1) IS YOUR BRAND CLEAR?

The first thing you need to do is make sure that what your personal brand is about is super crystal clear. 

When you’re building a personal brand, especially one that’s online, it is for a purpose.

No matter whether you want to start a business, you want to be well-known for something, you want to promote a cause you believe in, you want to be an influencer…what your personal brand is built around needs to be specific.

Your audience needs to know exactly why they should follow you as a leader and as a personal brand. 

So, you need to be really specific about what it is you actually do, what’s the mission you’re on, why should people follow you, how can they follow you—all of these details need to be crystal clear.

On your Instagram, on your website, wherever you are creating content, people should be able to know within 3 seconds what it is they can expect from working with you or from consuming your content. 

It should all be focused towards the specific topic you are positioning yourself as an expert in. 

HERE IS HANDY FORMULA…

I help (target audience) to overcome (major struggle) so that they can (outcome of your brand).

For example, I am a business and personal branding expert. 

Now, I talk about lots of different things…mindset, hobbies, travel, etc. But, specifically, if you spend any time consuming my content, you are going to know what it is that I can teach you. 

So, know exactly what you want to be known for and start there.

2) ARE YOU ACTING AS A LEADER?

I have studied hundreds of personal brands and I know this is the thing that makes the difference. 

If you are going to call yourself an expert or a leader, if you are going to build a personal brand in a specific niche, what you are doing is requesting an audience to follow you relative to that specific niche. 

And, if you want people to follow you, you have to be a leader.

If you want to be seen as a leader online, one of the easiest things that you can do is create an audience vision board (this is an exercise I give all my In Demand students to help them do just this).

So, think about your audience, and the life you think they’d like to live…

If you are going to help them achieve that life, with your business, and with your content and with your personal brand, it’s safe to say you need to have achieved that life in some regard. 

You should be at least 2 steps ahead of them so that your life would essentially be the one on their vision board.

In other, words ARE YOU WALKING THE TALK?

If you want your personal brand to be a go-to leader online, you need to be walking the talk. You have to be showing people that you are actually living the life that you’re telling them that you can help them to achieve.

3) ARE YOU BEING CONSISTENT?

I know this piece of advice is a little cliche, but it’s cliche for a reason. 

• Which platform are you going to show up on? People like familiarity. They like to know where they can find you and what they can expect from you. So, choose a platform that is going to be most appropriate for you to consistently create content online. 

• Be really consistent with the aesthetic of your content. These are the more traditional things that come to mind when you think of branding: your logo, your colours, the way you edit your videos or your images.

• What emotion do you want your audience to feel when they are consuming your content? And, are you consistently creating that experience for them? Because, ultimately, at the end of the day, you want to create a consistent experience for your audience.

• Lastly, you really need to make sure who you are and how you’re showing up are really really consistent. That way people can get to know you better, build more trust with you, and that will ultimately help you build your personal brand.

4) ARE YOU EXPERIMENTING?

You’ve got to experiment and learn what’s best for your personal brand.

Experiment with the types of posts you post to Instagram, the types of videos you create—You have to experiment with different styles and formats until you find one that suits you.

So many people when they are building a business or building a personal brand just guess their way through and then get really disappointed when the thing that they’ve done over and over again doesn’t work. 

You have to accept the fact that if something is not working, you’ve got to try something else. 

And, if something is working, you’ve got to capitalize on that.

ARE YOU ANALYZING THE DATA?

You know, building a personal brand, although it is you showing up and being authentically you, there is some strategy involved in it. 

If you want to be successful in building your personal brand, and therefore getting your mission and business out there, you have to be able to analyze the data and make sure you’re experimenting and using what works.

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