Personal Brand Studio 🎬 Lesson #2: In Search Of Your Vision And Your North Star
A top-down/ bottom-up approach to create your vision
Why do you need a vision?
Before I start something, whether it’s a long run, an article, or even this course, I ask myself one question:
Why?
That simple word helps connect your behaviors with your values and your identity and keeps you grounded and focused.
I run because I value my fitness and my health, and I want to be a role model for my daughters.
I launched this newsletter because I want to build a community around topics I’m passionate about: writing, well-being, and mindset.
I publish books because I want to turn my passion into a lifestyle.
Your why is your North Star. It provides you clarity and guidance and helps connect the dots for you and for others.
When you extrapolate this to writing and creating, you reach the same conclusion: your vision is a compass that allows you to stay on track and bring it home.
Why it’s so hard to create one
Most writers and creators I know struggle to create a vision, especially in the early days. I know I did, even after dozens of articles and posts.
These are some of the common challenges I hear:
“I’m not an expert at anything.”
“I don’t want to limit myself to a niche.”
“I’m passionate about different things.”
“I’m afraid I might change my mind.”
“I don’t have the perfect vision.”
They are all valid but can all be overruled:
- You don’t have to be an expert: share your unique journey and experience.
- You don’t have to limit yourself to a single niche.
- You can be multi-passionate and still have a clear and cohesive vision.
- A vision is not static: it’s multidimensional, dynamic, and likely to evolve with time—and that’s the beauty of it!
- There’s no perfect vision: it’s always WIP, so keep iterating and making it better.
Where to start
While some strategists tell you to create a vision first, others tell you the exact opposite and be organic: let your vision find you. The more tactical ones will suggest you go narrow and focus on a niche.
What to do?
What I have personally found most effective to grow a sizeable presence online across multiple platforms (LinkedIn, Medium and Substack) is to have a synergistic approach and use all 3 strategies in combination:
1. Organically
Let your vision naturally find you The more you write, the more clarity you gain about what drives you and what resonates with your readers.
When you’re starting, the whole “find your niche” cliche can be overwhelming. Taking the first step of writing in public is huge, and you need practice to build confidence, so don’t underestimate the power of the reps, even if your vision hasn’t crystalized yet.
During my first months writing on LinkedIn and Medium and speaking on podcasts, I didn’t obsess over finding a vision; I let my creativity flow. I needed to reflect, ideate, and create to dissipate the clouds.
The more miles you run on the keyboard, the more you will know about yourself and the direction you want your personal brand to take.
Let your writing bring you clarity.
2. Top-down
Start with your why Reconnecting with our why must be at the core of everything we do.
Before you press “Publish,” take a moment to think about your why:
What impact do you want to make with your writing?
Entertain, empower, inspire, challenge, coach, educate, help…
What value do you want to add to your readers?
My writing always revolves around empowering and motivating others to achieve something, whether it’s running a marathon, writing their first book, or building their brand.
It’s not about what I do but what impact I want to make.
The irony and big misunderstanding about a vision is that it’s not about you: it’s about your impact on others.
That’s the paradigm shift that will help you go from a self-centered focus (me) to a people-centric approach (you).
Evolve your writing from “me” to “you,” and reflect on the impact you want to make.
3. Bottom-up
Connect the dots The bottom-up approach is about starting from the ground up and letting the topics you are passionate about help you create your vision.
I encouraged one of my paid subscribers
to dig deep and find hers and she did!
Below, you will find 2 exercises that will help you find your topics and vision.
Share them in our community chat 💬 so that we can all support each other!