How to Talk About Your Personal Brand So Opportunity Finds You
In a world where the marketplace is so saturated, the only differentiator is you. — your exact experiences, values, and skills.
From Personal Brand Building to Small Businesses on the importance of emotional connection in storytelling:
“…it could be said that everything that Virgin stands for is encapsulated in Richard Branson. His exploits, his public persona, his actions, his words – they are Virgin.” that’s his personal brand.
What does Richard Branson stand for?
Innovation, possibility, vision, fun, style, and a little rock and roll.
Being associated with these values and beliefs is what makes people shell out the extra cash to fly from NY to LA in purple lighting.
No matter what you’re selling, from product to persona…
Your personal brand should look, feel, and sound like the things you truly care about and attract others that stand for the same.
If you’re bored with your work or your brand, or it's not bringing in the opportunities you want yet, it’s because something about it doesn’t look, feel or sound right to you.
Talking about your personal brand is where brand building starts.
Connecting which words to use in personal brand building at a networking event, interview, or dinner party can be confusing at best.
It can be generally overwhelming and, in the worst case, like that naked speech dream where the most embarrassing part is not knowing what to say.
That crappy feeling multiplies when your brand relies on ‘word of mouth,’ which generally relies on… words.
To help you with that, here are the key things to remember in building your personal brand.
3 Key Things To Remember In Building Your Personal Brand
1. Watch your language
Answer the question:
“What language can you use to attract the right people to your business?”
Whether you’re throwing a pitch at a business meeting or selling your products from any place in the world, the language you use (written and oral) can attract your target audience.
Regardless of how well you dress up or how amazing you look, your language will keep people listening.
What are your tried and true metaphors and examples?
What go-to stories should you be telling?
2. Know your audience’s energy.
You, who have been hearing from me for a while, are probably very familiar with:
“Know your audience.”
The entire market research empires are built on this premise.
And yes, while the specificity of knowing your audience is 22-year-old urban women who love Beyonce, buying FroYo twice a week is great, and consider tattoos ‘sexy’, it doesn’t help the rest of us.
3. Generalities actually pay off if you’re specific about generalities.
For example, I had a client aiming to recruit people for a team to create his vision for his department. Once we’d found it, he described the vision as "an experimental art lab filled with teammates who mine insights through exploration.” His words.
If we take a step back and see the energy of the people he’s looking for–their essence, their values, we can see that they’re artists/creators, team players, and explorers.
Those people will easily self-select and find him by connecting to those energies during speeches, pep talks, emails, etc.
Without being super specific, he may also get a more diverse set of candidates than if we’d let the tail wag the dog and decided our audience first.
Conclusion
Answer these questions:
How do I describe my business’ vision?
Also a good avenue: who do I want to work with?
Here you need specificity. Use your senses. What does that look, sound or feel like?
What is the energy of the people or place I’m describing? (hint: if you’re trying to connect them to your personal brand it’s probably your energy!)
If I’m at an intersection, what energies am I bringing together?
Given this, what examples, stories and language does that type of person connect to?
Still need help answering these questions?
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