Personal Brand 101 Marketing Yourself Without Cringe

Grad school gave you theories, techniques, and mountains of debt — but not how to market yourself, build a personal brand, or show up online without cringing?

In this solo episode, I’m sharing how I stopped hiding behind “safe” content and built a visibility strategy that actually feels authentic—and works.

We’ll dive into:
✨ Therapist marketing that sounds real, not gimmicky
🛠️ Simple visibility practices that quietly built my brand
🎙️ How podcasting transformed my business and credibility
💡 What I wish someone had told me about entrepreneurship in grad school
💌 Practical steps to stop playing small and own your voice online

🎧 Ready to rewrite the marketing script you were handed in graduate programs? Tune in for a practical, unapologetic approach to building a personal brand that feels like you.

Transcript

Jazz: 0:00

i'm not a huge coffee drinker So I'll do chocolate milk instead content pillars which tip number one you do not need to have content pillars right out the gate when you start creating content because if you're boxing yourself in when you don't even know what your audience wants you to talk about you're limiting your creativity you are limiting how you want to show up online by right out the gate saying okay these are my pillars so Social media is all about experimentation. It's literally about showing up first. And so do that. And then think about what your pillars are. Mini tangent, mini rant. Today's episode is about why I chose to start building a personal brand during grad school. I feel like that's a big risk. It's very ambitious, I will say, to have chosen to show up online knowing that there is potential that I would be representing somebody else's practice. Someone might not even want their therapist to be online. But I am a generator. And when my body says yes to something, full send. So podcasting was the first glimmer in my mind of how I wanted to show up online, even though I wasn't someone who had an inkling of how to make a podcast, what I would talk about on this said podcast. I was like, I think I want to go into podcasting. And so I was in the 12th house free membership with Michelle Pelazon Lipsitz and Chelsea Reif was hosting her podcast. podcasting as a marketing tool workshop for free and it was actually about podcasting as a way to not need to feed into the social media algorithm work smarter not harder and I was like hell yeah count me in I'm in nobody's algorithm right now but I'm interested so signed up and I was so enamored with how knowledgeable she is and I I loved that it was coming from somebody who was living a very non-traditional lifestyle, but I perceived her as very successful. She's a digital nomad, podcast coach. She does pitching. I was just in awe. I was like, oh my God, she's crushing it. And literally, it's not like the stereotypical box that it would typically be wrapped in. And so after that call, I was like, I am going to build a podcast. I'm going to hire her as my coach. Whoa. That's a big leap from somebody who literally does not even post on their personal Instagram. But working with her really called to me in a big way that I could not name at the time. And it was a really huge investment for somebody that had no long term goal, no niche, no plan, just a dream, a pen and a dream is what I call it. So I applied to work with her and I remember feeling so nervous and so anxious first of all I'm like why would she work with me I have nothing to really offer I have no idea what I'm doing and I do not know how this is going to be beneficial and so I logged on so much anxiety so much self-doubt but I was like I really want to do this and I worked with her on that for six months building out all our parts and with her within that container was where the name came from where the vision began to take its own life and that is when I also started my Instagram page so this is back in 2023 early 2023 so I hadn't even started practicum yet crazy And so I am pitching. I'm starting to think about podcasting. I start making this Instagram. And I am like, I am not going to start posting publicly on Instagram. There was an immediate... resistance that came up to showing up on Instagram and at the same time I felt my rote chakra just like ready to be used ready to be accessed I had something I really needed to say and I feel like a lot of that was me healing a lot of the tension that I experienced in my family where I was suppress a lot of what I was thinking a lot of what I was saying I was just getting to the tail end of some significant familial conflict that was exhausting and I felt like I was ready to start being myself and showing up as myself and part of that was sharing that journey publicly And so I made the Instagram and my friends followed it and I started tiptoeing around what a podcast would sound like. At first I was like, I want to do a podcast around Real Housewives, but that didn't resonate, at least not in a long-term capacity. And I recognize it was also going to be me hiding, like hiding behind this fun interest, not sharing it. And that is a much bigger challenge. belief obviously that I needed to unravel is why am I worried about being perceived as somebody that might have an inkling about something that might have an idea about something that is positioning themselves as somebody who knows something and is someone that people want to listen to I feel my stomach turning just thinking about it but But I knew in my container with Chelsea, I was like, I am the next Glennon Doyle. What Glennon Doyle's got going on, I wanna times ten it. That's what I knew and felt in my spirit. And so Glennon Doyle, if you're listening to this, I'd love to have you on. I'd love to do a podcast swap because you are my inspiration for starting this journey in the first place. So thank you. Anyway. I started just toying with solo episodes. So thinking about my journey while in grad school, thinking about some of the uncoverings that was happening while I was in grad school. And then I would freak out when I went to post. And then of course I would not post the episode. And then I would come into my container with Chelsea and I'm like, oh my gosh, I didn't post. The podcast police are not coming after you. I was like, oh my God. And in my mind, I have failed. In my mind, I have disappointed her. I feel like she has potentially wasted her time. That's my own perfectionism coming out in this space. Oh, I didn't say this thing right. I didn't, maybe this doesn't come across the way that I intended to. I'm not meeting the metrics that I've set for myself within working with Chelsea I just made this big investment. Oh, my goodness. Is this a big mistake? I'm going through all the things on top of just being a fucking grad student. And if you have been in a clinical graduate program, that is its own mental gymnastics that I will talk about at a later date. So I'm putting myself, I am putting myself through this rhythm of self-discovery, of unpacking limiting beliefs, of sitting with the deep shit And I'm like, there's no way I'm going to be able to show up online. I'm frozen. The thought of even speaking a word out online froze me. And that is what motivated me to keep going, to keep showing up and hoping it resonated. And so a lot of my earlier posts, I'm like, okay, if I'm going to start posting, I'm going to start posting. was my plant journey. It was safe. It wasn't me. It was allowing me to be reflective without putting myself out there. And of course, like, who's going to follow a plant journey if you don't know the person? So then I started doing quotes, memes, still really trying to keep this far removed from myself. And then I was like, okay, I want to start pitching guests. And so the first... That I ever pitched to be on All Our Parts Was Lauren Larkin Iconic queen that she is I was like, I love everything that you're embodying I love what you're doing And I would love to have you on And she sent me the most thoughtful response And I was like, oh my gosh, maybe I can do this And maybe she knows, maybe she doesn't know But her saying yes to me gave me the permission to keep going and keep screaming. It gave me the permission that maybe I do have something important to share. Maybe I can do this. Maybe I am worth listening to. And there are people who want to talk to me. There are people who maybe even see a glimmer of what I'm trying to build or want to be a part of it. And at the time I have 60 followers on TikTok. Oh my gosh, I barely posted on TikTok. But this person that I really look up to, that I really admire, said yes to me. And so if that is the case, then I believe that other people will say yes to me in the future. And so I recorded with her and I sat on that episode for maybe a year or so. Oops. I was so scared because she asked me questions and it was going to require me to self-disclose stuff about me that I, I don't, it wasn't that I wasn't ready to share, but it was really vulnerable for me at the time. I was like, oh my God. She asked me if I'm in a relationship and she asked me like how I show up in session. And so I was very scared to post the episode. So I did some solo episodes and then eventually posted her episode a year ago. And I so appreciate her patience and thoughtfulness and even grateful to have had to still have her in my life as someone that I get to look up to aspire to be in so internship is starting to wrap up we're starting to hit like the career aspect of things okay what's next and I was always in the space of what is after grad school because the silo that grad school was I was not enjoying it anymore I was like get me the fuck out of here I'm gonna go get a medical letter that says I'm done I hadn't met my hours I was ready to go and so it was so exciting for me to think about what was next I knew in Maryland that you could function as your own business entity so Some of the first things I did was apply for my LLC. But I was like, I guess I'm going to have to market myself. I guess I'm going to have to get on Instagram seriously. And so I started... recording myself while i was walking around the park people say jasmine like you're able to talk to the camera so well how do you do it i practiced i literally would go to the park and make these long drawn out videos like two minutes and 30 seconds and then i would go to the clinic and show the supervisor that i was working with there i was like look i recorded this video i'm gonna post on instagram and she would like giggle at me she's like okay girl you do you she was always though like she saw the vision and she knew one of the things that I struggled with was me getting out of my own head me getting out of my own way and I would also record sitting in the back of my trunk for me that felt like the most hidden place I could record in the car and now I realize that just looks creepy with someone's trunk door open and so one sitting in the back talking on their phone like they don't have anywhere to go I acknowledge that but it worked it helped me it helped me get over my fear of talking to the camera and starting to think about what storytelling looks like for me and I was like okay Steph that was my supervisor's name I'm gonna post this on Instagram oh look I got like a hundred people following me now oh look I've got like 110 I was always like so excited for that growth I had no idea where I was gonna work I had no idea who was gonna supervise me but I'm trusting this knowing I am trusting my intuition to keep going and know that it will all work out even when it looks like it wasn't going to even when I had no fucking clue and I'm like why am I doing this even on some really hard days where I would just stop posting altogether it took a long time for me to learn how to be consistent and what it meant showing up on good days bad days and in between days but my program director who is very important both in my personal and professional life connected me with my now supervisor who I literally talk about all the time who you all have heard from on the podcast to supervise me and I was very much I had the vision of okay I'm building my practice out in Maryland I need contract like supervision it wasn't really until last summer where I was like I'm gonna take so summer 2024 I'm gonna start taking this shit really seriously I'm gonna post I'm gonna just figure it out and even if I was doing it scared which a lot of the time I was I'm still gonna show up I'm still gonna say something maybe do a little dance maybe post a little carousel post I'm gonna show up and not know I'm gonna show up and mess up or look silly i remember i was telling someone i was like yeah i think i'm just gonna start my own like practice and contract supervisor out and she was like wow you must really believe in yourself and it wasn't like yes slay girl boss it was like um wow like you really you're that arrogant that you would do that and i remember just being taken aback by her response and I know she was well intentioned when she said it to me but I was like yeah I do I believe in myself enough to take this chance to make this choice and to see what happens to see what comes out of showing up And so part of then showing up regularly was the podcast. And so I was posting biweekly. And then every time I got the nudge to shift something, I shifted it. And then I got the nudge to post weekly. Now I'm in the cadence of posting twice a week. And I recognize as I'm retelling this aspect of my journey, so much of it, it wasn't waiting for permission for someone to tell me that this was the right thing to do. I didn't wait for a course to tell me, aside from the one I mentioned earlier, that building a personal brand was going to be the best choice I ever make. I didn't wait for someone I was working for to give me the okay to show up online because I believed that my career was meant for something more because I also knew I would get really bored with just being a therapist I love being a therapist I love the clinical work but I think part of burnout is honestly like therapists have to build their own career growth and I'm gonna do a separate episode on this as I've been sitting on this idea but it's not in the traditional Thank you so much. into some sort of entrepreneurial muscle if they want to have their own career grow. I did not have that muscle when I started my pages, but I knew I was like, okay, I want something that's going to sustain me. I want something that's going to grow with me. Podcasting and social media were always that thing. And so my first iteration of my socials was my business name, Unilome Wellness LLC. Why I gave it that name is I have a lotus tattoo on my wrist I'm pointing to it, if you can see it. And... I believe that healing happens not only in the mundane, but in the really messy parts of our stories. And so lotus flowers grow swamp, dirty, muddy waters and are still looked at as beautiful and radiant. And I believe that we as people are also that as well. And so I showed up online as that and hiding behind that did give me the comfort to start building my platform and then on a whim rebranded everything And I will say that rebrand really gave me some momentum to take it to the next level. Again, all of these choices have come from me trusting that it's going to work out, trusting that I am headed in the right direction and I just need to keep going. I have a wonderful supervisor and someone that I hope to grow with for a long time. Personally, professionally, I love the community that I'm building and want to continue building. And I love what the space has become. And I look at it right now and I'm like, but I think I can take it to the next level, I'm ready. But I built a personal brand because I wanted something that was going to last, that was going to last the test of time. And that's the only thing I believe to be true. A Psychology Today profile was not going to last the test of time. Being a version of myself under someone else's practice was not going to last the test of time. Getting people to meet me at different iterations of myself, get to watch my journey, who get to grow with me. What I'm hoping, I hope that I'm embodying what I hope for my clients. And that growth happens even when we don't know. Growth happens when it's fucking hard, when it's scary, when you are literally... Throwing spaghetti on the wall and hoping that it sticks. It's throwing a line in the water and hoping that a fish catches it. It is the hope, the belief, that nudge that you're getting from your inner guide, your higher power. that it's leading you in the right direction. And that can feel really scary because this field has created a very clear picture of the trajectory you're supposed to go in. You're supposed to work in an agency group setting for two or three years, and then you're supposed to sit in your private practice setting. And that can work. It has worked for so many people up until this point. But now we're talking more about burnout. We're talking more about building sustainable careers. And part of sustainability is authenticity, right? but it is a privilege to be authentic in your work. And I knew that I was gonna have to work my ass off and really feel alone sometimes, really not mesh well maybe with somebody in order to work in alignment with what I value, what I believe, what I hope to attain, But building a personal brand, I hope that in whatever iterations my career takes, this gets to continue to evolve. I don't need to take a website down. I can just post a different video, start connecting with a different community. I get to grow with it. And that is what has kept this work feeling so exciting, is seeing growth in the clinical space as a therapist, And as a business owner and as someone who shows up online and wants to support other wellness professionals and showing up online. Because it has given me a community of people who see and support me. It has connected me with people who are such people. permanent fixtures in my day who are also evolving and watching themselves change. And sitting in that discomfort and not knowing and it just such a rewarding space to be in. And even when I was scared, even when I felt I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what money is going to come in. Like I'm having all the fear, all the anxiety. i don't know what this looks like that's okay i stayed really present and just made one choice and then i made the next choice and then i made the next choice then i started pitching the next person it is just about unwavering self-trust It is about believing that your voice deserves to be heard and the people who resonate with it will gravitate to it and seek you out. It has been the best, longest, most challenging aspect of self-growth, self-love that I've experienced and I'm so grateful for those mentioned and not mentioned who have really supported my growth in this space. Yeah, that is why I built a personal brand. That's why I believe in experimentation. That's why I believe in showing up even when you don't feel like showing up. We'd love to hear your thoughts. You can find me at Healing with Jasmine on all platforms. Like I said, I have episodes dropping every Tuesday, guest episodes dropping on Friday. I'm so excited for my guest this week. She is a friend. She has been here before. I talk with my friend Becca Post about growth, about evolution, about changing with your business and your relationships, etc. You don't want to miss it. If you're vibing with the show, I ask you to please leave a rating, leave a comment so that the show can reach broader audiences and I can reach more people. I appreciate you and I will see you on Friday.