Branding feels off? How to express your brand personality in 3 steps

As a solopreneur selling your expertise, you might know this: People ask for your website or latest post, and you hesitate to share the link. Something feels off. You can’t say what, but you feel it every time. Often it’s the visuals: our subconscious picks them up before we read a word.¹

Most visual identities that feel off were fine when you started. Maybe you built yours yourself, or a designer did. Since then, your business has grown, and your branding hasn’t. The good news: You don’t need a full rebrand, just a brand reFresh based on your personality. Easier and less expensive.

Jessica, a marketing strategist, felt the difference after her brand reFresh:

“The blog looks 100x better and I’m no longer embarrassed to share those links.”

So what exactly is off, and what should stay? Find out in three steps with my Expert Identity Compass. It’s the exact framework I use with all my clients, whether they get a new brand with The Website Sprint or an update as part of The reLaunch.

Step 1: Get clear on your brand personality

Your brand personality is where every brand decision starts. It tells you where your brand should sit before you change a single color. To show how, I’ll use my framework, the Expert Identity Compass. It starts with two brand personality sliders:

1. From approachable (warm, human, even playful) to intellectual (analytical, technical, even futuristic)
2. From classy (tasteful, elegant, even traditional) to progressive (creative, visionary, even rebellious)

Your personality sits somewhere on each, toward one end or in the middle.

Your personality sits somewhere on each, toward one end or in the middle. Take my own brand: most designers show off a very progressive or classy style and ignore the other slider. I show my intellectual side, too: strategy, systems, buying psychology, and frameworks. And sustainable web design puts me on the progressive side.

Now turn the second slider upright and cross it with the first. That gives you the Compass, a map with nine archetypes. Eight have a clear direction and their own name, like The Guide or The Architect. The ninth, in the middle, is The People Pleaser: the one to avoid (more in step 2).

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The horizontal slider, now an axis, runs from approachable on the left to intellectual on the right, the vertical one from classy at the bottom to progressive at the top. The nine archetypes, row by row from the top: Guide, Trailblazer, Architect; Companion, People Pleaser (shaded, with a warning sign), Scientist; Curator, Steward, Scholar. The three brands described below are mapped on the Compass.

Different brands land in different archetypes:

• The Chords between is a Guide. Details below.
• IMMA Collective is a Curator. Lilli’s brand pairs the approachable people in her collective with the premium feel of a space you apply to join. That’s The Curator, and the name fits: she curates who gets in and which opportunities are shared.
• reThink the Web is an Architect. Most designers show off a very progressive or classy style and ignore the other slider. I show my intellectual side, too: strategy, systems, buying psychology, and frameworks. Add the progressive side of sustainable web design, and that’s The Architect.

You can place your personality on the map yourself. Still, an outside opinion helps, as the third brand shows. And no, AI isn’t that outside opinion: it never asks about your personality, so it hands you the same defaults as every other AI-built website.

If, unlike Megan, you already have a brand, the next step shows where it sits now.

Step 2: Spot where your brand drifts off course

A strong brand sits in one archetype: logo, colors, fonts, and imagery all send the same message. There are two ways to drift into The People Pleaser: your brand’s elements pull in different directions, or it says nothing clearly. Either way, people can’t tell who you are.

Two client projects show both:

Jessica’s brand said too much at once. Saying too little lands you in the same spot, because a brand that says nothing still gets read.

Both stories continue in step 3 …

The take-away: You and your visitors can sense whether your brand feels scattered or lacks personality. Placing each element on the Compass is different: reading the personality of typography or color combinations takes a trained eye. In The reLaunch, I map your brand for you, so you see what pulls away and what to keep. For a first read, book a free 30-minute Clarity Call.

Step 3: Change only what doesn’t fit your personality

Once you know where your brand pulls away, you know what to change: only the elements that point in the wrong direction. Everything that already fits stays. That’s a brand reFresh, and how much it changes depends on the gap, as Jessica and Dror show.

One font brought Jessica’s brand back in line. A brand that says nothing clearly needs more than a single fix.

Do you need a brand reFresh or a full rebrand?

In most cases, a brand reFresh is enough. It fits when your business grows or your DIY brand needs to look professional, but your personality stays the same. A full rebrand is for when your whole direction changes, voice and message included.²

With a reFresh, people still recognize you. Dror, Megan, and Jessica all kept their colors. I usually tweak a few colors and set clear rules for when (not) to use them, to improve accessibility (which helps you reach more clients). I generally keep my clients’ logos unchanged as well, often only adding logo variations to be used on the website and beyond.

Keeping what fits also saves money and time. You don’t have to change everything at once, since a new font or small color tweaks often go unnoticed. Your social media templates and banners still work, and your business cards last until your next print run.

A reFresh asks far less than a rebrand, yet changes how people see you. When every element points in one direction, people sense who you are before they read a word. I see it with almost every client: when you’re proud of your website, you share it more.

Why a brand that feels off is a sign of growth

A brand that feels off isn’t a sign you got it wrong. It’s a sign your business outgrew the brand you started with. The Expert Identity Compass shows how to catch up: where your personality sits, where your brand pulls away, and how a few changes bring it back in line.

Knowing the framework is one part. Reading which elements pull away is another: design is its own discipline, and people study it for years. If it’s not your zone of genius, you shouldn’t have to learn it.

With The reLaunch, you don’t have to. I take your brand through all three steps, then build it into a website you run yourself. It starts with a free 30-minute Clarity Call: you get a first read on what’s off with your brand, and we see if we’re a fit.

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Notes and Sources

1. Fogg, B. J., et al. (2002). How Do People Evaluate a Web Site’s Credibility? Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab and Consumer WebWatch. 2,684 people rated the credibility of real websites and commented on why. The design look was the most-mentioned factor, in 46% of comments. ↩︎
2. Your brand is more than your visual identity: it also includes your voice, your message, and how people experience your work. In this post, “brand” mostly means the visual side, because that’s how most of my clients use the word. ↩︎