Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash
What is personal branding?
Well it’s not all about a logo, colour palette or typeface (although those things certainly help!).
It’s what you communicate about yourself in every single interaction or touchpoint with your audience. Online and offline, on the page and in person.
In short, it’s what you’re remembered for. And you can start to develop yours by focusing on these four core things:
1/ Be genuine and authentic
The first important thing about developing your personal brand is to be a real person, and to look at what is authentically you. But what does that even mean? Authentic has become such a buzzword and some big brands work really hard trying to manufacture something that ‘looks authentic’ when really it’s quite simple, particularly if you’re a consultant or freelancer. Be yourself. Be genuine. Because when you do that, you attract the people that are truly drawn to that, rather than second guessing what other people want all the time.
An obvious expression of this is to write the way you talk – the biggest compliment someone can give you about your writing is if they hear your voice in their heads when they read it.
2/ Work out your story
We’ve all got one, whether we choose to articulate it or not. And interestingly, the bits you usually edit out of your own story as being messy or complicated or embarrassing, are usually the things that other people will relate to and be drawn to. This is authenticity in action. And once you know your own story you can translate that into your core messaging framework.
3/Know who you’re talking to
You can’t please everyone, and you don’t need to. Focus in on the people that really matter to you with clear messaging and a human connection.
4/Be consistent
This is one I really struggle with. I have so many ideas that I want to communicate them all at once. But key to building a great personal brand is consistency. Show up and be consistent in your messaging, and sometimes that’s all it takes.
There's a little more to it than this of course, but these cornerstones must always be at the heart of what you do. If you'd like to find out more about my approach to personal branding and how we could work together, please do drop me a line.