PatrickA personal brand is a way to showcase the brand of YOU to the world. But why should you build one?
A personal brand is a way for people to get to know you! It’s a way for them to get to know what you are about, what you have to offer the world, and WHY you do what you do.
A personal brand is a brand about YOU!
And your personal brand is critical in today’s world because so much of the trust we build with people and businesses is done online first. If you are interested in working with a business or a coach, going to an event or just purchasing a product, you are most likely going to do some type of research online first.
So it’s important how we present ourselves to the world, and that comes through building a personal brand and online presence that lets you shine so that you can share your message.
What does a personal brand include?
Your personal brand includes how you showcase yourself on public social media platforms, what shows up when someone Google’s your name, what is presented on your website. It also includes your logos, the colors, and fonts, and generally the feeling your brand offers to people that view your work.
We also think about a personal brand is mostly about your online world. But your personal brand is also how you present yourself in the offline world. Banners, books, speaker presentations, the clothes you wear, and the energy you show up with. It’s all creating the brand of YOU and the image you choose to project into the world about who you are.
Why is your personal brand and online presence important?
Whether we like it or not, people ARE going to search for you online. Employers are searching for you when you go into an interview. Clients are searching for you when they look for a coach, and even potential first dates are searching for you before you meet them for drinks. It’s the reality of the world we live in today.
But the cool thing is that YOU get to craft the picture the world sees of you. You get to create the perception they see when they find your Instagram, LinkedIn, or Facebook account online. They get to hear your words and you get to create the vision they see in their mind about who you are.
I have a harsh truth for you though. To build a personal brand that resonates with your audience, you are going to have to change who you are first. You are going to have to change how you think, how you act, and how you feel.
You are going to have to learn how to show up authentically, become confident in speaking your voice, overcome any fears of picking up the camera, and find the courage to share your perspective even if it goes against what everyone one else in the world thinks and believes.
What are SOME things that prevent us from showing up authentically online and building your personal brand?
- Fear of failure
- Fear of the unknown
- Fear of judgment
Each of these fears heavily contributes the resistance of showing up as your authentic self. We are afraid that if we truly show the world who we are, then they are going to judge us.
We are also afraid that if we start to put ourself out there, and we fail, then we are going to be perceived as a failure. So instead we often don’t even try.
This keeps us in a perpetual loop where we want to make a change, we want to build something new, but we are too afraid of taking the actions necessary to make it happen. But I want to be the first to tell you that you can and SHOULD share your voice with the world. It’s the medicine the world needs most and it quite possibly will change your life in the process.
So how do you get started?
The honest truth is just to start. Create an Instagram account, a YouTube account, or a Medium account and just start posting. Create a commitment to yourself to post consistently every day for 30 days and see where you are at the end of the journey.
And just share your story. Share your struggles, share your conversations, share your travels, and just experiment. Your magic will come out in your content over time. But if you need help too, here are some questions I would encourage you to answer through your content.
I have some questions for you to answer today.
1) What do you love to do?
2) What kind of experiences do you want to have in your life?
3) How do you want to grow?
4) How do you want to contribute?
5) Who is your target audience?
If you need support in building your personal brand, I have a new coaching package called Ignite Your Personal Brand. Feel free to reach out to me and let me help you create a reality you truly love by building an online portfolio of work that will showcase you as the subject matter expert that YOU ALREADY ARE!