How to Build a Personal Brand That Gets You Booked

Somewhere right now, a casting director, a choreographer, or a brand is asking someone, "Do you know ___?" And that blank is you.

You're not in the room for that conversation. Whatever words come back about you, that's your brand.

So what is a personal brand? In short, your brand is your reputation.

And it isn't just your Instagram. Instagram is one piece of a holistic personal brand.

Building personal brands with artists and creative professionals is my favorite part of what I do. Here's how I tackle it. A brand lives in three places: on paper, in the room, and on your screen.

On paper

This is the part nobody sees, and it really is the foundation of your personal brand. A brand built on whatever looks good this week falls apart when the trend moves on. A brand built on what you believe holds up.

Start with your values. Write down every one that matters to you, then star your top five. Stuck? Think about when you felt proudest, who you admire most, and what you won't compromise on. Your values are usually hiding there.

Add what makes you come alive and the bigger picture of what you want to build, and you have what I call your Why Factor. Get it down to one sentence, and it becomes your filter for which auditions to go to, which jobs to take, and what to say yes (and no) to.

Next, your keywords. Remember that "Do you know ___?" question? Write down the three keywords you want people to say back, not the three you'd get today. The gap between those two lists is the work, and everything else gets held up against these three keywords.

Then find your edge. Every room is full of people who trained the way you did, so what do you do that almost nobody else in your lane does? Maybe you bring great energy to a long day, exactly who people want on an extended contract or tour. Maybe you sing, act, and dance, which opens rooms other people can't get into.

Finally, your story. People remember stories and forget credits. Where did it start, what has it cost you, and what changed the way you work? Boil it down to three sentences: who you are, what you do, and where you're headed. That's your answer the next time someone on a job asks about you.

In the room

Now we take those three keywords off the page.

Start with how you look. In a room full of people who come from similar training backgrounds as you, how you show up is one of the few things that's 100% yours to decide. Build a mood board of every look you love, find the colors that work with your skin tone, hair, and eyes, then create a signature look from a few basics plus one unique touch, and play with trends through accessories. (I went deep on audition styling in my last post.)

My favorite gut check: if your three keywords say bold and your closet says safe, one of them isn't telling the truth. 👀

Then there's who you are in the room. People can feel your energy the moment you walk through the door. Your aura is the feeling people are left with after you leave, and it's built in small moments: how you interact with everyone else in the space, how you engage with the teacher, choreographer, or casting director, and how you take feedback, whether you're in a class, on set, in a meeting, or at an audition. Let your personality show up, too. The people hiring you want to know who they'll be spending long days with, so let them see the real you. Bring the energy you want to feel in the room instead of waiting for someone else to set it. And hold it up against your three keywords. If you want to be known as warm, magnetic, or easy to work with, people should be able to tell within the first minute you're in the room.

And then there's the follow through, because the impression you make keeps going after you leave. Use a work only email address, send a thank you, reply within 24 to 48 hours, and follow up 5 to 10 days later. Those small habits are how you become known as reliable, and reliable is exactly the kind of reputation that gets you called back. 📩

On your screen

And last but certainly not least, your social presence. 📱

By now you know who you are and what you want to be known for. Your socials are where you share it. Treat them as brand assets, not a popularity contest. The question stops being "will people like this?" and becomes "does this sound like me?"

Within a few seconds of landing on your IG profile, someone should know whose page it is, what you look like, what you're about, and whether you're who they're looking for. Here's what I check first:

• Your handle includes your name, and your bio has your full name, location, and a few keywords

• Your top nine posts clearly show what you do

• Three pinned posts: two of your best work or highest performing posts, and one photo of what you look like right now

• Highlights organized by project or style

• Stories most days and at least 1 feed post and/or reel a week

• About 30 minutes a day engaging with your followers and following (it's called social media for a reason!)

TikTok is the place to show your personality. It can also attract brands, which means potential extra income on top of your bookings.

YouTube is a great spot for your longer form content, like your reel or any type of vlog.

Instagram has around 3 billion monthly users, YouTube has roughly 2.5 billion, and TikTok has passed 2 billion. That's a free audience bigger than any room you'll ever audition in.

Here's a story that shows how this works. One of my clients who I'd never met in person before found my Instagram a few years ago and kept following along because she related to my dance content. When I shifted into talent management, she reached out. It was such an easy connection because she already had the gist of who I was from everything I'd been putting out there. She knew we'd click, and she knew what I offered was exactly what she needed to take the next step in her content career: honing in on her content strategy and personal brand. Your content does the introducing long before the official introduction.

So let's go back to where we started. Someone, somewhere, is asking "Do you know ___?" about you. When your why, keywords, look, energy, and socials all line up, you've done everything you can to shape the answer. That's what makes someone click on your profile, a choreographer think of you first, or a brand reach out about a partnership.

Some of this will feel uncomfortable, and that's okay. I believe you have to get a little uncomfortable to grow.

If you're ready to figure out who you are as an artist and show it everywhere, from your materials to your feed to the way you walk into a room, that's the work we do together. Take a look at my coaching offerings, or start on your own with the free Personal Brand Reset.

See you at the next call time 📋

Talk soon,

Claire