Here’s one fact that will apply to anyone reading this article with a business, a message or even just an idea: ‘Without you, none of it would exist’.
It’s that simple – you are a big part of your business and hiding behind it could be costing you. The good news is, there’s a way to fix it; to increase your store’s footfall, website traffic, social engagement and grow your business.
It all lies within your personal brand.
What is Personal Branding:
In a nutshell, personal branding is the practice of creating a brand around a person rather than a business entity. That’s not to say the two can’t co-exist, in fact, they explicitly do. But realising that you are what makes your business authentic and giving that authenticity a voice is how you build credibility and create a community.
It’s important to understand that building a personal brand is not something that happens overnight, it takes planning and hard work. After all, you’re essentially creating a legacy one post, customer interaction and service delivery at a time. This can make creating a personal brand a complex and confusing task – where to start, how to stay focussed and what to do next are questions that have whizzed around the minds of even the most successful personal brands we know of today.
That’s why I created Brand YOU – A 7-Week, step by step course to grow your business and personal brand online.
How to Create Your Personal Brand Today:
I want to de-mystify the process of creating a personal brand and invite you to the table of steady business growth. Through time-leveraged success I’ve compiled a 7-step formula that walks you through how to have control over what Google says about you, find clarity in your messaging and get noticed by the right audience. It’s the blueprint for how to grow your business.
Over the 7 week course, we will establish the building blocks to your personal brand through setting clear goals, creating your brand collaterals, establishing a social media presence on the right channels for your niche, how to get media attention, create live streams and book public speaking opportunities that place you as an industry thought leader and much more. All you have to do is watch the weekly videos, complete the tasks and watch your personal brand take shape.
My Personal Branding Takeaways:
To understand the core of personal branding, it’s important to know the non-negotiables when using it to grow your business. So I leave you with my 5 personal branding takeaways:
- Stay Focused: You can’t be everything to everyone which is why it’s important to find your niche and focus on just one message at a time – the more focused your brand is, the easier it will be for people to remember you.
- Be Consistent: In personal branding, being consistent should be easy. All you have to remember is that your personal brand is you – it speaks like you – acts like you – it is authentically you. What you’re doing is bringing your offline self, online. So remember to just ask yourself “What would {insert your name here} do?”
- Tell Your Story: All messages are best remembered when told through a story. The best brands have figured that out and built their business through a personal brand true narrative (Think Oprah, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson). So, create a story around your brand that your audience can engage with.
- Have A Positive Impact: Jeff Besos famously said, “your personal brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room”. Once you’ve started to build your personal brand there’s only one way to continue healthy growth and that’s through creating a positive impact. Gone are the days of ‘any PR is good PR’ – that was before the internet immortalised and spread ideas onto the desktops and into the homes of all corners of the world. So whatever you do, do it with kindness. And that brings me to my last point…
- Leave A Legacy: By far the most impactful thing I’ve heard said about personal branding is this: “What’s important to remember is that building a personal brand is much bigger than building a business, the only exit strategy is legacy” – Blake Jamieson.
