The narrator comes on and delivers her lines well enough, dressed in contemporary street clothes. Scrooge enters stage left, as mean-spirited and miserable as ever. But he’s not wearing a costume, either. And the lighting is terrible.

The story is there, except there’s no visual context. Just a few actors talking on an empty stage.

This is your brand, without the visual elements—basically just a story on a plain white page or screen.

Graphic designers are the set designers of small business branding. They create a visual context in which your audience engages with your brand story.

But before you can expect a graphic designer to work his magic, you need a script, or brand narrative.  If  you can’t afford to hire professional to help you define and craft a written brand narrative that describes the qualities and characteristics your brand embodies, at minimum you need to know:

1. Who You Are

Can you articulate exactly what your business is, what sets it apart, and the principles that guide it? What are the essential characteristics of your brand, who is your customer and why is your business the best solution to what ails them?

2. What You Want

“Just sketch a few ideas and I’ll tell you if I like them,” is a graphic designer’s worst nightmare. After you give them the full story of your business, provide links to websites (competitors’, too) and logos you like and tell the designer why you like them, and what you don’t like about them.

After a lot of thinking and sketching and research, most graphic designers will come back with three or more general design directions. From here, the ultimate design begins to emerge.

3. The Value of Good Design

Be willing to pay for good creative. In many cases, it’s the only face of your business that your clients will see. Most freelance designers charge between $75 and $100 an hour. A logo with business card and stationery design can run anywhere from $1000 to $3,000, a website starts at $2,000. It’s possible to get visual branding for less, but as with most things in life, you get what you pay for.

4. Who The Expert Is

Nothing can kill a great logo or website like design by committee.  Don’t ask for input from your mother or your best friend. Remember, you’ve hired an expert to create a visual brand that will make you stand out. So let them do their job.

The process is more collaborative then you might think, and most designers enjoy the challenge of integrating your ideas. It’s your brand after all.

Three Graphic Designers I Love Working With 

Erwert Creative: Edgy, artistic, and skilled, Scott Erwert designs high-end coffee table books, movie posters, websites and brochures for Lucas Films and other clients. http://www.erwert.com.

Laura Stoll Design:  A gifted visual brander, Laura began her career in magazine publishing. Now she creates highly original logos, collateral, and websites for a variety of corporate and small business clients. http://www.lstoll.com.

Molly Morris Design: Super creative and easy to work with, Molly does branding and print collateral for Cutting Ball Theater and other clients. She’s a fabulous choice for new business owners and solo-preneurs. http://www.mollymorrisdesign.com.

In most cases, publishers don’t have the time, budget or expertise to brand individual authors. Fortunately, most writers learn very quickly (all it takes is that first book) they can’t just sit back and expect their books to fly off the shelves.

They do readings, hold workshops, teach, and attend book fairs. They print postcards, and create websites. Some tweet, set up Facebook Fan pages, and hire publicists.

The most successful authors (read: those who sell a lot of books) know it’s not enough to throw up a website or build a fan page—they need to tell an engaging story. Fortunately, writers are good at this.

All the talk about authenticity and personal branding? Here are four examples we can learn from:

Lewis Buzbee

http://www.lewisbuzbee.com

Books are Lewis Buzbee’s muse. Both his work and his own narrative draw their power from the magical world of books, writers and readers.

A former bookseller, Buzbee is the author of Yellow Lighted Bookshop, a memoir about books and bookstores; Steinbeck’s Ghost, The Haunting of Charles Dickens; and the forthcoming Bridge to Time, in which two San Francisco eighth-graders travel back in time and meet Mark Twain.

Buzbee is a book evangelist for the willing and non-willing alike. The top of his homepage reads: “Books and Stuff.  And for Those Of you Who Don’t Care about Books, We’ve Got Books.”

Geneen Roth

 http://www.geneenroth.com

Geneen Roth is all about helping her millions of followers unravel—and heal–their complex relationships with food. Roth’s retreats, workshops, online events and social media marketing follow a compelling and highly focused narrative summed up by the first sentence on her homepage: “Your relationship to food is an unexpected path to almost everything.”

Author of When Food is Love, Women, Food and God, Lost and Found: Unexpected Revelations about Food and Money and other books, Roth has become synonymous with the idea that examining our relationships with food can bring us personal freedom and spiritual growth.

Mary Reynolds Thompson

http://www.embraceyourinnerwild.com

Author, writing coach, poetry therapist and “Voice for the wild,” Mary Reynolds Thompson’s personal brand narrative blends her lifelong passion for language, writing and nature with her personal story as an alcoholic who found solace and recovery in the natural world.

Reynolds Thompson’s first book, Embrace Your Inner Wild: 52 Reflections for an Eco-Centric World, a collaboration with nature photographer Don Moseman, is about enter its second printing—only two months after its release by White Cloud Press.

A former copywriter and corporate brander, Reynolds Thompson’s own brand narratives draws power from her commitment to helping others experience their inner “wild soul” in order to our precious planet from destruction.

 Stan Slap

http://www.slapcompany.com

Stan Slap’s edgy style (both personal and literary) cuts right through the usual business management consultant’s jargon.  His personal brand conveys credibility and off-the-beaten path solutions to the problems corporate leaders face trying to compete, and run companies. The author of Bury My Heart at Conference Room B, Slap’s narrative is irreverent, yet compassionate.

Slap Company’s website’s pull-no-punches content manages to be both in your face and engaging. For the thousands of business leaders who’ve engaged in the Slap brand and products—his story is an antidote to business-as-usual.

The stories we tell ourselves

A friend of mine gently confronted me the other day about a story I’ve been telling, and retelling myself about why I can’t accomplish several professional goals I’ve set, but haven’t been able to get much traction on.

We all have stories we tell ourselves and that we believe with all our hearts–to our own detriment.

I’m dyslexic, too old, too young, too dumb, under-qualified, overqualified, don’t have time, can’t find a partner, don’t have the money.

The stories start out as simple and perfectly logical explanations for why we can’t get married, write a book, learn an instrument, travel to India, start a social movement, change our brand, start a new venture. Our minds, slave to fear and resistance, craft entire narratives around these excuse to keep us from getting off our duffs and taking action.

The stories we tell about other people

Did you hear about Rowena? She’s having an affair with her best friend Sally’s husband. I think we should say something to Sally.

Gossip is storytelling as its juiciest–and potentially most harmful. On the surface, it’s fun. Some of us get a twisted sense of superiority, talking about other people’s lives. Gossip fills empty airtime and makes it seem like I’m having real conversation, when in fact I’m attempting to connect with the person in front of me at another person’s expense. Yuck.

Funny thing, the stories we’d be better off without are usually lies, or at best half-truths. But we want to believe them. They’re intriguing or convenient, or they give us the illusion of connection or safety.

But we can rewrite these stories.

For example: Kindness and presence of mind, not gossip, create authentic human connection. Or how about a new narrative that shows us we’re capable of far more than the past or financial situations seem to dictate.  In fact, we can add create that new product line, expand into new markets, or redefine our personal brand so that it’s more honest, and more meaningful.

What story would you like to rewrite?

Here’s roughly what I told the group:

Brands aren’t only for big companies. You have a brand story to tell, too. This is called your personal brand story.  A strong brand story differentiates you from the competition and creates a meaningful connection with your target market.

A brand story is far more than your logo or name. In an ideal world, your brand story defines the content, tone and graphics in your marketing—from your logo to your website to your digital video and print promotions.

A personal brand story is infused with history (if your grandmother taught you how to bake and you have line of baked goods, this bit of your history is relevant), accomplishments, purpose, and values–and the passion you have for your profession. It originates out of who you are and shapes how you present yourself on every level.

Most important, your brand story establishes an emotional connection with the communities and people you want to reach.

Yet, a personal brand story is difficult to craft.  We’re too close to it. Or we have blind spots that keep us from recognizing what makes the story authentic, and believable.

Every solopreneur is a brand in the rough. When cut, polished, and communicated clearly, your personal brand story will dazzle your customers and prospects. Equally powerful, it will inform everything you do professionally–from the clothes you wear to the fonts you choose to the topics you speak and write about.

As such, a personal brand story is essential to success.

And now, in the struggle stay open and maintain relevancy amid shrinking budgets and enormous technological change, public libraries are also putting the power of branding to work.

A stone’s throw from my home office, Marin County Free Public Library is doing just this, having recently retained OrangeBoy, a Cincinnati-based firm that specializes in library branding.  OrangeBoy worked closely with library leadership and staff on surveying patrons and crafting a brand story that would resonate with the community.

The new visual brand, unveiled this month along with a new website and library cards, uses bright colors and contemporary looking textual graphics. Gone are any references physical books, a focal point of the old brand. Donna Mettier, technical services manager, explains, “The new brand takes the focus off only books and broadens our story to incorporate the many ways patrons choose the library to enjoy reading, learning and being in community.”

“My Choice for Leisure, Learning, Living,” the tagline, speaks to the dramatic shift in book publishing and distribution, and changing perceptions and usage among library patrons. (The use of taglines is also new for libraries.)

Learning, Mettier explains, refers to research, classes, book clubs, and of course reading; Living to intense patron interest in books that focus on the “nesting” category—interior design, home, gardening and other topics; and Leisure to DVD’s, music CD’s, the Internet and leisure resources.

Politics also had a hand in the branding campaign. The library depends solely on taxpayer support. “We’re always running for office,” notes Damon Hill, public services manager for Marin County Free Public Library. “The new brand is our promise to support the taxpayers who’ve so generously supported us. It tells them that we’re committed to meeting their needs, now and in the future.”

Patrons in Marin County can now download e-books, check out Nook reading devices preloaded with e-books, and learn a new language online, through the library’s partnership with Mango. To serve the Internet and smartphone generation, the library is exploring technologies that will inspire this segment of community to use its services.

The Marin County Free Public Library enjoys solid public support. Nearly half of the patrons surveyed on the old brand said the library was “Essential.” And in 2010, Measure A, a parcel tax that funds basic library services, renovations and programming, passed by 73%–more than the required two-thirds super majority.

The old brand story focused on books as the only way to read. To continue to serve the taxpayers on whom they rely for funding, libraries must maintain some of the beloved traditions of reading while integrating new technologies.

Marin County Public Library appears to be walking this fine line—and telling their new brand story–with grace and determination.

One look at the black-and -white ads of nearly naked, anatomically gifted (or at least airbrushed) young models, and it’s easy to peg Abercrombie & Fitch’s brand story. Theirs is a steamy, on-campus romance designed to appeal to the target market’s penchant for intrigue and the forbidden fruits of young love.

It’s brand that our daughter, not yet twelve, loves. I say this with regret, because I’m her Mom and the idea of her as the target of this provocative brand story bothers and terrifies me.

Until recently, I kept her away from the movie-screen-size posters of gorgeous, scantily clad late teens lusting after one another. We’d pick up A&F jeans and shirts second-hand. The quality and fit are good, and shopping at Outgrown in San Rafael beats paying full retail for a pair of jeans she’s going to grow out of in a month.

The other day, we were shopping for a coat for her class trip to Mt. Lassen. After going to half-a-dozen stores and trying on three times as many coats, we found ourselves in the Abercrombie & Fitch store, where my daughter found a coat on sale.

I bought it, somewhat unwillingly–and even less willingly as I watched the girl behind the counter slide our purchase into a shopping bag featuring a huge photo of a young man’s torso. We’re talking Adonis with a marble-carved six-pack. (Actually, it’s more of a nine-pack, my daughter informed me.) A “V” of pure muscle points at the forbidden fruit, behind a pair of oh-so-soft, low-cut jeans.

Watching my daughter as we left the mall, I weighed the pros and cons of chastity belts, convents, and preaching abstinence.

The same week, she went on her class trip and I discovered–through another Mom–the Alice series she’s been reading is a lot racier than at first-blush. Not  just kissing, but also fondling. Immediately, I read three Alice books to find the scenes so I could discuss them with her.

The whole week felt like a perfect storm of early adolescence, sexuality, and parenting.   I kept thinking, Wait, this is all happening too fast.  I’m not ready.

I relaxed a few days later, when our daughter, back from her trip, reminded me she’s still a kid.

At breakfast, she pointed to the logo on the V-neck sweater we’d bought second-hand and said, “I named the moose, Eric.”

A couple of days later, she decided the coat was too bulky and asked if we could return it.

Christy draws on the Myers Briggs personality indicator, tactical marketing advice and years of experience helping small business owners build viable businesses.  We spoke last week about her new book, Your Marketing Personality: Marketing You Like Is Marketing That Sells.   

How do you apply Myers Briggs to small-business marketing?  

I use two of the four Myers Briggs measurements: Introverts and Extroverts, which describe how people get energy and how they establish relationships with others; and Feeling and Thinking types, which describe how people make decisions.

When you know your type, you can choose marketing tools and programs that fit for you and you enjoy doing.  I work with a lot of creative people and they tend to be introverts. They can have the most trouble marketing, because they think they’re supposed to go to networking events and make meaningless small talk with strangers.

Traditional marketing, like networking events or cold-calling, is geared towards extroverts. Fortunately, the Internet is friendlier place for Introverts. They can control the input and output of energy simply by walking away from their computers.  Facebook works for this type because they can build community on their own terms. LinkedIn is a great marketing tool for introvert-thinking types. You can post or respond to questions or join a group to show your expertise in your field.

Are you saying certain marketing tools just won’t work for some people?

All personality types can do almost any type of marketing—when they approach it the right way.

Most introvert-feeling types would rather die than make cold-calls. But they can cold-call if they have a very targeted list, and really know what they want to say ahead of time and remember the higher purpose of prospecting. One of my clients surrounds herself with photos of her family.

I was curious about the premise of your book, so I took the Myers Briggs test. I’m an introvert-feeling type. What kinds of marketing should I be doing?

Blogging, definitely. Writing is solitary experience, and blogging gives you the freedom to dive deeply into ideas and explore multiple angles of a topic.  And if you can build an audience for your blog, that’s a way to create connection, which inspires you to keep blogging.

Referral marketing also works well for this type. By definition, referrals are based on trust and the strong client and colleague relationships that introvert-feeling types thrive on.

It’s good to know I’m on the right track.  How about extrovert-feeling types?

They’re excellent at networking. One of my clients is an extrovert-feeling type who is so good at networking that in his business he produces customized conferences, conventions and meetings for large companies.

So the bottom line is know yourself and market accordingly?

Yes. If the marketing you’re trying to do now is incongruous with your personality, ultimately you’ll find a way not to do it. You won’t enjoy it because it doesn’t match who you are.  But if you know your personality type, then you can start to market in ways that are congruent and that you’ll do consistently, and that ultimately generate customers and sales.

Read more about Christy Strauch and her work at http://www.smallbusinesswarrior.com. Take the Myers Briggs test at http://www.myersbriggs.org.

But this morning, I got this sudden urge to do something meaningless and silly.

I don’t know whether I was born serious or if it was nurtured into me by my family situation. Don’t get me wrong—I love to laugh.

I hang out a lot with Eddie Izzard and Louis C.K, thanks to  Netflix. I married a man who makes me laugh at myself at least once a day, and my daughter and I have tickle fests on a fairly regular basis.

But, silly? Not so often. So, I made a silly to-do list:

1. Paint a sunflower on my cheek and don’t wash it off until bedtime.

2. Recite a funny rhyme to a stranger. I’m thinking this one from the kid’s anthology, Talking Like the Rain: “A peanut sat on a railroad track. His heart was all a-flutter. The five-fifteen came rushing by–Toot! Toot! Peanut butter! “

3. Make a wacky political sign and post it on my front door or the inside window of my car.

4. Wear a goofy hat or costume to the grocery store (do this after Halloween, or it doesn’t count).

5. Dance in my underwear (in my living room) to the “Birthday” song on the Beatles White Album.

6. Write a nonsense poem and send it to three friends.

I wonder: What if random acts of silliness made us better at our “serious” work. What they unblocked ideas that wouldn’t otherwise occur to us?

What if silly just made you feel good?

What’s your silly list?  Please comment.

Crazy hat image courtesy of Landon J. Kanillopoolos and http://muddyparasol.com. 

The Norse god Odin created earth, sky and humanity; Yaweh in Genesis light from darkness; the Greek goddess Eurynome order from chaos. In these and hundreds of other creation myths, human beings have found meaning and a context for their lives and stories.

Sounds like Apple, doesn’t it? The company made a new world–inspired by first-movers Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs—and populated it with never-before-seen devices and passionate believers.

Apple worship isn’t blind–far from it. Students, educators, scientists, business owners, artists and other users love Apple’s cool design; but it’s the story behind the products that engages and enthralls them. It’s a story of creativity, innovation, and possibility.

And like all powerful stories, brand or otherwise, Apple’s evolves as each person makes it their own.

Filmmakers pushing artistic boundaries. Graphic designers and writers crafting incredibly creative media and messages. Software developers creating applications that change the way we work, play and communicate.

Then there’s the father who recounts a trip to the Apple Store with his wife and their ten-year-old daughter, who’s saved enough allowance and babysitting money to buy an iPhone Touch. They discover the store is closed for the next hour. But the manager, touched by the girl and her mason jar of coins and bills, opens the doors for her.

Or my own father, a public school teacher, who started the first computer lab in the Monterey County School district in the 1980s, equipping it with Macintosh computers.   It wasn’t only a classroom. It was the place to be at recess and after school.

Those kids, now in college, took these memories with them. At my dad’s memorial service last year, a former student told a story about being in the computer lab and listening to Miles Davis playing softly in the background while the class clicked away at their keyboards. He recalled the black-and-white posters of Amelia Earhart, Winston Churchill, Martha Graham, and innovators from Apple’s famous ad campaign. And talked about how Mr. Doyle had made him a better student and person.

Then there’s the small business owner who uses an iPad, iPhone, and iCloud to develop and market other products and services that will help customers create still more narratives of business and personal success.

Odin created earth and sky, inspiring the  great human narrative and the infinitely complex web of stories around it.  The myth of Apple promises the same.