Personal branding has been a growing topic among entrepreneurs and businesses for years. It’s one of our favorite organic marketing strategies because the long term ROI is like none other. Personal branding creates thought leadership and opens the doors for unique opportunities like writing a book, creating a course, speaking at events, and building partnerships. In many ways, a personal brand is a versatile tool that allows you to take action on ideas that require an engaged following. While putting yourself out there comes with its own unique set of fears and insecurities, the benefits of a personal brand far outweigh the cons. Remember, you have more influence than you think! But let’s be honest: we know that personal branding may not be the strategy for everyone. However, if you see any of these indicative signs, then we highly encourage you to muster up the confidence, time, and effort to take the leap into personal branding.
Sign #1: People Consistently Reach Out to You For Advice
Are people constantly blowing up your phone or DMs asking you to get coffee to “pick your brain?” to get feedback or advice on their ideas, business, or circumstances? More importantly… Do you find yourself thrilled when they reach out? If helping others solve problems, navigate challenges, find inspiration, sort out solutions, brainstorm, etc. is what fills your cup then a personal brand is a valuable platform that can help you help others AND get that oh-so-satisfying feeling of fulfillment.A personal brand can be a powerful tool for you to expand your reach and make a bigger impact if you genuinely enjoy helping the people that come to you.
Sign #2: You Get “The Urge”
Do you find that you can’t stop generating ideas? You’re in the shower, and a brilliant idea strikes while you’re mid-suds.Or during the intensity of a workout, you finally hit a breakthrough and have an “aha” moment. In general, you wake up every morning, and you’re brimming - no, overflowing - with ideas.These ideas are not something that comes and goes. No, they’re something that you incessantly, constantly think about. Whether it’s a new business idea, a fresh take on current events, a unique perspective, or killer hack, you can’t help but feel like you have “something to say.” In addition to you having an irresistible desire to share your thoughts with others. You might end up sharing your knowledge with your friends, family, or the people who reached out to you for a coffee date. Still, there’s likely a broader audience interested, and a personal brand with an effective content marketing strategy can help you find them.
Sign #3: Your Personal and Professional Experiences are Unique
Everybody has a unique combination of personal and professional experiences that provide insight. The culmination of your work, family, interests, and travels give you a unique perspective on the topics you choose to discuss. What comes to mind is Sophia Amoruso’s book, Girl Boss, where she talks about one of her first jo’s at Subway. Amoruso would later reflect back on her short career as a sandwich artist to realize that every step of making a BLT on the sandwich assembly line translated every stage of building Nasty Gal. The experience, although seemingly random and disconnected to her goals at the time, ultimately shaped her as an entrepreneur. People often believe that they can’t create authority and expertise in a personal brand because their past experiences don’t connect to their current ones. At first glance, we wouldn’t necessarily see the connection between Amoruso’s job at Subway to her role as Founder and CEO of Nasty Gal.But experiences build on each other, and with introspection, you can uniquely connect the dots through your brand.
Sign #4: You Have Your Own Business or Work For a Company On the Rise
If you worked for a huge corporation like Pepsi, could you create a successful personal brand as an employee?Sure. However, we believe the real value in personal branding lies in creating and running your own organization (or being an intrapreneur for one). To clarify, personal branding is not just for CEOs and founders; it’s accessible to everybody.Personal branding is personal and, therefore, can incredibly generate a human connection with your audience. The bottom line is when people can put your face to your company like you can when you think of Apple, Microsoft, Tesla, or Virgin, you can put a face and mouthpiece behind your brand that generates buzz, nurtures consumers, and grows your fan base. Related: How to Create a Personal Brand that Benefits Your Business
Sign #5: You’re in an Emerging Market
If your business is in an emerging market, your prospective consumers need a lot of education to generate awareness of the problems you're targeting and the solutions you're providing. Naturally, there's a higher learning curve and a higher barrier to entry to purchase your product or service. For example, an emerging industry that patients and practitioners don't fully understand is telehealth. The times have forced clinics to adopt the technology to continue plans of care, but many still are hesitant to learn, implement, and use this advancement. As the industry leader emerges, if CEOs, employees, and referral physicians have a powerful personal brand, it can help make the technology more relatable and establish their position as a leading expert on the subject.You can also look at SpaceX and Virgin Galactic, companies that are pushing space tourism, a concept that was widely out of our reach 10 to 15 years ago. But because they have brilliant, powerful leadership in their personal brands, people are changing their minds. In fact, space tourism feels more achievable than ever before.
Communities Need More Social CEOs, Not Faceless Companies
In business, trust is everything. Trust is value. Trust is currency. Trust is indispensable, and a personal brand can help you strategically cultivate and deploy the trust you need to build successful relationships. If you think you see the signs, you need to start creating your personal brand. Because if people are reaching out to you for advice, that means you have advice to give. If you're innovative, and people are interested in your ideas, that means you can create dialogue. If you’re a budding entrepreneur in an upcoming market, then you have the opportunity to teach something new. The web needs leadership, and if you're that person with a genuine passion for innovation and community, then now is the time to start leading with a personal brandIf you’re unsure where to start, we recommend reading “How to Create a Personal Brand,” and starting with creating an effective set of brand guidelines. If you need to brainstorm ideas or have any questions about your personal brand, we’re here to help.
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