4 STEPS TO BUILDING YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Investing into personal branding is usually something that many people think is reserved for overly enthusiastic entrepreneurs that are obsessed with social media. However, did you know that everyone already has their own personal brand? Whether you go out of your way to customize and grow yours or not, your brand is who you are. It’s what you look like, what you say, how you act, and ultimately, what people think of you. Whether you have a positive and strong personal brand, or are viewed as someone full of negativity and distrust, is really up to you. What you choose to put out for others to see is what makes up the core of your personal brand. So how do you take control of this? Down below I’m going to share with you 4 steps to building your personal brand.
1. Determine WHO you are and WHAT you do
The first step to personal branding is that you need to get clear and precise about how you present yourself. If you don’t know who you are or you’re not clear about what you do, your image will be one that is clouded and confusing. People won’t know what they’re looking at when they find you on social media, and if people are confused, they won’t bother talking to you, much less working with you. Remember, most people are inherently lazy, myself included. I don’t want to stalk you and search up all your history through Google in order to figure out who you are. Who you are needs to be super obvious.
You also need to be precise about what you do. Don’t make the mistake of assuming that everybody knows what you do, because they don’t. So how do you make it clear? Think of a tagline explaining what you do in the simplest words possible, and remember it for introductions and social media. Instead of telling people you’re a coach, share the details. Are you a business coach for single mothers? Are you a workout coach helping skinny clients get their dream body? Are you a financial coach that helps 6-figure entrepreneurs become millionaires? You need to be as specific as possible, and start sharing that with the world. Post about it often, write it in your bio, and always introduce yourself this way. Don’t make people guess what you do, because they’re going to be wrong unless you tell them. Just so you can understand why this is so crucial, pay attention to how many times you open a random website and can’t figure out what the company does. Way too many businesses are too vague with their messaging, so don’t make the mistake of being one of those companies that don’t make sense to a first-time viewer.
Keep in mind, finding your WHO and WHAT should not be anything fake. You do not need to change yourself and become someone that you are not. This is something that you need to discover, rather than create, unless you literally have no direction in life. However, I’m guessing that if you’re reading this, you probably already do have a pretty good idea of your identity and goals for life. So figure out who and what that is, and work on making it crystal clear for the world to understand.
2. Find your audience
Who are the people that you want to be around and work with? Figure out what age they are, what gender, what kind of lifestyle they live, etc. You need to be aware of what your audience is like so that you can connect with them better. Once you know all the details that make up your ideal audience, it’s important to present yourself in a way that draws these people to you. If you want high-paying clients, you won’t benefit from wearing baggy sweats and oversized t-shirts in your content or real life encounters. That type of outfit may fit for a different type of audience, but not for the high-end millionaires. If your audience is full of enthusiastic young adults that are ready for all that life has to give them, you probably shouldn’t be dressed as or acting like a strict professor. If you find that your audience and your identity don’t match up, you will need to make the choice to either:
a) Change your lifestyle to fit your audience. This is what I did when I decided to pursue higher-paying clients. Instead of wearing boring jeans and t-shirts to work, I had to change my closet to tailored suits, pocket squares, and fashionable outfits.
b) Choose a different audience. This may be a better option if your lifestyle is not something that you are willing to compromise on. An example of this would be if you are a hard-core conservative that is trying to appeal to a liberal audience. Making a connection with an audience that is too different from you can be difficult to do, especially if you want to create long-term relationships with them.
In the end, finding your ideal audience is important so that you can determine how to connect with them best, if you need to change anything about yourself, and so that you know what type of content you should be sharing online and in person.
3. Get on social media
If you really want to get a good grip on your personal brand, social media is one of the best ways to do it. You get to control everything that you want to share. It’s also a great place to share your values, morals, personality, and really anything else that you want. This is a great place to build a foundation for your brand.
When you post online, it’s important that if you want to be effective in building your personal brand, you need to be consistent. Being consistent looks different for everyone. Here are a few different ways you can show up on social media on a daily basis:
Post a new photo every day
Post a new caption every day
Post a new video every day
Share stories every day
Go live every day
Interact with other people/accounts every day
Whether you choose to use social media on a daily basis or only a few times a week, the most important thing is that you show up and stick to a schedule. Being consistent shows the world that you are real, genuine, and hard-working. It also helps you create a message that sticks. So choose your message, and stick to it. Over time, when people see you they will immediately know what you do and what your message is.
4. Make yourself valuable to the world
There are two parts to this. The first part revolves around social media. You need to become someone of value, otherwise your audience will have no reason to stick around with you. Share tips, tricks, and educate your audience. When people see that you are teaching them something new, they will clearly see that you know what you’re doing and that it’s worth listening to you. If you never share any advice, you will simply be another face in the mass on social media. Educational content is like the glue in your personal brand that attracts people and gets them to stay with you.
The second part to making yourself valuable is investing in yourself. You cannot become someone valuable if you aren’t willing to grow. You also cannot expect others to invest in you if you won’t even invest in yourself. The reason we trust coaches is because they went through years of experience and lessons that made them who they are today. They become people that are smart enough to help others accomplish the same things they did. If you aren’t willing to make yourself a better person, other people will have no reason to trust you.
Investing in yourself can also include PR content that people can visibly see and contribute to you. These include:
Podcast interviews
Morning TV show appearances
Press articles
Social media verification
Best seller books
TEDx talks
Get ready to hear something that may be shocking… Most PR these days is all paid. That means that most people that are getting interviewed on TV, podcasts, and in the press did not just get lucky and invited for free. The great thing is that the people that choose to put their money into PR almost always gain huge returns back. Just check out some stories here to listen to some personal stories of clients at Ace of Spades that got huge wins after investing into PR for their brands.
Nobody but the best can get onto high tier PR platforms. If you get lucky enough to be featured for free, that’s great because it shows the world that you are valuable enough to be recommended by huge media outlets. However, even if you choose to pay for it instead, it’s an amazing way to show everyone that you are successful and determined enough that you can afford to invest into yourself. And a brand that is willing to invest in itself is much more trustworthy than a brand that expects to get everything for free. If you can get yourself in a few articles and interviews, even low tier platforms are enough to show the world that you are a valuable individual.
EXTRA TIP: STAY FOCUSED
Building a personal brand is not just about being the boldest and the loudest. It’s important to stay focused on your goals and on what you plan to share with the world. When you share personal stories on your social media page, make sure to always tie it back in with your brand. Being too random with what you share could cause your followers to get confused or lose interest in your business. For example, when it comes to social media, if you want to share a video about your recent vacation to Italy, write a caption sharing about the journey you went through with your business to get to a place where you can now afford to travel wherever and whenever you want. Don’t just post the video with a generic caption that adds no value for your followers. Always remember that your content needs to be educational, inspiring, or value-building. Give your audience a reason to stick around. If you have a nice photo that you want to share simply because you like how it looks, add an educational or inspiring caption below. It doesn’t always have to be related to the photo, although tying it together is helpful. Always remember that your followers are not obligated to stay loyal to you. You need to be clear, precise, inspirational, and value-driven if you want to build a lasting connection with your audience. Doing so will also establish you as having a consistent, reliable, and trustworthy brand that is worth doing business with.
DON’T BE AFRAID TO grow YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Much of building a personal brand has to do with molding an image of yourself that you want the world to see. Some may think it’s not authentic to do this, but like I mentioned at the start of this blog, everybody has a personal brand, and you’re the one who gets to control it. If you want the world to look at you like a nobody, you can go ahead and do things like you’ve always done them before. But if you want to grow your business and truly make an impact, you need to be ready to put in the work. If you decide to go through with it, it may just become one of the best things you do for yourself. I can say for myself personally that taking control of my personal brand was what helped me go from broke to millionaire.
If you’re ready to take control and start growing your personal brand, you’re in the right place. This is our speciality at Ace of Spades Agency. Check out our services here to see what you can do to better your brand.
