Thread by @LeboLion_SA

While everyone has a unique story & identity, not everyone can be a successful personal brand

Confessions of a personal brand builder.

A thread

Do you want to build a personal brand? Are you growing your personal brand? Are you a PR or marketing professional who builds personal brands for their clients?

This thread is for you. So let’s start at the beginning,

What is a personal brand?

A personal brand is the conscious & intentional effort to create & influence public perception of an individual by

positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, & differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, & have a larger impact.

Most people who want to have personal brands usually believe that their long list of accolades or extensive professional experience is sufficient to term them into a personal brand, very quickly at a very low cost. The mentality is “I’m great, so it should be easy”

Other people who want to be turned into personal brands have the following attitude;
1. I’m a real professional, & other people who have personal brands don’t even have talent, so it should be easy to make me famous.
2 After a couple of interviews I should have my ideal clients

3. If influencer can be famous, so can I. They don’t have substance and I do, they’re no intelligent & I am.
4. My product/service is amazing, so it will be easy to turn me and my business into a brand.
5. I have famous/ influential friends, so it will be easy to make me famous

What people don’t understand about personal brand building is; Just because you’re thriving in your career or have many years of experience it doesn’t mean that it will be easy to build you into a successful personal brand.

There is more to building a personal brand than your work experience, achievements, &. Other factors you have to consider are but not limited to;

1.Personality
2.Physical Appearance
3.Your ability to communicate your story
4.Your network
5.How interesting your career is
6.How dynamic & interesting you are as a person
...

7.How much work you’re willing to put into your social media assets
8.How many opportunities you’re plugged into that we can use as leverage to sell you & grow your brand

The less of these criteria you tick, the more work your team has to put into unearthing your story and your value in a way that will shape your brand & give it commercial value

A hard truth that people don’t want to accept;

Building a personal brand is not cheap. If you want it to cost R500 you will get R500 results.

The time, strategy, & resources required to make someone into a personal brand make personal branding an expensive activity.

Another misconception that petiole have about personal brand building is;
Media interviews automatically make someone famous.
There’s more to successful brand building than media interviews. Media interviews alone won’t turn you into a personal brand.

If you’re building a personal brand, understand that your couple of media interviews, won’t automatically get you clients. They can, but it’s not the rule. You need broad & consistent visibility to convert media coverage to business, especially if

1. Your personal brand is being built from scratch
2. You don’t have a unique story, product, business
3. You don’t have a significant social media presence
4. There’s nothing happening on the ground to amplify brand building efforts

If you truly want to become a meaningful & truly influential personal brand, you have to be patient, and understanding that a large portion of your success depends on the work that you do and the effort that you’re willing to put in.

When you take personal brand build activities seriously, you’re giving yourself the opportunity to succeed. Don’t compare yourself to other personal brands and work with a team that you trust, respect, & who you’re happy to have a long term relationship with.

Most importantly, personal brand building is all about confidence. When you build a personal brand based on ego, you’re setting yourself up for failure.