The Struggle of Why and How to Create Your Personal Brand and Drive Success.
Author: Dan Craddock
September 26, 2017
What is a Personal Brand?
Branding isn’t just for companies anymore. In the current market, more and more people are cultivating personal brands. Even within their own professional fields. Financial advisors, Realtors, Coaches, especially bloggers are getting themselves a personal brand. Anything that can help them stand out in their market. Think about how many Realtors there are in your area. Last time I checked, the state of Virginia had 30,000 plus. And that number is probably a little slim. Sure, you could rely on your brokerage to bring in clients, but why wouldn’t you want to have some added value to make that client’s decision a little easier? That’s where a personal brand could come in handy. Something that lets your target demographic know that not only are you a professional, but you can and will go the extra mile for them.
Check Out Matt Thompson’s Personal Brand We Put Together
Building a Platform
The first thing you need to do is purchase a domain name. You can do that at Google which is nice. You can select email packages or a number of other great features from the G-Suite which makes the whole process much easier to manage. You should always try to buy a domain with your name. But if www.jonsnow.com is taken, you can with www.jonsnowrealtor.com or some variation that includes what you’re all about. Try to keep it short though. Everything is so overwhelmingly mobile now, people don’t want to type a really long URL on the phone. Or your first name and last name at your really long URL for email.
jonsnowfromgameofthrones@winteriscominganddragons.com
Yea…don’t do that.
Now that you have your domain name purchased (and auto renew selected) you can start building your online presence. You should probably hire a professional to build your WordPress website. You want to make sure the site is mobile friendly (aka responsive), well put together, and easy for consumers to use. There’s nothing worse than someone working on their personal brand and trying the DIY approach on their site using one of those free builders. It rarely comes out looking the way those nice sites in the ad looked, plus you’re locked into a subscription package that can be a nightmare to get out of.
Reach out if you want to talk about building your site! We’d be happy to help, we even offer hosting and updates!
Discover Your Superpower
Think about that one thing that all of your family, friends, and most importantly your work colleagues say you are great at. Are you the person that creates a comfortable and friendly atmosphere for your clients when they’re buying that first home? But you also keep it real with them and what they can afford and what they should expect? Because their long term happiness is more important than your short term commission.
Be Better
This is probably the most important thing when it comes to creating a personal brand. You have to continue to grow and nurture your talent. You have to constantly evolve your niche and provide more value.
Share Your Knowledge
The best thing you can do with some of your experience is give it away. The easiest way to do this, and probably the most popular form of content consumption, is with video. You can shoot a video, upload it to your YouTube or Vimeo account and then share it to your blog and social media accounts. If you know your stuff, people will notice.
Here’s me, being moderately awkward on camera while displaying notecards with terrible hand writing!
Do Your Thing
You’re creating your own personal brand. Don’t make yourself look like every other person in your field. What makes you unique? What sets you apart? I personally wear really bright orange shoes to meetings. It started as just a personal decision that I wanted these ugly orange shoes, but it grew into something more. People started to notice. I heard people say “you know… Dan… that guy that does logos… you know… orange shoes!!”
Map it Out
Know both your short and long term goals. Do you want to build your personal brand to win the best possible job with a firm? Do you want to build your brand to create the best possible job for yourself?
Find Your Why
So this last bit is kind of obvious, but it’s important. Find your why is a self discovering practice that essentially points to your motivation or bottom line. Why are you doing what you do? For me, I wanted to make a difference for small business owners who can’t afford to go to a large firm for their branding.
I know this may have been a lot of information, and I tried to break it down as much as possible for easy consumption. But if you have any questions about creating a personal brand, just reach out and ask me! I’d love to help you out and build a branding package that works for you and your budget!
