Five Tools That Have Helped Me
Build My Personal Brand
This post is sporadically updated. Last Update: 30th October 2026
Please note that some of the below are affiliate links. When you make a purchase through our links, JEM may earn a small commission from each sale that enables us to keep content up-to-date, create new guides and resources, and fund our philanthropy initiatives. I personally have used all of the companies and products listed and only recommend them if they have genuinely helped me achieve real results. If you have any questions, you are welcome to contact me.
PERSONAL BRANDING
Are you trying to build a personal brand? If so, this page is for you.
The following is a list of go-to tools that I use on a daily basis to share my stories,
connect with my audience, grow JEM’s community and monetise our work.
These tools are instrumental in helping me build my personal brand. They’re where my creative planning starts and where my little ‘JEMs’ start to take shape.
I’ve used these digital platforms for a while now and they’ve helped to bring my idea to life. Here’s hoping they can help you too.
1. Elementor
I’ll start with this as one of the most common questions I receive is, “What website builder do you use?”
I’m no programmer nor a tech head. However, as a creative I did want to custom build my own website rather that opt for an off the shelf template.
Step in Elementor, a WordPress website builder. The great thing about this creation platform is it allows you to build a visually striking website even if you don’t have any coding or technical skills.
Instead, an easy-to-use drop and drag editor makes it easy to design, layout and customise pages.
Besides, there are pre-made kits, templates and blocks if you need a helping hand.
On the odd occasion when I do require a block of code, it’s easy enough to use AI to grab, copy and paste the snippet.
Incidentally, my website is built using Elementor’s Hello theme.
When you install Hello, it looks like a blank canvas. But that’s the beauty of it as it gives you total design freedom.
Check Out Other Favourites
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2. Canva
As I love creating, I’m a big fan of Canva.
Like most digital tools on this page, Canva offers both free and Pro versions.
Personally, I’m a Pro user. It’s primarily because I use Canva for everything.
You name it – if I’m typesetting e-books, designing layouts for social media or creating print media products, I turn to Canva because it’s fun and easy-to-use.
Even as a beginner or non-designer, you can create professional looking visual content from logos and custom fonts to presentations and videos.
There’s tonnes of pre-designed templates that speed up creation.
Just as good is a massive library of royalty-free assets from photos and graphics to icons, videos and audio tracks.
For me, a favourite feature is Canva’s Magic Studio. It’s an AI tool that’s incredibly helpful when it comes to image editing and resizing.
So, if you fancy giving Canva a go, here’s the link:
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3. Grammarly
Believe it or not, I still like to write my own content from scratch. (AKA, from brain onto paper).
I know that many people now use AI to whip up content.
That said, as most of my material focuses on sharing my personal thoughts, experiences and stories, it’s the only way to come across as truly authentic.
If I’m honest though, there are times when I need a little help to give my content a once over.
On occasion – and when I can afford it – I’ll hire a physical editor.
Otherwise, if I just need a little help to tidy up my language, check spelling or make my phrasing more readable, I turn to Grammarly.
When you spend hours in front of a screen, you sometimes miss things. It could be a typo, stray word or punctuation mark.
Grammarly helps scan for these oversights. Better yet, the writing assistant can make suggestions on tone, clarity and sentence structuring.
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4. Shopify
Sometimes, you need a system that takes a way the hassle.
Although I enjoy building businesses, I’m rubbish at all the boring backend stuff.
In fact, I dread it. Billing infrastructures and complex coding are not my cup of tea.
That’s where Shopify comes in. Put simply, Shopify fills a gap for me by handling the stuff I’m hopeless at. Namely, the above.
I was first drawn to Shopify whilst looking for an easy way to accept payments online. This was for both digital products and physical merchandise.
Admittedly, I lacked confidence to build a backend payment system from scratch myself so Shopify made sense.
On creating a Shopify Payments store, I was immediately able to accept all major payment methods.
Frankly speaking, it saved me a huge amount of time.
Shopify not only allows you to set up an e-commerce storefront quickly, but you can track all sales, inventory, payments and shipping from one smart dashboard.
In hindsight, I think it was a smart move.
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5. Printify
Although most of my assets are digital products, I’ve dabbled in physical merchandise over the years.
When you start creating physical products, it’s nice to get your hands on the goods…to touch and feel it.
That said, the reality is it can be a pain to store. In the past, I’ve even had to rent a storage unit as I didn’t have sufficient space in my office or home to hold stock.
It’s a situation that compounds if you can’t shift stock. This happens to most of us at some point as you never know if your new product will sell.
Like most of my projects, my journey into print-on-demand (POD) began as a bit of an experiment.
Frankly speaking, I like the idea that products are only produced after a customer places an order. This eliminates the need for upfront investment or warehousing.
Today, our physical inventory is mostly created on Printify. Such products range from our notepads and sticky notes to pens, mugs, t-shirts and hoodies.
Where possible, I also try to go for eco-friendly options.
You can click on the link below to check Printify out.
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