Stop Being Humble — Embrace Your Personal Brand
The need for personal branding has reached epic proportions. Our question is: What are YOU doing about it?
The concept of a personal brand is nothing new. In 1558, Queen Elizabeth (the first one) assumed the throne of a crippled nation, positioned herself as the Virgin Mary and managed her image through “face patterns,” so she would be replicated faithfully across the realm.
Today, we have the likes of Kim Kardashian. But for our purposes and yours, we’re not here to discuss celebrity. We would rather address harder working business-to-business brands like Barbara Corcoran of Shark Tank fame or Richard Branson of Virgin.
They had humble beginnings just like you. Their reputations were built on the ability to generate revenue, not their personal appeal. Not at first. At some point, they identified a unique characteristic, style or communication tool that began their ascent. Corcoran had the Corcoran Report, Richard Branson had his record stores. They started where you are now as an emerging CEO, expert or consultant seeking increased exposure for themselves and their businesses.
These personal brands may seem like an overnight success, but they can take years to develop. Yet there’s a method to the madness. Before we get into the method, here’s what you need to understand about personal brands.
6 Things You Must Know About Personal Brands
1. Personal Brands are Creative, But Not in the Way You Think
This isn’t about your logo, colors or fonts — the elements that make up your visual identity. It’s about figuring out what makes you unique, then communicating that to people who care about it.
2. Only You Can Be You
A personal brand is about putting YOU front and center — your ideas, thoughts, values, viewpoint, experience, etc. That means tuning into what those are and finding a way to communicate them in your own style — even taking creative risks appropriately in language, style and tone. Being brave in this way is how you stand out from everyone else doing the same thing, and it’s what people connect with emotionally and intellectually, and it’s what makes you memorable.
3. Go Beyond Style to Deliver Substance
Your style is only part of a winning branding strategy. You’ve got to deliver the goods and identify what makes them different — from your prospect’s point of view — so you can stand out from the competition.
4. Psychographics Over Demographics
Understanding your prospect is key to communicating persuasively. People buy from people they trust. The more they feel you understand them, the more they’re likely to believe that you’re the one to help them. In a later post in the series, we’ll show you how psychographics (a person’s occupation, interests, lifestyle and personality) can outweigh demographics.
Read more about how to determine your audience’s psychographics
5. Leaders Need Followers
Establishing an outstanding personal brand requires taking a leadership position, building a platform of ideas around it, and finding the audience that is most likely to listen, engage and share. The first step is to identify who is most likely to benefit from it.
6. Habits and Mindset
It’s easy to say, “I am building a personal brand.” It’s a lot harder to actually do it. The process of creating your brand puts higher demands on your time and your ability to deliver results — you may have to change the way you organize and prioritize your day, and acquire new skills. Having a clear picture of the brand you want to become will help you determine the necessary changes you’ll need to make.
How To Add Method to the Madness
There’s no way around it. Establishing a personal brand to grow your business takes time and persistence. Yet, you can be smart about the process. If you put time and effort into creating the following components of a successful personal branding strategy, you’re virtually guaranteed to put yourself in front of the maddening crowd.
Power Playbook: Just like “Virgin Mary,” start by defining your substance and style, and effectively positioning yourself through the Red Block Analysis market assessment.
Thought Leadership Content Roadmap: Brand building means connecting with your audience via messages and content. Once you determine your core audience, your next step is to lay out a set of milestones to build these connections over time.
Execution Plan: This outlines a careful and meticulous process for achieving your milestones and distributing your content through the right media and platforms.
We would love to hear your thoughts. Come back next week to read: Creating Your Personal Brand Power Playbook
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Co-authored with Maria Dykstra of Tre-Digital. More about Maria:
Maria Dykstra is an author, speaker and a technology entrepreneur. She spent 14 years at Microsoft helping Fortune 100 brands create exciting marketing campaign. In February of 2012 she left her “dream job” to become an entrepreneur. In just 4 years she turned TreDigital, the agency she co-founded, into a global brand with a strong network of partners. Maria’s award-winning marketing insights were featured in Forbes, Alleywatch and other top publications. Maria supports Seattle startup ecosystem as an advisor and a board member for several emerging companies and women leadership organizations. She is a leader and a mentor for Founder Institute, Startup Weekend, Jolkona and many other accelerators.
Robbin Block is a creative marketing strategist, author and speaker who combines the best of traditional and new media at Blockbeta Marketing. She’s worked with emerging, small and corporate clients for 30+ years to solidify business intentions with marketing results. Robbin is the author of Social Persuasion: Making Sense of Social Media for Small Business, a SCORE mentor and instructor, and was the producer and host of the Minding Your Business radio show.
