Episode 2: Quit Hiding Behind Your Logo, How to Create a Personal Brand
I’ve never been a fan of the idea of considering myself a “personal brand”. When I hear that term I always think of people who either just want to be famous, are egotistical or simply completely narcissistic.
The reality is, a personal brand is the story you use to connect yourself with your audience. Your personal brand is the way they see you. The way you put yourself out to your audience. We all have a personal brand, the difference is, not all of us realize that we need to own and protect our brand. The personal brand story of the business owner is often what connects consumers with their product or service. Great examples of personal brands that are bigger than their product brands would be Elon Musk (Tesla), Steve Jobs (Apple) or Sarah Blakely (Spanx). The story of their vision, their why, their steps to make it happen to transcend the products that they are known for.
What is the personal story that you’re sharing with your audience? What piece of your genius are you sharing with your audience? In the end, it’s your story, your path, your genius that sets you apart from everyone else in the market. When creating your personal brand, you want to consider many things. Your personal interests, your ‘why’ of what you do and of course the business itself. You want to ensure they connect in some way. If you have contradicting brands (stories), it will leave your audience confused, and unsure if they can trust you.
The four top secrets to creating a personal brand are:
1: Compelling Content that Resonates, You want to find the content that resonates with your audience. You want to use content to connect and resonate with your audience.
2: Build Meaningful Connections, your audience wants to be connected. They want to know that you aren’t perfect, that you are just like them - but perhaps a few steps ahead. They want to know what you do or sell is attainable to them, even if it requires a stretch.
3: Get in front of the Camera, this is a hard one for almost everyone I coach. We all have our fears and concerns about what we look, sound or move like. Getting in front of a camera allows our audience to connect with us on another level. People do business with people, not businesses or logos, getting in front of the camera allows you to humanize you.
4: Consistency, no matter how you connect, what platform you use or how you convey your content, do it consistently. It doesn’t matter how good your content is, if you aren’t consistent with the delivery, they won’t remember you or worse yet, won’t trust you if they do remember you.
Links Mentioned in this episode:
Sarah’s Website www.sarahlynnco.com
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