Everyone out there in business is interested in developing their reputation with personal branding. Businesses rely on reputation, and you want it to be a good one.
So how do you get started? What is the framework for successful personal branding?
Looking back on all the companies I’ve helped build and grow, there were three core elements that were the framework for everything else:
- Content.
- Community.
- Impact.
Now, there are a lot of offshoots, but if you have those three things, you have a really good shot at developing your reputation and becoming an authority in your market.
A lot of people have one or two of the three things, but without all three, you are missing a key ingredient.
If you’re out there putting out content and you haven’t yet developed a community around that content, then you’re not talking to anyone and you’re not going to be found.
Or, if you’re out there helping people and making changes that help them, but you don’t create content to tell people about it, then you’re really limiting your impact because no one knows you’re doing these amazing things.
You can see how these three things start to tie together to form your personal branding framework.
PERSONAL BRANDING STARTS WITH YOUR CUSTOMERS’ STORY
In my first episode of this podcast, I talked to Mark Schaefer, who wrote “Marketing Rebellion” and six other books that lead the marketing industry. He’s been a thought leader I followed for a long time, and I was so excited to get him on for my very first episode.
RELATED: Mark Schaefer Interview: Marketing Rebellion — The Most Human Brand Wins
Mark had an interesting perspective on storytelling. I think a lot of us, when we think about branding, the first thing that comes to mind other than logos and images is storytelling, and I liked what he had to say about that — because it’s not what you think.
“There is so much hype out there about the arc of our story, and starting with our why. People don’t care. They care about getting by today. They care about the arc of their story. They care about their why. And I think the best storytelling will make the customer the hero.”
I liked the way Mark put it, that we as marketers are a little too focused on ourselves and our features and our benefits, but we’re not thinking enough about our customers and making them the hero by solving their problems and letting them have the information they need to take action on that.
This struck me because at the end of the day, if we’re not putting the customers first, then we are not figuring out how to actually have an impact on them. The key to any good connection between a brand and its customer is that the brand is creating a transformation in the customer.
The brand is enabling that customer to go through a journey from where they are, to where they want to be.
THE PERSONAL BRANDING FRAMEWORK LOOP
This takes me back to the personal branding framework. If you don’t have a community of people you engage with, then you’re not gonna be able to understand them enough to ask them what their problems are and figure out how to solve them.
Let’s go through that loop.
You’re building content. You’re finding your voice. You have a perspective you want to share. You create your core message, which becomes your perspective platform, your core thing that you’re known for.
Then you can start to gather community around that.
And as you’re building that community, it’s not just you talking to them. You have to create a place for them to talk to each other and then talk to you. And in that communication, you start to see the magic happen.
Every community needs communication and engagement. And in that communication, you start to ask them, what are you struggling with? What keeps you up at night? What are you having trouble with that you can’t solve?
As you start to understand what they can’t solve, you can figure out whether you have something that can help them now. If you don’t, then you can’t help them now. You might need to build something that can help them as opposed to trying to sell them what you do have.
FINDING HOW TO HELP
There is this cycle of figuring out how to serve the community in a way that is actually helpful to them. When you’ve used your content and community to solve their problems, you’re making an impact that causes a transformation.
The story you should be telling is, “I have this solution to the problem you told me about, and here’s what I think it can do for you.”
“Here’s where you are and here’s where you want to be. And here’s how it solves that problem that’s keeping you from getting there.”
When you can do that, then you’ve started to find the magic around building your reputation.
Being the person who actually helps is what becoming a personal brand is all about. That’s why this framework works. It’s not just storytelling.
LET CUSTOMERS AMPLIFY YOUR PERSONAL BRANDING
Now, check out what Mark has to say about how you take the next step in telling your story.
“It used to be that our brand, our story, was what we were telling people. And now our brand, and our story, is what people are telling each other. That requires a different mindset. Our customers are the marketers. They are making our product work or not work.”
So if the customer is in control, how do we help them do the job that’s marketing today? How do we help customers become the marketers? That’s what a marketing department should be focused on today.
Our brand is what people are telling each other. That’s important. It’s important that there are other people speaking up for us on our behalf and that we encourage it. And it’s important that we are capturing the stories of the people we are helping.
When people in the community are finding other people with the same problem and bringing them into the community, that is a step toward transformation for that new member.
MAKING AN IMPACT
That’s what building this community is all about. That’s what building content is all about. It’s about having an impact, getting out there and making a difference that affects someone so deeply that they can’t help but want to sing your praises.
Just think. If over a year or two, I can help a hundred people build a podcast or develop their personal brand, they can take this information, build their reputation and brand and have an impact on a hundred other people. It multiplies.
It starts to become this impact I’m having on more than one person at a time. And more than that, there is a multiplier effect that starts to help a lot of people.
That’s the kind of impact that helps you sleep at night and makes you want to get up in the morning.
Having that impact that actually changes people’s lives, creates a transformation and is relevant to what they’re searching for is a huge piece of the framework. And you can only figure that out by having a community that you talk to and engage with. And you can only have a community if you are known for something that draws them to you and makes them decide that you’re the person for them.
You’re not just a variety show talking to a million people. You are talking to them because you know what they’re thinking about, what they’re looking for and what they like. You’re there to help solve their problem.
When you become known for making an impact on people’s lives, you have a personal brand. And that personal brand is going to take you somewhere.
MORE ADVICE AND INTERVIEWS
If you’d like my full plan for how to build your content marketing strategy, check out my free Content Marketing Starter Guide.
And here are some more of my most popular thought leader interviews!
- What Business to Start with John Lee Dumas
- Personal Branding Masterclass with Chris Ducker
- Built to Serve with Evan Carmichael