Branding Your Authentic Self
Before You Build Your Brand, Discover Who You Are.
Your personal brand begins long before your résumé, job title, or your professional image. It begins with knowing yourself.
Maybe you've built a career that looks successful on paper. Maybe you're at a crossroads, beginning a new chapter, or simply wondering whether the path you're on still reflects who you've become. Beneath all of those questions is a deeper one:
Who are you, really?
Over 12 weeks, you'll uncover the values, experiences, motivations, passions, and beliefs that have shaped who you are—and bring those discoveries together into a personal mission statement that is genuinely yours.
Through guided reflection, creative exercises, and intentional self-discovery, you'll gain a clearer understanding of what drives you, what matters to you, and how those insights can guide your next steps.
What this course is
In a world that constantly tells you who to be, this course helps you remember who you already are.
Branding Your Authentic Self is a 12-week online self-discovery course for people who want greater clarity about who they are, what matters to them, and where they want to go next. Whether you're navigating a career change, considering a new direction, building something of your own, or simply questioning what comes next, this course gives you space to explore what truly matters to you.
It uses journaling, mindfulness, and diverse interactive art modalities to help you reconnect with who you are — and craft an authentic personal mission statement that reflects it.
This is not a marketing course, and it is not therapy. It is a creative, educational, reflective process that takes the subject of your life seriously — because you are worth that kind of attention.
You will leave with a personal mission statement that is genuinely yours: rooted in your values, shaped by your experiences, and clear enough to guide every major decision you make going forward.
What You Will Explore
A journey inward before you decide what comes next.
You won't be handed a formula for discovering your purpose. Instead, you'll be invited to slow down, pay attention, and explore the experiences, values, motivations, and passions that have shaped who you are.
Through guided reflection, journaling, mindfulness, and creative exercises, you'll explore:
Your story
Look at the experiences, people, places, and moments that have shaped you—and begin to notice the patterns that connect them.
What moves you
Explore your motivations, curiosities, passions, and energy. What draws you in? What makes you lose track of time? What keeps coming back, even when you try to set it aside?
What matters to you
Identify the values and beliefs that guide your choices—and consider whether the life and work you're building actually reflect them.
The person you are becoming
Examine the difference between who you are, who others expect you to be, and who you want to become. Explore the roles and identities you carry and decide which ones still fit.
What you want to contribute
Connect your experiences, strengths, values, and passions to the needs of the world around you. Begin imagining what your work and life could make possible.
Your authentic mission
Bring what you've discovered together into a personal mission statement—an expression of who you are, what matters to you, and what you want your life and work to move toward.
And along the way, expect some productive confusion.
Not every exercise will give you an immediate answer. Some are designed to make you pause, question, notice, and even feel a little uncomfortable.
That's part of the work.
You'll learn to pay attention to the moments when you feel energized, curious, frustrated, resistant, or deeply engaged—and begin treating those reactions as information.
Because clarity doesn't always arrive as an answer.
Sometimes, it begins with learning how to ask a better question.
Who’s This For?
Maybe your career looks successful from the outside. Maybe you’re stepping into a new role, considering a new direction, building something of your own, or simply wondering what comes next.
Whatever brought you here, you may be asking a deeper question:
“Is the life I’m building actually a reflection of who I am?”
Branding Your Authentic Self is for people who are ready to explore that question—and discover the clarity, purpose, and direction that can come from knowing yourself more deeply.
This course may be especially meaningful if you are:
At a career crossroads.
You have experience, skills, and accomplishments, but you’re not sure where they’re leading you. You may be considering a career change, a new role, or an entirely new direction and want to understand what matters to you before deciding what comes next.Successful, but searching for something more.
Your career may look good on paper, yet something feels incomplete. You’re looking for greater meaning, purpose, or alignment between the person you are and the life you’re living.Building something of your own.
You’re developing a business, creative practice, passion project, nonprofit, or personal brand—and you want it to grow from your values, experiences, strengths, and genuine interests rather than simply following someone else’s formula for success.A creative or purpose-driven professional.
You have ideas, talents, and experiences that you want to bring together in a more meaningful way. You’re ready to move beyond simply identifying what you do and begin understanding why you do it.Beginning your professional journey.
You’re a student, emerging professional, or someone entering a new chapter. Rather than rushing to define yourself by a job title, you want to discover what motivates you, what you value, and what kind of contribution you want to make.Ready to reconnect with yourself.
Maybe you’ve spent years adapting to expectations—of family, work, culture, or the people around you. Now you’re ready to pause, reflect, and listen to the parts of yourself that may have been waiting for your attention.
You don't need to know exactly where you're going.
You don't need a five-year plan.
You don't need a polished personal brand.
You don't even need to know what your “purpose” is yet.
You simply need to be willing to get curious about yourself.
Because your most authentic brand isn't something you manufacture.
It's something you uncover.
That's the foundation of Branding Your Authentic Self.
What Is a Personal Mission Statement?
A personal mission statement is a concise expression of who you are, what matters to you, and what you want your life and work to move toward.
It isn't a slogan, professional tagline, or carefully crafted statement designed to impress other people. It is a personal compass—a concise way of putting words to the values, motivations, strengths, passions, and experiences that shape the direction you want to take.
The challenge is that you can't simply write an authentic mission statement. You have to discover it.
That’s where Branding Your Authentic Self takes a different approach.
Over 12 weeks, you'll explore your experiences, values, motivations, creativity, passions, and sense of purpose through reflection, journaling, mindfulness, and creative practices. Each step helps you uncover another piece of the bigger picture.
By the end, you'll bring those discoveries together into a personal mission statement that is genuinely yours—and a clearer sense of where you want to go next.
How It Works
12 weeks to slow down, look inward, and discover what comes next.
Branding Your Authentic Self is a self-paced 12-week journey designed to fit into your life—not take it over.
Each week introduces a new theme and a set of guided practices that invite you to reflect, notice, explore, and create. You'll use journaling, mindfulness, creative exercises, and thoughtful questions to uncover the experiences, values, motivations, and passions that make you who you are.
What to expect
1–2 hours per week
Set aside a little time each week to step away from the noise and focus on yourself.
One theme at a time
Each week builds on the last, taking you from noticing and exploration toward greater clarity, purpose, and direction.
Your own pace
The course is self-paced. You can move through the material when and where it works for you.
A journal and a willingness to explore
You don't need special equipment or previous experience. Bring something to write with, an open mind, and a willingness to be curious about yourself.
A personal mission statement
As the weeks unfold, the pieces begin to connect. You'll use what you've discovered to articulate a personal mission statement that reflects who you are, what matters to you, and what you want your life and work to move toward.
This isn't about becoming someone new.
It's about becoming more intentional about the person you already are—and using that understanding to decide what comes next.
12 weeks. 1–2 hours a week. A journey that starts with you.
What people say
"This course was truly transformative for me because it was not just about branding — it was an unexpected journey of self-discovery. I still have a journal that was a semester-long self-reflection project. The lessons from that course continue to influence me to this day." — Ciara F., Communications Specialist in Student Affairs, former Towson University student
"This course became a safe and therapeutic space for me as I navigated a busy schedule. It never felt like school or homework — it helped me relieve anxiety while exploring my identity and who I am as a person. Overall, this process helped me grow immensely in my relationships with others and with myself." — Meara Kuriny
About Jason
This work began in the classroom.
For nearly two decades, Jason Armstrong Baker has helped students explore the connection between who they are, what they create, and how they contribute to the world.
A musician, educator, music therapist, and creative practitioner, Jason has spent his career working at the intersection of creativity, identity, expression, and human connection. His work has taken him from classrooms and stages to therapeutic settings and international music communities—experiences that have continually reinforced one simple idea:
The most meaningful work begins with knowing yourself.
Jason developed Branding Your Authentic Self through his work teaching at Towson University, where he has taught students to think beyond résumés, job titles, and conventional definitions of success. The course grew from a desire to give people something that traditional career and branding programs often overlook: time and space to discover what actually matters to them.
His approach combines reflection, mindfulness, creativity, and practical exploration to help people recognize the experiences, values, strengths, motivations, and passions that have been shaping them all along.
He doesn't believe your authentic identity can be handed to you in a formula.
It has to be discovered.
And once you begin to understand who you are, you can make more intentional choices about the work you pursue, the life you build, and the contribution you want to make.
That's the journey behind Branding Your Authentic Self.
Become a Founding Member
Be among the first to take the journey.
Branding Your Authentic Self began in the classroom. Now, for the first time, I'm bringing the experience online.
I'm inviting 30 people to become the founding members of this new online version of the course.
As a founding member, you'll receive free access to the complete 12-week course and the opportunity to experience it as it's being introduced beyond the university classroom.
This isn't about being the first to learn a branding formula.
It's about being among the first to take a step back from the noise, expectations, and pressure to define yourself—and spend time discovering who you actually are.
Over 12 weeks, you'll explore your story, values, motivations, creativity, passions, and sense of purpose. You'll connect the pieces, discover patterns, and ultimately articulate a personal mission statement that reflects where you've been, who you are, and where you want to go.
Why founding members?
Because this is the beginning of something new.
Your experience will help shape how Branding Your Authentic Self evolves as an online experience. You'll be part of the first group to take this journey outside the classroom and help establish what comes next.
30 founding spots.
12 weeks.
One opportunity to begin with yourself.
Ready to discover what comes next?
Join the founding group and begin your journey.
Not ready yet? Start here.
Download a free introductory exercise and take your first steps toward yourself — no commitment required.