How to build your personal brand in 3 steps

Personal branding should ALWAYS begin with a story.  Why a story? Because in an oversaturated market, your personal story = your super power. It’s how you stand out. We’re in a digital age that’s like a new frontier with more options than ever when it comes to being able to define yourself. We have powerful digital tools that allow us to develop relationships with people and potential customers like never before. The access we have to our target audience, their thoughts and feedback is unprecedented and honestly has never been cheaper. There is no need to go through expensive ad agencies and PR firms, the access to the tribe you want and potential customers is literally at your finger tips.

Personal branding is another way to say you are putting your story out there consistently.  When you go beyond a picture of what you are selling, maybe provide some context or a behind the scenes glance at how that product came to be or why you are proud of it, your personality will come across and personality is what people connect with. Allow your personality to come across in everything you create or associate yourself with. Personal branding breaths life into your business.  By leveraging the internet and social platforms you can build out your personal brand and take your business to multi-dimensional levels customers can actually relate to and connect with.  

Here’s how to develop a personal brand in 3 steps.  

Step 1: Find your passion - What is it you love? What would you do forever for free if you could? Be completely true to yourself because if you don’t love it you will quit and personal branding on social media is a long-term game.

Step 2: Refine your story - Make sure you are clear on your message.  Who is it for? Who will benefit most from what your offer? The reality is that everyone under the sun has a story but most of us, don’t know what it is or if they do know what their story is, they don’t know how to tell it in a concise way that connects with their ideal customers. Refine your message based on who could benefit most from it. How could you best align yourself with their needs?

Step 3: Broadcast your story - Create content that supports your main message and use the platform you commit to updating consistently (and the one you know your ideal clients frequent) to broadcast your message i.e. your story.  There are many elements that can be incorporated into your content strategy. Inforgraphics and videos are excellent if you are a service based boss that needs to communicate the benefits of your offerings to potential customers. Instagram lives, facebook lives, facebook groups or even in-person meetups are great to share and explore ideas with like-minded people. Document and share these events. to allow ever more people to gain access to your world.

To make things easier for content creation, one great piece of advice I started using for myself comes from Gary V. who says to document not create.  I’d spend hours creating tonnes of content, graphics quotes, videos, etc. and then not share them because I thought they weren’t good enough. Then I’d try to force myself to create something new each time. This was unsustainable and a waste of time, energy and resources. It’s easier to capture what you do naturally during the course of your day or week than to force something to happen that’s not in your natural element.

The main thing to remember with personal branding is to keep it personal. Keep it authentic. After all it’s your story.  Who better to tell it than you?  For more tips on how personal branding download my storytelling playbook.    Got additional questions about creating a personal brand? Drop them in the comments below.

Till next time keep rising,

Rhoda