Joaquin Ganga owner of Ganga Tattoo, tattooed LeBron James, an American professional basketball … [+]
Joaquin Ganga has worked as a tattoo artist for over 14 years, tattooing the likes of Lebron James, Drake, Post Malone, Chris Brown, Jason Derulo, Jesse Williams, and many more. But he didn’t start with this level of success. Ganga was a graffiti artist in his small hometown before developing notoriety as a tattoo artist and moving to Los Angeles. He built his success by investing over and over again in his brand, building consistency, and honing his focus. For Ganga, it was this experience-driven branding that won him a celebrity client list and hundreds of thousands of followers’ interest in his work.
Building a personal brand is essential for any entrepreneur. It directly correlates to your company’s credibility and helps you reach your target audience.
Here are five lessons in branding every entrepreneur can learn from Ganga Tattoo.
Build From Your Existing Successes
Before becoming a tattoo artist, Ganga was a recognized graffiti artist and always signed his work with his name. As he shifted to tattoo designs, instead of coming up with an elaborate business name, he decided to keep using his own. Ganga said this worked well for him because it was an already established element of his brand, and because it was simple.
Building a personal brand doesn’t necessarily mean you have to start from scratch. Build on what you already have and what you are already known for. This makes you more recognizable to your existing audience.
Draw From Your Expertise
If you know what you’re talking about, and you are passionate about that same thing, this can and should serve as the foundation of your brand. Draw from your existing areas of expertise to develop your brand in a way that supports your goals. What can you, as an entrepreneur, say you are the most knowledgeable about? Start there.
The goal of branding is to relate to the customer, so make sure that you have a target audience in mind and you are interacting with them in a relatable way. A target audience can be your customer, as identified within your business strategy, and you can form your branding in a way that caters to their interests, habits, and demographics.
Be Driven By Passion
If you love it, your clients will love it. Communicate your passion for your craft through your branding.
Ganga has a significant online following that is very conscious of his brand. Though he has hundreds of thousands of followers, he still offers an air of exclusivity, balancing the tightrope walk of sharing just the right amount of celebrity clientele but still keeping everything focused on his art.
Ganga wanted to create an experience that stood out from others while making an extremely personalized and private environment for each of his clients. This objective translates to how he promotes his work, especially online. His work has a high degree of exclusivity because he works with celebrities, and this translates to his online presence.
Stay Dedicated and Consistent
Building a strong brand requires consistency and dedication. This means that the way you present yourself to potential clients is the same across platforms and interactions. It also means that you show up regularly and do the work necessary to succeed.
For Ganga, consistency in his brand’s narrative, and he shows this through the enduring quality of his work. A student of his art form, new clients know that they will receive the same quality tattooing as his previous or celebrity clients.
Even if you’re not an artist, entrepreneurs should work to show up consistently across platforms because each interaction with your brand grows your audience’s trust. Make sure that your messaging is consistent so that potential clients know exactly what you do, the quality they can expect, and what sets you apart from the competition.
Know That Your Brand Will Evolve
Your company can’t be static. Ganga started as a tattoo artist, but now his company is working to provide tattoo education and is even launching a series of collectible toys in the future.
While he didn’t expect these outcomes when he first started his work as a tattoo artist, Ganga said his passion for the work caused this evolution. Similarly, know that your brand and your company’s brand may change with time or as new opportunities present themselves.
Whether you’re an artist, an educator, an entrepreneur, or an innovator, you need a personal brand. Ganga’s passion for and expertise in the tattoo world has yielded incredible results, and his brand has stayed consistent from the start. Everyone needs a personal brand, find your passion and start sharing it with the world in a consistent, meaningful way that draws from what you already have to offer.
