Your Brand is Your Business, Navigating Through Your Personal Brand & Your Business

A few months ago something happened to me. Didn't see it coming . I was at the lowest point of my life, I didn't know what to do, I was lost in my own world, my business was crumbling and nothing made sense to me anymore. Everything had come to a stand still.

A lot of ideas crossed my mind, both constructive and silly. I mean maybe you have been in this state. I don't know.

Do I just leave this entrepreneur thing alone and go into employment? One thought surpassed.

Do I just look for paid gigs, make my quick money and live a stress free life? Another silly thought.

Or do I just call it quit and say it was a good run and move to something else? Now this one was the the mother of all foolish thoughts, I think.

All this questions and many more crossed my mind, at this particular moment my mind is like an Unruly child. The saddest thing is that after all this I didn't have an answer to any of my problems. I could just stare at things, hollow spaces and the ceiling for a very long time without saying a thing. My mind is running like a mad man with more questions than answers.

I know you are asking yourself if I had choose to be in this state. You are right, Yes in a way but also no if you think about it with a different angle. First, I felt that things where not moving, I'm stuck and I don't like that. I had invested my time, expertise, money and all the energy in my business but I didn't get any INSTANT returns.

You see that is all entrepreneurs dream, to get returns as soon as their businesses start. Shock on me.

My strategy was very simple, if I fix one, two and three, I will get returns within a certain period of time. In my mind this really made sense. Little did I know that I was in for a long bumpy ride. Secondly, the way I perceived entrepreneurship was wrong at the first place. To me it was simple math's, Set up, get clients and become rich PERIOD. My biggest struggle was setting up and I knew if I pass through this, Be hold, the next millioner in town was me. Let me just cut the story short by saying entrepreneurship is a journey, it needs a strategy, well curated and viable. Tested and applied.

Well, did I have time to think about all of this? No I didn't. Let me be open and don't get me wrong, opening and running my own brand has been the most fulfilling and refreshing moment in my life and is still one of the best and biggest achievement in my whole career scope. When I was little, I would always think of running my brand, business here and there, in short if you are a 90's baby, Jayz, P Diddy and a few other inventors where our role models. We could see there musical journey, achievements and the lifestyle they lived and man let me tell you that was the life. All I wanted was that. I digged dipper to find out what this people where made of and shock on me, this guys where serious businessmen, they worked hard for their craft to be where they are. At that time it didn't hit me what putting work in something was until I was there.

That aside, this is what I was trying to pass across. Life breathes life and so does a brand, a brand makes a brand. There is no way you will tell me that you are trying to build your brand/business and yet you haven't build or figured out yourself, your personal brand. WHAT IS YOUR BRAND? Many of us in one way or another in the course of running our businesses, we have reached a point that we didn't understand what we were doing in our own businesses/brands. You have felt that not once but several times if I'm being honest. Don't worry, that happens a lot by the way. But do you know why, or have you asked yourself this question? It's because there are things you havent figured out personally that if you did, they would have, will or can help you run your business/brand easily.

Bulding a personal brand before building your business is very important when it comes to enterprenuership. A lot of us are struggling to make our businesses/brands stand out because we are juggling in between the two, your personal brand & your business. you don't know which is which. I'm not saying that is bad but what I'm trying to say is you are now doing double work. You won't get everything right but again you wont miss everything. We learn as we go. The best advice I can give to an enterprenuer out here is figure your personal brand first before opening your business. In-shot, figure out you.

Here are a few tactics i used to survive while running my business as I improve my personal brand:

• Continuous Learning: I'm a knowledge finder, immediately I started my business I became a sucker for knowledge. I would study, research and peruse any material that would give me knowledge on how to do things better in business and personally.
• Set up Proper Systems: Well, this is not even something to explain, there is no business without system. I made sure that all systems where set. From accounting, company culture etc. I made sure all this align with what I'm selling to clients out there and how we should work as a team and with clients.
• Meaningful connections and Relationships: If you have good connections and meaningful relationships then trust me, it wont be hard putting your brand out there. Your connections is your worth, keep and retain that dearly.
• Listen More Talk Less: This one is well done than said, as human nature, we tend to forget that each and everyone in this life can teach you something. There is more to listening than talking. By listening you gather a lot of viable information than just talking, with this information you have the power of when you can make an informed decision of whether to talk of shut up, follow or unfollow.
• Be more of a go for it than procrastinating: We are all victims of this, most of us have good ideas but we always push them to the next day. I will do it tomorrow, then tomorrow comes, ill do it another day and before you realize, a year has just gone like that. I'm guilty on this as charged, still learning. Don't judge me.
• Always Deliver: Man this one is always top of the list in my organization, don't be a story teller when it comes to delivering products or services to your clients. Keep those stories for yourself and your family. Oh, yesterday I had a medical emergency, you see I haven't eaten since yesterday, I don't know my cat pied on my computer so I couldn't deliver. My guy nobody gives a shit, those are your you problems, don't plaster them on your clients. YOU JUST DELIVER WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

After analyzing my situation, I figured out that there was no any problem really. The only problem I had was that I didn't know how to use my personal brand and marry it with my business. You get it! But I finally did. I had a very presentable personal brand that I didn't use to build and sustain my business. Finally I figured it out and I started doing that and let me tell you, I'm cruising nicely.

Finally, don't forget that on the 3rd of May 2024, Brand's Summit 2024 will be happening at the Weston Hotel from 10am to 6pm. Make an effort to attend so that you can network, make good connections, interact with industry experts and leaders, learn and participate in interactive panel discussions as you get industry insights from our line up of amazing speakers.

For more details on this check our website www.jujayamedia.co.ke or send an email to [email protected] or just call on +254 755 707 768 for clarifications. Remember, you can attend as business or s delegate. See posters for more details. Jujaya Media