The Personal Branding Blueprint

Editor Note: This article was created by the Women in Marketing – Bulgaria team in collaboration with the speaker Vassilena Valchanova, and is based on her presentation at our Networking Dinner #001 in Sofia. It’s been edited for conciseness and brevity.

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Before we dive into frameworks and tactics, I’ll start with a confession that sets the tone for everything that follows:

I have to channel my inner Drag Queen before I speak. For me that means a red blazer. It’s a small ritual, but it flips the switch—gives me energy and reminds me I’m exactly where I need to be when I speak in public.

Because here’s the truth: I fight the same noisy thoughts you probably do—“I don’t know enough,” “I’m not doing enough,” “who am I to speak to these people?” People are often surprised to hear that, because I apparently don’t show it. That’s nice, but it’s not the whole picture. Saying it out loud—especially in intimate rooms like the one where I first shared this—matters.

I’m a ‘structure’ person (very Virgo of me). My brain operates in frameworks. For years, “personal branding” felt like an overhyped, fuzzy blob—until I started digging deep, collecting the pieces that actually help me operate with clarity. Over the past 6–8 months, I tried a bunch of things, removed the over-complicated bits, and kept what worked in real life. The result is a four-part process I call my Personal Branding Blueprint.

• The first two steps are internal: what matters to me, what I want to achieve, how I’m different.
  
• The next two are external: how to communicate it consistently through content—without burning entire workdays (clients still come first).
  

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Why another “framework” for personal brands?

Because the common advice splits into two unhelpful extremes:

1. All theory, no practice. Branding jargon (positioning, salience, etc.) that never makes it to your day-to-day.
   
2. All tactics, no foundation. Copy tricks per channel and “what the algorithm wants this week,” without answering what you actually want to say.
   

My blueprint bridges those. It starts with clarity and ends with a repeatable publishing routine. Today, I’ll share with you some of the most useful exercises and the most helpful tools you can use to define and grow your brand, but if you want to dive deep, I highly recommend taking my course: Personal Branding Blueprint – it’s a a 4-week hands-on process designed to help you prove your worth and build an audience. 🌟

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A practical Ikigai (from passions to something you can say and sell)

The first part of the Personal Branding Blueprint is “Setting the Scene” – defining your purpose, setting clear goals, and identifying the audience you want to reach. A big part of this phase is identifying what you want to build, what you want to be known for. This is where the concept of Ikigai comes into play.

You probably know Ikigai—the overlap of:

• what you love,
  
• what you’re good at,
  
• what the world needs,
  
• what you can get paid for.
  

I tweaked it to make it more than a poster.

Do it like this:

• Make two columns: What lights me up and What I’m good at.
  
• Add a third lens: How is this genuinely useful to others (beyond “someone pays me”).
  
• Look for the intersection that can become both your offer and your content backbone.
  

When I did this back in 2018, two items stood out:

• Under lights me up: teaching and sharing what I know.
  
• Under good at: content marketing & copywriting (working with words).
  

Layering in usefulness, something clicked:
I want to do the work and teach clients to fish.
I’ll run the project—and I’ll make my thinking visible so people can repeat it without me.

From then on, I’ve tried to make that dual value obvious everywhere: show I can execute and explain the logic in plain language, with examples that stick.

Do this, not that: Don’t build a personal brand for “likes” in a random network. Build it to align how you work with who you want to work with.

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Your Onlyness statement (how you’re specifically different)

The second part of the Personal Branding Blueprint is called “Building the Base” and this is the step where you should focus on laying the foundation for a strong, resonant brand identity.

To start, you can use a classic brand exercise repurposed for people:
“I’m the only [who/that]…”
No one is literally the only one—but you can articulate a memorable angle.

Mine: I don’t just deliver. I make the process transparent and teach you how to do it yourself next time.

This isn’t wishful thinking; clients validated it. People tell me they come for the transparency: I say what I’ll do, show how I’m thinking, which questions I ask, what I noticed, why I chose a path, and where I’d recommend improvements. That feedback was a strong market signal to double down.

A career story I love here: Amanda Natividad at SparkToro. Before joining, she decided she didn’t want to climb the standard ladder into management. She wanted to be a high-level individual contributor—to keep doing the work she’s best at. That clarity guided her toward the right team and leader (hello, Rand Fishkin) and into a role that still fits today. Your personal brand can be a compass, not just a megaphone.

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Remarkable Content Angles (stances you’ll stand on, again and again)

The third part of the Blueprint is all about defining your content strategy: what are the pillars you’ll be turning back to again and again and become known for.

I couldn’t find a good term for this concept, so I named it myself: Remarkable Content Angles—themes and opinions that either light you up or make you physically itch when you see them done poorly.

One of mine (and it reliably sets me off):

“150 content ideas in 15 minutes.”

I can feel steam coming out of my ears when I see that. I don’t believe in idea lotteries. I believe in structured, intentional content—in a process that filters noise and surfaces what’s valuable.

These angles become the foundation for consistent publishing. Many people tell me, “I have nothing to write,” or the opposite: “I kind of know, but I’m afraid I’ll bore people if I repeat myself.” In my experience, repetition (with fresh phrasing and examples) is how ideas land and how you get associated with them.

Think of Coca-Cola not changing its logo every two years. Likewise, don’t change your core topics every two months. Hold your ground long enough to become top-of-mind—so when someone asks, “Who should I talk to about content marketing?”, your name has a chance to pop up.

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My copywriting recipe book: 10 hooks that defeat the blank page

Finally, we work on “Mastering the Magic” – the most practical of the Blueprint steps where you create a consistent content practice.

I’ve been writing for almost 20 years, and I still get paralyzed by the empty page. What saved me was assembling a “cookbook” of opening hooks. You can start with just ten reliable hooks to get into gear.

How I use them:

1. Take one topic and run it through all 10 hooks.
   
2. For each hook, write 1–2 opening versions—not final, just sketches.
   
3. One version will feel alive. Pick it and expand.
   
4. Skip hooks that don’t sound like you. Authentic beats “complete.”
   

This shifts my brain from “I must write a perfect article now” to “I’m playing with approaches.”
Play kills perfectionism. Perfectionism kills publishing.

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Daily practice that doesn’t eat your entire day

My content system lives in the cracks because I want most working hours for clients:

• I keep an Evernote backlog of sparks—observations, problems I notice, questions people ask. On “no idea” days, I open the list and something always jumps off the screen.
  
• I use the hook cookbook when I’m stuck.
  
• I prefer clean repetitions over heroic leaps. My modern dance teacher explained during plié and tendu practice: you don’t need 100% depth on day one; do a clean 45% now, then 55% next time. That mapped perfectly to content. Instead of “we’ll be in all channels, posting 16 times a day,” I’d rather publish one clean thing consistently and build from there.
  

And yes, I love the Seth Godin line: plumbers don’t get plumber’s block. If it’s a client deliverable with a deadline, I sit down and get it done. I’ve noticed writer’s block shows up when I can postpone something (aka personal projects). Naming that helps.

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Q&A

“I’m just starting my career. How do I use your exercises when I don’t have experience or a portfolio?”

Try this bonus framework: Character Identities—the lens through which you create content.

1. The Leader.
   “I’ve done this; here’s how you can, too.” Works, but not the only option and not always comfortable early on.
   
2. The Interviewer / Journalist.
   You borrow expertise. That can be literal interviews (many great podcasters do this—Lex Fridman is a master), or “investigative” write-ups:
   “Company X just achieved Y. I spent 48 hours reviewing their early campaigns and how they evolved. Here’s what I found.”
   You don’t need 20 years of experience to notice patterns and ask sharp questions; you need curiosity and an eye for detail.
   
3. The Adventurer / Experimenter.
   “I don’t know how 3 months of low-carb will affect me. I’ll try it and document what works and what doesn’t—maybe it helps you.”
   This doesn’t require pre-existing authority—just consistency and the courage to share even if it flops.
   (By month two you might say, “No bread? No ice cream? I’m out.” That honesty is valuable.)
   
4. The Reluctant Hero.
   You transfer lessons from one domain into another. Think Cal Newport—a computer science professor writing about productivity because his methods helped him and then helped others.
   Perfect if you’re changing careers or blending backgrounds.
   

Pick the lens that fits today. You can switch later. Publishing through a lens that matches your current confidence beats waiting for a title you don’t feel you’ve “earned” yet.

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“How do you handle creative blocks—those stretches when nothing comes out?”

• Train your noticing muscle. Keep a running idea list (mine lives in Evernote). On stuck days, one line will inevitably say, “Pick me.”
  
• Turn the start into a game. Run the topic through the 10 hooks. Two lines per hook. No pressure.
  
• Deadlines are magic. I’ve learned writer’s block visits things I can delay; client work with deadlines just… gets done.
  
• Perspective (and a smile): I read about a novelist who walks a set route with her dog and tells herself she won’t go home until she knows what to write. Survival instincts kick in before hypothermia. And the legend about Victor Hugo: he reportedly had his clothes hidden so he couldn’t go out until he finished the book. Extreme? Yes. But a reminder: blocks pass.
  

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“I have multiple passions (say, marketing and baking). Should I mix them or separate them?”

It depends on your audience and goals. A model that often works:

• In Channel A, go ~80% main topic and ~20% secondary (for human texture).
  
• In Channel B, flip the ratio.
  

Don’t sever parts of yourself with a knife. A personal brand should be personal. Some of my best insights come from cross-pollination—like my dance-class lesson: clean 45% now, 55% next time. That maps directly to content cadence and channel selection.

A practical LinkedIn tip: plan 2–3 expert themes to rotate, plus occasional personal notes. (If you have an employer, their expectations may shape how you blend topics—that’s a separate, tactical conversation.)

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The takeaway

A personal brand isn’t vanity or “growth hacks.” It’s a system to:

1. Get clear on what matters to you and how it helps others.
   
2. Articulate how you’re different—so people can feel it.
   
3. Choose a handful of Remarkable Content Angles and repeat them with intention until you’re associated with them.
   
4. Build small, humane routines—a hooks cookbook, a living idea backlog—so you publish even on imperfect days.
   

Steal any part of my blueprint that serves you. Toss what doesn’t. The point isn’t to be perfect—it’s to keep moving, one clean repetition at a time.