We’re talking all about personal branding today! I know that’s a topic that some people really shy away from for different reasons, but we are going to talk all about why it can be so beneficial for your business and how it can make a really big impact for business growth. So I am excited to dive in, I am going to share some of the reasons why I believe it works so well, and some different action steps that you can take so that it is not as daunting.
The best life advice that I have ever been given was given to me by my mom–I feel like moms just have the best advice in general. As a kid she would always tell me to just be myself and she would tell me this whenever I would get nervous about going to different social gatherings or maybe it was the first day of school and I was nervous about making new friends, and all she would say is “Just be yourself, you’ll be fine” and it would work! It was the best advice ever and it continues to make such an impact in not only my personal life but also my business as well. I’ve been able to use it as such a good tool for forming genuine connections with people and I feel like it has made me more relatable and it’s just made such a difference, so today’s episode is all about personal branding, which in essence is just about being yourself and letting your true self shine through in your business and your captions and all of these things. I know that it can be a little daunting for some people. A lot of people have their reasons for not really infusing their personalities into their brand because maybe you’re a really private person or you’re an introvert and you don’t want to share a lot of personal details with people that you don’t know on a personal connection. I get that. That makes perfect sense. Or maybe you’re just really shy or you don’t think that you’re photogenic so you don’t want to show your face or you feel like you might be narcissistic in doing so. You know, there’s all these kinds of reasons that we come up with to try and not do something, but I am going to try my best to tackle all of those reasons today and to show you just how beneficial being yourself and showing your personality and your brand can be for your business. Because I have come to see just how impactful it has been for myself and I want you to be able to experience that in your business too.
Why It’s Beneficial for Your Business
So, here we go. First I am going to talk a little bit about why I believe it is still valuable to infuse your personality into your brand. So the first reason that I would point out is that people will begin to feel more connected to you on a personal level. If you share some of the things that you enjoy doing, when you get personal–you don’t have to get so personal as to share gory details that happen, you don’t have to share anything that you are uncomfortable with. You can still be personal without sharing the entirety of your life or your day. I would start out saying things like “What are some of your hobbies?” or “What is something that really drew you to your creative career?” It can be just small things like that, that begin to get you a little more comfortable sharing more of yourself on your platform. And by doing those things, by sharing more about you, people will begin to find similarities between themselves and you. That makes you more relatable, which means that they are going to begin to connect with you on a more personal level and they’re going to say “Hey, she really likes key lime pie, oh my word, I really love key lime pie too, we have something in common.” And that can be huge, because now it means that you have something that you relate on and you have something that you can talk about and they will start to feel like you get them or they get you and that can be so powerful. That is the first reason, that people will begin to feel more connected to you on a personal level, and it will begin to feel like you could potentially be friends which is exactly what you want as a business owner, because if you can feel like you’re already on a friendship level you will get along really well, you’ll have more to talk about, they’ll feel like they can trust you more, it is just a really really really helpful thing.
The second thing is, you will begin to attract and repel your audience. Repel can be a really scary word at first, I get that, when I first heard this phrase I was like “I don’t want to repel people, why would I want to do that?”, “I want as many clients as I can possibly get,” but there is a lot of merit in it. So by attracting and repelling, you are going to attract those customers or potential clients that are going to get you, that are going to really truly value your work and you as a person and you’re going to repel the people away who might be more likely to take advantage of you or they just won’t connect as well. You’re going to end up having much more positive and better experiences overall by doing this. So attracting/repelling can be a really good thing. They’ll also begin to know who they are going to be working with and I mean this in a sense of: you should be showing your face more. I get that is really scary, a lot of people don’t like that and that’s okay, however I would really encourage you to begin to show your face a little bit more on your stories, on your feed, and it doesn’t have to be anything big at first. You can do something as simple as sharing some behind the scenes of you working a photoshoot. It doesn’t show you head on as much. You’re in your element and people love seeing people working behind the scenes because it gives them an idea of what the experience is like with you, it’s one of the things that just draws people in, they’re fascinated by it. So show a behind the scenes of you working, just to kind of build on from there and then share a headshot of you with a few fun facts. Maybe share why you got started with photography or calligraphy or whatever it is that you do… just to begin sharing a bit of who you are so that people can begin to connect with you. When they begin to see your face on your feed a little bit more, that can be really, really helpful because then they know who they will be working with. So when they show up to a session with you or a consultation, then they will already know who to look for, they know what you look like–they won’t have to pick you out from a sea and just hope that they are just choosing the right person, you know? Hopefully by that point you will already have had some conversations where it feels like you are talking like friends, so they already feel like they know you a little bit, which means that they’ll be more comfortable to meet up with you right off the bat and that makes a wonder of a difference. So begin to show your face a little bit more, show some behind the scenes at first just to get yourself a little more comfortable doing that, then share a headshot and if you can try to do that every six squares. So that you’re showing up consistently in your feed, so that when people go to your feed it’s not not hard for them to say “Oh, that must be who I’m going to be working with.” It just makes it a lot easier for them to connect with you right off the bat. So that is the third reason why it is so valuable.
Another reason is because it creates this opportunity for you to be able to pivot in your business if you ever decide to. Let’s say that you’re a calligrapher right now and you love doing calligraphy and it’s really really fun for you, but maybe down the road you decide that you want to pivot into offering more mentoring instead, or something more of an educational route. If you are sharing your brand centralized around you as a person so that people are following and keeping up with you because they like you, they are connected to you, they love your work and what you’re all about. Then if you decide to pivot into something like that, you will keep that following–they’re still going to be on board for what you’re offering because they love you and support you no matter what you do. So that is probably one of the biggest reasons that I can give for you why it is so valuable to infuse your personality into your brand.
Another reason and the last reason that I’ll give for you guys on this episode is that you can have a more authentic online presence… and what I mean by that is you, yourself are unique because no one person is alike and you can use that to your advantage. Let’s say that you really love fall except that you really like to take it to the next level by going to the pumpkin patch every single Thursday night because that’s just your ritual when fall comes around. Not everyone does that, where they go to a pumpkin patch regularly every single week. Just some of those things that not everyone does, use that to your advantage, go ahead and share it. People will be drawn to that and will remember you for it too which is super awesome and having an authentic online presence draws more people in, so you don’t sound quite as salesy. If you talk like yourself it’s going to set you apart a little bit. Here’s something that you can do if you are struggling to find your brand voice since I kind of brought that up. If you are struggling to find out what your voice should look like, you’re looking at everyone else’s captions and starting to write like them and you kind of forget what your conversation style is like for you personally, then here are a couple things that you can do that I have tried and work for me.
Action Steps
The first thing is you can either just free write, you can journal, do a brain dump and just write out everything you’ve got on your mind and after a few pages you will begin to hear your own voice again. Another thing that you can do is just do a little vlog. When you start to feel really emotional or excited over something that happens, pull up the webcam on your computer, you don’t have to share this with anyone, you don’t have to post this anywhere, it’s just for you. And I just want you to speak rawly in that moment. I want you to just share everything that is on your mind and your heart in that moment and and just because it’s just you, that’s all it is, you don’t have to share this. That will help you to be able to find your voice for yourself and after you do that a few more times you’ll become more comfortable to share that voice in your posts and your stories and things like that. It will get easier the more that you do it, the more naturally it will become for you. So don’t be so scared that you don’t start, just start because the more you do it the better it will get, the easier it will become for you. That is one action step that you can take. I am going to talk about a few more action steps that you can do so that it is not as daunting. Don’t feel like you have to do all of these at once, and I am going to post these in the show notes too so if you go to joelleelizabeth.com/11 then you will find all of these action steps and reasons there for you so you can see it visually and be able to use it as a reference as you go through this. Just do it like one at a time, don’t feel like you have to do it all at once because I know that can make it a little overwhelming. So just do like one and then move on to the next step after you have got a hang on the first one.
So the first thing that I would suggest is share on your instagram stories. You can share behind the scenes of your day. So if you’re working at a coffee shop, go ahead and share that. Don’t feel like you have to post in real time. What I will usually do is I will take videos or boomerangs or photos of me working at a coffee shop or like different points during my day that I think are fun to share and then I’ll just save it and post it later because I am at the point where I would rather be safe than sorry. I know that I am growing an audience and thankfully it hasn’t happened yet, but I am just aware that if you tag a location or post something, some people who might be local will know where you are and I don’t feel threatened by anyone right now but I just want to stay on the safe side. So that is one thing that I will caution you as well, just take photos or videos of whatever you’re doing at the moment, but don’t feel like you have to post it right then, especially if you are hanging out with other people or if you are on a session, save those to post later afterwards, so that you can also be more in the moment and be present with the people you are with too. So yeah, if you’re working at a coffee shop you can post that, if you’re on a session, have someone take some behind the scenes of you working in your element or take some of your couple playing or doing some of the poses that you gave them, you can do selfies of you and your clients. There is just a big range of things you can share and that will begin to show people a more inside look of what it looks like in your day-to-day life and like I said before, people find that kind of stuff really intriguing, it just naturally draws them in because they are fascinated by the inner workings of what it is like to run a creative business. So that is the first thing, and the thing with Instagram stories is people will just soak that in, there’s so many more people who will scroll through instagram stories than they will through the feed nowadays because it is right at the top of the screen, it’s right there, so I will definitely encourage you to do that if you’re not utilizing your stories already, definitely begin to utilize them.
Then the second thing is to begin showing your face a little more, I know I already touched base on this before, but I just want to mention it again because it can just be such valuable way to draw people in and get them to know who you are. If you don’t have any good photos of yourself right now, try to organize a headshot swap with a local photographer. I’ve found that those are so helpful because not only do you save each other money, but you are also able to get to know each other and connect with each other and that can be really beneficial in it’s own way too, because now you have someone you can refer to couples if you’re already booked on a wedding day or if you’re already booked for October, like busy season, and visa versa. It’s really nice to have that support system too. So go ahead and organize a headshot swap if you don’t have any good headshots, and I try to do that a few times a year so when the seasons change I always have some fresh headshots that I can share and it keeps your content fresh too.
A third thing that you should be doing is engaging with others. I feel like that should go without saying, at least for the posts that you share, you should be responding back to the comments that you get and try to use people’s names because when you use someone’s name it’s like “Oh, they took the time to find out who I am” and that makes an impression on them too. Or when people send you a DM, make sure that you respond back to them, try, really try not to just respond back with the heart button. That is something that I am trying not to do as much anymore because it is just not as engaging. You’re just kind of taking a short cut out and you’re not able to connect on as deep of a level as you could have otherwise. So make sure that you are communicating with the people that are trying to communicate with you because by building those connections, you are building your audience on a deeper level. It is a lot more beneficial on turning them into potential clients that way too, because it shows that you care about them. So that can be a really really big thing. Anyway, I feel like I am saying a really important thing for everything right now, obviously I feel very passionate about all of this. So just make sure you are engaging others. Also, on that same note, make sure that you are commenting on at least five posts a day of people that you follow, because the more that you engage with them, the more of an impression you will make on them as well. It’s all about giving the love that you want to receive, basically doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Share things that you love. So do you really love elephants? Share that. If you really love coffee mugs, then share that, or vintage cars. Those things that are really close to home for you. Go ahead and make a list of all the things that make you really happy, they can be little, they can be big, and try to begin to regularly share those. Because not only will that give them something to bring up in conversation with you, but if anyone wants to surprise with you with a really sweet gift, they will already have an idea of what they can give you. You would be surprised how many people are so thoughtful in that way, which just blows my mind every time.
Then the last thing that you can do, or one of the last things that I’ll suggest today is that you can share your journey as a creative. Do a little then and now segment. So share the progress that you’ve made since you’ve first started up until where you are today, because people love that. It’s so cool to just see how people have evolved in their creative journeys, and it shows how much you’ve improved and really gives them an idea of how far you’ve come and how much you’ve invested in yourself and your craft too. It shows how passionate you are, and how much you care about them and the experience you offer them as well. So those are a few different steps that you can take in order to begin infusing your personality into your brand a little bit more. I just am so passionate about this because I have seen the difference that can make and I’ve seen how much more I’ve been able to connect with my audience since implementing some of these things. I just want you to be able to have that same connection with your audience too.
That’s a Wrap!
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