10 Tips to Writing Your Personal Brand Story

Your personal brand story is one of the more important aspects of your professional career. How do you tell your story to others? You have to flesh out the story, but in other locations. All your content—your photos, blog posts, and status updates—should center on telling your story.

The following points are more than just a checklist. Your content should fall within one of these groups—these “buckets”—as you live out your personal brand. By relating the right content in the right chapters, you’ll tell your story to your readers. And as you put more and more content into each chapter, even the latecomers will be able to follow your story. The following points are a guideline to help you form your personal brand biography. If you hate writing, use the following points to help guide you in telling your personal brand story.

The Beginning—This is where you take the time to define yourself. Where did you come from? How did you get here? Where are you going? Write out the answers to each of these questions concisely in a couple of sentences. This is just the definition of who you are and want to be as a brand. People want to know your story. All you have to do is write it. You should end up with two sentences for each question.
How Do I Help?—What situation did you help solve? This could be a situation that you helped solve at the office or any problem you solve on a daily basis. It is up to you as the writer to define the problem. Basically, people want to read a story with a problem that needs to be solved. Novelists, playwrights, and screenwriters are taught to write about conflict, about problems to be solved. Solve the problem by the end of your biography, and you’ve got yourself a real story.
Your Emotional Context—Engage with people on an emotional level. Tell stories that tap into a person’s emotions, rather than relying on statistics and facts. This will help people connect with you. For instance, what significant event took place to make you choose the career path you now have? Use this to let people see you as unique and real. It’s not about how 20% of all people do the thing that results in the other thing; it’s about how your high school English teacher said you had real skill as a writer, and you should think about pursuing it.
Keep with Consistency—Build your story by being consistent in the types of stories you tell and the theme around them. All good stories have a rising theme or a story arc. Define your niche (your theme), and build around it. Don’t jump all over the place in what you do or talk about; if you are living and writing about your dream of running your first marathon, don’t switch gears by writing about your dream of becoming a travel writer. When you’re consistent, your story will stick, and your message will reach your intended audience.
Leave No Room for Questions—Don’t make people read between the lines. When creating your story, be completely clear. Leave no room for questions or blanks. You, as your brand, must be completely defined along with your audience and your expertise.
Remember You—Don’t get too caught up in the words and forget to care about why you’re doing this to begin with. When building your story, remember those moments in your life that shaped the brand you’ve become. Tell people those moments and get them fired up about your brand. It’ll motivate you and make others understand why you’re so great.
Keep the Steam Going by Firing Up Others—You’ve gotten people interested…or at least gotten their attention. Don’t lose steam. Build your story by building up others. The same people who are fired up about you should be the ones you brag about. Shout out to them on Twitter, engage them in conversations, and boast about their accomplishments louder than they do. You want your audience to be loyal, so be good to them first.
Connect on Their Level—Make your story relatable. Remember, you’re not writing science fiction. You’re dealing with real life and real situations. Put yourself in others’ shoes, and cater to your market. You defined who your audience is and know what it is they need and want. Give it to them.
Keep Them Interested—At this point, people know who you are, what you’re about, and what you do. Now is the time to make sure they know you’re good at it. Share your success stories to reinforce your abilities, and continually invest time in finding new stories. You’re only as good as others say you are. Invest in them so that in turn they invest in you. Build your story around an audience that needs you.
Edit Your Work—Where are you confused? Where are you confusing to others? You can define and redefine your brand if it makes sense. Look back through your story to proofread and fix any nuances you may have forgotten.

After you have finished writing a couple of sentences for each point, you will have a basic understanding of what you want to accomplish and how you are defined as a person. You will end up with a short bio to help describe, define, and relate to individuals in the professional world.