Find Confidence In Being Your Own Brand

One thing you have to accept when you decide to work for yourself, is that you immediately become your own brand. This can be a horrifying thought, especially for those of us who hate to talk about ourselves, as being your own brand means marketing yourself as a product. You have to be the sales person of you, you have to make yourself the best thing anybody could ever want and that isn't everyones cup of tea. If you've not even thought about branding yourself as a freelancer or blogger yet, head over to my post on Personal Branding and Why It's Important to get an idea on how to get started. 

So how do you find the confidence to really sell yourself as a brand? You might already be the most confident person in the room, but for those that are shying away in the corner at the thought of selling yourself (and I mean that in a non illicit sort of way) here's a few things you could do to boost your brand confidence. 

Create a list of all your achievements up till now. Focusing on your achievements and the goals you've reached so far can really boost your confidence. You'll be able to clearly see where your strengths and weaknesses are and it'll give you a better idea of what you need to improve on. The better you know what you're good at, the more confident you can feel completing those particular tasks. 

Plan, plan, plan. Create a plan of where you want your business to be in 1 months time, 3 months, 1 year or even 5 years! Then come up with the smaller steps you need to take to get to those milestones. Having a strong idea where you're going will give you a better idea of how your brand should develop month by month. If you can create a detailed plan for just the next month, then you will feel a lot more self assured about what you should be doing to get there. It'll also give you points to get back to if you find yourself straying off the beaten track, which you most likely will at some point.

List your USP's. One of the hardest but most rewarding things to do. If you can pinpoint your unique selling point (USP), creating your brand will be a hell of a lot simpler. You'll be able to structure your content/business plans around your USP and know what areas to push on with. 

Don't compare yourself to others. Something that every body says when talking about confidence and self esteem, but it's so important to drill into our own heads. Comparison is the thief of joy as good old Theodore Roosevelt once said, if you keep comparing yourself to others in your field, you'll never feel confident with what you have. Admire, take inspiration and network all you like, but when it comes to comparison, put those blinkers firmly on and focus on improving your work based on your last project, not someone else's. (something I still need drilling in to me as my last Sunday Strip Down post suggests)

Have you developed the confidence you need to grow your own business yet? Are you struggling to really sell yourself to your clients? 

*Wondering what some of the more technical words and acronyms mean in this post? Head to my glossary page for a full list of technical jargon and some explanations on what the hell I'm talking about. 

What To Include In Your Film's Press & Publicity Portfolio

If you're a student, graduate or freelance filmmaker, you may find that all your focus and energy goes on actually creating your film and you forget about all the stuff that comes after. Maybe you're ready to submit your amazing short into a festival, but you need a press & publicity portfolio to do so.

The good news is that if you've been as professional as possible during production, you will already have the majority of the content you need for your portfolio. It's always best to think about distribution and marketing before and during the production of your project, but let's be honest, us creatives never think about the paperwork.

So for all of you filmmakers panicking about what information you need to gather, here's a handy checklist and a few reasons why you need to include all these extra elements.

• Film title and name of Director - Pretty self explanatory really, you can't market a film with no name! And everyone knows the director is the most important part of the crew (that is, the director likes to think so ;P) 
• Synopsis of your film - People need to know what your film is about, so let them know in a short paragraph. Film festivals will usually use your synopsis when showcasing your film in their own marketing materials as well, so this is usually a mandatory field. 
• Cast and crew bios - They don't have to be pages long, just a one or two sentences about who your cast and crew are and if they have worked on any other impressive projects in the past. 
• Publicity stills and behind the scenes shots - Publicity stills are always handy to have, especially when it comes to making things like DVD covers, posters and flyers. You will usually have to provide a HQ image for film festivals, again for their own marketing purposes. Behind the scenes shots can be very useful for the marketing of your film, but are also handy to keep in your personal portfolio. 
• Reviews of your film - Showcase your film to family and friends or even your local movie critic and get some raving reviews to really big up your project. 
• Length and year of production - Sometimes festivals will have time limits on entries, or both film time and age of the film, so they may ask you for this information off the bat. 
• Funding information - State how your film was funded, was it through crowd funding, self funding or investors. 
• Copyright details - State who owns your film, music, press images and any other media used in the production of the film. 
• Contact details - Email addresses of the producer and director, URL of your production company etc. 
• Any other festivals/awards - Make sure to state if your film has been involved in any other festivals, screenings or has won any awards. Filmmakers love a good shiny award!

You can always add any extras you have that you feel could really make your film stand out from the rest. This is for a hard copy of your portfolio, which film festivals still tend to ask for. However, film is slowly moving into the digital age and electronic portfolios are becoming more and more popular. I will be doing an electronic portfolio post in the near future, but they basically include everything I've listed, in digital form. 

Do you keep your films marketing and distribution in mind during production? Or do you rush the paperwork at the last minute? 

3 Minimalist Instagram Accounts With Expert Branding

Instagram is a relatively new tool compared to the old timers like Facebook and Twitter. I also find it to be one of the most exciting and overlooked forms of promotion.

Due to its very visual concept, Instagram can be the most fun and creative tool to use to promote your blog/business or services. That doesn't mean posting endless posts promoting your business, it means you have to get creative and come up with a visual style that represents you as a blogger/freelancer/small business.

I find that bloggers and magazines have some of the most beautiful Instagram accounts and since I've been reading a lot more creative business blogs lately, I've come across some truly inspiring Instagrams with amazing style.

Not only are they beautiful to look at, but they are fantastically well branded. By that, I mean all of their images have a consistent look and a style that accurately represents the blogger or magazine.

iambrennarose

Breanna is an amazing graphic designer over on Rowan Made and is the editor of the amazing blog Breanna Rose (BR). As you can probably tell, Breanna's Instagram is spotless! The style and tone of the images are consistent and they are high quality and a pleasure to look at. What I really love about it, is that the images on her Instagram could easily be from her blog and that's pretty much a running theme for all these Instagram accounts. 

wonderforest

The first thing I noticed about Dana's Instagram is that all her images use the same filters, a slightly washed out effect. It gives all her images the same fantastical and romantic feel and I love that she pays a great deal of attention to what she posts, a true Instaphotographer.

Dana recently posted a blog post all about Reimagining Your Instagram and it's a must read for anyone (myself included) who wants to really focus and style their Instagram.

thevedahouse

The Veda House is a design studio and blog run by Cassie. You can see as soon as you step foot on Cassie's Instagram that all of her images have a theme. The monochrome, minimalist style is carried through all of her images and truly reflect the style of Veda House, edgy and clean. Her images have a very muted, black and white feel and the aesthetics are well and truly on point.

If you take a look at my own Instagram you'll notice it is no where near as polished as these guys. But now I've done my research I'll definitely be thinking more about my images before posting to Instagram.

Have you ever given much thought to branding your Instagram? Are you like me and just slap your life pictures on and hope for the best? 

Why You Should Know Who Your Competitors Are

When you're blogging as a hobby or just starting out as a freelancer, you might not want to go down the seemingly negative path of competitors. The word competitor naturally makes us think of aggression and battling against each other, but that isn't always the case.

A competitor is someone in your field that is offering the same or similar services/content you are. Thy aren't your mortal enemy, they are not solely there to bring you down and laugh at you as you lie in the smouldering rubble that was your business or blog (maybe a tad dramatic). If anything, competitors can be the driving force behind your business, they can push you to reach goals you never even dreamed of. 

There's nothing wrong with some healthy competition and if you've got a firm list of your main competitors, it could greatly improve your business. You can keep track of their social activities, offers, business decisions etc to really get a feel of what direction you want your own business to go.

Really do your research and pay attention to there comings and goings, make notes of what you feel they could do to improve their business and then see if you're doing it for your own. Sometimes analysing someone else's work can shed some light on things that are missing from our own projects.

Once you've written down your competitors, the positives and the negatives of their businesses/blogs and have a firm list of what aspects you want to include in your own, you can set yourself some goals. Maybe one of your competitors has 10,000+ followers on their blog and you want to be able to get to that point as well, you can use your findings to develop your own path. 

Finding your competitors doesn't have to be a negative thing, use them as your goal setters and inspiration and you could see a massive improvement in your business.

Have you identified your competitors yet? Does the word competitors scare you a little? 

5 Benefits Of Having A Unique Domain For Your Blog

One thing I spent a very long time deciding when I first started my blog, was whether to pay for my own domain name. Investing any money in your blog, especially when your followers are still growing and you're trying to find your feet, can be a scary thought. Luckily, domain names are not too expensive, for 2 years I pay around £15 for both my .co.uk name and my .com name. So is it really worth getting a domain name? Does your blog really need one that badly?

It all comes down to what your blogging goals are, do you want to make it a business? Is it something you want to take seriously and monetise? Do you want to be able to work with brands and PR companies?

There are so many benefits of having your domain name that a lot of bloggers overlook. It is the next step in your blogging career and it can have a dramatic impact on its growth.

Increases credibility  - Having your own domain name gives you that extra look of professionalism. By getting rid of your .blogspot or .wordpress extension you are showing you're ready to stand out on your own and take things a little more seriously.

Easier to swap your blog over to a different CMS - If, like a lot of first time bloggers, you've started your blog on blogger and you now feel you want to move to Wordpress, having your own domain will make the switch a lot smoother. One of the trickiest parts about moving from one CMS to another is keeping all your back links in tact, if your domain is the same no matter what hosting you're using, then it's one less thing to worry about.

Branding - Using your blog/business name as your domain can further cement your branding. By bagging your blog/businesses name you have made sure your brand is completely sacred to you, no one else can call their business the same name, as you've already claimed it.

Makes you more appealing to PR company's and brands - Having your own domain means that you are building your own domain authority and trust flow (how trusted you are as a website). These are two elements that brands and PR agencies will look at before deciding whether you're worth contacting. These businesses are looking to build good strong links back to their own website, which means they need to know your site is worth linking from.

Memorable for you and your readers - This ties in pretty much with the branding and credibility points made above. Typing out your whole blogspot domain or wordpress domain can take a long time, it can also be hard for others to remember. If you have a short and snappy domain, it is more likely that people will remember you and they will find it easier to link back to you. It's always safer to assume everyone is a little bit lazy (I know I am), so make everything super easy for them.

If you haven't got your own domain name yet and you've been on the fence for a while, hopefully I've given you a bit more to think about to help make that decision. If I've managed to sway you with my magical words, there's a few sites I can point you to to get you set up. The first is GoDaddy.com, which is the site I manage my domain on. I find it fairly easy to set up and they're also reasonably priced. Or, one that I've heard a lot of people talking about is Bluehost.com, another site that offers domains and seems to be used by a good few bloggers and business owners.

Have you bought your own domain yet? Have you seen any noticeable changes in growth since you switched to your own domain? 

Dreams & Goals

I was recently contacted by the small business loan company Kabbage, who invited to write a post telling you all about my dreams and goals for the future. As I've recently graduated, my goals for the rest of my life have very much been at the fore front of my mind. Like most graduates, I left University without any clear idea of how I wanted my life to pan out and now I'm having to give it some serious thought. 

I've been a proper human adult for about 4 months now and I think I've figured it out, sort of. Since graduating I've been trying to get into the world of digital marketing, taking various internships to try and gain some knowledge and experience. It's hard, without a marketing degree as there are a lot of opportunities that are not open to me, but that doesn't mean I can't ever do it, it just means it's going to take a bit more work. 

I would love to have marketing as my main source of income but I also have other dreams. Not only am I a blogger and YouTuber, but I also love to design Blogger themes and my short term goal is to open an Etsy shop full of Blogger designs. I've even set myself a time goal, January 2015. It's been a long road of learning HTML/CSS to get to the point where I can confidently create the designs I want to. I've always loved being digitally creative and even though I don't plan to make a huge amount of money from it, it will be a great bit of extra income that I can really enjoy and satisfy my artsy side with.

As well as a blog design shop I also have a slightly bigger goal. For a long time now I've wanted to create an online magazine, I've been waiting for my coding skills to get up to scratch before I really started thinking seriously about it so that I could create a website that looks exactly how I want it. I'm currently deciding what platform to host it on, Wordpress (which would cost money) or Blogger (free). I'm hoping to really get stuck in with the design in the next couple of weeks and start thinking about what style I want to portray and what types of articles I want to feature. This is a dream of mine that I'm genuinely excited about and I can't wait for it all to come together. 

These are my career goals, both long and short term, but I also have some none career dreams. Due to my anxiety being particularly bad at the moment, I'm currently unable to travel long distances, which I guess could be classed as another short term goal of mine. I would love to see more of the world and travelling is a dream that I hope to, one day, be healthy enough to fulfil. The first place I have in mind is Sweden, I've always wanted to see the northern lights and I've found a package that would allow me to see them as well as spend time with my all-time favourite dogs (huskies!).

I think it's massively important to have more than one goal in life, even if some of them are teeny tiny goals. I'm the type of person that thinks of a million different things at once, so it should come as no surprise that I have a collection of various dreams and goals. Even when one goal has been reached you should have another one to swoop in and take its place, as you can see, I definitely have enough to last me a while. 

What are your long and short term goals? Are they career orientated or are they more personal? Let me know in the comments below!