Sunny Lenarduzzi: If you don't buy into it yourself, if you're not fully, 100% bought
it, why would anybody else be?
I love when you ask me questions, because it gives me perfect ideas for my content on
YouTube.
And a big question that I've been asked recently about marketing and branding and social media
in 2019 is about how to hold a personal brand.
Now, you know if you've been here a while, thank you, and if you're new here, welcome,
make sure that you hit that subscribe button and give me a raised hand or a comment below
and let me know if you're feeling a little overwhelmed by the subject, by trying to stand
out, get seen and build a personal brand.
If you are just put "Yes" in the comments below and by the end of this video, I know
I'm gonna be able to give you some actionable things that you can walk away and do to start
building your brand.
Because keep in mind, I've been in your shoes, I started from scratch, I had no audience,
no following just a couple years ago, and have really been able to build a personal
brand that has opened up so many opportunities for me.
I've been asked to speak all over the world, I've built a multi-million dollar business,
I have built an entire team around me, and that's what I wanna help you start doing.
And the thing for me, which should give you a lot of hope is that I kinda started by accident
and I kinda fell into all of it, I really didn't know what I was doing, so I've learned
a lot.
And these are the golden nuggets that I can share with you that will start to make a big
difference for you immediately.
So we're gonna dive into some very simple action items, some simple steps that you can
start doing right away, as soon as you finish watching this video, and I can't wait to see
how it goes for you guys.
The first thing and probably the most popular question that you ask is, "Which platform
do I use and should I be growing all of them at once?"
And my big bold answer to that is, "NO!
Do not try and grow everything at once."
If you're trying to grow everything at once, nothing's gonna grow at all.
And that's just the honest feedback that I have for you at this point.
When I was first starting on social media, there was really only Twitter and Facebook,
Instagram wasn't a thing, YouTube was around too but those are the main two players that
everyone was really using, and so it was easy to kinda be on everything.
But now there's so many platforms and there's so many nuances and things you need to know
about these platforms in order to really succeed.
And so my best advice for you and the really secret sauce of anyone that you follow who's
made it really big is, they picked one platform and stuck with it.
So my first piece of advice is pick one thing and stick with it.
If I tried to grow YouTube, my podcast, my Instagram, my Twitter, my Facebook at the
same time, you wouldn't be watching me right now.
There is now way that I could grow everything at once.
It's just too difficult, especially when you're a one woman show or a one man show.
And be honest in the comments, let me know, are you doing this solo?
Because if you are, there's no shame in that and I did that for years and I did not have
the bandwidth to do everything well.
So I chose YouTube, and the reason I chose YouTube, and this is a takeaway for you as
well is, because it played to my strengths.
So I know that being on video is super easy for me.
Why do you think I'm doing it for so long?
I was a journalist before I even ventured into YouTube and it's just something that
comes naturally for me to talk to you like this.
Writing is a lot more challenging for me, it's harder for me to sit down and write a
blog post than it is for me to just talk to you.
So what are your strengths?
What comes the easiest to you?
What's the easiest for you?
And really big clue of what kind of platform to pick is what kind of content do you consume
the most?
Are you listening to podcasts?
Are watching YouTube videos on a daily basis?
Wherever you live and wherever you're consuming the most content, that's probably a good clue
for how you wanna get your content out there.
So that's my first piece of advice, pick on platform and stick to it.
Now, you know I am biased to YouTube because of how it's grown my whole business and my
brand and it's been just and amazing tool for me because people are finding me even
when I'm not creating content on here.
And that's really the beauty of it is that, search functionality of people coming across
my content all day every day, and I'm not having to do more work.
So that is one of my favorite bonuses of YouTube.
Tip number to is, educate.
Pretty simple, it's really sharing the knowledge that you have and similar to what I said earlier,
you can't be an expert at everything at once.
And so really to gain traction and momentum, and I say this a lot, "You've got to niche
down to blow up."
And it feels crazy and counter intuitive to do that, but I'm telling you it's the best
way to succeed in 2019 when you're trying to build a personal brand.
You wanna be known for something.
You want people to point at you and be like, "Oh, that's the girl who knows YouTube really
well," or, "That's the girl who's an expert at food or fashion or whatever it might be."
And the way that you gain expert status is to educate people and share your knowledge
and your genius.
So a really quick hack or something you can do right now, is just start writing down all
of the things that you are really good at when it comes to your space.
Being a generalist is the hardest way to succeed in building a brand in 2019 because nobody
cares unfortunately.
You have to make people care.
And the way to make people care is to give something of value.
And the easiest way to give something of value is to teach people and to be an educator.
And if you look at again, all the big names out there, they're teaching in some way shape
or form, and you're gonna start to notice it more and more now that I've planted that
seed.
So what can you teach?
What are you really good at?
Or what have you recently learned that you're really starting to master that you can then
share with other people?
For me for example, when I was starting to learn YouTube, I didn't have it mastered but
I was starting to gain a lot of momentum, so sharing what was making a difference for
me in real time.
So if you're just starting to learn about food or fashion or blogging or whatever it
might be, what are the things that you're learning and the little tricks and secrets
that you're learning that you can then share?
And I know it's hard to think of yourself as being an expert at that early phase, but
the really great advantage that you have is that, if someone's been doing this of a long
time and they've built a big huge brand around a certain niche, they're not doing all of
those new tricks and techniques and tools, because they've got their system, they've
figured it out.
So if you can come across with something brand new that you're doing that's working, it's
gonna gain a lot of attention for you because it's a fresh new concept and idea of how to
really start growing and building.
So that's an easy way to start educating in your niche or your space.
The third thing is, networking in your niche.
So I know that you're probably watching and thinking, nobody knows who I am, I have no
clout, I have no credibility, who's even gonna listen to me?
You have to make people listen.
That's the reality of it.
So you make people listen by doing what I just said which is, educating people, but
you also make people listen by actually activating conversations.
So again, this is a trick that I used when I was first getting started.
I started figuring out, "Okay.
Who are the people who are in this space that are doing a really great job, that have built
really solid communities?"
I found them every social platform, I followed them on all of the platforms that were out
there, and then I started communicating with them, building relationships with them by
adding value and sharing their content and doing things that were gonna help them sort
of notice me by not asking for anything, but adding value to them.
So I shared their content, I would talk about their content, I'd respond to their questions.
And then I would also interact with their communities, so the people in their communities
who were asking more questions and who wanted to start conversations.
Because the reality is, if channels have grown really big or platforms have grown really
big, it's hard to get to every single comment.
So if you can start activating conversations with some of those comments that have been
missed, it's a great way for you to start gaining recognition in that industry and space.
Also things like Facebook Groups, using Facebook Groups to position yourself as the expert,
to share your content not in a spammy way but if someone asks a question about, "What's
the best restaurant in Vancouver?" and you happen to have a video on that topic, share
that and say, "Well, I actually just made a video on this restaurant I just tried, it
was so good."
That's a great way for people to see your content and say, "Oh, my gosh.
Well, that's gonna be my new "Go to" person about that subject."
Random example but you get what I'm saying.
So things like Facebook Groups and all of the social media platforms, following the
people that you admire and then interacting with their communities in a way that's providing
value and helping is such a good way to start networking in your niche and start getting
known as the "Go to".
The other thing, great resource, and I know there's a lot of other people who might've
mentioned this but meetup.com is such a great place to go when you're first getting started.
So believe it or not, you can also talk to people offline and if you wanna do that, you
can go to meetup.com and search things like social media.
And it will bring up any event in Vancouver and create alerts for you, or in any city
that you're in to say, "This event, this networking gathering is happening about social media
at this place at this time."
There you go, go attend that, meet people in real life, talk to people in real life,
share what you're doing.
That starts to build your recognition as well as the person who is becoming the expert in
this niche.
And the fourth thing to start building your brand in 2019 again, is about being proactive,
not reactive.
If you're sitting there waiting for someone to recognize you and give you a break, you're
gonna be waiting a long time.
Because everyone out there is hustling for this, there are people who are working way
harder than you are.
So when you're starting out and you're trying to gain that personal brand and that recognition,
you've gotta go after it with all you've got.
So one of the things that I did in the very beginning was pitching myself.
So I would basically find all of the podcasts that I wanted to be on that were at my level,
I wasn't unrealistic in thinking I was gonna be on these huge podcasts when nobody even
knew who I was, but here's the amazing thing about 2019, everybody's got a podcast, everybody's
got a YouTube Channel, everybody's got a blog.
So in reality, you can find people who are also just starting out and do sort of a trade
and be like, "Hey, I have this amazing value I can bring to your audience on this topic,
I've already written the post, let me know what you think," or, "I've already got this
training I can do on your podcast for your audience, for this topic and here's the proof
of my results."
Whatever it might be.
That's where you start, you start by saying, "I've got this all ready for you, I'm hand
delivering you content to put on your podcast, your blog, your YouTube channel," whatever
it may be, "And all I have to do is show up, and all you have to do is just interview me
or allow me the space to do it."
When you come with value, it's really hard for people to say no, especially when people
are just starting out and they're trying to figure out what kind of content to post.
So when you start networking in your niche and you do everything that I mentioned in
step three, that's when you can figure out, "Okay.
Who has an outlet that you can then start guest posting on or doing a podcast for them
or creating some piece of content for them?" and just keep pitching.
And I would pitch like hundreds and maybe get one, so that's the reality but once you
get one, you can then say, "I was featured on X site," And even if it's not a big name
site, at least someone trusted you enough as an expert to be on their site, and that
gives you that credibility, that gives you that sense of, "Okay.
Well, they must know what they're talking about if someone else trusted them to do that."
So pitch yourself, it might feel awkward, but it works.
And pitch yourself to people who are in a realistic realm to you and have a similar
size audience to you, because that's how you really start to grow.
And the people that I started collaborating with when I first started out, and we both
had no audience, we've grown together.
One person actually, who you guys know as well is, Sean Cannell who has been a friend
since we both started our channels and we have both collaborated with each other since
day one.
And we continue to grow together, which is a really really cool thing.
So it's less about competing with people who are in your space, who are at the same level
as you, it's more about, "How can I help you and how can we help each other?"
And that is the best most sustainable way to grow.
Number five.
Super super important, you've gotta claim it, whatever it is that you're trying to build
your personal brand around, claim that, whether you are a fashion blogger or a foodie or a
Pinterest expert, whatever it may be, "If you don't claim it first, why would anyone
else believe you?"
You can quote me on that.
Feel free to tweet that out.
But it's the truth, because if you don't but into it yourself, nobody else is gonna buy
into it with you.
So put that in your Instagram bio, put it in your Twitter bio, put it on your YouTube
header, wherever you have a platform, even if you're not actively using it, make sure
it's there.
And the other added bonus to that in a very like nerdy kinda way is that it creates you
as someone who's searchable.
So if you go to my Instagram profile, you'll see that it says, marketing expert or marketing
strategist.
I can't remember right now.
But something about marketing, and the amount of people who find me on a daily basis because
they're searching for marketing, it's crazy.
So if you put that in there, you're gonna start to get more followers and more of an
audience building around you, that's super targeted to what it is that you're gonna be
sharing, which will increase your engagement.
See?
Got kinda nerdy on you guys and went down a bit of a rabbit hole.
Tend to do that.
But that's the nerdy element of why you wanna do it, and the technical element of why you
wanna do it, but at another level, the moment you really start believing it and you really
start buying into this personal brand you're trying to build is the moment when things
will start to shift and when everyone else around you will also start to buy into it
with you.
Let me know what you guys thought about this video and if you want me to continue answering
these kinds of questions that you're sending me on Instagram and all over the place on
my YouTube channel, because it's a lot of fun for me to do, and pretty easy, because
I've been doing this for a little bit.
So if you enjoyed it, if it was helpful for you, let me know in the comments below.
Make sure that you subscribe for new videos every single week, I'm here to help you guys,
to serve you guys, and to help you build the businesses that you really are excited about,
the brands that you're excited about and truthfully, a life that you're excited about as well.
So give it a "Like" if you liked it, let me know in the comments, be sure to subscribe,
and if there's someone that you know who's really interested in building their personal
brand this year or that you think needs to, make sure you share this video with them as
well.
And tag me on your Insta Stories once you've watched this, or tag me on Instagram or Twitter
and I'll be sure to share you're feedback too.
I love seeing that from you guys.
Thank you guys so much for watching and I will see you in the next episode.