The 5 Most Common Questions (and Answers) About Personal Branding
In 2015, I (finally) started to take my personal brand seriously, and the results have been magnificent.
Just to name a few, a strong personal brand:
- More than quadrupled my hourly rate as a consultant and strategist
- Positioned me to work with major brands like Fendi, W Hotels, WeWork, SodaStream and China’s International Institute of Education
- Landed me two speaking gigs for $500 and $750, and
- Helped me get featured in all sorts of podcasts and articles — namely USA TODAY, Entrepreneur On Fire and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global
Here are the most common questions people have asked me since then:
1. What is a personal brand?
A personal brand is about developing a calculated, comprehensive and authentic image in the minds of a targeted group of people, in order to accomplish a definitive goal or set of goals.
People with the most effective personal brands utilize content, social media, email, networking, and other means of interpersonal and mass communication to creatively portray their tangible attributes (e.g. years of experience, education, portfolio, case studies) and intangible attributes (e.g. expertise, insights, sense of humor, inspiration, unconventionalism).
2. Who should build a personal brand?
Anyone who wants to create a legitimate competitive advantage in whichever career path they’re on or want to take. This includes: employees, interns, volunteers, executives, entrepreneurs, self-employed people, unemployed people, founders, business owners, freelancers and students.
Sorry to be the burden of bad news, but being great at something (e.g. a great software developer) isn’t enough anymore. Because of globalization and the ability to find many “great” people in a matter of minutes, greatness is simply the cost of entry to being considered by a client, employer, investor, et cetera.
3. Should I focus on becoming more successful / accomplished / skilled, and then start building my personal brand?
Before the modern-day Internet, I probably would’ve told you yes.
Today, however, you don’t need to be “successful” to start building your personal brand — because, assuming everything else is relatively equal, a personal brand is the most effective way to stand out.
To reiterate, being more successful, accomplished or skilled won’t automatically make you stand out, since there are hundreds (if not thousands) of other people who are just as successful, accomplished and/or skilled as you are today (or will be in the future).
Waiting to become more successful, accomplished or skilled until you start building a personal brand would be like saying 10 years ago: “Don’t create a résumé until you have at least a decade of experience under your belt.”
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4. How can I make my personal brand stand out if I’m not already super successful and well-known?
When you publish content (the backbone of a modern-day personal brand) at the intersection of your personal and professional attributes and experiences, your personal brand becomes inherently unique, since no one else has the same combination of your personal and professional attributes and experiences.
You don’t need to be super successful and well-known to stand out. You just need to be different.
5. What steps should I take to start building my personal brand?
To build the foundation for a strong personal brand, you need a “home base” (a website), a publishing platform (a blog built into your website) and channels to distribute your content (social media and email marketing).
To be truly successful, you’ll also want to outline your goals, conduct a self-awareness inventory, hone your “macro and micro” stories, and define your target audience — all of which you can do with my 5-day personal branding challenge.
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