Finding Your Why & Personal Branding for Bio Writing
Sing! Dance! Act! Thrive! Podcast episode 006
Hello and welcome to episode #6 of Sing! Dance! Act! Thrive! This is my first solo episode and I thought that a good topic to start with is finding your why? And later on, I will break down all the personal branding secrets behind every line in my bio. Hopefully, it will inspire you to write a first-person bio yourself. I also provide some tips and tricks to build a connection with your audience. So back to finding your why. I often asked my guests at the end of our interview what their big picture why is and sometimes they don’t totally understand the question.
Simon Sinek in his 2009 Ted Talk, which you can watch at the end of this post, stated that “People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe”
Finding Your Why
PODCAST SHOW NOTES:
In his Golden Circle he breaks it down to What, How, and Why?
WHAT? Your result. What do you do? This is the result of your why. The products and services you offer.
HOW? Your process. How do you do it? What is your unique selling proposition?
WHY? Your motivation. Why do you do what you do? What is the purpose?
You know what you do, many of you listening are a musician, an actor, a dancer or maybe you are a creative entrepreneur like myself. And because you have dedicated the time to learn and practice you know how to do these things. Even if we are all still a work in progress. But to truly make a connection to an audience you must express why you do it.
The most successful artists in history became that because they were able to express their talents, beliefs, and values, not only through their art but also through their entire being. They connected with those that shared the same beliefs and values. Talent alone is not enough.
Simon added that “The goal isn’t to connect with everyone, but to connect with people who believe what you believe. And “It’s those that start with why that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.”
Finding Your Why
Of course Start with Why, Simon Sinek’s book is a great one to learn about why your why is important, but there is a follow up book called Finding Your Why and that one will break it down step by step how to discover your why. If you’ve never really thought about your why, I can ask you the question now. What is your why?
What is your goal?
The more specific you can make your goal the better.
Why do you want to achieve it?
What is your motivation? Is it fame, money, lifestyle, following your passion?
What about that outcome makes you desire it?
And why do you want that?
Why?
Why?
Continue to ask yourself WHY until you get to the core reason you desire your goal.
Form it into a sentence – My purpose is ……………………………….so that…………………………
Purpose, Mission & Vision Statements
In marketing, brands often use the terms Purpose, Mission and Vision statements and since as an artist you are a brand, it is important to take the time to create these for yourself.
In basic terms, finding your why is your purpose. Your vision is your overall destination, what you are aiming to achieve and your mission is the strategies that you will use to get there, your how.
As a personality, you wouldn’t necessarily state your purpose, mission, and vision on your website and marketing materials the way that a corporation would, but you may infuse them into your art, your bio, and how you express yourself on stage or on camera. This is personal branding.
In future episodes, we will go through discovering your core values, mission, vision, target market, and other personal branding tips.
For myself, you will read hints of all of these personal branding assets and more in my bio. I used to have the standard 3rd person bio that includes all the facts of my career. Last year I changed it to 1st person to better connect with my audience.
I found the 1st person bio exercise valuable as when I had the need for a 3rd person bio, I just changed the point of view and the personality and connection still came through.
Personal Branding Tips for Bio Writing
To demonstrate I will explain the personal branding secrets behind every line in my bio.
My bio starts off with “Hello performing artists and industry influencers,” and right away you know who my target market is and its narrowed down to my niche of performers. The goal of this line is to say Are you a performing artist or represent one? Then read on
“I’m Diane Foy and I believe that you really can make a living from your creative talents.” – Do you believe what I believe? Maybe you do and maybe you don’t but if you don’t you probably wish that you did and that line may give you a boost of hope.
“As a publicist, podcaster and coach, my mission is to educate, motivate and empower you to thrive in the arts” – I actually used the word mission, but you may find another word that feels right for you. “Educate, motivate and empower you to thrive” is the what I do as a publicist, podcaster, and coach. – The question behind that is do you desire to thrive in the arts?
The rest of that sentence is “empower you to thrive in the arts with authenticity, creativity, and purpose.” – this showcases my core values. Do they align with your core values?
“In my 15 years’ in public relations, I have helped hundreds of performers increase their profile and secure international media coverage.” – this shows my credibility, that I have the experience to help you thrive in the arts.
“The talent I have worked with includes actor, singer and author Mackenzie Phillips, Jane’s Addiction’s Perry Farrell, Oscar-nominated actor Robert Loggia, radio & TV personality Meredith Shaw, rock singer Sass Jordan, Pretty Little Liars actor Tyler Blackburn, Gordie Johnson-led blues-rock band Big Sugar, legendary punk pioneers DOA, and one of South Africa’s best-selling music acts of all time, The Parlotones.” – This shows off some celebrity names that I have worked with, but even if you have never heard of them, it narrows down my niche because I added in their titles of actor or musician. There is no magician, wrestler or a clown listed.
It goes even further by showing some genres of music and for actors that they tend to be film and television actors rather than theatre actors.
On a side note, I love all kinds of music, dance, and acting, but those are the names that are most known and that adds credibility to what I offer.
“Although I have collaborated with celebrities, I feel the most accomplished helping independent artists on their journey.” – again this narrows down my niche even further as yes I have some big names to drop but the majority of my work is with independent and yet to be known names.
“After seeing many of my PR clients struggle with their creativity and branding I was inspired to become a certified life, business and creativity coach.” – I really did find it frustrating after publicity changed so much that it got harder and harder to get indie artists media coverage. I was motivated to find a way to help performers like you succeed and I realized that it came down to artists not having their branding in order. As a publicist, I can advise you on branding and social media, but as a coach, I can walk you through it step by step.
“I have 25 years’ experience as a multi-passionate creative entrepreneur to share.” In a future episode, I will go in-depth on what being a multi-passionate, multi-potentialite, a scanner, a polymath or renaissance soul means and how to identify if you are or know one but my list of past and present job titles gives you a hint.
“My journey through photography, makeup artistry, journalism, public relations, marketing, artist management, jewellery design, and creativity coaching,” This tells you that my creativity tends to be more visual than performance. That sentence ends with all those titles being “the result of a lifelong passion for arts and entertainment.” – there it is…my why. I love the arts, but it is performers that I choose to specialize in working with.
“As performing artists, you have the power to change lives with your talent, my purpose is to provide tools, resources, motivation, and support to ensure that the world gets to experience that power.” – this is a little more about my why and you will hear this again in the multi-passionate episode, but every career that I have had was so that I could be around and support performing artists on their thriving artist journey to change lives with their talent.
So there it is, my why and the secrets behind my bio. I hope that this inspired you to discover your why and maybe try writing a 1st person bio.
Podcast Outro
You know this podcasting thing is a bit lonely…a one-sided conversation. I would love to hear from you and there are multiple ways to connect with me.
To help you I created a private facebook group at dianefoy.com/facebook
It is a great community of purpose-driven performing artists and a great tool if you ever have questions for me or your fellow artists. We are here to help.
You can connect with me on Instagram or twitter @DianeFoyPR or even email me directly. Tell me what topics you would like to hear on future episodes or suggest a guest that I should have on the show.
One thing that would really help me a lot is if you could take a moment to rate and review the podcast on iTunes or Apple Podcasts and share it with your fellow artists. The more listeners we have the bigger our community becomes and with it more resources to help you succeed.
