Ready to Build Your Personal Brand and Amplify Your Magic? Yes you have magic in you sista! Lemme ask, when you walk past a store and see lines of look-a-like brands, it makes you feel a bit blazeeee, amiright? But, then you see this one brand that catches your eye, aka that cupcake in a world of muffins, it's then you decide you want the cupcake. As a rational customer, you are instantly attracted to this unique brand. That is what personal branding does. To put it more simply, personal branding refers to branding strategy where a brand makes a conscious decision to find its inner magic to distinguish it from its competitors. It's your magnetic attraction method!
“Your brand should be a reflection of who you are”
In this rat race of becoming better than your competitors and offering what others don’t, many businesses have lost sight of what is the most distinctive feature belonging to their brand - themselves.
One of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make is to create their brand identity around lookalike (meaning they blend in with everyone else in the market.)
Lookalikes are more vulnerable and destined to failure. The profit figures and growth trends of any company are prone to fluctuation, but if a brand is based around personal branding, chances are that even if your company is going through a tough time in terms of its finances - the personal credibility derived from their personal branding can act as a buffer and provide relief in cases of unforeseen circumstances.
Why should you embody personal branding?
In a world where everything is unprecedented and unpredictable, your experience, accomplishments and your motivation is something that no one can take away from you and is that one factor that will always remain the same regardless of the ever- changing market conditions.
These are your Unfair Advantages!
In the world of Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok your personal brand is what makes you stand out. It is what compels people to follow, like and trust you. By building lifestyle branding and attracting people based on your unique gifts, you are creating more than just a brand: people begin to love the person behind the brand.
Steps to build your personal brand
Step 1: Know your fuel:
The first step towards creating a successful personal brand is to identify what motivates you. As was rightly stated by Simon Sinek “People don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it.” This can be done by answering simple questions like;
- What is your why, that driving force?
- What is it that gets you all charged up in the morning for the day?
- Why did you want to do this in the first place?
- What is the purpose of what you do?
- On bad days, what is that one thing that keeps you going?
Upon finding answers to these five questions, you will have better clarity in terms of what will be there to support you when things go south.
Your motivations will also act as your contingencies and will provide you further clarity so that you know what you will be holding on to when things start to go downhill.
Step 2: Align your core values
In the process of personal branding, know that the people would want to see the best of you. For your customers to be able to trust you, they need to know the set of values you hold. In order to win people’s trust, you need to have a strong hold over your values.
What do you want to be known for?
Gaining clarity in terms of what it is that you really want to be known for can go a long way, which allows you to focus on being an expert in one particular area and becoming immaculately undefeatable in that aspect.
Ever heard the riches are in the niches?
Your personal brand should therefore be representative of your passion, skills, values and belief.
Step 3: Know your target audience
It's impossible to appeal to everyone.
Having a wide target audience hampers efficiency and as a result you could be wasting your resources. Scattering your efforts will never get you the results that focused efforts would.
Doing your market research on the pain points of your Ideal Customer Avatar (ICA) will help you connect to your ideal clients and ultimately attract more of those perfect clients.
Ask yourself these questions:
-What are the tangible problems (seen) issues your customer is dealing with?
-What are the intangible (internal feelings, thoughts or concerns) that your customer is experiencing?
-Identify your customer goal and ask, where do they ultimately want to be?
-What is the transformation your brand brings to your customer through your programs and services, frameworks and (special sauce) to solve these issues and achieve these goals
Step 4: Stand out from the crowd
All of us are inherently built with something that is unique and unlike anything that anyone else possesses.
Personal branding is all about increasing that X factor within you and captivating your audience through activating your unique gifts.
This means letting go of the herd mentality and experimenting with showing off your beliefs, values, personality and passions.
Beliefs are incredibly powerful.
They create a contagious energy.
Ask yourself these questions:
- Do you believe you CAN change your life? The way to harness your power lies in knowing and believing not only that you have that power, but that it is the key to changing your life.
- What is that thing that you want for your business 10 years down the road, what do you want people to think of for you as an expert?
- What do you want to be known for?
Values are the beliefs upon which your business behaviors are based.
When clients can easily identify with your brand’s core values they become more aligned to your brand. Identify your 3-5 core values and be sure to add additional context. This will help you integrate these ideas into your brand.
Personality is the #1 way in which you will connect to your audience.
Embodying who you really are, the feelings you want to evoke from your audience, sharing in your personal life can help to build relatability and trust.
Connection
Are you relatable to your customer? Are you telling Stories? Connection is why we create personal brands and by leveraging story inside of your social channels you are able to help the customer see themselves in your shoes, can they learn from you? Are you telling stories? Is it only educational content?
Your brand story and stories throughout your career & life may be exactly what someone else needs to hear right now to inspire them. Wherever there is a problem, there is someone who’s dream it is to solve it. You have the power to provide a solution and in turn, it helps someone change their life.
Story + Talent + Passions + Purpose = Power of the Personal Brand
Step 5: Establish your Communication channels
The only way by which you can connect to your target audience is through a channel.
By connecting through a strong social media presence, appearing in podcast interviews, speaking events, videos, advertising and having a strong website you are able to increase your visibility.
Step 6: Strengthening your channels
Merely establishing yourself in these channels isn’t enough to create a successful personal brand. Strengthening them is also equally important. Make sure that your website is easy to use and appealing, your social media needs to be something that people can connect with, something they would want to come back to again and again.
By incorporating more than just a nice reel or a blog with a CTA you will compel your audience through consistent repitition of your message and ongoing value through education. You want people to subscribe to your YouTube channel and get them in the habit of listening to your podcasts simply because they feel this sense of belonging when you talk.
The magic of personal branding
Once you find your inner magic, you will undoubtedly form this deep connection with your audience.
Your personal brand constitutes your story, talent, passion and purpose. Once all these things are in order, give your customers an emotional reason to believe in you.
If you are wanting to create a deeper connection to your own personal brand, your messaging and ultimately gain confidence on how you are putting yourself into this world, pay attention to the words you are telling yourself and work to land your Brand Values, Messaging, and Personal attributes that make your brand unique.
And voila, this is the secret mantra to creating your personal brand and amplifying it with your magic.
