Everything You Need To Know About Building a Personal Brand
Big corporations spend ungodly amounts of money in the pursuit of ingraining their brand into society’s collective consciousness.
Think Coca-Cola.
Think Apple.
Think…
Hell, the very fact that you can think of any corporation at all implies their branding has done something right.
Maybe it’s not doing what they want, but hey, it stuck enough in your head to be conjured at this very moment, so that’s not all bad.
Any publicity is better than no publicity, as they say.
That’s not entirely true with branding, but once you’ve grown to a certain size, the distinction doesn’t really matter anymore.
For little old you, however, it does.
Branding is no longer a conversation reserved for corporations. The rise of self-help gurus, business coaches, life mentors, and pretty much any and every freelance position under the sun, has benefited from the idea that you, Brenda, can be a brand, too!
Just like Apple.
Sort of.
The digital marketplace has made this possible on a scale our forefathers never could’ve imagined.
Think about this: The first time anybody used the words Personal Brand was sometime in the 90s.
Before that? Nothing.
Crickets.
Personal Branding has surfed the rising digital wave over the past 20 years and for good reason.
Each of us, thanks to email, social media, and search engines, has the ability to reach audiences of unfathomable scale.
Couple that with the ability to drill down specifically to like-minded individuals seeking the exact product or service you’re selling (thanks Google and Facebook ads), and you start to see just why so many people are jumping on the Personal Branding bandwagon.
Now, before you X-out of this article thinking it has nothing to do with you, Debra in Accounting, consider this: What happens if you lose your job at General Mills tomorrow?
Chances are you’ll have some choice words for the head of HR, a tear-filled glass of Merlot, and a whole bunch of gut-twisting panic as you come to realize you’re about to leap back into the rat-race known as “finding a job”.
If this is you, you have my condolences. Truly.
Hunting for a job is worse than waiting in line at the DMV while your dental hygienist shoves some spiky objects beneath your gums.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. Not anymore.
What if, despite getting laid off, you had a reputation for being the most bad-ass accountant on the Eastern seaboard (despite the fact you actually live in Milwaukee)?
Yeah, Debby, you’re that good.
Well, then losing a job ain’t gonna put too much rain in your knickers (Is that a thing British people say? Probably not).
Why?
Because life (and opportunity) almost inevitably boil down to people. And those of you with sterling reputations for a particular thing…well, you’re always in demand.
Finding people who want to take advantage of your skill is a cake-walk.
But wait, you say, I thought we were talking about Personal Branding and now you’re throwing out crazy big words like reputation. What gives?
Everything gives.
Sorry, that was unfair. Let me try again.
Reputation is just another word for Personal Branding.
Whoa…mind blown, right?
Bet you never thought about it in those terms, huh? Okay, maybe you have. So let’s take it one step further.
Personal Branding is intentional reputation building at scale.
That is, I want to be known as a Personal Branding expert, therefore I position myself as such. I write articles on the topic. I solve problems for people with branding related issues. I build a portfolio and a suite of skills around the niche of Personal Branding.
Next thing you know: I have a reputation as “That Personal Branding guy“.
Now, reputations are notoriously difficult to build, and incredibly easy to tarnish. So it is with Personal Branding. You have to be very intentional that the message and image you portray is always consistent with that of your reputation.
So step one to building a killer Personal Brand is this
Be Consistent.
Hey, that’s not so hard, right? Just be yourself. You’ve practically mastered this whole Personal Branding thing! Kudos.
Hold up, buckaroo. We’re not thru here just yet.
If you’re serious about establishing your own Personal Brand (which you can later leverage in whatever niche you reside), then you need to master at least these three other MUST HAVE elements of your Personal Brand.
Backstory
The thing so many people get wrong about Personal Branding is that they wrongly assume the brand is them. It’s not.
Your brand is the you you wish to portray. That you has a particular back-story. That you strengths and weaknesses that are not necessarily in line with the actual you.
I’m not suggesting you go make-up a character carte blanche. Authenticity is of the utmost importance. If people catch even the slightest whiff of malarky, they’ll go scampering off in the opposite direction.
No, what I’m suggesting is that you present a particular side of you.
If you want to create a brand around Executive Coaching, well then you should present the side of you that is strong and confident and articulate. Go ahead and put the self-doubting you in the closet for now. They probably won’t help much here.
Again, I’m not suggesting you pretend to be something you’re not.
Be you.
The best you.
The best you for the job at hand.
To that end, you need to create a backstory and understand that “best you for the job at hand” intimately.
You must know what makes that you tick. What unique confluence of events lead that you to this very moment in time where that you is in a position to help me with the thing I most need help with.
If you’re trying to sell me on the fact that you are a fitness guru, don’t waste time telling me about how you flunked out of high school French. Ya know, unless it somehow bears relevance to the fitness conversation at hand.
Which gives way to the second MUST HAVE element of a strong Personal Brand.
Story
Every person I know with a strong Personal Brand shares at least one thing in common:
They use stories to make their point.
Stories are a fundamental building block of interpersonal communication. Story has played a pivotal role in cultural development all through the ages.
The shape and form and medium of stories has morphed over the centuries, but their primacy and efficacy has not.
Books and movies and podcasts and BuzzFeed and YouTube are all story-channels.
Humans tune into stories in a way they simply do not tune into anything else.
It is a unique quirk of human psychology. So, to create a strong Personal Brand, you must use this to your advantage.
Tell personal stories. Use metaphor. Spin a straight up fictional yarn (Not condoning lying).
Vary the form and function of your story, but never lose sight of the fact that this is the most important tool in your toolbox.
If you want people to remember your message, tell a story.
Make it good.
Then tell another.
But whatever you do, for God’s sake, do not tell a boring story.
Which leads into the third thing your Personal Brand absolutely must have.
Polarity
This isn’t high school. The name of the game is not: Be liked by everybody.
One, that’s impossible.
And two, in your quest to be imminently likeable, you’ve become incredibly boring.
This happens most often because people falsely associate agreeableness with likeability. They are not the same. Not even close.
Being agreeable is one of the most sure-fire ways to make me hate you.
Not to say you should go out of your way to be contrarian, but deliberately watering down all your unique opinions in an attempt to seem more relatable is all sorts of wrong.
It’s not fooling me. It’s not fooling anybody.
We see through your agreeableness. We know you have opinions. You have to, you’re human, after-all.
Taking the middle-path is great for the Buddhists, but for the rest of us, you need to pick a side.
Take a stand.
By doing this singular thing, you’ll be amazed by the results. It’s strange, I know. It seems backwards, but people are attracted to people with strong opinions.
This doesn’t mean you have to be a jerk, though I guess if that’s the brand you’re trying to build, knock yourself out.
It works for Howard Stern.
And that right there is actually a solid example.
People either love or hate Howard Stern, but very rarely are people luke-warm on the guy. He is polarizing, and in his polarization he has found his tribe of rabid fans.
This is what you should be aiming for in your Personal Brand, because whether people love or hate you, they understand what you are. You are a known quantity, and that cycles back to the very first step in this whole process which was:
Be Consistent!
If people think about your brand and can immediately describe it, then you win. Even if they happen to be one of those folks who doesn’t much care for you.
Time to Start Laying Brick
Alright, now you know the four key elements to building a wicked awesome Personal Brand: Be Consistent, Create a Backstory, Tell a Good Story, and Polarize. Now all that’s left is to get out there and start building your brand!
Let’s ease into this with baby-steps. Get down to the comment section and eithertell me a bit of your backstory, tell me a good story, or tell me something you believe that most people would disagree with.
