The challenge of building a personal brand in a noisy space

Like it or loathe it, if you’re growing a business and you work for yourself (or with a small team), then you’re building a personal brand.

? In a world where trust is key, brand building got super personal.

Personal branding is no longer reserved for influencers with seismic follower counts and people working behind the scenes to ensure that their reach and analytics goals are met each day, having a personal brand just means that you are well-known in your space for your presence and the work that you do.

It means bringing your main character energy to your business and creating an emotional connection with your community or audience.

When we frame it like this, it suddenly becomes much less daunting.

Having a personal brand means:

• That you're no longer just competing on price.
• That you'll stand out from the competition.
• That you’ll attract aligned opportunities.

And it means that you’re top of mind…

…so that when a contact in your community is having a conversation and someone mentions that they need help with the very problem you solve, they feel confident to drop your name because they trust you enough to say that you might be worth a look.

This is the essence of marketing

And it takes time to build this kind of trust.

But in a world of quick fixes and instant gratification, we’re not always kind and patient with ourselves...

? We may go in all guns blazing on social media, full of enthusiasm and inspiration, and feel dejected if we don’t get the instant results we were hoping for.

? We may commit to building our following, but lose motivation after 3 months when we’re not seeing the enquiries flooding in.

And because we’re hardwired to seek external validation (because our primal instinct is to be accepted by the tribe), it’s easy to take it all very personally if no one is liking our posts, or our follower count is at a standstill.

Which is when the internal voices kick in:

• “I’m bad at this”
• “My content is rubbish”
• “I don’t know what people want from me”

? If we listen to the voices, we’ll sabotage our efforts.

We have to release attachment to the performance of individual posts, and instead consider the overall impact and energy we’re creating.

Because it’s the culmination of content and the extent to which you are engaging and building relationships that actually determines your personal brand.

It seems to me that our personal brand actually comes down to the extent to which we are:

• Interesting - the extent to which you can create content that your niche finds valuable or insightful, and that they’re magnetised to.
• Visible - the extent to which people can discover you because you’re showing up consistently and dedicated to your purpose.
• Open-hearted - the extent to which you're owning your story, message and sharing content from your heart space rather than from the thinking mind.
• Kind - the extent to which you’re dedicated to being a giving person, engaging in relationship building, not just to further your reach, but to be of service.

Unless you’re a storytelling maestro with a thorough understanding of your brand essence and tone of voice, it’s likely you'll go through some trial and error with your content before you can truly step into your zone of brilliance - and that’s perfectly ok. We have to give ourselves a break.

? Building your brand and showing up takes time and it takes practice, especially when it comes to flexing your messaging and content creation muscle.

Your message is one of the most critical elements when it comes to building your personal brand and it’s the thing I see people struggling most with.

But we can’t let our need to get our message and content fully nailed stop us from making progress!

When we release attachment to getting it ‘right’, let go of the ego’s need to be validated, and instead treat building your brand as an experiment, it gets to be fun.

Freeing yourself to show up and explore the realms of your brand may feel scary to the ego which wants to protect you from external judgement and criticism, but remember that you are not your thoughts, and we can’t let them derail us.

When the thinking mind comes up with it’s critical thoughts (as it will), we need to disassociate and get curious. Make a habit of saying “Well, that’s an interesting thought that just came, I wonder why that was”.

Building your brand takes EFFORT in your marketing - there is no hack or quick fix around this and no one can do it for you with the same energy.

It takes self-discovery, and then showing up in the fullest expression of who we are.

? It requires you to open your heart and share from that space.

Even when you think no one is listening. (They are.)

Even when you think you don’t have time. (You do)

Even when you don’t know what to say. (You will)

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I'm Lucy and I'm here to encourage you to create an aligned, authentic brand and website that's an energetic match for your next chapter. If you're ready to activate your personal power?and?authentic expression, I'd love to chat.

www.freshleafcreative.co.uk