This summer, I had the incredible opportunity to be a part of Wabash Business Immersion Program (BIP). This is a program where we learn, consult, and live in the business world for five weeks. At the end of the five weeks, five groups, consisting of four Wabash rising sophomores have made a business idea and have given a ten-minute pitch deck to judges who will critique, teach, and “invest” money as if they were sharks in Shark Tank.

One of my favorite lessons we learned and developed was personal branding. Who am I? What do I represent? How do I want people to see me?  These were all questions I have asked myself before making my logo and branding decisions. Personal branding is more than just a logo, from the color scheme to font to slogan, each and every decision made should be able to represent you and your brand.

“Kai Talks” has become my personal brand for a future endeavor. I will break down the steps of my personal branding and briefly explain why I chose what I did. Why “Kai Talks”? Kai is my middle name and has meanings of king, restoration, and brotherhood, all meaning and impactful words to help become the best version of yourself. Talks is because I am wanting to start a podcast and social media account based on the meaning of Kai. Each color had a specific role to play from purple representing royalty to the others being my favorite color and making other colors bold. Finally, the crown shows the results of listening to my words and hopefully being able to be the king or queen of your own life.

My slogan is “The words you need to hear.” A simple slogan that will catch the attention of most people and lure them in has a big impact on your personal brand. While the little details matter for your brand, if you don’t have something that differentiates you, makes you special, and catches the attention of a person off first glance, personal branding will be a hard task to accomplish.

While personal branding may be a small part of the overall business, it is one of the first things that will allow people to know who you are and what your brand is. I made a personal branding guide and logo for me, but I also had the opportunity to make the logo, brand, and slogan for my group’s pitch deck and business, Frost Tech Mobile.

I would love to give massive thank yours to each and every alumnus, volunteer, and professor that took time out of their days to make our BIP experience fun, interesting, and full of new lessons. Finally, to Cassie and Bryan, thank you is an understatement for what you have done. I am grateful for the fun times, lessons learned, and the new skills I have adopted from BIP and the time commitment to dealing with a bunch of college men for five weeks. Thank you!