IE 434: Crafting Your Personal Branding Story: How to Stand Out and Make an Impact
What is a Personal Branding Story?
How do you go about making sure that you can stand out to your people?
The big thing that we need to remember when it comes to personal branding is that it is your way to be able to connect with others, and in order to do that, you have to share your story.
What makes you you? Why are you wanting to solve problems in the way that you are trying to, and how are you different than anyone else out there?
When we are talking about this, you want to make sure that you are thinking about your personal branding story as more than just a bio.
It’s important that you’re not just listing what it is you have done or what you plan to do.
Instead, you need to connect to that actual story or the impacts that you have made in your life, the pivots, the changes, the things that have impacted you, to want to talk about what it is that you talk about, with the problems and solutions that you offer to your audience.
This is going to be how you put together that personal branding story that people are going to connect with you. Put together that personal branding story that people are going to connect with.
The Key Elements of a Compelling Personal Branding Story
Connection
By providing your personal story, you’re giving people an opportunity to connect with you.
People are going to connect with the fact that you’re one of five siblings, or that you have gone through certain things in your life, that you have a background in certain aspects, whether you’re a former teacher like myself, or you are a lawyer that is still working as a lawyer but also helping others brand themselves.
Whether you are a therapist that is now trying to continue to work with clients somewhat in the actual therapy room but also create courses and opportunities for people to be able to do things on their own as well as continue to work with you one-on-one. So giving that place for people to connect is going to be key.
Authenticity
It’s also important that you stay authentic.
This is why it’s part of my PACK framework.
Authenticity is the key. People can tell when you’re full of crap.
They want to be able to connect with the authentic you, who you are, your beliefs, the things that you believe in.
And this is not to say that you have to share all of the itty bitty details about your life, but instead provide that opportunity of why you are solving the problem for them and how it is authentically part of what you want to do. When people can connect to that, it makes all the difference.
Impact
Impacting people so that they can have results is key to any business, because when people can tell that you are doing what you are doing because you are wanting to help them and impact them, that’s where they will always feel that connection with you. They will continue to want to be part of that, because they see you as solving the problem.
This is also essential to yourself as you try to go and sell a product or service of your own, because when you are actually selling from a point of wanting to impact people, it makes a huge difference in the way that they connect with you and want to have the sale.
And it makes it easier for yourself because you’re not trying to sell, you’re trying to solve a problem, and when you can have that mindset shift, it will make all the difference in your business.
Steps to Craft Your Personal Branding Story
You want to make sure that you are identifying your core message.
What do you want people to remember you for? It is what is going to set you apart.
Start with where you were, what challenges you faced and how you overcame them, because when you can connect those three pieces, they can see themselves in what you are going through and that can make a huge difference for them.
You also want to make sure that, when you are doing this with your story, that you highlight key moments.
When did you have a sudden shift in your thinking on the problem that you solved?
What made all the difference because that’s where they’re going to find that connection with you is when you can talk about the connection for them.
They will then have that same overcoming and being able to move on with their problems that they are having as well.
How to Share Your Personal Branding Story Effectively
The first place to share your personal branding story is going to be social media.
You can share key elements of your story on social while still providing the value on social that you would normally share.
You’re still working within your content pillars on social media, but instead you’re sharing part of your story so that they can have that added connection with you, and it builds brand awareness.
You’re also going to want to share your story on your About page.
Your About page wants to show and talk to them, not simply telling them about your journey and all about you, but how your journey is going to help them on their journey.
When they can make that connection, it’s going to make a difference.
The next place that you can make sure to share this story is going to be when you are speaking or doing interviews.
If you ever speak on a stage or you’re speaking at a summit, you want to make sure that you provide people an opportunity to really connect with you, with that story, and then this is also true if you’re doing interviews for a podcast or for another summit start to think about how you can weave your story into what you are trying to teach them, because when they can see examples of that, it will make a difference in their effort as well.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
You want to make sure that you’re not being too generic or vague.
You want to provide them with those personal details.
You do not have to cross any lines when it comes to personal details that you are uncomfortable with, but you want to personal details that you are uncomfortable with, but you want to share enough that it’s not every other person’s story.
Make sure that you give them that opportunity to truly connect with you.
And this is a lot of times where those pitfalls are going to come up, because when you’ve had challenges, those are going to be authentic to you. And, again, that’s the way that you’re going to stand out from AI.
Ai-generated content is not going to have this personal branding story that is added into their content.
This is where people will know the difference and have more of a connection with you and allow you to stand out. You also want to not only focus on your achievements, but you want to also make sure you focus a bit on those pitfalls.
Where did you have a challenge? What did you overcome with it?
And then you want to make sure that you are not lacking consistency across platforms.
You don’t want to have one platform where you’re solely only giving value and solving a problem.
You also want to make sure that you are weaving in that story across all of the platforms that you are on.
The last mistake that I truly want you to avoid is to make sure that you are not giving them unnecessary details, and this, again, is where we talk about not crossing that line.
Some people are not comfortable talking about their kids and sharing details about their lives, and if it’s not valuable to the content that you’re trying to share or the problem that you are solving for your audience, then why add it in?
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