Trending
TL;DR: If you create a personal brand people remember, you will connect with the right people – the ones you want to work with.
Yes, I’m a marketing person and not a branding person. But marketing and personal branding are interconnected.
Marketing builds relationships. The more people get to know you, what you offer, and how it’ll help them, the more likely they are to hit the buy button when the time is right.
Personal branding helps people get to know you. And since people buy from and work with people they like, building a personal brand that people remember is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. At least if you want your marketing to work better.
I gave a presentation on this very topic two weeks ago to a room of beautiful faces at a CREW Maryland Suburban monthly networking event. (Thanks again for hosting me!)
Here’s what I told them.
A personal brand creates the connections you need to survive
A personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not there.
This means we all have personal brands whether we realize it or not, so we might as well be intentional about it.
And I would argue that it’s a great time to create (or recreate) your personal brand. You see, the AI backlash is telling us something.
Humans are wired to connect with other humans. Not robots, or code, or algorithms. Our connections to other humans is how we survived for thousands of years. Literally.
We needed to band together to create families that grew into tribes and villages. We worked together to build shelter, protect each other, farm, hunt, and forage for food.
Fast forward to today, and we still need to connect with people to survive. At work, we need to connect with the right people, which we do by showing up as ourselves.
The “right” people are the people who get you and who you get. People you want to work with and spend time with. The other people – the people you don’t connect with – don’t need to be in your life. Not now, not ever. (And that’s OK. They have their own people.)
But you don’t need any old personal brand, you need a memorable one
If you don’t create a brand that’s true to you, people will not remember you.
For example, back in June, I went through four pages of LinkedIn connections (I can’t remember why). With 50 connections per page (on a desktop), that was 200 people.
I remembered 20 of them.
Their personal brands did not make an impact – not when we first connected, not when I came across them in my feed, and not when I was scrolling through my nearly 1,800 connections.
Now granted, I am connected with a lot of people on LinkedIn that I have never met (most of us are). They reach out to me (or vice versa) because we have someone in common or we’re in the same industry. So let’s say I met 100 of those people in person or via a video call. I still only remembered 20% of them.
And why do I remember them? We had a conversation, we hit it off, and we have stayed in touch. In other words, they’re my people.
How I created a memorable personal brand
I did two things to create a brand people remember. And the third thing happened on its own.
When I founded Jansen Communications 17 ½ years ago, I wanted a fun title. CEO, president, or founder don’t communicate much info. I went with Head Kick-Ass Copywriter (which I upgraded this year to Head Kick-Ass Strategic Copywriter).
This title stands out so much that I remember someone literally pushing their way through a crowd of people at a networking event to get to me. She just wanted to meet the person with such a fun title. I was humbled.
When I moved to a four-day workweek five years ago (so I could snowboard more and go on big hikes), I became known for that, too – for putting fun on equal par with work. And I even inspired a client to move to a four-day workweek (proud of that!).
Several years ago, I asked some of my favorite work people (partners and clients), “What’s something only I can do?”
This answer nailed it:
“You tell it like it is and make people laugh at the same time.”
I realized that’s an important part of my brand, too. So that’s the third thing, the one part of my brand that happened unintentionally.
During my presentation for CREW, I gave several examples of strong personal brands. And I pointed out that none of the examples (which, yes, included me) have elaborate brands. We picked one or two things and owned them.
“When you think of creating your own brand, don’t think of mega-influencers like Alex Cooper from Call Her Daddy,” I said. “You don’t need a massive budget and elaborate marketing.”
All you need is the answer to this question:
What do I want to be known for?
When a client, referral source, colleague, or someone in your network opens their mouth to talk about you, what do you want them to say?
In other words, what do you want people to remember you for?
How to create a personal brand people remember
To help you answer what you want to be known for, try these prompts:
How do you see or do things differently from your competitors or colleagues?
Why do your clients/customers love working with you?
What is something that ONLY you can do?
Ask colleagues, clients, and work friends for feedback. It can be eye-opening (in a good way).
Oh, and pick just ONE thing you want to be known for. People are busy and aren’t going to remember a list of things.