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How To Build Your Own Brand

Photography by Tom Buck

What I’m Wearing

Flannel Shirt – Allsaints* (click here)

Longsleeve T Shirt – Thomas John*   (click here)

‘gallucks’ for 25% discount on Thomas John

Distressed Denim – NDG Studio* (click here)

Cheslea Boots – NDG Studio* (click here)

Since becoming a full time blogger a lot of people ask me for blog advice, how to gain an Instagram following or YouTube subscribers, there’s no specific answer that will give you the key to unlock an audience, it comes with time, effort and a lot of passion. Thinking of yourself as a brand is a good way to think of yourself as a blogger, it can help distinguish just who you are and what you’re about. I’ve been doing a lot of advice posts here on gallucks.com and I love doing them – I hope that they give you guys help in deciding whether to start a blog of your own or even your own business or just general inspiration for life.

When thinking of your own business whether it’s your own clothing brand, your blog – just about anything really, you have to look at the bigger picture, the overall view. Below I’ve written some points for you to think about when building your own brand, if you can answer all of them then that’s great! The more aware of yourself you are, the more other will be aware of you too.

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Authenticity

With whatever you do, make sure it’s authentic. Be true to yourself and your own personal style, you can tell when someone is faking it or is uncomfortable with what they’re doing. Plus if you’re creating anything, you should love it right? I think you need to ask yourself things like, why are you doing it in the first place? what do you want to achieve? and what makes you different?

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Your Style

If you’re experimenting with something new or you have your style all figured out, whether that be designing clothing, graphics, artwork, outfits etc – you personally are different from everybody else in the world and the way you do things will set you apart from the rest. In the blogosphere two different bloggers could style the exact same outfit and the outcomes will be completely different because everyone has their own way of doing things. Try new things, experiment different ways but try and keep your flair in everything that you do.

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Audience

Who are you wanting to reach? What do they want to see/hear? I guess for me, when I think about it I’m trying to reach other people like me, people interested in fashion, the internet, music, video etc. It’s definitely worked so far because I have made so many friends through my blog, online and offline. I think it’s important to understand that because if you don’t know who you’re designing for or who you’re writing for then you might be speaking to the wrong person.

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Strategy

Now for example lets say if your blog or clothing brand is just a hobby, you might not be too serious about having a strategy or some kind of plan as to what you’re doing or where it’s all going. I’ve never had a ‘strategy’ as such, I just take each day as it comes. However I do have a rough schedule that I keep to in terms of social media posts, youtube videos and blog content etc. If you do have a future goal or a dream of it becoming a full time job then keeping a schedule for the day to day helps you focus whilst letting you build and connect with that audience over time.

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Interact

Speaking of connecting, one of the most important things you can do is get involved and speak to the people who support you. Whether you’re a blogger or a designer, speak to the people who look at what you create, ask them for feedback, have a conversation with them, reply on Instagram, comment on their blog, ask them questions and you might be surprised – you might make a new friend for life. Don’t just reply for the engagement, reply because you genuinely care about that individual and the effort that they’ve made to take time out of their day to look at what you created.

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Improve

My final thought is to improve, improve what you do with every post, every design, every day is a fresh start and a chance to do everything better than you did last time. It’s ok to make mistakes and take risks because you learn from what you do and will be sure to not make the same mistake again. If you’re in your 20’s like me (or even younger) then now is the time more than ever to take that risk, start that dream business , start your blog, connect with others and don’t forget the most important thing to remember is  – just have fun.

Hope you enjoyed this post if you do have any questions or comments then please leave a comment below or contact me on Instagram,Twitter, Youtube etc I’m @gallucks on all my platforms. Also just before I go, I updated the Shop section here on Gallucks.com/shop (here) with my favourites for Summer 2016 so check it out if you get the chance – thanks for stopping by guys!