You gotta be the star of your own show

One of my clients sent me a podcast to listen too... Said it was transformative.

So naturally, I jump on the metro as I head into the office, start having a listen...

I wonder, was I a head of the curve 3 years ago when I was constantly talking about human connection and the human element to business, and the need to develop humanity into your brand and develop a personal brand...

Because as I listened to this podcast, and the man sprouted how to "scale your business effortlessly through building your personal brand" I thought... This is what I have been working on with clients for YEARS.

And finding the balance between personal brand and still growth of the business brand (so it becomes an asset to sell... Yes marketers set up brands for this thing, in fact its a vital part of the work we do - if that is a goal of the business.)

Also... The thing I feel was missing from his conversation was the elements no one wants to talk about... Time... And engagement.

No one wants to hear it, but if you start producing something overnight - just because 3% of people are creating on Linkedin or only 4% of YouTube users are producing content on YouTube doesn't mean you can create content five times a week and become an overnight success... Personal brand takes time... And no one wants to hear it.

Producing content doesn't = being seen.

Sorry algorithms have that tied up.

(& no, no one knows what will work EXCEPT the people at the social media platform you're trying to grow on - yep those people take different lifts and sign ironclad NDAs)

There is also so much more involved.

Like are you saying what your audience finds interesting and is for them?

This podcast made it sound like if you just started showing up to LinkedIn that it would be transformative because only 3% of the users are doing it. (We all knew this stat didn't we?)

But just showing up doesn't mean you will be seen, you need to be creating and you need to be engaging.

Part of building a personal brand is also how you interact with your audience - in fact, this is the key piece to building likeability and growing your brand with a key element that builds connection - personality, oh, and actual connection.

I just finished reading Samantha Wills's memoir - Of Gold and Dust (highly recommend) and one the key things she speaks about that led to the growth of her company, was her personal interaction with her customers and the brand's ongoing nature of asking them what they want and building a relationship so the customers felt like they were apart of the business.

Samantha wasn't in the B2B space, and her brand was her name, however, the same rules apply.

So how are you building and how are you encouraging your team to build a personal brand?

In a world that's become more and more digital, and becoming more aware of their disconnection we are seeing the rise of connection... As every business jumps on the AI bandwagon, I ask... Will you be brave enough to prioritise human-to-human connection?

As always if you want me to sense check your marketing, email me back.

Bec

xx