Building a personal brand can be extremely powerful and provide a lot of leverage for your business. I've spent years building my personal brand and name up partly because I simply enjoy doing it and part of it is for business. The more people who know of you or about you will give you a better shot at another deal or opportunity. So stop hiding in your bedroom and get to building your brand! Here are 4 simple tips I've learned along the way.
1. Just Start
Well this tip seems simple, but it's not. Too many times I've often wasted time thinking of "high-level" strategy of how and when to do something. So many of you are waiting for that "perfect" time to start building your brand. The most important part is to simply start in the first place.
2. Fu$K Failure & Insecurities
I hold this piece of advice near and dear to my heart. Don't be afraid to fail. Failure will happen, but the real regret is not even trying. Don't be scared that you won't get a huge following right away. Stop worrying how you look. Who cares what naysayers say. Listen, you need to be presentable but don't get caught up in the small BS. If you can change something, change it. If you can't change it, don't waste time worrying about it or justifying why you can't.
Great example is someone afraid of being on video because they hate their voice. Are you kidding me? You need to get over that self hate if you want to build a brand because I'll give you a little secret, that same voice is heard by everyone you talk to daily. Just because you're not used to it, who cares! You can't change it.
People often allow small insecurities to get in their way of success. This holds true especially in building your personal brand. I say go for it and don't be afraid to test and fall flat on your face.
3. Diversify
Be sure to diversify! This means post on multiple platforms. Post in multiple mediums. Use video and photography. Use voice and use written. Remember my tip number two? Don't let little insecurities stop you from doing one or the other. Diversify your brand through multiple channels.
Use Facebook and your blog. Use snapchat and Instagram. The benefit of this is that if one vanishes overnight, you still have other forms of communication to your followers. Also just know that people consume information in different ways too.
4. BE YOU
This is harder than you think. You might be thinking, "Oh, just be me? Easy!". You're wrong. Whether you like it or not, you'll likely influenced by someone else who might be a thought leading personality. I've fallen into this trap so many times in my past efforts but I figured out a simple strategy to kickstart the original you.
I simply went dark and stopped following everyone or consuming content. This allowed me to get back to authentic me and really helped improve my content and connection as a brand. If you're finding yourself copying people, then try that strategy out. People want to see the authentic you and not a clone of someone else.
Conclusion
I can go on for hours about personal branding, but I'll leave you with those 4 simple tips. I do want to say I think it's extremely important that you build your personal brand up because there are so many benefits to it. Maybe next time we will expand on the benefits of how a good personal brand will help you. But I can assume if you're reading this then you get it, so good for you!