Creating Your Personal Online Brand – Overcoming Blocks

People sometimes ask “Why Do I Need My Own Personal Online Brand?” – when what they really mean is “I’m Afraid”.

Different people have different fears.

For one person, it may be afraid of standing out from the crowd. Afraid of leadership, of standing up and being counted. For another, it’s afraid of being accountable.

For the next, it’s afraid of revealing weaknesses.  Or afraid of judgment, of not being good enough. Of friends and colleagues thinking “he’s not that good” – or even “she’s just bragging”.

Usually they come down to the two fundamental fears – Fear Of Success and Fear Of Failure.

I’ve seen countless people at personal brand workshops start out with any number of variations on these themes.

Of course, they are just perception – self-perception. No one else in the room sees these weaknesses of yours. Everyone else sees a person with amazing achievements and skills. (Of course, they are all far too busy thinking about their own limitations, to see yours).

The reality is:

You are unique. You have no competition.

This is the huge, key, power of a personal brand. Unlike a business brand, where you must develop your unique positioning in your market and work hard to differentiate from your competitors, your personal brand is based on YOU – and you are a unique human being.

So your personal brand needs to reflect Who You Are.

This is not the same as What You Do. Lots of people describe – and even define themselves by what they do. This is especially true of professionals; doctors, lawyers, engineers, teachers and many, many others. It’s easy to identify yourself with your vocation, especially if you are totally committed to it and spend many hours every day focussing on the essential skills that are part of your work.

Yet you are an entirely different person from your colleagues. You have a different personality, interests and relationships. You have different values. Just as each and every one of them is individual and unique. (Boring, bland and dull – possibly. But not the same.)

So, here are 5 key points to remember when creating your personal online brand:

1 – Be Authentic

It’s essential when building your personal brand to be authentic. This is about the real you. Of course, it’s also about developing a positioning that will appeal to your target market and customer or client, but fundamentally it is about your unique mix of skills experience and values. No one you have ever met is exactly like you. Even if you have an identical twin.

You just need to start saying what is different about you– and others will be attracted to you. It isn’t so much what you do, as how you do it.

Your unique approach to business and life reflects your personal values. One of the most useful exercises when developing your personal brand is to make a list of your personal values and put them in order of priority. You will become very clear about who you really are and what you stand for.

When you are clear, it’s easy to be authentic in what you do and what you say.

2 – Be Consistent

Like all brands, your personal brand must be consistent. Consistent in its message.

This is about what you stand for, not simply about logos and colours, fonts and style. These are simply ways to reinforce your consistency and your professionalism.

Being consistent is about reflecting those core values of yours. Everything you do and say should reflect them. If you are clear about them and being authentic, consistent messages will naturally follow.

3 – Reveal Weaknesses

Remember, Your Story is just a story. It becomes compelling with the emotion you add to it. This applies to your internal stories about your weaknesses.  No one else sees what you see. We overlay our stories about ourselves with the emotions we experienced at the time. Other people see the experience, without the emotion attached.

It also applies to the new story you choose to tell. Perception is reality. Tell a story of success, rather of than one of failure, based on exactly the same facts – and that is what people will see. Perception is reality.

Do remember, people are interested in your story – including your weaknesses. “Damaging” admissions build connection and trust. They reveal your humanity and become a point of identification.

4 – Be Brave

To be a leader, you need to be brave enough to take the steps – to lead. When you do, people will follow you.

When you stand up and put your skills and your values out into the world you will attract people who share those values or at least aspire to them.

You and your values won’t appeal to everyone. That’s fine. In fact it’s more than fine, it’s great! You want to work with people who share your values. If they don’t, you won’t make them happy and you won’t make yourself happy.

A lack of aligned values is one of the prime causes of stress in relationships.

This is why your values are so important. When you are clear about them, it’s so much easier to have the confidence to put your head above the parapet, to state clearly who you are and what you are doing that’s of value to others.

5 – Be Found

People will find you, when you are ready to be found – so you need to make sure they can find you. This is the whole point of a personal brand. Make it easy for people to find you – and then they will.

So take the first step and develop your own personal brand.

PS In case you were wondering, I’m afraid of heights and snakes – but I’m working on both…

 

If you’d like to talk about how I can help you create your personal brand, please do Get In Touch.

To Your Success!

 

 

 

Sophia James, Trusted Online Marketing – Personal Online Brand and Business Marketing Expert