Simmba’s POV:
My human thinks she built a personal brand.
Cute.
I have been building mine since the day I entered this house.
I have a recognizable face.
I have a signature look.
I have an audience.
I have opinions.
I have absolutely no interest in changing who I am because someone on the internet said a different strategy is “trending.”
And most importantly, people know exactly what they’re getting when they see me.
Apparently, humans call this personal branding.
I call it knowing who you are.
So while my human spends her time thinking about content strategy, SEO, social media, and whether something is “on brand,” I’ve decided to explain what I already know.
You’re welcome.
1. Know Exactly Who You Are
I am Simmba.
I am a tuxedo cat.
I have white paws, black legs, a round face, and an important job supervising everything my human does.
I don’t wake up wondering whether I should become a completely different cat because another cat got more likes yesterday.
Why would I?
One of the biggest mistakes humans make with personal branding is trying to become whatever they think their audience wants.
They copy someone’s tone.
They copy their content.
They copy their visual style.
They copy their strategy.
Eventually, their brand starts looking like everyone else’s.
That’s boring.
Your personal brand should give people a reason to recognize you.
Your experiences.
Your opinions.
Your personality.
Your way of explaining things.
You don’t need to become someone else to be memorable.
I certainly haven’t.
2. Consistency Doesn’t Mean Being Boring
I have a consistent brand.
But let’s be clear.
That doesn’t mean I do the exact same thing every day.
Some days I’m sleeping.
Some days I’m eating.
Some days I’m supervising my human.
Some days I’m dramatically staring out the window as though I’ve just discovered a terrible family secret.
The activities change.
The personality doesn’t.
That’s the difference between consistency and repetition.
Your personal brand doesn’t require you to publish the same type of post forever.
You can talk about marketing today, storytelling tomorrow, AI next week, and something completely unexpected after that.
What connects it all is your perspective.
Your voice becomes the thread.
That is what makes a personal brand feel human rather than manufactured.
3. Stop Chasing Every Trend
I have watched humans do some strange things for engagement.
Dance trends.
Audio trends.
Challenges.
“Day in the life” videos.
Thirty-seven versions of the same Reel.
Meanwhile, I am sitting in a cardboard box.
Guess who’s still getting attention?
Exactly.
Trends aren’t automatically bad.
They can be useful when they genuinely fit your brand.
But chasing every trend just because everyone else is doing it can make your content feel disconnected from who you are.
I don’t need to become a dancing cat.
I’m a tuxedo cat.
I have standards.
4. Personality Is Part of the Brand
This one should be obvious.
Yet somehow humans keep removing their personality from their content because they think professionalism means sounding like a corporate handbook.
It doesn’t.
People remember people.
They remember the person who explained something in a way that finally made sense.
They remember the creator who made them laugh.
They remember the marketer who had an unusual perspective.
They remember the writer who sounded like an actual human being.
Your personality isn’t something you have to hide behind your brand.
It’s part of what makes the brand yours.
I don’t have a content strategy meeting before deciding whether to look offended.
I simply look offended.
Authenticity is wonderfully efficient.
5. Have Boundaries
I have boundaries.
Very clear ones.
Don’t touch my food.
Don’t disturb me while I’m sleeping.
Don’t assume because I am cute that I am available for photographs.
And absolutely do not move me when I’ve found the perfect sleeping position.
Personal brands need boundaries too.
You don’t have to share every part of your life online.
You don’t have to respond to every opinion.
You don’t have to participate in every conversation.
And you don’t have to turn your entire personality into content.
A strong personal brand isn’t built by revealing everything.
It’s built by deciding what you want to be known for.
6. Build Relationships, Not Just Reach
Humans love talking about followers.
10,000 followers.
50,000 followers.
100,000 followers.
But numbers aren’t the whole story.
I would rather have people who actually recognize me than millions of strangers who scroll past my face without remembering it.
The same applies to personal branding.
A smaller audience that trusts you can be far more valuable than a massive audience that barely knows who you are.
Talk to people.
Respond to them.
Listen to them.
Create conversations.
Make them feel like they’re interacting with a person rather than a content machine.
That’s how an audience becomes a community.
7. Don’t Be Afraid to Be a Little Weird
This may be my most important lesson.
Humans are obsessed with looking polished.
But sometimes the thing that makes content memorable is the part that doesn’t quite fit the template.
A strange story.
An unexpected analogy.
A ridiculous example.
A cat explaining marketing.
Exactly.
Your weird ideas might actually be your strongest ideas because they’re harder to copy.
If everyone is trying to sound professional, sounding human becomes distinctive.
If everyone is writing the same five marketing tips, tell the story nobody else thought to tell.
Your individuality isn’t a problem to solve.
It’s an advantage.
What Simmba Thinks Humans Get Wrong About Personal Branding
Humans think personal branding means:
“How can I make people like me?”
Wrong.
Try:
“How can I make people remember me?”
Because being liked isn’t the only goal.
Being trusted matters.
Being recognizable matters.
Having a clear perspective matters.
Being useful matters.
And having something genuinely interesting to say matters.
You don’t need everyone to like your content.
You need the right people to think:
“I like the way this person thinks.”
That’s much stronger.
My Personal Branding Strategy 🐾
If I were building a personal brand from scratch, here’s what I’d do:
Know who I am.
No identity crisis required.
Stay recognizable.
Let the personality remain consistent.
Create things people actually want to see.
Not just things the algorithm supposedly wants.
Talk to my audience.
Because followers aren’t decorations.
Protect my boundaries.
Not everything needs to become content.
Let myself be different.
Because being another copy of everyone else is exhausting.
And finally…
Have fun.
If creating content feels like a punishment, eventually your audience will feel that too.
The Final Word From Simmba 🐈⬛
My human spends a lot of time thinking about personal branding.
I spend approximately zero minutes thinking about it.
And yet somehow, I understand the fundamentals.
Know who you are.
Be recognizable.
Have personality.
Build relationships.
Don’t chase everything.
Protect your boundaries.
And don’t be afraid to be different.
You don’t build a personal brand by trying to look like everyone else.
You build one by becoming unmistakably you.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a very important branding exercise to complete.
It’s called:
Taking a nap in the middle of my human’s workspace.
Consistency is everything.