Creating a personal brand and business is hard. With social media platforms like Instagram or YouTube offering so many voices, making yours stand out is no easy task. Fortunately, Divina de Campo - renowned drag queen and runner up in the UK's first season of Ru Paul's Drag Race - is here with invaluable tips on how she built her own brand. In Fiverr's Ninetwentynine podcast, Divina discusses these five tips and how they can take you from ordinary to extraordinary instantaneously. 
1. Understand your audience
Any good business understands their audience, what they want and how, as a brand, you can deliver that to your audience. My brand wasn't always as you see it today. In my early days, I was artsy and conceptual, but I soon realised this wasn't hitting home with my Friday 9pm audience at a gay pub. I soon realised I needed to adapt my brand to engage my audience. This does NOT mean losing your authenticity but rather finding where your style meets their interests.
2. Learn to juggle your different small business responsibilities
Juggling roles that is. When you build your own brand, you're running your own business. This is liberating, but it can also be difficult to fulfil all the different roles required of you from production to finance to social. Learning how to streamline these processes and be as efficient as possible in each will save you time and get you further. Setting clear targets and following these closely will give you good structure in which to balance these roles. Just like your drag you can't just do one thing.
3. Be authentic
When you're beginning to create your brand, it can be tempting to copy your role models. After all, they must be successful for a reason. But you can't forget we already have one of them but none of you - so be yourself! Being unique is a sure way to stand out from the crowd and ensure you feel you are true to yourself. The industry can pull you in many different directions but in my experience, it is the people who are true to themselves that have success. If you know you've got something unique and in spades, don't let anyone take that from you. Stick to your guns and success will come.
4. Be adaptable
Although we should always be true to ourselves, that doesn't mean we can afford to be inflexible. Industries evolve fast and so do audiences, so you need to grow with them. While we change, we should always remain close enough to ourselves that we don't alienate our audiences. We must adapt enough that we satisfy their evolving needs. It's all about striking a balance between authenticity and adaptability. A good way to think about it is that you can't fit round pegs into square holes. You can't change your brand into something it is not - if the change is too great it just won't work. So, get creative! For instance, as a result of the pandemic, I have started 'At home with Divina de COVID' to help entertain people at this time.
5. Prepare, prepare, prepare
All of us suffer from doubts and insecurities from time to time. Yet we can't let them get in the way of our brand as they're normally unfounded. Whether it is the anxiety I feel before going on stage or around building my own brand, the solution is to be prepared. If things go wrong, use this as a learning opportunity so you get better next time; haters can be helpful. But also remember that some people might be saying negative things that aren't helpful at all. Maybe they aren't your target market - and these people shouldn't play into your anxieties. Above all, if you are well prepared you are ready for any eventually and prepared for success.
Copyright 2020. Featured article made possible by Divina de Campo
