80% of personal brand happens before you post anything at all
This week is all about the 80% of personal branding that matters more than photos, make-overs, Canva templates and logos.
And it might just change everything about the way you are portraying yourself online.
Let’s go!
Comparing Spiderman and the Richest Kardashian of them all.
Probably the easiest way to describe personal branding is by looking at two very different celebrities.
Tom Holland, the star of the current generation of Spiderman movies.
And Kylie Jenner, makeup billionaire, model and Kardashian star.
Their brands could not be more different.
Tom Holland is known for his cheeky, adorable interviews, turning up randomly to children’s hospitals as Spiderman, hugging fans and doing crazy dances in drag on Saturday night US TV shows.
Kylie Jenner is known for cosmetic procedures, Instagram selfies, unrealistic beauty standards and Keeping Up With The Kardashians. She refuses to let fans near her.
Both of these brands have been very carefully cultivated.
Tom has a set of values that he lives up to around being accessible, likeable, spontaneous and approachable.
Kylie’s values are about being aspirational, untouchable, flawless and above regular humanity.
Both brands have worked for them.
Kylie is a billionaire make-up tycoon and the single most successful member of the Kardashian/Jenners.
Tom’s Spiderman movies are the most-watched and highest-grossing of the franchise.
Branding is not just for celebrities anymore.
In 2022, everyone is a public figure of some sort.
- We move amongst social circles that value our reputation
- We run businesses that are growing because customers like us
- We work in teams that rely on our input
And it’s always been this way.
The idea of a personal brand is nothing new. We just used to call it something different, “reputation.”
What has made it a whole different game today is that any individual has the power to extend their reputation (good or bad!) to the world from a small device in their pocket.
Personal Brand is not about narcissism. And narcissists are really bad at it.
Much opinion around personal branding is based on some very public reputation crashes.
The downfalls of a long list of American TV evangelists.
The sexual indiscretions of conservative politicians.
The exposure of awful behaviours from nice-guy and nice-girl celebrities.
These falls from grace all stem from the inability to live up to a public perception built around lies.
This is why your own personal brand has to be built on the pillars of your true core values. Values that you can live up to.
1. Start with your values
Who are you when you’re alone and there’s no applause?
Most of the persona I had built was about getting people to like me.
The trouble was that, while I am a nice guy at my core, I was a boiling mess of anger underneath. I was becoming unreliable and frequently couldn’t deliver on my promises. And my diplomacy was a strategy I used to avoid conflict.
I wasn’t who I thought I was.
That led to a deep-dive into who I was — and that led to me choosing four values that I felt that I had a better chance of living up to:
- Honest
- Authentic
- Vulnerable
- Effective
Before I write a newsletter, step onto a stage, post something on LinkedIn or meet new people, I mentally ask myself, “Am I living my values in this situation?”
This is the first step toward building your personal brand.
2. Define what you want to be known for and by whom
I did this via the Ikigai method.
It helps you to define the purpose of your life.
And that helps you define what you should be known for.
It’s where you answer the following four questions:
- What do you love?
- What are you good at?
- What does the world need?
- What can you get paid for?
In the diagram below you can see a point where all these answers overlap. That is where you find your Ikigai — or what you may want to be known for.
This also defines who your audience will be
The thing you want to be known for will have a limited audience.
If you want to be known for expertise in mechanical engineering, then the average householder isn’t your audience. But less experienced mechanical engineers might be.
If you want to be known for baking exquisite cupcakes, then your audience will be people who are most likely to buy cupcakes.
3. Research your industry and hang around the best in the business
You become the people you associate with.
I am often surprised by how genuine, and generous people with expertise are. I didn’t expect that at all.
So when I started to do my research on who the movers and shakers were locally, nationally and globally, I began following them on social media and interacting with them there.
I now have relationships with people whom I never thought I ever could have a relationship with.
By interacting with their content publicly, I pave the way for private contact with them on their terms. They tend to now reach out to me to connect.
And before you know it you’re on a Zoom call with someone who has 250,000 followers and is a hero to you.
4. Know how to talk about yourself, then start doing it
If you can’t explain who you are and what you do, how is anyone supposed to remember who you are and what you do?
There’s a lot of value in developing your elevator pitch.
It’s a 30-second rundown of who you are, what you do, who it’s for and why someone should care.
For example, mine is:
I’m Dante St James
You know how it’s hard to tell who to listen to when it comes to digital marketing and self-promotion?
I have developed my own methods that are easy to learn, quick to digest and simple to implement.
The people who tend to get the best value from them are small business owners and the marketing people in bigger organisations.
That’s it. Develop your own, and then slightly customise it for different times and places.
It works because it makes someone immediately start thinking of the people you are targeting, and they’ll often refer you to one of them.
5. Finally, begin working on your presence
If you don’t know who you are, don’t have a network and don’t know how to describe your work, you’re not ready for photo shoots or social media content.
Only now do we get to the point of doing the stuff that most of us picture when we think of personal branding.
That’s because only now do we have exposure to other experts, a clear idea of who we are and what we do, plus the context of what we want to be known for.
80% of the work of a personal brand comes before you take your first photo or post your first bit of insight on social media.
Plus you need all this context before you do the public stuff because your whole tone of voice, topics of content and types of photos and videos are based on the pre-work you’ve done.
All this public-facing stuff is so much easier when you know who you are, what you want to be known for, and what your values are.
That’s all for this weekend. Just one short read about how to start the work of developing your personal brand without jumping too far into the photos, videos, posts and public stuff too soon.
See you again next week.
Cheers, Dante
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P.S. Whenever you’re ready, here are a few ways I can help you out:
1. Learn more about personal branding in this free YouTube video
2. Join me for a free one-hour workshop on how to start your personal brand journey in 2022 — and how to do the things I’ve talked about in this email (Current Australian Business Number is required)
4. Book a free no-obligation 15-minute chat about where your digital and small business blockages are to see if we can get you on the right path (within Australia only, Usually booked out around 2 weeks in advance)
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