You Are The Brand, So When Do You Start Acting Like It

Top of the morning or Top of the Day, wherever you are in the world…

When is the last time you Googled yourself?

Not in a vain, ego driven, I just want to see what people are saying kind of way. In a serious, business minded, what does my presence actually look like to the world kind of way. Because there is a person out there right now who just heard your name. Maybe they saw your book. Maybe somebody mentioned you in a conversation. Maybe they caught one of your posts on a random Tuesday and something you said stuck with them.

So they went looking for you.

And what did they find? Because whatever they found, or did not find, that is your brand right now whether you built it on purpose or not.

Here is the thing nobody tells new authors when they are busy celebrating finishing their manuscript. The book is not the brand. The book is proof that the brand exists. You are the brand. Your name, your voice, your story, the way you show up consistently in public spaces, the reason behind why you write, all of that together is what people are actually buying into. The book just gave them a reason to look.

Most writers spend months perfecting a manuscript and about eleven minutes thinking about who they are outside of it. Then they wonder why the book is not moving. The book needs somewhere to land. That somewhere is you.

Now I already know what some of you are thinking. I am not a marketer. I am a writer. I create things. I do not do the business side of this.

That is the most expensive sentence in publishing. Write it down so you never say it again.

Because the moment you put your name on a book cover, you became the business. You became the face, the voice, the representative, the customer service department, the marketing team, and the brand ambassador all at once. Nobody hired you for this job. You applied the day you decided to publish. Congratulations on your new position. The orientation was the blank page you filled.

The question is not whether you are a brand. You already are. The question is whether you are building it with intention or just letting it happen to you.

And letting it happen to you is a strategy. A terrible one, but a strategy nonetheless. It is the strategy of hoping people stumble across your work, fall in love with it immediately, and tell everybody they know without any prompting whatsoever. It happens. About as often as it rains in the desert. Possible. Not a plan.

Building your brand on purpose means showing up before you feel ready. It means posting when nobody is watching yet. It means talking about your work with the same energy you had when you first had the idea, even when the numbers are small and you think no one is interested.

The room will fill up. But only if you keep showing up.

Think about every author, coach, speaker, or creator you follow and respect. You did not find them at their peak. You found them somewhere in the middle and you grew with them. You trusted them because they were consistent. Because their voice was the same on day one as it is today. Because they never waited until everything was perfect to start being who they already were.

That is the whole assignment.

Be who you already are. On purpose. Out loud. Repeatedly. Without apology.

Your story is your strategy. Your voice is your marketing. Your consistency is your advertising budget. And unlike an actual advertising budget, those three things are completely free.

So here is the only question that matters today. Not when will my book take off. Not when will people start paying attention. Not when will it feel like the right time to put myself out there.

The question is this.

You are the brand.

When do you start building it?

Because the answer has always been now. It was now last month. It was now last year. And it is still now today.

Stop waiting on a moment that already passed you several times.

Go build the thing.

Marlon Dean, WhiteHause Publishing | The Writerz Block