How Your Realness Can Make You Money

In Season One of the #SimplyBeSeries, we talked a lot about the concepts of what it takes to build a personal brand.

SimplyBe Generous,” “SimplyBe Fun” and “SimplyBe Valuable” all sound great in theory, but what does it actually look like? 

Welcome to the #SimplyBeBOSS series, where we will take a look at these concepts in action with real life examples of men and women across the globe, living out their personal brands and turning their passions into profits by means of their personal brands.

First on deck is Sunny Lenarduzzi, a woman who owns what it means to SimplyBe Authentic.

Much like my own path, Sunny Lenarduzzi is an actor turned journalist turned entrepreneur with tons of experience in video, social media and branding. Sunny started a magazine for men in Canada (think Cosmo in reverse with advice for men on what women like to do….very Cheeky!) before becoming a brand consultant working for major companies. This girl has set social media records creating over 1 billion impressions in 1 day.

A couple years ago, she took to YouTube as her main personal brand platform and she’s blown up. 

Recently named a must watch YouTube Channel by Forbes and one of The Huffington Post’s 50 Must-Follow Women Entrepreneurs in 2017, this girl’s legit.

So what makes her so authentic?

1.Her Story

Sunny is super open about her struggle to find her true path. She is totally transparent about her learning process, her income, her systems. Bottom line, everything that she knows and experiences, she shares.

She does have digital products, but she is always building value in her free content and creating relationships and connection with her story.

2. Her Messaging

With #BYOBoss (be your own boss) and #MonetizeYourMessage she has created a movement inspired by her own story of taking the leap to go work for herself and build an entirely digital business. Not only is her brand on point, her messaging is fun, upbeat, and approachable:

“I love working with entrepreneurs, personal brands and corporations to help them bring their business online through social media and video marketing. Why? Because I’ve done it, and let me tell you, it feels GREAT!”

3. Her Content

Just watch some of her videos on YouTube and check out her Instagram and you’ll see why she’s the #SimplyBeBOSS this week. For instance, she regularly shares deeply personal stories and experiences about her fears, her failures and more in her #UnfilteredFriday Instagram series. She’s even opened up in her emails to her subscribers about her own upper limit problem and how her expansion is at times painful — something that every entrepreneur can relate to. Word, Sunny.

4. Her Customer Service

So I signed up for one of her YouTube courses and invested a pretty penny…And a week later, I got a personalized postcard in the mail thanking me, and a phone call too! Who said snail mail and good old fashioned phone calls were out of style? Her pure gratitude through these two personal touches are as authentic as it gets, and you know what? I felt even more invested in her brand than ever.

What We Can Learn From Sunny

Authenticity requires you to tell your truth: the good, the bad, the glamorous, the hard. She also shows us that it’s important and effective to take risks and open up your business to new ways of connecting (*ahem* postcards, phone calls, hello!).

Her tendency to openly share her journey in real time as she grows is what causes such personal brand affinity. So the learning here is: SimplyBe Transparent.

Transparency is the shortest route to trust, and no one is going to do anything about you or your personal brand if they don’t experience some level of trust in you first. Beyond that, it’s a way to cut out the noise and get down to it. Sunny’s realness allows entrepreneurs everywhere to see that there’s someone else going through the same things too, and that they’re not alone.

Your realness is way cooler than just being surface-level Insta-famous. 

So SimplyBe Transparent.