What is a personal brand anyway?
If you Google “what is a personal brand,” you’ll get somewhere in the neighborhood of 5,330,000,000 results in 0.48 seconds.
I did that search to see what would come back.
Just as I suspected, most of the results are articles waxing poetic about what personal branding is and why it’s important. Still, there is precious little precise information about how to build YOUR personal brand.
Entrepreneurs, sole enterprise business owners, and anyone who needs to be the face of their business often get stuck wondering things like, “What should I put on social media?” or “Do I need a business Instagram?”
The tricky thing about these questions is that there isn’t a clear solution if you’ve never done the work to define the pieces of your personal brand ahead of time.
When you’re unsure what to do, it is hard to move forward.
The good news is that you can quickly bring order to the chaos and confusion holding you back from marketing your business by building your brand foundation. Even better, you can have it documented and ready to guide you very soon – like in a matter of days.
In this post, I’ll briefly cover what a personal brand is (because search engines certainly need one more article explaining that, lol), but more importantly, I will provide the 4-part no-strings roadmap you can leverage to build your unique personal brand. I hope this will give you a framework that you can take action on at the end of this article to confidently move forward to show up for your audience on social media.
So, how do you build a personal brand?
Wikipedia defines personal branding as “the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, widen their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.”
In other words, personal branding is the proactive action of crafting an image that represents what you’re offering to the world, whether it’s a product or service, experience, mindset, expertise, talent, ability to solve problems – anything you have to offer!
Now, obviously, I think this is important, but before you say, “I don’t have a personal brand,” consider this. Jeff Bezos famously said, Your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
You leave an impression on everyone you meet. That is a personal brand. If you’re not actively crafting what you want them to say when you leave a room, your personal brand is being managed without you.
So obviously, it’s better to define how the world sees you rather than letting it decide for you, right?
Here’s how you do it.
Step One – Assess What You Bring To The Table
There is a reason you do what you do. It’s entirely likely that your experiences shaped your expertise, and that led to the goal you have in building your personal brand.
This assessment is a crucial component because taking time to audit the path you’ve traveled so far reminds you of the strengths you have and lessons you’ve learned along the way. All of that can become content later!
Many people new to marketing themselves online start out on the right track but then get stuck because they run out of things to say or feel “icky” selling all the time.
And then they wind up walking away from their social media channels, ghosting their audience, and having to start all over again the next time they think of something to say.
To get started in this step, ask yourself these questions:
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- In school, what subjects earned you the highest grades?
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- What experiences do you think contributed to your success in those classes?
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- What actual skills did you apply to achieve your success?
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- At work, what is your favorite part of your job? Why do you think that is?
Give this some thought by jotting down both experiences you’ve had (stories) and skills you possess. This is what you bring to the table.
Step Two – Claim Your Superpowers
Everyone has a superpower. Yes, everyone. Yes, even you.
The problem is far too few people spend time unhumbly thinking about what their superpowers are. I think that’s a travesty. Step two of the roadmap requires you to claim (with pride!) the things you are incredibly good at.
Without this work you can have your list of skills and stories from step one and still not have the confidence you need to consistently show up on social media and put yourself out there.
Give yourself some time to journal on these questions:
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- What were you doing when you have felt the most impactful in your life? Be specific!
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- Why did you feel that sense of fulfillment/accomplishment?
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- When working with other people, what role do you seek to fill?
Step Three – Cast Your Vision
How many personal development gurus have you heard spout off about the importance of “knowing your why?” Basically all of them, right? But, as trite as it sounds, there’s some truth to it.
In step three, you have license to dream the biggest dreams you can think of. In step three, we cast our vision for what success will look and feel like when we’re successful at putting this personal brand to work for us out in the world.
This might feel frivolous, as though it’s all so hypothetical it could never be real, but that’s why it’s so important. The more specific your vision for success is, the easier it is to call it to mind when things are hard. On the days when you wonder if it’s even worth it to put yourself out there to your audiences, your reminder of this success vision is like fuel in the gas tank on this road trip.
Tap into your imagination and write down your vision for what success will look like with these questions”
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- You have coffee with yourself 5 years from now, what do you hope you tell you?
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- When you think about success, what does that look like for you? Be specific!
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- When you look back on your dreams and goals, what will success feel like?
Step Four – Own Your Values
Decide what’s really important & what you will not tolerate. Own it.
If someone asked you what your core values are, could you tell them? Do you know why those values are important to you?
The last part of the roadmap is what I like to call your true north. These are the things that you consider to be deal-breakers in your life.
It is a valuable exercise to define these for yourself in the context of your personal brand. Keeping that bearing will help you maintain momentum in the right direction, avoiding detours and wasted energy by getting off-course.
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- When you’ve felt the most connected and joyful, what value was at the forefront?
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- What would you take a stand for even if it cost you everything?
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- In your greatest failures & disappointments, what happened? What value was compromised?
Putting it All Together – Your Personal Brand
There you have it! In 4-parts, with no strings, I’ve just given you the roadmap to define your personal brand.
After you’ve done the thought work in each of these steps, you will have clarity on:
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- Who you are/what you do (your mission)
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- What sets you apart (your differentiators)
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- Where you want to go in the future (your vision)
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- What is the most important to you (your “why”)
With this foundation in place, you’re well on your way to consistently and confidently showing up for the audience that needs what you have to offer.
Putting your brand into action is a topic for another article, but if you’re ready to get started today, I have a free resource that can help you get started.
What’s next? Grab your free copy of the Content Chaos Cure Planner
If you want a behind-the-scenes look at how a personal brand can be applied to social media content, I’m giving away my Weekly Digital Content Planner. It is populated with content themes and post topics that fit the brand I defined when I did this work for myself.
You can make a copy of it and either use my pillars or create your own. It’s an easy visual way to organize your thoughts for the week instead of trying to create content under pressure every day.
Click here to grab your copy of the Content Chaos Cure Planner now >>