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Personal Branding is Vital Now

chrisbrogan · July 5, 2020 ·

Personal branding is something I’ve thought a lot about for years. Branding is about a business, product, or service. Personal branding is about helping the person behind the product to stand out. It’s a way to drive a strong perception of the type of person you are and by extension, to earn a little credibility in the process. The goal is for people to see themselves and see you in the product or service you’re selling.

Brand Yourself But With Your Buyer In Mind

The weird yo yo trick of personal branding is that the best people in the world at personal branding are the ones who make YOU feel like the star. This work isn’t about saying how great you are. It’s talking about how wonderful the people you serve are, but in such a way that people think about you.

In brand positioning terms, you’re a service brand or a community brand or a lifestyle brand (or all 3). Katie Robbert and Kerry O’Shea Gorgone created Punch Out as that place you go to learn about the rest of the lives of your favorite marketers. Their personal brand thusly becomes about being generous, lifting up others, enriching the brand promise of other people. They act as a community brand.

Tone of Voice is Critical

I built my own strong brand identity around a few bedrock details. These translate into the “tone of voice” of my brand. See if this sounds like me:

My personal visual brand is casual, cartoonish, and almost a bit sloppy
My core values are service, honesty, and inclusiveness
The branding concept of me is “anyone could do this – YOU could do this”
An emotional connection is core to all the material I share with people
The only “consistent brand experience” you’ll find with me is that I’m always experimenting

To shape your brand is to demonstrate what you stand for and for it to be a recurring part of your expressions. If you’re frugal, don’t show off your matching Teslas. If you’re trying to say you’re down to earth and spontaneous, don’t be buttoned up all the time.

Think through this:

What does your word choice say about your brand? Are you using big words when your brand is supposed to be down to earth?
Even if you’re shy, you need to show yourself. Can you dress in a way that matches what you believe and how you want to be perceived?
Beyond selling (but also during selling) what do you talk about? What do you share? Does it match what you want people to think about you?

“Influencers” are the Devil

Before we had people trying to be “influencers,” we had people trying to be “authentic.” (After I typed that, I took my hands off the keys to accentuate air quotes – two pumps of my fingers each – because that word is Satan.)

The ways that people try to walk around and represent your brand are almost always about positioning and telling a story that isn’t true. If you normally eat hot dogs, you’re not a foodie. If you’re ever trying to be something you’re not, and it’s part of a business pursuit, I’ll save you time: it rarely ends well.

Communicate Your Brand

Ze Frank once said “a brand is an emotional aftertaste” that comes from experiences. You know “show, don’t tell.” That’s the point. The more you talk about what you are, the less likely you are that thing. So show it.

Establish brand experiences by talking about the kinds of people you serve in terms that echo your intended brand voice. “We’re moms who love to help teachers get time back in their day. We know you’re busy! Let us help you get better results with your students. Your students are our kids. Let’s be on the same team!”

“You have smarts that someone else needs. Sell your brains.”

The best personal branding revolves around “you” stories (the kind that enrich your buyer) but that reflect your part of that equation.

How to Build Your Personal Brand

For your brand to thrive, you need the following:

Clear and unique voice and perspective as it relates to the people you serve
Consistent publication of media that reflects that voice
A recurring delivery of value from the media you create and share

Think about that before your next Instagram post. “Am I saying something in my own way or am I someone else’s echo?” If someone else reads this, is there a chance they’ll take something from it?

“But can I build a brand and stay anonymous?”

I mean, you can build *a* brand, but it’s not a personal brand. The word personal and the word anonymous really don’t mean the same thing whatsoever.

What people want from you as it applies to personal branding is the following:

Are you like me?
Do you share my values?
Can I trust you?
Will you help me win?
What happens when something goes wrong?

Think about your own experiences. When your car needs engine work, do you wonder about those five questions? The last three are definite. The first two might depend on what you’re buying for some people. I want someone to be honest like me, obviously. I want them to be understanding.

The last and maybe most important step about personal branding is perhaps the hardest.

Can You Be “Sticky?”

The most powerful part of branding is whether what you create is memorable. Advertising is a powerful tool when it comes to this. Think of all the ads you remember to this day:

Who is the “quicker picker upper?”
Plop plop. Fizz Fizz. _______
The best part of waking up is _____

Advertising works through a combination of something being memorable to begin with and then being repeated enough that you can’t forget it. That’s an element of personal branding that gets lost often.

The key to being sticky, then, is a formula. An equation maybe. Luckily, Julien Smith and I wrote The Impact Equation for just this purpose. I’ll give you the quick rundown here:

Impact = Contrast x Reach + Exposure + Articulation + Trust + Echo.

Contrast – Does what you say or do stand out
Reach – How far does your message carry
Exposure – How often do people see it
Articulation – Can you say it succinctly
Trust – Are you believable
Echo – Can people see themselves in you

That’s the impact equation and it really means a lot for the personal branding effort. More than most anything else I’ve written thus far. If you master that little gauge: CREATE, you will see the value of putting your marketing and outreach efforts through that lens before publishing.

Beyond saying something useful, you have to say it in a memorable way. That’s the gold.

Brand Management for Personal Brands

I don’t know if this is “management” per se, but what I mean is that it’s upon you to create information frequently and share it often, information that serves their pursuits. “They” being the people you serve, naturally. The management aspect of personal branding is that it’s so easy to fall out of being top of mind. What stops that from happening?

Reach + Exposure from the Impact Equation help. Take your Articulate and sticky phrases and share them often and far and wide, especially if they help others. Do this often. Do this in new ways with new words. Don’t let anything get too old, but say things repeatably enough that others can sing along. Write the hits. Play the hits.

And now you’re well on your way to mastering personal branding. It takes work, practice, and all the luck of saying something that catches the attention and imagination of others. I hope this was useful. If it was, share it?

Finally, I’m always available to help you with this through coaching. Just use my contact form or drop me an email: [email protected]

What I learned at the Boston Pride March 2019

chrisbrogan · June 10, 2019 ·

The other day, I went with my Jacqueline and her mother to the 2019 Boston Pride Parade. We marched on behalf of the Upham’s Corner Health Center, who delivers community health care services in Boston. I marched because my son, Vince, is trans and gay(the parade marked his 17th birthday), and because I feel that it’s important to promote the rights of people around the topics of their gender and who they choose to love (between consenting adults, obviously).

I thought my mindset at the event was “Hey, good job, gay and trans and bi and other people! I’m marching to say I’m an ally.” And while that’s true, there was so much more. So much. I came away changed.

What I Learned on the Boston Pride March

First, I realized quickly that one of the core elements of this march is just for people to see each other and be seen. I know that sounds stupid. It’s a parade. But I mean seen and acknowledged. Some people are fortunate to have loving families and coworkers who fully support them. But so many more feel alone, feel invisible, feel like they have to hide. So here comes an event like Pride that says, “Let’s keep marching. You deserve to feel seen and understood.”

That “being seen” realization went so much deeper. All along the route there were people wearing “Mom Hugs” and “Dad Hugs” shirts, because sometimes parents can’t handle the reality of their children and that child (no matter their age) suddenly finds themselves without parental affection. I realized just how little affection people of any sexuality and gender get these days. I went for some of those hugs, and I get plenty of affection.

We Have to Better Understand This

When my oldest said “I’m gay,” I said that’s great. Your partner (no matter the gender) has to love you and treat you well. About a year later, he tells me he’s trans and gay. Okay, that one takes a bit more work because there are legal and biological ramifications to be considered, but I was just as supportive because whatever gender someone says they are, wouldn’t my roles be the same? Aren’t I supposed to love and support my children, no matter their gender? Of course I am.

Now think about work and school and life. My son goes to a tiny little hippie school so when he came out as trans, it wasn’t that big a deal. Go a half mile in any direction and you’ll see all kinds of people who don’t understand what it means, what it means to them, how they should respond, and so on.

What I’ve learned for me is that someone’s gender identity and gender expression has little or nothing to do with me. I find both binary genders play no role in whether or not someone can do their job or be good or bad people. I find that gender and sexual preference is really your own business and not mine.

Representation and Acknowledgement is VITAL

But that said, and this is so important, everyone alive wants to be respected and represented as who they are without compromise or shame. If someone says they’re gay, bi, poly, trans, or any of the many other ways people can now express their sexual and gender expressions, they want you to know and acknowledge and understand how they want to be identified.

THAT PART IS THE HARDEST PART FOR THE “STRAIGHT” PEOPLE.

It’s somehow difficult for us to make the change from “looks like a guy so must be a guy” to “I’m Chris. My pronouns are he/him. How about you?”

This upsets people. It feels like “too much” to some people. It feels somehow offensive to some others. But that’s what needs to change. That’s where a lot of us need to grow. That’s where “the way we used to do it” no longer covers it.

I Marched So Even More Can March

It’s “easy” for me to march. I’m straight, white, and privileged. I marched because I want to bolster the ranks of those who don’t always feel safe, those who don’t always feel seen, and those who don’t often enough feel loved and accepted. I marched because the LGBTQ+ community is part of our community.

And like you and everyone else, I might get some of this wrong, say something that doesn’t line up the way everyone wishes I’d talk about it. I’m always open to learn. But I’ll tell you why I’m out here. It’s because there’s so much value in all these people who get pushed to the corners and I want them at the picnic. If you met some of the great people I met at the march, you’d want them at the picnic, too!

I work with executives and leadership teams to deliver the results you say you value in your corporate culture statements. Let’s improve collaboration and creativity and bring some of that value to your company. REACH OUT.

If I Were Selling Real Estate Today

chrisbrogan · January 9, 2019 ·

The world of real estate has become a lot more software driven in recent years. Sure, ultimately, a buyer interacts with a person, but with the number of real estate apps out there, a lot of up front work happens before a real estate professional is contacted. That’s not necessarily bad, but for a lot of Realtors (and other professionals in other industries for that matter), a personable connection with a buyer matters immensely as well.

If I Were Selling Real Estate Today

For years, I’ve had the pleasure of keynoting various real estate events and speaking at industry conferences. In every interaction, I found a warm, smart, driven person looking for new tools to reach and serve their buyer. My book with Julien Smith, Trust Agents, seemed to resonate with the primary challenge of “how do you build business remotely on the web?” Since that book (over 9 years have passed), I can say that the use of digital tools to evaluate real estate has only grown.

If I were selling real estate today, I’d embrace these apps and I would have a website/blog where I could add some content that my buyers might want. What would I put on that site? Oh, I’m glad you asked.

A Real Estate Professional’s Content Marketing Checklist

Sure, you want to post pictures and videos about the properties. That’s a given.
Take the camera on your phone and shoot a “neighborhood walk through” video.
Record an audio file where you talk people through how to evaluate a home. Tell them to keep this playing in the car when they’re out hunting around.
Record another video where you list out what people need to bring to closing.
Find community points of interest and interview people to show off the neighbors.
Shoot an autobiographical video talking about your passions for serving people and your career so far.
If you have other skills/talents, like interior design, give people a video of tips for how to spruce up their place. OR, make a video to show homeowners how to prep their house for sale.

Naturally, there are plenty more pieces of content I could recommend. This is a great starter set that will keep you busy for a few weeks.

How to Go About Making All This Content

I’m sure you might have seized up a little upon seeing that list of seven ideas. The thing is, you already have the tools to make this. You have a smart phone. This comes with a video recorder and a voice recorder built in. If you feel like you have to edit the videos a little, you can record lots of little clips and dump them all into either Windows Media Maker (PC) or iMovie (Mac) and trim off the edges a bit. I promise that none of it is rocket surgery. If you know how to cut/paste words in a document, it’s almost the same thing.

Practice. That’s what I most want to share with you. Just practice.

As for scheduling, pick a weekly schedule of creating and posting that will let you take a little time to make your content, edit it, and post it. It’s that simple (but not easy).

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Customers Want You to Understand Their World

chrisbrogan · November 30, 2018 ·

I want to tell you the tale of two companies both trying to reach part of the community they serve and how one failed and the other nailed it. Why this is important is because it ties closely to the way customers choose to spend their money these days. They want companies who understand their world, and they want to feel like they’re with a company that cares about what they like.

This isn’t really a story about Fortnite, but it is

If you have a kid between 8 years old and 50, you might have already heard about Fortnite. The video game which launched in 2017 has already raced to 200 million active users (75 million in just the last six months). They passed a billion dollars in revenue last July, and will quite likely make a big year end revenue goal announcement.

For this story, the game’s not important. What’s important is that it’s the hottest game in the world right now. And as such, companies are trying to relate. Now, I want to show you two examples in these graphics:

This is Walmart on Twitter. Whoever’s representing the brand on the keyboard at this moment has clearly heard of the game, but knows nothing at all about it. Summarily, they come off looking like out of touch doofuses. It’s not a good look.

By contrast, look at this:

Without knowing anything about the game, it’s clear that Wendy’s not only knows Fortnite but talks like they play it five hours a day every day. This garners a lot of social interactions, lots of more positive touchpoints and reactions, and ultimately, revenue.

Understand The Customer’s World

The way Wendy’s treated an interaction online around Fortnite showed that the company (and remember, technically it’s just a person or team representing the company) knew what was current, knew the lingo, and could interact well. You don’t have to know everything but it might be helpful to know a lot about the world of the person you want to serve.

No matter what you sell, there’s a buyer who has their own world outside of that product. The more you can talk to that, know about that, and can align with that, the better your chances to deliver value will be.

The easiest takeaway: stay current. It takes 10-20 minutes a day to read what’s hot in the marketplace. Need extra eyes on all this? Follow me on Twitter. I love sharing trends and interesting business stories.

Avoid looking like the fuddy duddy and figure out where your customer is dropping. It’ll help immensely!