In this post, I’m going to share with you some of my power tips for building a strong personal brand in 2023. Now, this is not going be the typical advice you get on personal branding. I know in this new era of social media everyone talks about the visual side of things, like having a nice-looking logo, website and color palette. And while that’s important, It’s really your personal brand that draws people in.
All that a personal brand is, is what people perceive of you based on how you present yourself to your audience, both online and offline. So essentially, your personal brand is the image you put forth and the core of who you are as a person, and everything else are just things that help exemplify that even further. So yes, the visuals, logos and colors are an aspect of that, but it’s not the end-all be-all.
What do you believe to be true?
The one question you need to ask yourself to form your personal brand is: What do I believe to be true? Because If you ask yourself, what do i believe to be true, you’re going to find out what it is that sets you apart from everyone else. The thing about personal branding is that, we get a little worked up because we believe that we need to determine what makes us unique and different from our competitors.
This causes us to go through the process of trying to pinpoint what makes us different from everyone else and we end up refining it according to what we think people want to hear. But the truth is, personal branding is what you believe to be true. If you believe something to be true and your audience believes that to be true as well, instantly, they’re going to feel a connection to you and believe in your brand and what it stands for since people are more likely to support a business whose beliefs align with their own.
For instance: what i believe to be true is that i can achieve anything that i want. I believe that If I work hard enough, dedicate my time, put my mind to it and never give up, I can achieve anything I want. If I share that belief with the world, I will naturally attract people who believe the same thing. So it’s important to ask yourself, “what do i believe to be true?” This will be the foundation that forms your brand values.
Supporting brand story
Once you lock down your belief, the way that we communicate it and share it is with supporting brand stories. In other words, we need to have a story that supports our belief. For example, if my belief is that i can achieve anything that i want, then the supporting brand story around that are things like “I started my business with $3.47 in my bank account. I didn’t know how i was going to figure it out, but i did because I believed that I could achieve anything I wanted.”
That is the supporting brand story that supports my brand values. This is a really fun part because you get to tell your story and decide what story matters to your brand and what your brand stands for. So don’t be afraid to open up and share the real story behind your business. Talk about the struggles, failures and challenges you’ve experienced and how you’ve bounced back from them. That’s what’s going to set you apart from everyone else.
Be of service
Now my third tip when it comes to building a strong personal brand, is to be of service. Because really, that’s what this is all about. It’s about service. Especially if you want to have longevity and be around for a long period of time. You have to keep your audience in mind by thinking about how you can be of service to them. Once you shift to a service mindset, it’s a lot easier to establish a relationship with your audience while also making it easier for them to know, like and trust you.
That’s why you want to start off by creating valuable high-quality content that your audience can access for free that way you can start building trust, while also educating your audience about who you are and what you have to offer. This will help you attract people that are going to enjoy your content and benefit from it. They’re going to associate the value that they get from your content to your brand. Which makes them more susceptible to trust you, and ultimately buy from you. So The key here is to offer useful information and content on a regular basis, whether it’s through blog posts, ebooks, checklists, videos like this video, infographics, or podcasts.
Choose your platform
So now that you’re creating content, you want to pick your social media platforms. Because there are so many different platforms out there, it’s kind of overwhelming to do all of them at once. So if you’re just starting to build your personal brand, I recommend you focus on 2 platforms before diversifying to others. How I look at it is there are two types of social media platforms: there’s communication platforms and then there’s media platforms.
Communication platforms are platforms that encourage people to interact online. So these are sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. While media platforms are platforms where you find and share photographs, videos, livestreams and other kinds of media on the web. These are platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and Pinterest.
So what you want to do is you want to pick one primary platform, that’s a media platform where you can share your content and add value to your audience. And you also want to have a secondary platform, a communication platform, where you can engage with your audience and nurture those relationships. So just choose a combination of platforms that works best for you, depending on what you like, what works for your brand, and where your audience lives.
Be consistent
Now my fifth tip when it comes to building a strong personal brand is to be consistent. Because, truthfully, it’s going to take a while for your brand to build up. There’s nobody who started today and then tomorrow they were this huge content creator getting millions of views.
A metaphor I often use to explain what it’s like to build a personal brand is that It’s like going to the gym. If you buy a bunch of new flashy gym clothes, and a membership to an expensive gym, but then stop after 30 days, you honestly shouldn’t have started in the first place. The whole purpose of getting a gym membership and setting down that journey is to invest in a habit—not a destination. And the same goes for personal branding. The purpose isn’t to spend a bunch of time and then stop. It’s to make sharing who you are and what you know a fundamental part of the way you build your business. It’s a long-term investment in the way you are perceived in your industry. And honestly, it’s the long-term consistency that earns a level of respect you can’t buy.
Half the reason I’ve gotten the amazing opportunities I did (to speak and work with incredibly amazing people) is because I’ve been doing youtube for years. Not days. Not weeks. Not months. 5+ years. So as someone who is speaking from experience, I can promise you that no other variables are worth talking about unless you’re being consistent.
So don’t worry about the vanity metrics, don’t worry about getting the massive following right away. Just focus on serving the existing audience you have to the best of your ability, and naturally, if you provide enough value, more people will come. So make sure you’re consistent and do not give up. It works, I proved it, every other entrepreneur proved it, if you’re consistent, you will be rewarded accordingly.