PursYOU: A Personal Branding Strategy Series on Pau Pursues Passion

Hi! If you've been following me around on my social media channels, I've been posting teasers here and there about a new endeavor on the blog. Guess what, it's finally here! It still feels a little surreal  as I type this knowing that there's no turning back now, but I'm looking forward to sharing this journey with you.

PURSYOU: An Overview

Pursyou is a personal branding blog series on this blog where we can share this journey of crafting our own personal brands together. Note that I'm also making this up as I go along and though this series already has 8 drafted parts, there's always room for new knowledge and improvement. Building a personal brand is, after all, a continuous process.

I came up with Pursyou to share what was done and document what is yet to be done. It aims to help out newbie bloggers, freelancers, artists, and the like to come up with an effective presence and / or image through developing a personal brand. I'm doing this because when I started out this blog, I was a mess of ideas with a burning passion to do anything and everything. Through this blog series, my goal is to help you out in sorting those ideas and put the burning passion to good use. Pursyou is all about pursuing YOU and building a personal brand that you can be proud of. So without further ado, let's start to build your own brand with our first topic: Finding the YOU in your brand and claiming it. You can do it with a few simple reminders:

Have your identity in it.

You're nurturing a seed that will grow into something really cool someday. Don't forget to include you in your own personal brand! You are, after all throwing yourself out there. So, what do I mean by having your identity in it? First, get in tune with what you can do. This sounds easy and basic, but it's harder than it seems. self-confidence isn't an easy thing for everyone but for this step, I want you to be confident about yourself. You're building something up and you're centering it on that thing you're good at. So claim it, be proud of it, and use it to your advantage!

Not sure where to start? Here are some questions to ponder on:

What is something that I know or I can do which I can casually talk about in a conversation?

How can others benefit from this? What can they learn for me?

Why do I want to do this and what can I do to achieve it?

Know your purpose or goal, or at least have an idea on where you're going.

You have this idea in your head. It won't sit still and that's exactly why you're planning to act on it. That's a great thing! The first step is always finding that burning desire to actually do something. Maybe, right now, you have a bunch of ideas floating around. It's okay if you haven't had things figured out just yet but I hope you have at least this one thing figured out: you know what you want to happen. If you're planning a blog, have an idea on what you want to share.  If you're planning to offer your services, you can already envision where you want to go with it. Note that this doesn't have to be permanent but having your purpose as your navigation helps a lot when you're trying to establish your brand.

Story time

There was a time just last week (and the weeks before that) when I had multiple tabs opened on my browser. I was shifting from one tab to another, from one topic to another, just trying to figure things out for the blog. To be honest, it became a little frustrating because everything was a mess and I didn't know which of the strategies I was noting down would work. That's when it hit me: why don't I do a blog series to help others out the way I needed help at that moment? Hence, Pursyou came along. It's a simple brainchild to help others brand themselves while I also brand myself. It's a personal project to share the strategies and tips that worked for me, with hopes that it would work for you, too! Or at least help you out in any way. So, that's the goal. That's where I want to do: to help you out.

Don't be afraid to get creative with your brand name. 

It's time to get creative! People will remember you by your brand name so have something that's catchy, easy to remember, and one that you'd love to be your trademark. You can play around with your name or your cause / service / offer. You can also use analogies or symbolism in coming up with a unique brand name. Start out with the idea and work your way from there!

Story time

"Pau Pursues Passion" started out as a random hashtag. At the dawn of January 1, 2017, I tweeted:


I got some replies telling me that they loved the hashtag so much. Fast forward to the last few weeks when I was contemplating on what I wanted to do with this blog and I came up with this blog series, I wanted to have a name for it that's still in line with my blog name. It started out with the idea: pursuing a personal brand. It narrowed down to "Pursue You" / "Pursuing You" until the play of words came about, hence the birth of "Pursyou."

Another cool example of a brand name is Audrey Pe's "Witech" which is her personal advocacy for women in technology (hence, Witech).


Let's do a quick recap with Witech as an example.

Have your identity in it. Audrey is passionate about science, technology, and writing. She saw a prevalent issue in the industry and realized that women weren't given the same limelight when it comes to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. With this, she combined her love for tech and love for writing to create Witech, a website and an organization which celebrates women in technology.

Know your purpose or goal, or at least know where you're going. Audrey has already spoken to countless talks and seminars to talk about Witech. Her brand aims to inspire young women all over the world to continue striving for their passions in tech and to show the world that women can do it, too! It aims to bridge the prevailing gender gap in the industry through the organization's advocacy and endeavors.

Don't be afraid to be creative with your brand name. When asked about the inspiration behind the name, Audrey said, "WiTech’s name came when I was trying to mesh together women and technology. I think that because WiTech is so rooted in those two factors, it made sense to put them together in a short, catchy way." She also shared that it it also sounds like "WE-tech" which can also promote unity and women-inclusiveness in the tech industry. That's a super cool play of words!

Know more about WiTech here: https://wi-tech.org.

Work goes along with it.

So, now you've got your skills laid out and a cool new name to go along with it. It's time to get to work! Build build BUILD the brand through your own efforts and endeavors! Don't get stuck on planning and conceptualizing too much because all of it will be pointless if you won't breathe life into those plans. Brands become known through its consistency, its ability to deliver, and its capability to be a benefit to others. Don't be overwhelmed with the idea of having a grand benefit because, if you've inspired people in one way or another or taught them one small lesson through your works, then you've already touched their lives somehow.

Story time

Back on my blog relaunch post, I shared about how I focused most of my attention on the planning stage and not the execution stage. I got too caught up with tips and tricks, blog planning techniques and the like, that I neglected the fact that I actually have to do something about it. Content is king, but consistency is queen. I realized I won't be getting anywhere if people won't even have something to know me for.


Well, that was a mouthful! But to those of you who only prefer the good stuff (don't worry, no judgment here. I do, too), here's a quick run-down of all the words above as well as what you can avoid if you take the key point into consideration.

Have your identity in it. Get in tune with your passions and what you're good at. Pay attention to what you're commended for and what you can easily identify yourself with. Don't be afraid to brag about your skills. With this, you'll always be fueled to work on what drives you.

Know your purpose or goal. This is is your navigational system, your GPS in this crazy fast-paced society. If you know where you're going, you'll never stray away too far.

Get creative with your brand name. People will associate you with what you do so go ahead and have a name that speaks about you! Having a well thought-of name prevents you from jumping from one brand name to another. You wouldn't want your efforts to be put to waste now, would you?

Work goes along with it. Keep on working on you and showing what you can do. People will know you through your works, after all! As the quote goes, "dreams won't work unless you do." This is where everything else boil down to: if you're working on something you're passionate about and something that you're good at plus you know where you're going, working on it will always be fulfilling.

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Let me end our first topic with the quote I told myself prior to launching Pursyou and doing something more about this blog:


I'm gonna be honest and say that my confidence level is still dwindling but if I want to make a difference, I have to do something differently. I can't let self-doubt get in the way all the damn time so here I am, officially welcoming you to this passion journey which I hope you'll join me in! Let's learn together in the next months as I post Pursyou lessons on a bi-monthly basis. :)


If you've learned a thing or two on this post, please do let me know through the comments below. If you've got questions or topics you want me to cover, feel free to let me know, too!

As part of this journey, I will be sending prompts and some motivational boosts to help you pursue your own passion project. I'd love to have you on board!





Keep learning,