How To Know What Makes You Different In Your Personal Brand

(Pretext: this is quite long and does bang on about quiche a bit. Soz)

Absolutely yonks ago, I was having a plate of chips with Matt’s brother, Stu.

He was a graphic designer and I was hungry.

About 6 chips in, we decided to set up a business called: ‘Cards n Quiche’ where we’d design and sell cards…and quiche.

No particular reason, just thought it sounded good.

The business never got off the ground, but my fascination with quiche remained.

Now, I’m not actually sure why, as, to be honest, I don’t really like quiche.

It’s a bit soggy, and, if you’re already going for pastry, you might as well just have pie.

But, as time went on, quiche just kept finding its way into my thoughts. 

There was this time I first heard the song “Kiss the rain” by Billie Myres and unnervingly, I just heard “Quiche Lorraine”.

And then, stranger still, if ever I was introduced to a ‘Keith’, irrespective of my relationship to him, I’d always ask…

“Do people ever just call you Quiche?”

…the Keith in question would almost always say no, which bamboozled me.

Why didn’t they call him quiche?

I don’t get it.

And then, later on, when I was trying to be all clever with my personal branding stuff, the enigmatic quiche emerged once more.

…but this time, it emerged for an actual reason…

So, there I was on Canva, creating bang-average graphics for an Instagram post, which I had no direction for, just anxious I hadn’t posted anything in ages and thought, fuck, better do summit…

…when I wrote the word ‘niche’…and, due to the faulty wires in my brain, immediately then thought ‘quiche’.

And, honestly, it was like I’d invented the iPod.

QUICHE. Of course.

Why had absolutely no fucker ever thought of this before?

It made so much sense.

OK, so, at this point, if you’re not au fait with the whole quiche thing, then you’re probs getting pretty annoyed right now – like, Luce, ffs. I’m this far in, so can’t leave it, but just fucking make the point. 

Quiche.

Queen (of a) niche.

Qu -> iche.

Fuck my face.

Thought, this can be my thing. This can be MY THING.

Oh my, I was all a blether. So happy with myself.

I immediately went to Instagram with my incredible invention expecting a flurry of “this is genius!”es.

No alt text provided for this image

Ah. Apparently not.

Now, don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I get loads of likes and comments, but this is probably the lowest…and I’ve put up some pretty shit stuff.

Did no one get the quiche? Did they not like it?

I decided I just hadn’t bloody banged on about it enough, so, thought it best to do that.

See, being a queen of your niche – it just seemed, I dunno…right?

(And then, so as to not forget the dong folk, ‘kiche’ as in ‘king of your niche’ emerged, which, when I thought of that, well, you can just imagine the self-congratulation)

So, why am I bumming over quiche, then.

Right, well, let’s agree that every single business owner is already in a niche, yeah?

Yeah.

Well, to make that business owner distinguishable, wouldn’t you agree that they need something to help them stand out?

Yeah.

(Christ, I sound like I’m selling you into Avon. Soz. Right. Enough pyramid talk)

Well, being a quiche is exactly that. It enables you to identify the thing that separates you from the rest. 

And THAT’s what being a pissin good personal brand is all about.

So, how do we find our own quiche flavour?

Well sugar nips, if you weren’t a fan of the flan already, you’ll be literally soggy-bottoming over it when I tell you the lil tinker only has its own flippin’ formula…

(totally made up by me, mind, so, y’know, it’s not rocket science, but it is rock-it science*)

*another one of my genius drops that got absolutely nowhere near the appreciation it deserves.

Right, so the quiche formula is this…

Identity + Service + Market + Market’s desire = QUICHE. 

And here’s mine:

Identity = The Personal Brand Provocateur

Service: Serving mischievous marketing and corrupting copy

Market: To Personal Brands

Market’s Desire: Ready to Seriously Stand Out.

The Personal Brand Provocateur Serving Mischievous Marketing and Corrupting Copy to Personal Brands ready to Seriously Stand Out

Kapiche?

(You what? Kapiche? Why not Ka-QUICHE? Then you wouldn’t have had that gorgeous lil moment of self-congratualtion, would ya. See. Always thinking about you)

With my quiche, I’m no longer just a marketeer, or copywriter, I’m a fucking quiche, and that’s what’s so good about it.

60 second networking intros. QUICHE.

Website homepage. QUICHE.

LinkedIn header. QUICHE.

Business card. SLICE ME UP, SUGAR!

Distinguishable. Memorable. Flavourful. Quiche. 

And, if I’m honest, now I’ve banged on about it, people have asked me to help them identify theirs.

Here are a few created recently in my aptly named ‘had to be different, dint I’ Wow!Hours… 

  • The Advertising Assassin serving hit-list ads for boundary-pushers who want their ads talked about. 
  • The Multi-Mentor serving systems that aid success to growth-driven businesses who need to stop multi-tasking and start multiplying 
  •  The Money-Saving Coach, serving money management support to people who need help saving so they can live without worrying.  (bit boring that one)
  •  The Anti-bore Bookkeeper serving Bookkeeping stuff to bored of bland businesses who don’t want to be bored stiff by Bookkeepers 

…and the list goes on.

(well, it doesn’t really, it only goes on about 3 more, as that’s all I’ve done so far).

But, hopefully you can see what I mean now, and, better still, I hope it encourages you to think of your own.

If you follow me on Instagram, or Facebook, you’ll see me continuing the bang-on about the quiche, but, in the mean time, if you want help finding your flavour, then one of my Wow!Hours might be good for you.

And that’s it from me.

Can’t think of anything else good relating to quiche, can you?

Now get sharing...