Building A Personal Brand
Establishing a strong personal presence online can be the key to unlocking your dream opportunities, growing your network, and reaching new levels of success within your business. In ‘Build Your Digital Community’ Episode 7 with Marina Middleton, the founder of Empowered Confidence and an expert in helping women build their personal brands, we underscore the importance of showing up online to grow your business.
Why Is Having A Personal Brand Important?
Having a personal brand is key to your reputation. It’s what people know you for and it opens the doors to so many different opportunities.
If you want to pivot into other professions or niches, building a personal brand is your best bet. If people buy into who you are and they know, like, and trust you - they will buy almost anything from you. Remember, people buy from people. Even brands and major corporations should have that personal presence to ensure they can stand out in their industry, connect with ideal clients, and make profit.
When it comes to building your personal brand, 99.9% of us are already doing it. It essentially means that people know us for something. The power of personal brand development is that you get to control the narrative and share the things that you want people to know. It provides you with control on how you show up, what people know you for, and what they remember you for. In addition to this, it builds confidence and helps you to connect with others.
Founder First
Much of the time, we tend to start with the marketing or the business side of our company. We have all of these amazing ideas that we have to get started on. Yet, to develop a personal brand around that takes a different approach.
The four pillars to establishing your personal brand are as follows. You’ll notice that ‘Founder’ is first.
1. Founder
2. Brand
3 Business
4. Marketing
No matter where you are in your business journey, starting with your mindset, story, and energy is important. Ask yourself: Who am I as a founder? What is my story?
To uncover these things, do a brain dump. Write down pivotal moments and memories in your life. This will also allow you to see how all of these different life experiences have brought you to this current moment. Circle some of your top moments. These will help to inform the people you want to work with, the marketing you want to be developing, and the products you wish to sell.
Storytelling is at the Heart of Personal Branding
Think of personal branding as a combination of storytelling and selling. If you are constantly trying to sell things to your community, you are eventually going to exhaust them and yourself.
Selling can look like promoting new launches or offers, sharing testimonials, or promoting sales.
Storytelling can look like showing behind the scenes of your day, life and business, letting your community know how you feel about certain things, and sharing how you got started. Talk about what people love to engage with.
If you combine the two, it will feel far more organic and your community will feel as if they are a part of your brand.
Getting Past The Fear of Sharing
So many of us are scared to show up and share things online. We fear what people in our network, our friends, or our family will think of us. We may even shudder at the thought of someone unfollowing us or not resonating with our story.
Those fears are valid. Show up anyway. Fake it ‘til you make it.
You don’t want people watching you who don’t really enjoy your content. What you put out is not for everyone and that is okay. Find confidence in your purpose and the value you know you can provide to others. There is so much opportunity to be had online. If we get stuck on people who don’t like us or we think don’t like us, it ultimately sets us back.
Forge You Own Path
You don’t have to replicate what others have done before you. People know when you are not being authentic and this feeling comes through in the content you are forcing yourself to create.
You can establish your own unique personal brand that reflects your life, your interests, and your business. Dive into who you are! Everyone is going to have a different approach and that is okay. We don’t need to do everything, speak about everything or provide everything to everyone. Instead, focus on finding the people who are right for you and vice versa.
Niching Down
Niching down is a hot topic of discussion right now. Should you do it? Should you not do it? It’s a big decision to make.
We would recommend that, instead of niching down into one very specific industry and cutting everybody out, focus on determining what you are an expert at and a problem that exists. Follow this up by how you are going to solve it and who you are going to solve it for. This is a more effective way to speak to a more defined audience.
For example, if you are a fitness instructor, teaching yoga to a new mom is going to be vastly different from how you teach it to an older man coming out of rehab. You will likely have different branding, messaging, and programs.
Pivoting
If at any point during your personal branding journey you start to feel unhappy with what you’re sharing, don’t hesitate to make a pivot. This is your sign to make a change and talk about something else. You owe it to yourself and to your community to be excited while talking about your passions.
Start Today — Even If You Don’t Have Plans To Monetize
When creating a personal brand, you don’t need to feel pressured to monetize right away. Showing up on social media and sharing your story can be your end goal.
Perhaps you want to start a blog to write about your interests or create a podcast to talk about what you’re passionate about. These outlets are equally as powerful and important as someone who is selling products or a service.
Investing your energy into creating a personal brand and consistently showing up online is not just a choice, but a necessity for business growth in today's digital age. Establishing your own personal corner of the internet allows you to differentiate yourself, build trust with your audience, and open doors to opportunities you never even knew existed.
There is no better time to connect with humans than now!