How many times have you liked your favourite movie star’s picture on Instagram?
Or, why does Bruce Lee come to your mind when somebody mentions Kungfu?
Or, think of your childhood days when you tried to decipher how Spiderman jumped from one skyscraper to the other?
What do you think these characters did to your subconscious mind?
They created a space for themselves that keeps growing until it becomes an obsession or fades away, only to be replaced by another superhero. In other words, this is called ‘Personal Branding.’ Spiderman’s aura is his ability to swing in between buildings. A stand-up comedian’s skills lie in his ability to make people laugh.
So, the next time you like your favourite entrepreneur’s post on LinkedIn, remember that it is their personal branding that is prompting your action.
What is a personal brand and why is it important?
We all know that no one does their business with companies, but with people in those companies. And that’s because they have relationships and trust which are established directly or indirectly.
The indirect relationship, or the impression you have about a person even before your first interaction with them is probably one of the most simplest ways of defining their personal branding.
From the viewpoint of the person who is a brand, you can say – personal branding is the process of showcasing one’s skills in a chosen niche and making a career of it.
Today, the 9 to 5 job that we grew up seeing our fathers slug it out for their families is not lucrative anymore. In fact, it inhibits our passion and leaves little room for going beyond the ordinary. Here are 4 reasons why personal branding is important.
1. Your job may not last forever
Let us be honest with ourselves. There are chances that we will be laid off. There are chances that someone else with a better skillset might take our position and make us vulnerable. There is a possibility that the company in which you work can be acquired and your position may not exist any longer. But there are bills to be paid at home.
What do you do when you are faced with such a situation? Personal branding can make all the difference. It gives you contacts, network, and endless possibilities to earn a continuous income.
2. Freedom to express yourself
All of us want to break the shackle and do what we love doing. It could be painting, music, teaching, martial arts, skiing, rafting, skateboarding, and so much more. If you believe in yourself, you can become the best in your chosen niche. You can express yourself in ways that are unimaginable in a corporate job.
3. Take control of your life
A job in the organized sector can be stifling. There are meetings that you need to attend, targets that you must chase, customer queries that have been waiting for days etc. But, when you have done your personal branding right, you command your workday and not the other way around. You choose to live the life that you want to live.
I am not saying that having a personal brand means you can pack your bags and go on an Amazon adventure. What I mean is that it gives you the ability to work on things that give you the most satisfaction.
4. Kick the stress out
The American Institute of Stress says that stress causes 1 million people to avoid work every day. Does that ring a bell somewhere? How many times have you loathed getting to work? There is a popular tv commercial by Indeed.com that shows people dragging themselves to work because they detest it.
Building a personal brand means you work for yourself and make it the way you want to be including the work environment, time, priorities, customers, etc. When you control the choice of what to work, when to work, and where to work, you are more likely to lead a stress-free life.
Let us step back a minute and understand what triggered this blog?
Last December, I wrote a post on LinkedIn about personal branding.
Here is a snapshot of it:
The engagement on this post was way more than what I’d expected, so I knew people were looking for ways to build their personal brand. In fact, Yaag and several of us have embarked on that journey to create a personal brand for ourselves. So, here goes a detailed post on it.
What is the formula to create a personal brand?
Now, let us get down to the bare basics. There is no one clear formula for personal branding, but here is a list of things that you need to get down to work.
1. Identify your niche
One of the first steps is to identify what is your niche or chosen domain. For example, if you like teaching, then you must figure the subject that you’d like to teach. Is it elementary math or is it advanced algorithms? If you are good at cooking, then what is your specialty – Mexican, Continental, or French cuisine? Not that you cannot switch your loyalties, but it is important that you master one before you move on to the other.
The best example that I can quote here is the YouTube channel named ‘Grandpa Kitchen.’ The channel hosted an old man in rural South India who specialized in making popular Indian dishes out in the open fields. While he was certainly gifted with exemplary culinary skills, he had narrowed down his niche, which was outdoor cooking for communities with innovative recipes.
2. Identify the target audience
The next step is to identify your target audience. Know the type of consumer personas who would like to engage with you. Here are a few questions that you could seek answers for:
- What is your target audience looking for?
- What are their challenges?
- What are they trying to achieve?
For example, Damir Franc is a laptop reviewer and he has figured that people are looking for his honest opinion on the functioning of laptops. He knows that laptops are expensive and are rare purchases, so people need to make the right choice and be happy about it. Damir ensures his reviews are detailed and comprehensive that help customers take a decision whether to buy or not to buy a laptop.
3. Create a digital space for yourself
A lot of people who have built successful personal brands have a digital footprint for themselves. There are all sorts of people like marketers, actors, chefs, musicians, surfers who have a website. In fact, celebrities such as Gordon Ramsay, Kim Kardashian, Kendall and Kylie Jenner have a mobile app for themselves.
While you don’t need a mobile app as you start off, you must have a website for yourself where you can post content regularly. There are easy and inexpensive options available such as Wix or WordPress that let you build your own websites within minutes. Having a website for yourself can help you post your content for which you would like to be known.
4. Choose your social media channel
Having a website is a good start, it is important to choose a suitable social media outlet for your personal brand. Why? Because you need to get out there and project your work to the world.
Whilst the most obvious are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram, take time in choosing the most suitable for you. For example, if you are a travel guide, then LinkedIn may not give you enough traction as an Instagram can give you.
If you are a freelancing UI/UX designer, then you need to be on Behance. If you are a caricaturist who likes to walk your audience through your drawings, then YouTube is your go-to platform. So, unless you have a lot of videos to showcase, do not bother to be on YouTube
Pro Tip: Choose your social media platform with care because it is an extension of your personality and work. Remember to keep your work and personal profiles separate as no matter what your personal interests and beliefs are, your audience will appreciate you for your work.
5. Be authentic
People want to hear genuine stories because that is where the learning is. If you want to be known for the right things, start doling out awesome content on your website or chosen social media channel. As much as possible, talk about your personal experiences.
But, even then, it is impossible to bring together a lot of experiences that can give your audience unique reasons to engage with your content. That is exactly where you can ask peers and other experts in your circle of influence to hop on a video call with you. You could interview them and bring forth their experiences for your audience to engage with.
Or, if you have the bandwidth, you could host a podcast where you may invite different experts to your show and distribute it on platforms like Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Talking about authenticity, I have noticed a lot of people use Quora to build their personal brands. By narrating their personal experiences and helping others with their knowledge, they have attracted large numbers of followers.
6. Add value
No matter what profession you choose, you must add value for your audience. So, if you are a travel blogger, make sure you are giving people new information that they didn’t know before they engaged with your content. If you are a sports coach, you must show your audience techniques that will help them get better over time. Even if people are engaging with your content for just 30 seconds, it must be worth their time.
What are the best personal branding tips?
Now that we have understood what personal branding is, let us look into some of the best tips that I have curated over the years.
Sharpen your skills constantly
Bruce Lee was a superstar (too bad he passed away so early!). He became famous because he continuously practiced what he displayed. Behind all those fast moves that we saw on screen were many hours of nerve-wracking practice. If you want to be known for something, you need to be working at it every minute of the day. So, the next time you want to host your own cookery show, make sure you are perfecting those dishes away from the public glare. Because, perfection takes time and anything that takes time to create is always awesome.
Create content consistently
Personal branding is not about creating content one day and returning next summer. It is a continuous process. Most people who have built remarkable personal brands for themselves create content on a regular basis.
My child is a fan of contortionism (more simply called Yoga!) and loves to follow professional contortionists who have built a career for themselves. Below is the Instagram image of one of her heroes, a young girl called Anna McNulty, who has 1.51 million subscribers on YouTube alone. Anna posts videos of her stretching and twisting on her YouTube and Instagram channel every week without fail. Every video has a minimum of 200k likes – that is the power of consistency!
Don’t worry about what others think
If sales reps were to wonder about what their customers would think of them, then nobody would be selling! It does not matter what others think of your content. What matters to you are these questions:
- Am I putting out great content?
- Am I adding value to those who engage with my content?
- Am I improving with every content piece that I put out?
- Am I satisfied with my efforts?
If your answer is a ‘yes’ to all the above questions, then sail forth!
Don’t get overwhelmed
There will always be people who have done better than you. But, do not get overwhelmed by it. They must have begun from scratch. Instead, try and figure out how they strike gold. If possible, shed your inhibitions and ask them the magic potion. Try mailing them or reaching them on social platforms where they are most active on. For all you know, they may even give you handy tips.
Seek feedback constantly
Nobody is perfect. But that does not mean you stop chasing perfection. In the Japanese movie “The Last Samurai,” Tom Cruise is held captive by the samurais for a long period of time. In his captivity he notices that every morning, the Japanese wake up and look to hone their skills in their chosen profession – a tea master tries to make the perfect brew, a horseback archer aims for his target even as he balances himself on his steed.
As you create a space for yourself, make sure you constantly seek feedback from others who have taken the same route. Ask your peers or your audience to know what they would like to experience and ensure you are making those changes in your content. There is always room for improvement and learning.
Personal branding – rounding it all up
Creating a personal brand is going to be an uphill effort, but along the way you will realise several new learnings, meet extraordinary people, and have an experience that you will never wish to give up. If you have decided to quit your job to chase your dreams, then you must make it happen at all costs, so don’t wait for tomorrow – start it now!
Most importantly, it is going to take a lot of time building it. But who said anything worthwhile was ever created overnight? Keep chipping away at it bit by bit until you feel satisfied with the sculpture and you know you are ready to launch it into the orbit.
