Two years ago, I went through the process of updating my logo and tagline. And while I changed my tagline from Author, Publisher, Designer, Stylist, Star! to Creative Artist, I still have the other tags in my bio to show what it is that I do, and switched out star for carer.

Creating and changing taglines has been a thing to do for decades.

Famous brands have taglines, or slogans, people give their websites and blogs a tagline, and then “celebrities” and us mere mortals started giving ourselves labels, or taglines, also known as tags. Anytime you see a reality show contestant on social it’s a beauty/wellness/health/fashion/make-up influenza, or a fitness/wellness/self-help/drink this shit product/eat this even shittier product guru. Some even have the gall to call themselves authors and show hosts when they haven’t actually written a book or hosted anything other than their own YouTube channel. Calling oneself a podcaster is all the rage as well. And many of these people haven’t actually worked towards any of this, they’ve just turned up on social and become “instafamous” for some God-known reason and don’t actually produce products of any kind, but expect people to buy into whatever the hell it is they’re selling. Which is generally bullshitting lies, or other people’s shit.

How many times have you seen someone’s bio on social and there is slash after slash, or line after line, tag after tag, remarking upon every. single. god. damn. fucking. thing. that. fucking. person. does!

Regardless, personal branding is big in the celebrity world.

During this time, I was watching one of our morning shows and they had a segment with a couple of guests to talk about different topics, and the first one was introduced by her tags instead of her name. So it was “company’s name”, “creative director”, “podcast’s name”, “creator”, “something something”, “something else”, guest’s name. And I saw the host struggle to get through that description, and I sat there thinking, “Why were her tags read out before her name?”

Well, it’s been a pretty common thing to do in TV, radio, press and media for decades, to introduce someone by their latest whatever they’re flogging, show they’re on, etc, and even during news stories they’ll do it as it’s also become quite common in everyday life for everyday people. “A Muslim man did this”, a sixty-two-year-old grandmother did that”, “a forty-two-year-old driver did this”, “an aboriginal man did that”. It’s always “tag” before anything else.

WHY do we need to know someone’s age, religion, or the fact one’s a grandmother (never grandfather, mind you), before anything else? Why can’t they just say “a woman was robbed today after getting her money from an ATM”? Why do things, that have no real consequence, have to be put before the person? I’ve never understood this. I think it’s too much information, I think it sounds ridiculous, and question why we need to know someone’s religion or the fact they’re a grandparent. Because at the end of the day it has nothing to do with any of it.

So, unless it comes down to the old reporter’s adage of who, what, when, where, why, and how, then I really don’t know why so many useless details are added.

And to me, after hearing the morning show host struggle to get out that guest’s tags and labels, it suddenly sounded strange to my ears. More than likely because I’ve been through the process of re-branding myself several times.

It also got me to thinking that our taglines are not who we are. They are just what we do.

So many people live, breathe, and die by their taglines/labels. Their taglines/labels come before them, and are what and who they have become instead of being themselves first and foremost.

It does not matter about anything else in your life, because THAT is not your tagline.

Your sexuality is not your tagline, your race is not your tagline, your religion, your culture, your nationality, your sex, your colour, your job, your marital status, your age, your star sign, your day job, your night job, your influencing shit…IS NOT YOUR TAGLINE.

YOU are your tagline.

YOU come first.

YOUR name comes first.

Don’t let anything else become YOUR tagline, because YOU Are Your Own Tagline.

 

EDITED OCTOBER 20, 2023…

I was waiting until January 2024 to update my bios and taglines, as I do every year.

I’ve changed my first bio line from “Tiara King – Creative Artist” to “Tiara King 👑 Author. Writer. Publisher.” Which covers what I now do as I move forward into 2024.

In the bio is “Creative Artist & Carer”. I also have my writer links which are most important. I did remove Designer and Stylist, as I don’t do those anymore, so I updated my Jewel Divas Style bio to reflect that instead.

I decided to bring it forth to see what happens with the change, and whether it gets me any extra activity, followers, likers, etc.

So don’t be afraid of changing it up to see what happens. I still have Creative Artist in my logo, which I’ve updated with the new tagline, and it’s still in the bio.