Last week, during the Q&A portion of our marketing masterclass, a solo business owner asked:
“How do I start building my personal brand?”
Time was, a marketer could just say, “Post on Twitter,” but that advice has become toxic as the platform self-destructs. Or they might say, “Just start a TikTok,” but for many people that sounds like a nightmare.
There are no easy answers anymore. Where to post and what to say are hard problems to solve.
So here’s what we said:
First, we have to define our terms.
Sales is demonstrating value in the moment. Which means marketing is demonstrating value at a distance. So branding is actually demonstrating your values over time.
That allows us to now reframe the question from, “How do I start building a personal brand?” to, “What are my values and where can I demonstrate them over time?”
Because I’m starting from the assumption that marketing is not your favourite thing in the world. Otherwise, you’d already have started, right?
So we need to figure out, not what’s perfect, but what you’ll do.
The job becomes finding a medium, finding a platform, finding a place where you will create and post content.
Not some perfect, idealized tactic that you imagine you’re supposed to do.
But what you want to do so much you will do it. Over time, for as long as it takes.
And if you’re wondering where that might be, leverage your envy:
Look at the marketing content produced by a person, a business, a brand that you admire or feel slightly envious of. The one that gives you FOMO or makes you feel guilty for not doing enough.
Don’t try to copy them, but identify the things they’re doing, the tactics they’re employing, and ask yourself: Which single one do I want to do, too?
Do you want to post on TikTok? Do you want to post on LinkedIn? Do you want to host or guest on a webinar or podcast? Do you want to write and promote a book?
Do you want to write a newsletter?
Because, ultimately, if you don’t find something you want to do, you won’t stick with it.
Your personal brand might become ‘that person who keeps starting and stopping.’
When what you want is to become a brand that stands for something clear. Something meaningful, something valuable. Something uniquely and demonstrably you.
That’s how you build something that keeps working, instead of something you work at once and stop.
So that’s more or less what we told that business owner.
The question I now have for you is, where are you going to start?
Kelford Inc. is the marketing team that’s never at a loss for words. If you’re struggling with what to say and where to say it to attract ideal clients, we’ll show you the way.