air tight constitution. A perfect example of new technology causing a major disruption to the world is semi-automatic weapons. Everyone in the US having the right to bear arms, with the purpose of keeping corrupt governments in check, has inadvertently led to crime backed by extremely deadly forces. The people rising up with muskets to outnumber the politicians in charge was a realistic control measure when the constitution was written. Now the USA has the most powerful military force in the world and their government has control over it. The original purpose of the right to bear arms is now invalid. The damage it causes in the criminal world is a big problem.

You see the point. Your purpose statement might not outlast the heat death of the universe and you should not force it to remain the same for that amount of time either. Consider it carefully.

Thank you for reading. I will see you next week to explore the next step: Vision.