Let’s face it, it’s easy to hide behind your brand.
Putting yourself out there can be scary, but putting a carefully crafted image (that isn’t your own face and name) is a lot easier.
But when you’re a new business, small business, or service-based business, chances are you are your brand. It’s your system, expertise, or magic touch that your customers are paying for. Whether your a friendly restaurant owner who makes delicious food inspired by generations of family recipes, an inventor with a personal story about why you invented your product, or a service provider who has perfected a system that gets incredible results for your clients, you are inextricably linked to the success of your brand.
And you’re not helping your business by hiding behind it!
What’s a more interesting and compelling brand message:
- Cooks Eatery has been happily serving homestyle southern cuisine to the local community for five years. Cooks eatery serves traditional southern food in a welcoming environment created for the entire family.
- Jess founded Cooks Eatery after her grandmother passed away in 2018. Jess’ grandma always brought the family together over delicious, southern meals and Jess wanted to cement her legacy by bringing generational family-favorite recipes to the local community in an enviornment that feels like home.
People connect to stories. Sharing your story will help customers and potential customers create a deeper connection with your brand when they relate to you, are inspired by you, learn something from you, or feel invested in your story.
I’m here to convince you to start focusing on your personal brand and maybe even have some of your client-facing team members start building theirs as well.
1. You are the selling point of your business
There are two audiences who are coming to your business because of you:
- Your clients
- Your employees
Whether you’re trying to attract new clients or new hires, if you’re the CEO or primary service provider at your company, people are interested in you.
Especially if your main lead source is referrals or your biggest revenue driver is repeat customers, the proof is right in front of you! It’s time to leverage those special characteristics that make you unique and why you’ve been so successful with your existing clients to generate an audience, new leads, and top talent.
2. Your brand needs a personal touch
In an increasingly online world, we want a human we can connect with when it comes to service-based businesses, artisan businesses, and small businesses generally.
Think about your own online habits. Are you more likely to engage with a business or a person?
Chances are, you said (or thought) person. Guess what, so would your potential clients.
A human connection makes for a stronger, more memorable relationship. It gives audiences a better idea of what working with your business might actually be like. Interacting with a personable human creates more trust and loyalty than interacting with a faceless logo.
Creating a personal brand means figuring out how to translate your one-of-a-kind qualities and characteristics from the IRL (in-real-life) world to the online world.
3. Brands aren’t experts, people are!
One of the selling points of your business is that you do it better and/or differently than your competitors. Show us how!
Don’t be afraid to teach what you know. Being the person teaching and pulling the curtain back makes you more attractive to higher-ticket clients. Why would they do it themselves or hire someone you’ve taught when they can hire you?
A great story and a decent following are also more desirable to press and media outlets looking for stories to cover or publish.
As a bonus, once you start building traction as a teacher, more monetization opportunities open up.
Whether it’s creating a course, starting a membership, or getting speaking gigs, having a personal brand makes monetizing your knowledge and expertise possible.
4. It’s a Valuable Asset for Your Business and Career
Let’s dive a little deeper into the opportunities a personal brand can unlock for you.
I mentioned course creation, running a membership, and speaking, but it can open so many more doors!
Building a personal brand gets you noticed and makes it easier to network with the people in your industry whom you look up to. That might turn into a business deal or a content collaboration. How you leverage those interactions and connections is important too, but the first step is getting your foot in the door and having a personal brand can get you into many more virtual rooms than you’ll be able to enter as a faceless business.
You get to connect directly with your potential clients and potential hires on a regular basis, giving you unprecedented access to their needs, fears, desires, and daily thought processes.
Connect with your existing clients too to keep them engaged and stay top of mind next time they have a friend or colleague who might benefit from your services.
Your personal brand can be your best asset as a business owner.
How to Get Started with Your Personal Brand
If any of these points resonate with you, it’s time to get started.
Start small and let the momentum of increasing engagement and opportunity drive your growth and priorities with your personal brand.
Consistency is key and much more important than doing all the things.
Pick One Social Platform
Pick your favorite social media platform. If you already have an account, give it a little makeover with your persona as a professional and entrepreneur in mind. Then, post once or twice or three times per week, but engage on a daily or every-other-day basis.
Start an Email List
Make sure you have an easy way for new audience members to keep in touch with you like an email list and that new audience members can easily find how to sign up for it.
Create a Pillar Content Source
Finally, choose a content form that best suits your “teaching” style and personality to exhibit your expertise. This could be a YouTube channel, podcast, weekly Instagram Live, blog, or something similar. Think about how you do what you do and dive into a topic you’re comfortable with and like talking about!
Every time you publish on your blog/YouTube channel/IG Live recording/etc., email your list and make a post about it!
Keep it Simple!
Don’t overcomplicate things.
Just talk about what you’re good at and setup easy-to-follow systems for yourself to stay consistent.
Don’t forget to engage with others in your industry and if you want a little help getting started, schedule a call with us! We’re happy to help: https://calendly.com/curatory/30min