Hey everyone, Jason here digital marketing consultant.
And in this personal branding strategy guide, you're going to learn the four simple phases
of developing your own personal brand strategy.
Timestamp table of contents in the description along with some other helpful videos to crafting
your content, which is how you're going to grow and spread your brand message.
So we're going to go through the four phases, when you stick around to the end, we have
three foundational keys to success, irrespective of what type of brand you're going to be building,
but first let's go ahead and talk about what the heck personal branding actually is.
So here's my definition and then we'll break it down.
“growing a niche audience around a shared interest or desired result through storytelling,
engagement, and value.”
So let's go ahead and break this down so we can see step by step what exactly encapsulates
what a personal brand actually is.
So the first part of this is growing a niche audience.
Keyword being “niche”.
And this is because when you try and speak to everyone you wind up connecting with no
one.
So whatever type of influence Authority or brand you're building, your goal isn't to
connect with ever try to connect with every single person in the world, because you're
going to wind up having a very flat message that's not going to really resonate with anyone.
Now, the next part of this definition is a shared interest or desired result.
So it's very important that you're around one particular topic and you're very focused
on what either you talk about, in terms of the content or you're very focused on something
called “the journey”, which we'll get to later.
Now, the next part of this is through storytelling and engagement.
So what this means simply is storytelling means you're being authentic and you're telling
stories.
You're sharing your personal experiences.
You're not just a robot reading off a transcript of things that you research, right?
You're adding your own personality to it.
And then engagement, which you think would be simple and just that means we're applying
to comments.
No matter what you're doing, you need to actually engage.
Your job isn't to just throw your message out there and then just keep making videos
or keep making Instagram posts or whatever you're doing.
You need to actually engage, it should be a conversation and of course the final part
is value.
Because they need some sort of tangible benefit from engaging with your content, which actually
leads us into the very first phase of developing your personal brand.
And that is actually being helpful and that's understanding the difference between building
a personal brand, as an authority and expert and building a personal brand as just being
some cool influencer, right?
So we've all seen those Instagram pictures from influencers who have the perfect body,
the perfect house, the perfect car, they're taking vacations all across the world that's
awesome.
And it has its place in your content if that's legitimately a part of who you are, but when
it comes to building a personal brand because you actually want to have a business or coaching,
consulting, online business, then you actually have to be helpful.
It's not just about flexing and showing all the cool stuff you have, or showing your six-pack
abs if you're a personal trainer.
It's about showing people that you can be helpful.
And the key way to ensure that you actually do this and you fall in this camp versus just
your flexing all the time showing how cool your life is, is helping them through their
journey, which is the second phase of developing your personal brand.
And this is where you have a minute detailed understanding of who your target person is.
So when it comes to building your personal brand, you have to remember that everything
that you say and do the way you act is ultimately your brand.
Your brand is the perception of who you are.
And so part of crafting that perception; and when I say craft, I don't mean make it up.
Crafting is being strategic in how you communicate and what you say and what you share and decide
not to share and that comes down to being helpful along this customer journey, because
whoever you're talking to wants to achieve a result.
They want to enjoy something that they're not enjoying now.
And so you have what results they're after, so that your content and your brand can communicate
that you can help them get the result and actually get this help them get the result,
not just communicate that you can help them, but actually help them through your content.
So people can see your Instagram post, so they can watch your YouTube videos, and they
come away feeling like “yeah, I could take a step towards what I'm trying to achieve”,
as opposed to coming away from your content like “well, I think they could me, but it
looks like they want me to pay them three thousand dollars for private consulting or
something to actually get it done”.
So you do need value in your content and that's going to help you build your personal brand,
but until you have a minute understanding of who your ideal audience member is, in terms
of what they're after and then what they think is getting in the way, then you can come alongside
them and help them along their journey.
Now, if you haven't achieved that results this is a perfect example of my YouTube channel.
Well then just document your process of trying to get to that result.
There is no shame in being transparent and saying “look, you know what?
I want an online business”, or “I want six-pack abs”, or “I want to live till
a 100”, or whatever the lofty goal is right?
And saying “I'm documenting the process of everything I'm learning to get there.”
Now, when we get into content and step number four, you're going to see how this kind of
plays out.
Now what's very important is that you stay focused in on the same audience member.
So what this means is if you really like business, you really like fitness maybe you really like
a particular genre of TV shows, well that might really matter to you but it might not
matter to your ideal audience?
The people who are really interested in fitness might not really care about the TV shows you
watch or not might not really care about the things you're doing with your business.
And so it's very important this is phase number three choosing your content pillars, where
you choose three to five pieces or topics of content that you focus on.
So as an example, let's quickly go through one here.
Let's say we have an entrepreneur channel and our pillars would some look something
like talking about analytics, social media marketing, sales funnels, advertising and
membership sites, right?
So that would be the broad categories that I could talk about on an entrepreneurship
Channel.
And sure and a vlog I could talk about a TV show I'm watching or I could talk about a
new workout that I'm trying out and doing, but it wouldn't be the core of what the brand
message is, it wouldn't be the core of what the content is.
And this is because it's so hard to stand out in a sea of noise across social media.
So you want to be that person or that particular go-to resource, when it comes to whatever
your topic is.
And so this is goes back to building a nice audience not trying to be Superman or Ironman
of everything.
And so with these three content pillars, what it allows you to do is make sure that you
stay focused with your content, but it also ensures that your content doesn't become repetitive,
because if I made a YouTube channel and all I talked about was Google Analytics all day,
even though I probably could, because I'm a little bit of a nerd, that would be really
boring.
Nobody wants to subscribe to a YouTube channel that only talks about analytics.
And so you want to create these different content pillars and this will actually help
with your content calendar, because then you can have different topics on different days.
And it makes it very easy to stay consistent with your content and keep your content fresh.
Now, when it comes to actual content creation, this is phase number four where you're actually
going to start figuring out what type of content should you make.
And there's two main types of content, and you need both of them to build a personal
brand.
You have authority building content and you have relationship building content.
So authority building content provides value through YouTube tutorials, LinkedIn pulse
posts and you know in-depth blog posts.
That's all that kind of Authority thought leadership stuff, where you're getting real
nitty gritty with the details.
And then we have relationship building content.
And this is where a lot of disconnect happens, because typically you'll gravitate towards
one or the other, you really do need both.
Personally, I gravitate towards the tutorial style stuff, but hey, I'm learning how to
vlog, because it's just part of the whole peach pie of building a personal brand.
When it comes to relationship building content, you're sharing your stories, you're sharing
stories from your industry, maybe you're commenting on what's going on, you're replying or responding
to a really popular video in your niche your space, this is where your personality comes
out just imagine you're sitting at a coffee shop, and you're talking to your ideal viewer
and you're just you're just chatting.
You're just talking.
There's no kind of goal of creating a specific piece of content to help them achieve a specific
goal.
This is just where you try to relax well as much as you can on camera, right?
You try and relax and be yourself and just talk about the topics in your particular niche.
So a great example of this is something I actually used to start on this channel, and
this is why I recommend starting with documentation.
And that is once a week I turned on my webcam and I recorded a quick video of everything
I had done over the previous week as I was building a sales funnel for a new business
for the first time.
And that was it I did about 50 videos; 50 videos of that word just once a week I sat
down and I talked about everything that I was working on.
And you know what?
Did it rank really well did it get a ton of views?
No, not particularly.
And I look-- you can look and go back and go “wow, that video quality is terrible”,
but you know what?
It helps with the development of myself getting a little more comfortable on camera, and then
it also shows people that I started off exactly where they are, that I'm really nothing special
and that's something that you need to communicate to your audience, that yes you've achieved
this result, but you put in the work.
It didn't magically just land in your lap.
And all of our content when we start is not going to be great.
So there's no point in trying to make it perfect.
I'm actually giving away one of the keys, but the point is when it comes to relationship
building content versus Authority kind of tutorial style content, you do need both.
You'll find that one is easier than the other, but you do want to make sure you have a good
mix of both of them.
If that means you only vlog once or twice a month, well then, okay you only vlog once
or twice a month, because you really feel uncomfortable with it, but you still have
to do it.
So that does it for the four phases of developing your personal brand strategy, and then of
course starting to figure out what type of content you should make, which is going to
drive your brand and your message forward.
So if you're getting some value from this video, go and hit that like button.
Now it's time for the three keys to success, when it comes to building your personal brand.
And these are going to see a little repetitive, but they bear repeating.
The first key to success when it comes to building your personal brand, is making sure
that you are real and authentic.
People buy from people they know like and trust.
And in order to do that, you need to be transparent and forthcoming with whatever your situation
is and the results that you've achieved.
So if you haven't achieved the results that your ideal viewer is looking for, then just
say you're working on it and share the results that you have.
And if you have failed 20 times, well, guess what, that's 20 different pieces of content
you can say.
This doesn't work, this doesn't work, this doesn't work and this doesn't work.
And it's going to save them a heck of a lot of time than being your audience, because
they're learning from your mistakes.
Now if there's particular parts of your life business whatever, that you don't want to
share a 100% of then just don't talk about it at all.
Just say “you know what?
That part of my life or that part of who I am, I don't really want to share all of it
or I don't want to share any of it, then just don't talk about it that's as simple as it
gets”.
Choose the areas that you're going to be extremely transparent in and then just choose the areas
where you don't say anything, that's okay.
Now, the second key to success when it comes to building your personal brand, is done is
better than perfect.
Done is better than perfect, when it comes to content creation, when it comes to your
strategy, because at the end of the day, it's just about creating content and putting yourself
out there, because no matter how good it is, no matter how much time and energy you put
into it, someone is going to leave a mean comment.
You're going to find something wrong with a piece of content you made.
You're going to be looking at it and thinking about 20 different things you could have done
differently.
Great!
Go ahead and do that the next video, the next post, the next round, the next time, because
there's always another one.
So a number of occurrences when it comes to growing your personal brand, is very important
in terms of the amount of content you put out.
Now, the final key to success when it comes to building your personal brand, is quality
versus quantity.
And this ties back into my personal definition of what a personal brand is focusing on a
niche audience.
You may have heard of Tim Ferriss or Seth Godin talking about their thousand true fans,
and this is something where you want to focus in on finding who are those thousand people
that are really going to resonate with your message, they're always going to watch your
videos always engaging with you on Instagram and Facebook and Twitter, always buy it whatever
products or services you're offering within reason of their budget, right?
You want to focus in on who those people are.
You're not trying to connect with a massive audience.
The size of your audience doesn't matter.
It's better to have a 100 or 200 people on your email list or following you, that are
just real superfans who are going to do business with you, who are going to engage with you,
then 10,000 people who could care less if you posted ever again.
So thank you so much for watching.
I sincerely hope you got some value out of this video.
And most importantly, you got some ideas on how to craft your content strategy and put
together your own personal brand strategy.
So go ahead, check out those links in the description to developing that content strategy,
hit that like button and subscribe for more digital marketing tactics and strategies just
like the ones covered in this video.
And until the next, keep building the business you love.