- Learnings
The brand called you. Why do you need it?
Whether you’re aware of it or not, there’s a personal brand in you. It’s the most essential impression that you and your business will present for your audience. Consider this: what do Oprah, Beyoncé, Steve Jobs and diverse public figures have in common?
They all have mounted an identity within the public realm. They dominate their area and shake grounds with their crowd. What does that have to do with us though? The catch is, no matter if we’re public or not, we need to be known in a manner for us to meet new customers or possibilities.
And! How people perceive your brand is subjective. But that doesn’t mean you got to leave it to chance. Here’s some tips I’ve learnt that could help you make “you” shine!
How is personal branding benificial?
There is no doubt that branding is important for businesses, but is it essential for you as an individual? If you want to stand out in this sea of people, you need a strong brand. Making it easy for people to identify and relate to you (your brand) and connect with you is essential to your success and opportunities. People trust people more than brands, so creating a constructive image of you is just as important. That’s not to say you need a false identity, but being authentic and conveying transparently who you are and what you do. When you are genuine with your business, it transforms from a cold unidentified operation to a warm, living breathing, friendly face.
How can you bring out the best of your brand?
What's your why?
Understanding what you’re aiming for with your brand will help you figure out the steps to get there, whether it’s professional success or helping or supporting others with your product. You can then create a better focus for your target demographic and make it easier to create content around your personal brand and have others define you in the way you intended to be defined.
What do you value?
Brands are more and more value driven today and your personal brand must be even more so. What do you want to stand for? What do you value most of all in your personal and professional life? is it Creativity and innovation? Integrity and respect? Or simply supporting a good cause? Try to come up with at least 3 core values.
Here are some of mine that I pin to my walls to stand by:
1. Growth – I want to use my platforms to grow personally & help others grow to be the best version of themselves
2. Create meaningful connections – To be able to relate to each of you and make a community of friends who can help each other out!
3. Expressive and creativeness -Empower all of you express and be yourselves in everyway.
4. To Give and Share what I know and value.
Establish who your audience is
Knowing your audience helps you figure out what content and messages your people resonate with and also tells you the appropriate tone and voice to communicate with you audience. A great way to sort this out is to create personas. In order for them to relate to you, you need to see them, feel their feelings, and live them. Each of them is a being with a life of their own, so give them a name, an age, a career and an idea of what they’re like. The more you know this person the more you will come up with content that they will like and the more you will know how to talk to them. Cause it’ll fee like you are directly talking to them.
Tell your story
There is a story behind everything. No matter if you’re a solopreneur selling homemade jewelry online or a serial entrepreneur, people will be excited to learn what you have to offer. However, before you begin telling your story, you need to decide what it will be. What do you want to be remembered for? What will make you stand out from the crowd? The key to developing your personal brand identity is to understand it deeply.
Share to the world, build community
Humans are wired for a good story and community because this builds human connections. In addition to bringing people together in one place or having a certain number of users on an app or website, forming a community requires much more. Throughout my career, we have always seen that authenticity is what consumers need to see from the brands they trust today. I believe that those you inspire are more likely to go the extra mile for you. When you have good values within your brand and the right intentions, I find people will always find their way back to you. You can do this by contributing to larger communities and sharing your content and knowledge, which then can redirect them to yours as it gradually becomes a tight knit cohort. Or even larger!
How can you help me get the career I want with a new Personal Brand?
I hoped I’ve helped spark an understanding about personal branding within you. Certainly there is much more needed to deliver your branding and story to the viewer. If you need help establishing and translating your brand visually, I’m always open to help! If any part of branding boggles your mind I can help you with the formation to your key to brand, create brand identities, all the way to delivering your first few contents to your viewer.