When you’re a consultant, your name is your brand.
It’s time to start thinking more deeply about how you’re going to start promoting yourself; how you’re going to position your business among the other consultants out there. So let’s define some terms.
“Brand” is kicked around in a million different ways, but it really has a simple definition: it is your public’s impression of you.
It’s their impression of you. It is nothing else.
Brand, for our purposes, equals reputation.
So what the heck is branding? Well, it’s the process of making decisions about what you want that impression of you to be.
Your brand is a reflection of who you are, what you value, and how you work. It is not just a logo and a set of social media posts. It is not a website nor a LinkedIn profile. Those thing are supporting elements of your brand. Your brand is your reputation.
And in consulting more than many other businesses, your name is your brand. Your name is your reputation; it’s how people know you and remember you.
So should your consultant brand name simply be your own name? Should you be “Jane Doe Consulting” or something similar?
Well, it depends. Here are some things to think about with your consultant brand name.
Do you intend on being a sole proprietor indefinitely? Will you always be the principal and lead person in your company?
Or do you have a vision of being a team some day, a shop, a consultancy with multiple consultants and perhaps multiple outlets in different city, all under your leadership?
If it’s the former, I suggest you think about going with your own name as your consultant brand name. I mean, you may have personal reasons not to; you may have privacy concerns, for example, around your name, and that is of course perfectly valid.
Just consider that when it comes to your clients hiring consultants, those clients are not going to say, “Hey you know what? We need Starlight Consulting for this.” They’re going to say, “Hey, get Jane Doe. She knows her shit and can help us solve this problem.”
See what I’m saying?
Your name is your reputation.
Of course you can brand a more generic consultant brand name. There’s no reason why Starlight Consulting can’t build a strong reputation as a go-to consultancy. But that kind of branding costs money and time, and if Starlight Consulting is basically just Jane Doe, well, Jane should probably save her money.
Likewise writing about your company and its work in the singular or plural. Is your brand voice a “we” or is it an “I”?
This will become an important consideration when you start getting into content marketing. When you speak as a consultant, is it “we think” “we recommend” and so on? Or is it ‘I think, I recommend” etc?
Many consultants use the royal “we” when speaking from their brand voice. Sometimes I find that a bit pretentious, especially when I know it’s a sole proprietor. I sometimes chuckle and think “who is this “we”? It’s you at your dining room table. With your cat.”
But again, if your vision for your company is that within a couple of years you will well and truly be a group, then use the ‘we’.
If you are trying to build a reputation for yourself as yourself, well, your name is your brand. Your opinions are your brand. Your recommendations and the quality of your research and analysis are your brand.
Don’t be afraid to position yourself as a thought leader. Don’t feel you have to hide behind a fancy company name.
Don’t be afraid to be you.
And while you’re at it, spend some time defining your brand personality. For consultants, your brand personality will be very close to your own personality and your own values.
To describe your brand personality, use the formula, “In everything we do, we are…” From there, you need a half-dozen or so adjectives that describe how you approach your work and your clients. Are you compassionate, bold, funny, cheeky, outgoing, quiet, calm, outrageous? Think about it. And be true to yourself. These descriptors will affect how you put together your website, your proposals, your social media… everything.
That’s your brand personality.
It’s kind of strange to think of yourself this way, isn’t it? But it’s helpful to remember that your personality and your values will shine through in all of your work, and you need to be conscious of them.