How to choose a personal branding theme when you have diverse interests

Mark Schaefer
4 min readAug 24, 2023

Since my book KNOWN

was published, many readers have reached out to me expressing how it has changed their lives and their businesses. However, one area where someget stuck is choosing an ideal personal branding theme (I call this your sustainable interest). Most people have many wonderful ideas, hobbies, and passions. Today I want to provide advice on how to sort through all the options and define what is right for you.

First I want to re-state why it’s important to focus on one core theme. The idea is that over time you will create content in a way that attracts an audience that can make your dreams come true — whether that is finding a job, starting a speaking career, writing a book, promoting a charity, or whatever your heart is driving you to do.

To accomplish that, you must remain relevant to that audience, so you can’t be jumping around from topic to topic. You need to stick with a certain theme and be prepared to explore it for years.

In my book and accompanying Workbook

, I have lots of exercises to help you focus on that theme. But if you still can’t choose, here are three ideas to help you:

1. Bring in the stories

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Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer

Written by Mark Schaefer

Keynote speaker, marketing strategy consultant, Rutgers U faculty and author of 10 books including KNOWN, Marketing Rebellion, and Belonging to the Brand!

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