Looking to find your identity? Ask yourself 2 important questions:

• If I had all the money in the world, what would I want to be?

• If I could use my time in any way doing what I love to do, how would I spend my time?

In order to start to understand the DNA of your personality, character and your passions, it’s important to ask yourself these simple questions. Identity is less about who you want

to be and how you want the world to see you yet we often get carried away with the expectation that our identity should be defined by something outside of us. This is not true.

Identity is the truest realization of self, your passions and your connection to reality. You must embrace who you are and what you love to do at your core. Own it!Identity is the truest realization of self, your passions and your connection to reality. You must embrace who you are and what you love to do at your core. Own it!

On your path to creating the best possible personal brand for yourself, embracing who you are, what excites you at your core and your god given passions is the most

important first step in owning your identity.

Have you ever heard the quote from rapper Drake? Something to the effect of, “…made my story, and made history”? Do you get the metaphor? “His - story”? By telling his own

story, “his_story”, Drake made“history.” This is a cool metaphor for understanding the concept of telling your own story, your way. You’re not the only person who knows you how-

ever. We’re social animals, and we’ve been wired to interact socially or we might not survive. Someone, at least one person, knows you. Although others do know us a bit, only you

know YOU best. Period.

Years ago, people didn’t have the tools and resources most of us have access to today to tell our stories the way we wanted them told. If you were an author of books, you had the

publishing industry as a gatekeeper for telling your story. If you were a musician, you had the record industry as a gatekeeper for telling your story. If you were a journalist, you had

the news and media industry as the gatekeepers for telling your story. The list goes on and on. But the game has now changed.

Today, the tools many of us have access to to tell our story our own way are right at our finger tips. We can tell our story right from our phones! When we tweet and post what’s on Today, the tools many of us have access to to tell our story our own way are right at our finger tips. We can tell our story right from our phones! When we tweet and post what’s on

our minds on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram? Are we not storytelling? I think we are.

You now have the access to control the way you want your story to be told. Only you can determine if the story you’re telling provides value. Is it the numbers of likes you get for a

particular post that determins value for you? This is up for you to decide. If you can find value, however way you want to define that value, then you’ve achieved a level of mastery in

telling your story, your way.

Clearwater Branding Company | 857-237-8422 | info@clearwaterbranding.com

Too much noise will often turn people off. When I say noise, I’m not just talking about volume. Going back to the idea of your messages being your presentation and your presenta-

tion being your message, it’s important to determine when your message needs to be filtered, so its left short, simple and sweet. This means your wardrobe, although it doesn’t

emit sound, can be noisy. It can also mean, if you’re giving a power point presentation, for example, and you use a lot of hand movement and non-verbal gestures, you may also be

too noisy as well.

Noise can also come in the form of volume as well, in terms of quantity. For example, If you’re posting a lot of messages or a lot of pictures, this can also be interpreted as “noisy ac-

tivity.” With any noise, if it’s too loud, people tend to tune out or shut off completely.

The purpose of this concept is to understand that in order to have your message, your presentation and your story digested in a way that others can interpret it, your presentation

needs to be short, simple and sweet.

Clearwater Branding Company | 857-237-8422 | info@clearwaterbranding.com

Marcus Johnson-Smith is the Founder of Clearwater Branding Company. Clearwater Branding Company works with small and medium

size businesses to help them enhance their brand identy to create opportunities to increase brand value. We do this by integrating re-

search, technology, market expertise and quality design into actional strategies that support business growth.

Marcus is the Co Founder of the Kush Groove Lifestyle Brand and author of the memior, Coming Into Adulthood In Today’s America.

Marcus is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts.

You spend an enormous number of hours a week in front of a desktop computer, tablet device and/or mobile phone. You have a Facebook page, and a Twitter and Instagram handle.

With all this, you my friend, have a digital profile. In order to monitor, one must be aware. To start, take a “30,000 ft in - the - air” approach to seeing yourself outside of yourself by

removing yourself from in front of the computer screen, tablet device or the mobile phone. Set aside ½ hr a week, at minimum, to monitor your social media profiles and track your

messaging. Look at what you’re saying and what exactly you’re communicating to your audience. Does it provide value?

Actively monitoring your digital profile is different than identity protection. (Even though it can be argued they are one in the same) Monitoring your digital profile/s requires an inActively monitoring your digital profile is different than identity protection. (Even though it can be argued they are one in the same) Monitoring your digital profile/s requires an in-

dividual ownership over your personal brand, across all social media channels. It requires an doing inventory of what profiles are active (because we sometimes sign up for so many

that we barely keep track of them all) and knowing who our collective audiences are across these channels. You can do this yourself, or have someone else do it for you.

Practice these 5 tips to help you transform your brand, today!

Clearwater Branding Company | 857-237-8422 | info@clearwaterbranding.com