Doesn't it feel like everyone is a personal brand these days?
Whether you have one follower, one subscriber, or 100 million, if you have any sort of presence
online, you have a personal brand.
And whether you're trying to be an entrepreneur, or you're just in college or you're trying
to get a job, you better believe people are searching for you online in some way, shape,
or form.
Going on a first date?
Bet they Googled you.
So, you want your personal brand to be rock solid.
And in this day and age there are some new strategies that we can all implement to make
sure that our personal brand stands out in a sea of other people, and millions of other
people who are trying to build their name, build their brand online.
So I'm going to share with you my best tips and the strategies that I'm now implementing
to build my personal brand.
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I love the topic of personal branding, because there's so many different things that go into
it, but the biggest thing that I've learned in the last year particularly as my brand
has skyrocketed across all platforms and continues to grow daily, is that there is no better
key to building your personal brand than you.
I know that sounds weird.
Let me explain.
So, when we used to talk about personal branding, and believe me I've been talking about this
for a long time, we can cut to a really old video that I did on this topic and I look
totally different.
I think my hair is a lot darker.
It's filmed...
I don't know, it's not the best video lighting wise and aesthetically wise, but hey, did
pretty well on YouTube.
The idea of self promotion is a bit of a weird one, and actually that phrase kind of makes
my stomach turn, because it gives you the misconception that it's all self serving.
But the reality is you build your brand online, and you build a loyal following by adding
value to people's lives.
So I've been talking about this for a while, and when we used to talk about personal branding,
it was really focused on things like: having consistent brand colors, having a logo, having
the same sort of copy everywhere, and really having a consistent theme and aesthetic to
what you do.
Now what's really interesting and what's happening with personal branding that I found, is the
more you you are, the more magnetic you are.
And we've kind of started to veer away from perfect aesthetic, perfect brand colors, all
of these other things, because this is the issue: there are so many people trying to
build their personal brand, like babies are personal brands, dogs are personal brands
now, that there is an influx of people competing for attention, competing for eyeballs, competing
for authority.
So the only real way that anyone can compete nowadays, or get seen or stand out, is being
true to themselves.
And this probably sounds really hippy-dippy to you, but it's actually so true.
And you have to leverage your own unique factors and your own unique attributes.
And they could even be things that you maybe don't even like, but that other people resonate
with because they're real.
Because the thing is, everyone can copy your brand colors, it happens all the time.
People can copy your fonts, people can copy your copy.
People can copy everything about you, but nobody can be you.
So two big things, really interesting.
I asked my community recently, I said, "What do you think stands out the most, and makes
you think of me as a brand?"
And they said, "Your hair, your laugh and your eyes."
It had nothing to do with anything that I actually created, it was just innately who
I am as a person, because that's the most personal part about you.
And the funny part for me, and I've told this story before, is that I hid my hair for a
years.
I had flat ironed my hair, I didn't like my curls, I was embarrassed of them.
And then I had a life changing moment and I was like, you know what?
Screw this.
I'm just going to leave my hair natural.
And it's crazy how much people are reaching out to me and saying, "Oh my gosh, I love
your hair," or, "How do you do your hair?
I have similar hair," and it's just a bonding thing with people.
So whatever is different, unique about you, you want to leverage those things.
And it could be physical, it could be an aspect of your story, it could be a lot of things.
Now that kind of brings me to my next point, which is your story makes you stand out.
So important to understand this.
Again, there is an influx of people building personal brands, so you have to really know
your journey and you have to really lean on your experience.
So a big part of this is figuring out how you got to the place that you're at, and making
sure that you reaffirm and retell that story as much as possible.
So, my story and how I help people, and how I actually built a business off of my story
and my experience and my journey, is that I used to be an entrepreneur with this tiny
little business and I wanted to grow it, but I didn't know how.
And I kind of stumbled into creating a YouTube video for my clients at the time, and it blew
up.
And I realized that YouTube was a powerful platform to build your business on autopilot,
and to bring in clients and leads and sales at all times.
So I moved into that, I leaned into that, and that's how I ended up where I am today.
And we built a multimillion dollar business based on my story.
And here's the thing, if you're sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm not an expert in anything.
I don't know what my unique gift is, or how I can really both build a personal brand around
it," I want you to sit down and write your own hero's journey.
Start from when you were a kid until now.
What have you overcome?
What hurdles have you faced that you've moved past?
What's a problem that you've solved for yourself?
What's a problem you've solved for somebody else?
What's something that lights you up?
All of those things are clues as to what your story and your experience is, and how you
can become your own expert, because nobody has that experience like you do.
And I've built courses all around my experience and my journey, using my own unique system
because I knew it worked.
And now I've worked with thousands of people to make it work for them as well, but it's
all based on my story, nobody else's.
And that's why nobody else can take what I do and do it, it's unique to me.
And everybody has something that's unique to them.
There's people who teach hula hooping and have big businesses.
There's people who teach how to fly drones and have big businesses online.
So think about your own unique story and tell it, and tell it often.
Now, the next thing I wanted to say is play to your strengths.
Because a lot of the times when you're entering the online space or trying to build a personal
brand, you think you need to be everywhere, and you don't.
The best thing you can do is pick a platform that plays to your strengths and creates the
least friction for you to create content.
So for me, being on video is very easy, because I've been doing it for a long time.
I was in TV before I started on YouTube or any other platform.
And I know that I can film a video a lot faster than I can write a blog post, or do anything
else really.
So I knew that for me video would be the medium that would play to my strengths.
So think about yourself and what comes most naturally to you, and that's where you really
want to work, i.e. that's why a lot of photographers end up on Instagram, because Instagram is
a visual medium when it comes to photos specifically so it plays to their strengths.
Now, the next thing I want to share about building your personal brand is know your
audience, and know who isn't your audience.
It is good to be disliked, it means you're doing something.
So you want to be polarizing.
You want to know exactly who you're trying to reach, and exactly who you're not trying
to reach.
Because the worst thing you can do is try to reach everybody.
And prime example of that is if you look up some of the most generic terms online, things
like motivation, inspiration, et cetera, look at how much competition there is.
There's massive competition.
You're trying to compete with millions and millions and millions and millions and millions
of results.
So you got to figure out, "Okay, where do I fit in in those results?
What is my particular niche in those results?"
And I know people get sick of hearing that, but if you look at a lot of the really successful
examples in any business, they found a particular niche, they built their momentum there, once
they had an audience they were able to branch out.
But if you don't niche down, you get lost in a sea of people who have more experience
than you.
But you can be successful as a beginner, as long as you find your little pocket and sweet
spot to start it.
And I talk a lot about that in this video, on how to grow fast and gain subscribers on
YouTube.
So in order to know who you're attracting, you want to talk to as many people as possible.
This is the really simple part about building a personal brand.
You can get to know your audience really quickly by talking to a lot of people about what you
do, and telling people a lot of your story.
Because when you do, people are either going to relate to it or they're not going to relate
to it.
If they relate to it, dive deeper with them.
Ask them what do they usually consume online?
What are the videos they will watch?
The channels that they watch, the blogs that they read, the podcasts that they listen to,
the Instagram accounts they follow, because that's going to give you clues as to the kind
of content that your ideal audience member and your raving fans are going to want from
you, and then you can create more content like that on your platforms.
The next thing, which I think is probably one of the most important things in today's
day and age, and one of the newer strategies when it comes to personal branding, is receipts
are your reputation.
You want to be known for one thing, and you want everybody in the world to know that you're
synonymous with that one thing, and that you're the best at it.
So collecting receipts, meaning collecting social proof, like it's your job because it
is, is so important.
We have testimonials coming out the yin yang, because I know that it's really important
for people to know that I'm actually good at what I do, and that they can trust me and
that my system actually works.
So we collect our testimonials in Google Drive.
We also have a lot of video testimonials on our wall of fame, from our success stories
and our clients.
And that just builds more reassurance to say, "Yeah, she's the best when it comes to X,
Y, and Z," and you can see when people ask about YouTube and YouTube growth, oftentimes
I'll get recommended, and my reputation speaks for me.
So receipts are your reputation, collect them like it's your job, keep a bank of them wherever
you need to, and share them.
I share my testimonials all the time on Instagram, on Instagram stories, on Facebook, on LinkedIn,
everywhere I can.
Because I know the more I do, the more people will respect me and understand that I have
a good reputation, and that helps to build my personal brand as an authority in my space.
And the next piece of your personal brand right now, is that we have moved from vanity
metrics.
A lot of this comes down to Instagram hiding likes, which you can watch this video all
about that.
But the thing that I want to focus on with that move was that we aren't so focused on
vanity metrics anymore, we're focused more on true engagement and sharing content.
So you want to create content that's shareable.
And creating content that's shareable, which I talk about in this video, and I ran this
video on my Instagram growth strategy for 2020, is creating content that anyone could
share on their platforms without it being something that looks like you.
Because I wouldn't share something that has somebody else's brand colors, because it doesn't
really resonate with me, unless it's something simple, like there's BossBabe who uses pink,
and it's a really nice shade and maybe I'll share some of their stuff, and I love their
account but I'm not really a pink kind of girl.
So I prefer graphics that are just black and white, and I think black and white shareable
graphics on Instagram and everywhere else, are a really great way to create content that
people will be really quick to share on their own platforms, which helps you build your
audience.
The more you can get little ambassadors in your own community to share your content for
you, the faster you're going to grow your personal brand.
So creating shareable content, versus just trying to get clicks and likes and getting
that quick hit is so important, because shareable content grows your reach a lot faster.
Next I want to talk about doubling down on what works.
You probably have seen, and you should know your metrics across every single platform.
And what I mean by that is you should know the analytics that actually matter on each
platform, and you should be studying them.
Because you'll start to see trends that when you share this kind of content about this
topic, it gets way more reach and it gets way more engagement, so share more of that
content.
It literally is the same across every social media platform.
Double down, share more of what works, because you'll grow faster and you'll reach more people.
And if you want more info on that, you can also watch this video on how to grow from
zero subscribers fast.
And I really want to touch on something that I hear a lot.
Often we'll ask people, "What's your goal?
What do you want to do?"
And people say, "I want to inspire people and I want to motivate people."
And we're in this culture of just a cycle of constant motivation, and it's great that
you want to motivate people and it's great you want to inspire people, I do too.
But if you're just trying to compete in the motivation space, good luck.
Because it is competitive AF.
So you have to figure out how to find your little area of expertise and like I said,
niche down to blow up.
So one quick thing that you can do is complete this sentence: I help blank, to blank, by
blank.
So I help coaches and online entrepreneurs, to reach their audience and monetize their
message, by using YouTube and online courses.
That's what I do.
And the motivation aspect of that and the inspiration aspect of that, is a byproduct.
It just happens, because I'm helping people reach their goals, which is inspiring.
And when I share that, people are like, "Oh my gosh, I want to do that."
And when I share the stories of how people's lives have changed since they've started working
with me and my team, that also is inspiring.
So just being in the motivation space is rough.
It's hard to grow real fast there, unless you already have a base.
So instead, motivate people through your results, through the action, through the things that
you're able to do and impact others with.
Impact is everything, impact is inspiring.
So that's where you want to start.
Complete that sentence: I help blank, to blank, by blank.
Just fill that sentence out and you'll start to understand where your niche or your particular
category is.
And if it doesn't come right away, that's okay.
It takes some time, it takes some work, but keep asking questions, keep talking to people,
keep telling your story, and you're going to get to know your ideal audience member,
your ideal client really, really well in order to reach more of them.
You need to know your ideal client and your audience members on a deep level in order
to grow your audience.
And I always come back to using your story because your story is motivational.
Everybody has a hero's journey, everybody has an experience in their life where they
went from not a good situation to a great situation.
And if you watched this video, on how to create an online course, I talk a lot about that,
and how to create a profitable course based around your own experience.
Because nobody's a better expert than you on your own experience, and if you've solved
a problem, hands down, there are other people out there who would pay for your expertise
on how to solve that problem.
So make sure you check out that video as well.
Next thing I wanted to say is find your rhythm, and be consistent.
Super, super important that you find your own unique rhythm.
There are people on YouTube who post once a month, but their videos are bomb, and so
they get this massive exposure from that one video and it's quality over quantity.
I posted once a week until I got to 200,000 subscribers, now I post twice a week.
I'm a big believer in quality over quantity, and making sure your content is going to perform
well before you even record it, and that comes down to doing the research.
But making sure that you have a rhythm and consistency that works for you, because consistency
creates trust with your audience so that they continue to show up for you, and continue
to support you so that you can continue to build your personal brand.
So make sure you find a rhythm that works for you and stick to it, and remember to share
your content across other platforms, and don't think you need to reinvent the wheel.
A big part of personal branding is consistency in your messaging, and telling the same story
over and over and over again until people fully grasp it, and they know exactly who
you are and what you do and how you can help them.
So you can take one piece of content, whether it's a YouTube video, a podcast, et cetera,
you can split that content up and share it everywhere so that you're active on these
other platforms, but you're not having to create content from scratch.
So really great tool for this is something called repurpose.io.
We use it in my business, it's awesome.
I'm not currently an affiliate with them, but they're great.
And it basically allows you to clip your videos or your content into small chunks with like
the headlines, and make them really shareable across platforms.
So that allows you to make more content in less time and not have to come up with brand
new content for every platform every day, because it's just less exhausting.
So those are my key strategies for building a personal brand today.
And I know these are going to be really helpful for you, so please take action on them and
start working on your own unique story.
Because you being you is enough, I promise you that.
And it's your biggest asset today, because everybody can build a business the same way,
but not everybody is you.
Everybody can copy a logo, copy a font, copy a brand color, but not everybody is you.
There's nobody that can compete with you at being you.
And we live in a day and age where you can get paid to be you.
It's a wonderful time to be alive.
So, hone in on what makes you you, and that's going to be the biggest advantage to your
personal brand.
And keep telling your story because there's someone out there who needs to hear it.
If you want to build your audience, build your platform a heck of a lot faster, make
sure you go to bossyoutubestrategy.com, and I will show you how to blow up your YouTube
channel, and blow up your personal brand in the next 12 months.
You can sign up for that at the link below in the description.
Thank you so much for watching, check out these videos next to further build your personal
brand, and own your niche and dominate, and become the authority on social media.
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