While your personal brand is an important aspect of your overall strategy and success…

You may actually be doing yourself a disservice by overanalyzing and overthinking it.

If the phrases “personal branding” and “social strategy” give you mild anxiety, you’re not alone. As small business owners, we are inundated with marketing that tells us we need a strong personal brand, a solid social media presence, and a well-thought-out marketing strategy. While all of those things may be true, overthinking it can get you in a serious cycle of self-doubt and stress. Yuck.

So let’s take a stroll through overthinking alley–or maybe for you it’s a crazy freeway where the speed limit is 90 mph. 🚗💨 

Either way, if you’re doing any of the following, you might be overthinking your personal branding:

⚠️ 1.  Overcomplicating your brand designs. 

Do you spend endless hours agonizing over canva designs, making sure you’re on trend and unique? We’re all guilty of canva design addiction from time to time. Your posts are a reflection of you, so it’s natural to want them to be “perfect”. 

In reality, there’s no such thing as the perfect post. (On that note, there’s no such thing as the perfect you–and that’s a good thing: see my previous blog post on vulnerability for more on unlocking this powerful, often overlooked marketing tool). 

Yes, you should adhere to basic design principles and your brand guidelines, but don’t let yourself overthink every detail. If there’s a trending color you feel called to incorporate, go for it! 

If you find yourself constantly changing colors and styles, you may want to reel it back a bit. It’s tempting to want to adapt your look to reflect the current trends, but it’s generally a good idea to stick to your brand colors to keep yourself sane, and your feed consistent. When you keep it simple, it’s more efficient to batch content and you’ll overthink it less. Woot.  🙌

⚠️ 2. Worrying about how much of your personal story to share. 

If you’re always hesitant to share something about your struggles, your personal life, etc., you might be overthinking it. Social media is, by definition, a place for people to share, and if you know my mantra, you know that being authentic is a huge part of any successful personal brand. 

That said, you probably don’t want to share about everything. Learn more about how to quickly determine what to share and what to avoid in the free 5-Day My Marketable Magnetism Challenge. 

⚠️ 3. Trying to be on everything, everywhere, all at once. 

You’ve probably read and heard “pick your niche” a gazillion times. Well, I’m here to say it again, but this time in reference to your social platforms. 

Pick one or two platforms where your ideal clients reside, and that you genuinely enjoy using. You can’t possibly conquer all the social media platforms, and if you try, you will be tearing your hair out wishing you had taken a more simplified approach.

This goes for trying to be an expert in a laundry list of subjects too. You can’t have a clear marketing message if you don’t focus on your main services. 

⚠️ 4. Getting too hung up on optimizing content.  

Echoing #1 here, there is no recipe for the “perfect” post. There is no secret to going viral. There is no magic recipe for instant IG stardom. 

Should you take some time to optimize your hashtags and copy? Absolutely, yes. But if agonizing over this optimization is stopping you from posting consistently, you need to reevaluate. Many platforms are now trending toward favoring raw, unfiltered content. So if your reel isn’t perfect, post it anyway! Showing up for your audience imperfectly is better than not showing up at all.

⚠️ 5. Being intimidated by what others are doing in your niche. 

Contrary to what you might believe, the thriving businesses in your niche do not have it all together. And guess what? They all had to start somewhere. 

Comparing your brand to another in your niche to gather insight and ideas is one thing, but if it’s constantly bringing you down and stopping you from showing up, shut the comparisonitis down. 

Remember: Your uniqueness is what sets you apart from the competition.

Your personal brand represents who you are and what you stand for. Focus on creating content that is authentic and reflects your values, and your Ideal People will be magnetized to you. 

When in doubt, keep things simple and consistent across your web and social assets. Above all else, be kind to yourself and focus on creating content that you are excited about. 

Want to learn more about unleashing your brand magnetism? Join the absolutely free My Marketable Magnetism Challenge.

So here’s to some simpler, magnetic, and successful personal branding. 🥂