Finding Your True Business Identity & Personal Brand: The Key to Doing Business Gently
Are you tired of feeling lost in a sea of business advice? I get it. After years of running my own business, I’ve learned that the secret to doing business gently isn’t following everyone else’s rules – it’s understanding your own business personality.
Here’s the thing: the person who started your business isn’t the same person you are today. You’ve grown. You’ve learned. You’ve changed. But many of us keep trying to run our businesses based on outdated versions of ourselves or, worse, trying to be someone we’re not.
What you’ll discover:
- Why your business feels hard when you’re fighting against your natural business personality
- How to uncover your true entrepreneurial identity (hint: it might surprise you!)
- The real meaning of personal branding (no, it’s not just about logos and colors)
When I finally accepted that I was a coach (after years of fighting it!), everything changed. My business stopped feeling like pushing a boulder uphill. That’s what happens when you align your business with who you really are.
I don’t believe in rushing this process. That’s why I take all of January as “planuary” – a full month to reflect, plan, and align my business with who I am today. You deserve that time too.
Have you felt like your business
is off and not sure why?
Maybe you are not showing
up as YOU in your business.
Take the Business Personality Quiz & Find Out!
Let’s Connect:
- Instagram: https://Instagram.com/martagoertzen
- Facebook: https://Facebook.com/selahstudiosco
TRANSCRIPT:
[00:00:00] Marta Goertzen: Do you know and understand your business personality type? Are you confident in your identity as an entrepreneur today? Not the one who started your business originally, but who you are today? Have you taken the time to develop a personal brand that reflects you and creates a unique experience for your clients?
When clients work with you, they should understand your values, priorities, and how you can help them move from point A to point B.
[00:00:35] When you have that strong identity piece figured out and you can build your brand around it, you’re creating a gentle business. You’re creating a way to do business gently.
[00:00:50] Hey there, I’m your host, Marta Goertzen, and welcome to Doing Business Gently.
[00:00:54] If your business feels hard and confusing and nowhere near gentle, I’m glad you’re here.
[00:01:00] This is where we talk about life-business integration. We approach integration by creating an aligned business that fits:
- Your values
- Your priorities
- Your personality
- The current season of life you’re in
[00:01:14] We focus on finding clarity so you’re not constantly second-guessing every decision in your business. Perhaps even more importantly, we talk about doing all of this from a place of rest.
[00:01:37] As I’ve kicked off this podcast under its new name, Doing Business Gently, I started by creating foundation episodes to explain my approach. The three core components that I believe a gentle business needs are:
- Clarity
- Alignment
- Rest
[00:02:00] In our last episode, we used the analogy of a car and planning for an adventure to represent a gentle business journey. Today, we’re going to explore how these primary pillars are supported by:
- Your identity and personal brand
- Your personal values
- Your priorities
- Your habits and routines
[00:02:41] This topic has come up frequently, especially over the last year. We’re no longer in the information age – we’re in the transformation age. Yet there’s still so much noise out there giving us conflicting advice about:
- How to show up in our business
- What type of personality to have
- What kind of marketing plan to follow
- How to maintain a social media presence
[00:03:22] Often, our response is to:
- Download another freebie
- Listen to another podcast episode
- Take another course
- Hire another coach
These aren’t bad things, but they can bury your entrepreneurial identity. I know because it happened to me.
[00:04:00] When I started my business clarity journey, the identity piece became crucial. It took me a long time to accept that I’m a coach. I rejected that idea for many years. My journey went from:
- Starting as a virtual assistant
- Moving to website design
- Realizing my favorite part was understanding my clients’ businesses
- Finally accepting my role as a coach
[00:04:44] When I talk to women in my mastermind or coaching situations and ask if they know who they are, the immediate answer is usually “yes.” But we need to go deeper. You might know who you are personally – as a wife, mother, aunt, or grandmother – but do you understand your personality as an entrepreneur? Or is that identity buried under others’ expectations and noise?
[00:05:11] This is critical for doing business gently. When you’re fighting against what others say you should be, you’re not doing business gently or confidently. Instead, you’re constantly second-guessing:
- Who are my clients?
- What problem do I really solve?
- How do I show up best for my clients?
- How do I talk about the transformation I offer?
[00:09:35] That’s why I take January as “planuary.” I don’t rush to have everything figured out between Christmas and New Year’s. Instead, I:
- Start reflecting on the past year
- Look at what happened
- Begin understanding what I want for the new year
[00:10:28] When people hear “personal brand,” they often think of logos, fonts, and colors. While those are important, personal branding is really about:
- How you show up for your clients
- How you present yourself in marketing
- How you deliver your programs
- How you serve clients and solve problems
[00:14:46] If you’re ready to build a gentle business, take time to discover or remember who you are as an entrepreneur. Celebrate your growth and changes. Acknowledge how you’ve:
- Worked with amazing clients
- Elevated your skills
- Learned to serve in more impactful ways
Remember, the more you understand your entrepreneurial identity, the more aligned your business becomes with who you were created to be.
[00:16:07] If you’d like help discovering your business personality type, take our quiz at https://selahstudios.co/quiz. It’s a short assessment that will help you understand if you’re working in alignment with your natural tendencies or fighting against them.
[00:17:05] Join me next time as we continue exploring how to build a gentle business with clarity, alignment, and habits of rest.
Marta Goertzen is a Gentle Business Coach and founder of Selah Studios, host of the Doing Business Gently podcast. She helps Christian women entrepreneurs over 50 rediscover who they’ve become, realign their business to match, and fall in love with their work again, gently, at their pace, without starting over. As an avid photographer and lover of the outdoors, she daily explores the trails and beaches of the South Central Oregon Coast with her dog Mochi in tow. Take the free Business Alignment Audit as your gentle first step, a way to pause, get honest, and see clearly where you and your business are right now: https://SelahStudios.co/alignmentaudit