Please read this aloud in a soft inquisitive voice with a cup of tea.
I get the personal branding idea, but… Look just be who you are, simples. Stop trying to be someone else, find out what you’re really really good at and do that, just that.
As an example by what I mean by ‘just be who you are‘ … I just looked out this email – “Jon thanks for the influence coaching. I’ve got more from you than anyone else I’ve tried. You have all the diplomacy of car smash, but I love your STYLE!”
My style is my personal branding!
Virgin – Apple – Microsoft. They are the ‘brands’. Apple was selling Macs way before anyone had heard of Steve Jobs.
Branson was only known to a handful of people when VIRGIN records were huge.
And the vast majority of Microsoft users think Windows before they think Bill Gates.
Those companies and products were developed with style and it was the Brands that made the creators famous.
Brand = mark of ownership.
STYLE = how you do something.
Image = what you leave behind.
Work on these in reverse order to understand your personal branding
The ‘personal brand’ trust thing only happened about 15 years ago with internet marketers and the entrepreneurs tsunami of the mid naughties. And if you subscribe to that cult then it seems really important that you do what these people did but, you can’t.
Times have changed, technology has changed, communication skills remain pretty constant but there’s a LOT more of it.
TESLA make electric cars but, without looking it up 90% of people who will tell you that and are not riding the ‘entrepreneurial wave’ have no idea who the face is behind or in front of it – most think his name is Tesla!
By the way, Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, financed the company until the ‘Series A’ round of funding. Both men played active roles in the company’s early development prior to Elon Musk’s involvement and they were Selling Cars.
They hit the planet at the right time for them, not everyone was trying to shout louder than the next guy, and mostly failing. What they did was new and innovative and of its time… were they doing it now they’d do it differently.
Branson is, he’s moved from PR stunts to daily blogs and online interviews.
Am I the only one who noticed???
People buy because…
…they WANT something. Price, brand, and certainly manufacturer are very secondary considerations; UNLESS what you are selling is really up close and personal, but even then people are more interested in the rewards for them.
They are Entirely focused on the rewards for them and will buy off an ass if the result looks guaranteed. If it is, real people will buy off people they hate.
Truth is when you really look into Personal Branding
Reality shows are full of horribly detestable people who sell a billion books and products because they are utter feces-faces who you wouldn’t trust to tie your shoe laces.
Kalanick is known for being an absolute armpit but UBER are worth Billions, mostly supplying a very iffy service, and treat their people like crap.
I Get Brands I really do. I still own TheHypnotist.uk and a Lot of people still see me as that – in that world, but if you are a small business or a freelancer, first thing to focus on is your Natural Style.
Discovering your natural STYLE at MindStyleApp.com and becoming more self aware will give your more appreciation of your personal branding that is your STYLE!
O.K. That’s direct.