💬“To have a strong personal brand, you have to stand for something, believe in a certain way of doing things, and proudly communicate those beliefs from your platform. Brands who don’t achieve this get lukewarm audience response and wonder why their audiences aren’t called to action by their efforts.”
Your personal brand is what you stand for, it’s what you do, it’s how you make people feel. It is your unique and authentic combination of talent, skills, personality, passions, interests, values and beliefs. It’s what differentiates you from everyone else in your field and makes you special; it’s how people will remember you when you’re mentioned in conversation.
So how do you build a personal brand? Brilliant question. Here are some tips for you if you’re just starting out or you’ve never sat down to think about it!
1. FIGURE OUT WHO YOU ARE- Once you really understand who you are and what you stand for, you can figure out what your values are.
For example, my values are:
Creativity, Impact, Joy, Connection, Curiosity & Empathy
They didn’t come to me overnight, but now that I have written them down, I make sure to run any new possible opportunities & idea through my values filter. If it doesn’t align with at least 2 of my values, I politely decline it. If you want to sign up for a super-helpful list of over 100 brand values to choose from, click the link in my bio!
2. BE A REAL HUMAN- we can smell fake a mile off. If you are a tea drinking, book reading, nature loving, flat-shoe wearing introvert, don’t show up online trying to be a party-going, red-lipstick & high-heel wearing, wine-drinking extrovert.
“When you build a brand that’s 100% based on you, you lay the foundation to capitalize on your own blue ocean – a space where you can operate in an uncontested marketplace, free from traditional competitive forces – because none of your competitors can replicate or clone all that’s unique and proprietary to YOU.”
3. BE CONSISTENT- consistency matters a LOT when it comes to branding; in your writing, your tone, your colors, the way you onboard a client etc. Decide on your vibe & then stick with it. Consistency in showing up online is also really important - that doesn’t mean you have to show up every day and post 4 times a day. You are most definitely allowed to take breaks win fact, you must) - but personally, if I see that someone hasn’t posted online for the last 4 months, I immediately assume they have gone out of business.
4. TELL YOUR STORY - You don’t have to share all your dirty secrets & tell us about the latest argument you had with your kids, but you will benefit from setting some sharing boundaries & deciding what parts of your story (business & personal) you’re happy to share. This helps your audience get to know you, like you and trust you, which is crucial when building a brand (I have made MANY new online friends by sharing my struggles with laundry and remembering what day of the week it is)
5. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE - You have to be really clear about who you’re talking to. Who is your target audience? You cant target everyone, not everyone is your ideal client. You need to get specific. Once you understand your audience, you can address their pain points and get busy helping them solve their problems. One really effective way of doing this is through community building eg, a Facebook group tailored specifically to your ideal clients.
6. SHOW YOUR AUTHORITY - its important to be humble, but don’t take humble so far that you think that you don’t have anything to give to your audience. Your audience wants to learn from you. You have spent a long time perfecting and learning more about whatever it is that you do so well, there’s always a way for you to share that with your people. For example: Maybe you’re a nutritionist & you have a really great way of freezing bananas that stops them from sticking together - so make a Reel about it and share the heck out of it!
7. HAVE A CONTENT STRATEGY - Once you know what your ideal clients’ needs are you can map out a strategy for using content in order to address those needs. This strategy will differ for everyone but essentially your content will be structured around pre-defined content pillars across a variety of different platforms and mediums.
“Identify some core themes in which you strongly believe and build a series of content around that and then keep hammering it home.” – Sam Mallikarjunan
8. KNOW YOUR USP - Do you know what your unique selling proposition is? One really useful way of figuring this out (because it ain’t easy) is to take a look at your client testimonials, to see what they say about you and how you make them feel. If you’re feeling really brave, you can ask your Facebook/Instagram audience the following 3 questions:
What are my strengths?
What do I excel at?
What makes me unique?
I promise you, everyone is unique and everyone is special and you will get some answers that really surprise you!
“A strong personal brand is cohesive, clear, consistent and aims to serve a specific audience. A personal brand is important for an entrepreneur because it’s the best way to share your authentic message and attract YOUR specific tribe!”