You should not build an online brand

You have heard it many times now.?

“You should have a solid identity online, it opens up many financial doors and helps to expand your businesses massively.”

But back in your mind, you think and know that the journey to build that solid e-identity, can be daunting.?

How do you actually attempt to do that, without losing on your values, family time and self-dignity? There aren’t a lot of influencers showing the healthy way.

In this article, I will share with you how to do just that, in order to grow your African brand and be prepared to tap even bigger in the Afro-market in the next 3-5 years.??

Aren't you the lady with the white coat I saw today?

When I was in Cameroon ready to board back to Canada, a custom officer read my passport and said: “Dr. Dontsi, you just ended your day at the hospital and you are now going to Canada for some vacations?”

I asked: “Eum… what are you talking about?”.

“Were you not the lady with the white coat who received me earlier today?” - he asked.

“Oh!” - I laughed. “My sister is a doctor yes.”

“What a coincidence! She was so brilliant in my diagnostic” He said before giving me star-treatment to board me on the plane. The only fact that he was received by a doctor lady in a white coat who looked just like me, made the difference for me that day.

This is one of the trait your brand or identity should reflect with ease - White-coat Authority. I am sharing 4 ways to build your brand online, but first let's understand why you should actually not attempt to build a brand here online.

Why you should not build an online brand.?

People have bold objectives with their projects and businesses. Here is what some clients have shared with me:

“I am still building my identity in “my field” online. I would like my services to stand out from other providers.”

“I want to get my story out into the world, to make more people of color aware of making products by hand… but also, get my name out there as an artist and start collaborating with big names and brands.”

After working with so many African’s brands, and after learning from some of the biggest online brands here, I can confidently say that you should stop trying to build an online brand now. It won’t work. People will see you coming from far.

Many people have actionable tips on how to build massive brands here online.

It can be overwhelming for someone just starting. There are so many things to do. If you google “how to build your brand online”, all of the articles you’ll read will provide at least 10 tips. Others go as far as giving 100 tips.?

I only share 4 focus-points here. The rest is noise.

You just can’t be everywhere and try to follow what everyone recommends. You need to build from within. What does that mean?

It means that your already established-personal-identity should take place online, not the reverse. You shouldn’t build an online identity. Your identity should come and shape the online world.?

I learned this the hard way myself and with one of my clients. They were looking to launch an African platform and had hired a marketing assistant to produce 90 pieces of content for different features of the platform. It didn’t work. They stopped publishing after 30 days.?

Finding how to express your established identity online is more difficult, but yields impressive returns over the long-term. You need to stay focus. Grab our online clarity checklist to see the focus-actions you need to take now.

"You shouldn’t build an online identity. Your already established-personal-identity should take place online, not the reverse." - Donclarte Dontsi

4 ways to build a solid identity from within, without you even knowing.?

1. Serve to the highest - When asked once about how she built her brand, Oprah told her interviewers that she had no idea what a brand was. She was only focused on serving the world to her highest self. When you attempt to sell your services to people, putting yourself in a position of service to them, their needs, will always increase your brand without you even noticing. What does serving to your highest means? It means that you will not be for everybody, since your time will be limited. And this is why you need to prospect to identify clearly what is your market which will allow you to serve to your highest. I have terminated previous clients which were no longer taking up the highest level of my servicing. I thought I was losing on money, but eventually, it led me to gain even more of the high-paying clients who really needed my highest-level of service.?
2. Listen to signs, money and money-leading signs - listen carefully to what your market needs or not. And your main ultimate metric here is sales, revenue, money, getting paid. What I have learned is that respecting your own value by asking to be paid, increases people’s perceptions of your work and solidify their view of your identity. In return, it allows you to understand even deeper your market needs and psychology and what they value so much that they are willing to pay for it. Now, this is a true learning process for us in the African community (the mindset around money and getting paid). When you get started, money signs are not just sales. Sales is the ending result of many other signs you should pay attention to, in order to motivate you to stay in the game and earn more profits over the long-term. In my program, we have over 10 money metrics you should pay attention too, grab a discovery session to discuss yours.
3. Command with Authority - Authority (the white coat of my sister), helps you build an even more powerful brand that follows you in rooms where you are not there. So ask yourself, what is your white-coat? Here you need to drop your imposter syndrome. A custom officer saw authority in a doctor's white-coat. Your imposter syndrome would come from the fact you compare to other service providers in the same industry as you. Get out of your way! There is an industry out there that’s completely different than yours, knows nothing about your expertise and desperately needs it. Drop down your imposter syndrome, go find your "custom-officer" type of industry, and put on your authority (white-coat).
4. Converge with consistency - Many people think that building a brand just means publishing every day. If you attempt to follow this route, you’ll get frustrated by the potential lack of momentum in the beginning. And that’s where many people get discouraged about growing their projects here online. You should have consistency, but with conversion. Converge with consistency. What does that means? It means that if you do the above 3 things with consistency (serve high, listen to your audience and command authority), you will eventually achieve expert status in your industry. You should converge towards your main topic and give more value in that specific niche. You can talk about many things as you desire here online, but the more you converge, the more the social media algorithms will even bring you your people. Oprah says the same, it’s her consistency in being true to herself (she is her main topic), every single day that have built what people perceive now to be a brand.?

Got it now?

1. Serve to your highest - drop the imposter syndrome and serve to your highest self.
2. Listen to signs, money and money-leading signs - sales, traffic, email lists, etc.
3. Command authority - Put on your white coat and take charge in different industries where people needs you.?
4. Converge with consistency - Do all of the above and stay in your lane, and your clients will keep on coming.?

This is not easy to do on your own. Where are you stuck now with your business or Afro-impact project in terms of growing them? Get our free online marketing checklist here to identify the needle moving actions you should perform online to advance steadily. Sign up here.