I’ve been talking about tips and strategies to build your personal brand for over a decade now, but there is one glaring thing I need to acknowledge and take responsibility for…

💡 Tips and strategies aren’t helpful if you don’t know the order to execute them! 

It’s like baking a pie. You can have a bunch of ingredients and a barrage of steps, but if those steps aren’t organized simply and sequentially, you may start on your filling before your crust — a baking meltdown! (Can you tell I’m utterly addicted to Great British Bake Off? Or is the Great British Baking Show? WHY DO THEY HAVE DIFFERENT NAMES DEPENDING ON THE COUNTRY YOU WATCH IT IN!!)

Moving right along… 

I realized that for those of you who are newer to my community or for those of you who’ve been here for a while but need a refresher, it’s time we go back to brand basics.📚

 So this week, our topic is: 

Personal Branding 101: Where the HECK Do We Begin?

 1. Figure out your purpose

Not to get all Simon Sinek here, but the unavoidable truth of doing anything well in life is knowing what your core purpose for doing something is. When it comes to branding, this is particularly pertinent because branding is a long play. It’s not “mercenary marketing” where you can just drop in, hit your goals, and be done. It’s an act of love, dedication, and consistency every day. And the second you stop doing it, you risk losing it. ⏳

It would be like Apple, who, after accumulating decades of brand clout, decided they no longer needed to innovate or advertise. No amount of built-up brand goodwill would prevent them from a Blackberry-esque crash.

Now, I want to coach you not to get stuck in analysis paralysis here. Some people feel that if they don't have a world-saving mission that is so inspirational Mother Theresa herself would weep that they haven’t quite identified their purpose. But that’s not right. 

Start simple here. Maybe you want to build your brand so you can get a new job. Maybe you want to build your brand so you gain leverage and bargaining power in your current job. Maybe you like public speaking and realize that being a recognizable thought leader is a cheat code to the Ted Stage. Whatever it is, don’t overthink it, and know that you can change it (and you should as your business evolves).

When I first started building my personal brand as a corporate marketing manager in 2011, my mission was to “publish content that would help me find a marketing mentor.”  

When I left that corporate job to start my own business, my brand purpose was to “Secure my first 3 paying clients to keep the lights on.”  

In 2024, it’s now “Build a thriving community that wants to learn from me and who I enjoy hanging out with.” (No kidding, I love every single one of my clients and students, and I know without a shadow of a doubt it’s because my brand attracts people with shared values.)

Remember, your purpose will keep you going when you’re feeling frustrated (which you will) and will always guide you in making the right choices for your brand.  

Ok, so you have your purpose nailed down, and you didn’t overthink it, right? Moving on to step two…

2. WHO is going to help you achieve that purpose?

Let’s say your brand goal is to become well-known in an area so you can leave your job and start your own consulting business. Great! Love that one. Now you need to figure out WHO is going to allow you to do that. 

The answer is, of course…YOUR PROSPECTIVE CLIENTS!

The biggest brand “aha” you can have is to realize that any gains made by your brand aren't because of you; it’s because of your audience. So now that you know what you want, you have to get clear on who you need to SERVE to make that happen.

Another example: If you want a new job, the people you need to serve, educate, and communicate with are hiring managers. 

The more time you spend getting radically clear, curious, and empathetic about your audience, the sharper your message and resonance will be. It will also help you with step three…

3. Develop your magnetic brand message

Ok, so we know your brand purpose and who your brand aims to serve. Wonderful! Now, we need to articulate how we serve them. Again, don’t overthink this! Understand what your audience’s core challenge is, then restate it back to them.

For instance, my audience wants to build their personal brand so they can create a thriving thought leadership business they love, where they get paid for their ideas by way of speaking, books, and knowledge products.  

After some tweaking, my core brand message is simply: I help professionals build magnetic personal brands so they’re paid top-dollar for their brilliance by way of speaking, books, and knowledge products.

4. Pick your platform and delivery mechanism

Now you know your mission, your audience, and your brand message. Time to deploy it! To do this, you’ll want to start by choosing a “discovery platform.” A discovery platform is somewhere where built-in audiences exist that you can attract to your brand. 

For example, social media is a “discovery platform.” Platforms like YouTube, LinkedIn, and Instagram did the leg work of getting users. 

Other types of brand platforms that are less discovery and more “nurturing” are personal blogs, email lists, and communities. While these can help grow your brand, they do so *after* someone typically finds you on a “discovery platform.”

Choosing your discovery platform should be easy-peasy if you did your audience homework. I serve professionals, so using LinkedIn was a straightforward choice for me. If you want to help make-up artists though, you probably want to look at YouTube, TikTok, or Instagram, as they hang out more there.

The big piece of coaching I have for you here is this, though: Start with ONE platform. Do not (I repeat) DO NOT move to another one until you’ve learned how to master and create momentum with one.

When you start managing too many out the gate, your message, focus, and brand will become diluted. 

5. Start publishing content

This is where you get to have some fun and start testing. Do you enjoy speaking? Maybe short-form video is a good choice. Do you love writing? Try out longer articles (like this) or written statuses. Do you love expressing a complex idea through simple graphics? Use illustrations to help.

The reality is as long as your content is anchored in serving your audience, you can take some time to experiment with which type of content works best for you. 

All of my clients and students build their brands on LinkedIn; however, each has a content “type” that performs best for them.

• One client of mine goes viral with her written posts that have no videos or photos accompanying them.
• Another one of my clients always knocks it out of the park with a simpler caption and a photo of himself.
• Meanwhile, I always get speaking requests after I publish video content.

You’ll find your own rhythm, and you’ll start to learn what works best for your personality and your audience when you test.

 Just remember, always come back to your audience. When you focus your content strategy on serving them, you’ll find yourself leaps and bounds ahead of people who are building a personal brand just to talk about how great they are. 

The Recap 

Those are my first five steps of brand building! If I were starting from scratch, that’s exactly how I’d go about building my brand today. While it may sound simple, I do want to reiterate something I said at the top of this article that I mean very seriously…

Building a brand, when done well, is an act of commitment and love. 

In branding’s best version, you become a person of service. You become someone people can reliably look to for education, inspiration, and entertainment, and that’s a noble thing to take on. I commend you for your efforts and interest in doing so.👏

And a bonus reminder for those of you who've been waiting to start...