Find Something You Care About

Wow, what a week. I’m feeling very inspired by all the support from last week’s launch and am excited to share that already 6,000+ of you amazing folks have said yes to joining the journey. A special thanks to Alexandra, Eric and Victoria for helping inspire me to get this off the ground!

Welcome back for week two ??? 

Here’s what we’re going to tackle in the next couple minutes:

?? Problem: You don’t have a theme or direction to start building your personal brand and are sitting on Linkedin unsure where to start...

?? Solution: After you Identify your key WHY statement and the niche you want to be in, building your brand becomes 200% easier

?? Next Play: read over the questions below to figure out where to get started

Let’s jump in --

How’d you end up on LinkedIn? My guess is that it was: 

1. A professor that told you that it was the gateway to “landing a better job” 
2. Conference speaker raving about the importance of networking?
3. Over enthusiastic marketing friend telling you to wake up... 

Either way, they’re right. Sadly, most folks sit on the sidelines after that nudge and don’t make it past the complete your profile stage leaving them to think the opposite. But, I can’t blame em’. Since people don’t have a good enough reason to get started and start sharing their story ???♂? 

As you can guess, I’m a big believer that sharing your story on Linkedin starts with finding something you (*in Barney Stinson’s voice* wait for it...) ACTUALLY care about.

Spoiler alert: we spend time on things that we like to do. Right? Not things we should be doing. 

Watching The Office on Netflix, ordering thai food takeout with my wife, and listening to the How I Built This podcast are never things I need to “book off” on my calendar. Why?

Because I know I’ll always make time for them since it’s something I like to do.

And that’s exactly what you need to build into your personal brand. 

You need to find a why statement and niche for how it can change from a task that you “need” to do vs a task you “want” to do ?? 

So, here’s the 2 Q’s you should answer to make that happen: 

1. Write Down Your 1 Sentence Why Statement. Explain why you want to start telling stories, growing your learning, and helping people with a problem. 

???? Example: Teach Leaders How to Start & Scale their Personal Brand

 2. Find a Niche You Love. What industry/sub-niche do you love hanging out with? Who do you chat to and engage with on a regular basis to help? Tip: check your google search history and bookmarks tab… you’ll find your tribe soon enough.

 ???? Example: marketing, personal branding and startup community 

After you find a REASON to share your voice, you’ll be off to the races. So many professionals jump on LinkedIn, buy the premium setup and give up the next day after getting bored or bombarded by news update they don't know what to do with.

What they end up missing is all the fun features and conversations they can have to help them build a human community around what they care about and who they are (ie. their personal brand). 

I’m not here to convince you of the pay-offs and fancy things you can buy that come from a strong personal brand. You can chat with Tai Lopez’s for that ;)  

I’m here writing this weekly newsletter to help you see how life changing establishing a professional presence online can be. 

When you convey who you are and what your goals are, I believe having a community in place to hold you accountable is the most crucial step to holding you to actually hit your goals. Linkedin is that in-person community online. And let me tell you, it can be wild to see how many relationships, ideas and momentum can follow after people know your story on here ??

?? To recap, the top tip I have for starting a personal brand is building it around something you care about.

Without figuring out a personal why, you’re wasting your time and should probably get back to your netflix list.

Your personal brand should be used as a resource, a channel, to live out your why. When you know your why, you’ll find your finish line ??

In the words of our favourite Start With Why legend, Simon Sinek: 

“People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And what you do simply proves what you believe.” 

 The only way to get a committed group of bought-in followers is for you to become best friends with your why. 

?? ACTION STEPS TO HARNESS YOUR WHY:

INC says that only 8% of people reach their goals. Leaning into that why factor is a big part of this. If you don’t care about your why, don’t bother worrying about what content you’ll share, because you’ll likely toss in the towel next week.

To be in the top 8% bracket that sticks with a goal and doesn’t wait until January 1st Instagram stories to get started ??, copy/paste this to your notes app and answer these:  

?? What niche do I care about?

• Is it automotive innovation, energy sustainability, or educating people on cultural habits around technology…  

?? What 1 sentence WHY statement will I stand behind?

• Ex: “I teach young graduates about the influence of technology and how to can create habits to sustain our mental health” 

 ?? What weekly habit can I hold myself to staying informed?

Ex. “I’m going to: a) subscribe to a podcast? b) Attend a webinar? c) post a weekly question on Linkedin”

I hope this brainstorm was helpful. If you have any lightbulb moments go off during the article, drop me a note or tag me in a post. I love hearing feedback from others. 

?? Riff of the Day: here’s a super creative freestyle hip hop rap announcement I came across on Linkedin of someone sharing the news of getting hired. I thought it was so cool I tagged the CEO of Linkedin, Ryan Roslansky, in a comment and he loved it so much he re-shared it on his personal profile. So if you need a pick-me-up, give it a watch! 

Thanks for taking the time to read this article. If you have any ideas that sparked or questions about the topic, drop me a note here! 

Stay outta’ trouble and keep creating impact,

I’ll catch you next week,

Joel

?? P.S. If you found this article helpful, subscribe here to get the weekly copy on Linkedin or click here to get it sent straight to your personal email. 

Joel Hansen is a Marketing Advisor, 2-Time TEDx Speaker, Linkedin Content Creator with 10 million+ views, and Social Media Advisor to the GVBOT & Adobe. His mission around his content is to teach leaders how to start & scale their personal brand. To hear more from Joel, follow him on Twitter, Linkedin or subscribe to his interviews on Youtube. 

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