Your Personal Branding Business Model

One of the most important aspects of creating a personal brand, is first attempting to determine what your goals are. Are you trying to become the President of the United States, the CEO of a Fortune 500 company, a serial entrepreneur, a social activist? This will certainly help you understand how to frame your brand, how to develop it, and how to continually move you towards your end goals.

In order to do this systematically, you should think of your personal brand just as a company does of it’s own brand; like a business.

It starts with the product

That’s right, it starts with the person. After all, it is a personal brand, and you ARE the product. Write down how you want to be defined. What are the attributes of your product. Are you innovative? Are you a trendsetter? What are your specialties? If you were sitting on a shelf at a store, why would someone choose you over the competition?

Make sure you can deliver

Great customer service defines companies. It also defines you. Great customer service means you are servicing people who have already given you a chance. That means creating deep, meaningful relationships. It involves listening as much as it involves talking and responding.

Personal service involves great follow-ups with great communication.

You have to remember that your customers have immense power, and if you service your following correctly, they should be creating word of mouth for you. If they’re not, then you need to either re-vamp your product or your customer service.

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Ryan Paugh’s Interview of Me

This interview was conducted and posted by Ryan Paugh. If you are not subscriber of Ryan’s, I’d highly recommend checking out his writing.

When people ask you what your blog is about, what do you tell them?

That’s evolved over time. At first I used to say Personal Branding. After all, the majority of my content was centered around career and self-branding.

The ironic part is that I branded myself as a “Personal Branding Guy” when internally I felt I had more to offer to people. Not many people know that I was a Political Science major in college, that I grew up on the border with Mexico, or that I was a competitive powerlifter in high school.

I think now, I’m more focused on letting my blog be an extension of my full personality and life, so when people ask me what my blog is about, I tell them it’s about me.

You took some time off from blogging. Why did you take the time off, and what brought you back?

For one, I was extremely interested in expanding my blog beyond career and personal branding. While I love those topics, I felt like I was cheating when I wrote an article outside those topics. Around the time I was getting the urge to expand my writing, I also got a promotion, and had to focus intensely on getting up to speed with my new role. By the time I knew it, 6 months had passed. I knew it was time to re-launch.

Do you currently subscribe to other bloggers in the Brazen Community?

Adam in Napa after a little too much ripple

At this point, I subscribe to a lot of the founding Brazen crew. I follow folks like Tiffany Monhollon, Rebecca Thorman, Dan Schawbel, Andy Drish, Andre Blackman, Shama Hyder and Devin Reams. A couple of other contributors I like are Ryan Stephens and David Giesberg.

I love this video David Giesberg put together on social media and the 2008 Presidential Election. A lot of people focus on social media and business, but it’s great to see how social media also revolutionizes politics. Every future President will have to take note of how our generation uses social media.

What challenges in your real life inspire you to write on your blog?

Like Emily Stoddard mentioned last week, the big struggles are my struggles with time balance. Balancing my career, fitness, relationship, friends and family, and my writing can be challenging, but that’s what makes it fun to write.

Without challenges, we’d have nothing to share.

If your blog had a soundtrack what would it be?

Interesting question. I’m curious to hear what you or some of my readers would say.

If I had to choose a song, it’d have to be something that was fun, passionate, and something people could contribute and sing along to. For some reason, Don’t Stop Believin’ by Journey comes to mind.

Coming to a Blog Near You

When I started to look at the people around me who have built successful personal brands, one thing is apparent.  They are great at building personal relationships.

Online personal branding is a bit more tricky.  It’s harder to build a personal relationship online.   Relationships online take more repetition, more pinging, and cultivating.  Joining Twitter was a good start for me as it gives those on the web a way to get to know me as a person rather than some distant blogger.

I’m looking for ideas that help build those connections.  Videos might be a good start as they give you a visual and audio representation of who I am.  Done right, and they can help build a brand and connection.  Anyone else have ideas?

I’ve Joined Twitter

Last month at SXSW, I met Andy Baio, founder of Upcoming.  He told me about all the great benefits of Twitter and how I had to be on it. I was SO skeptical.  Why would you or anyone else care what other people were doing at any given moment?

Andy gave me a quick demo of how it worked and it really clicked.  At SXSW, thousands of tech-junkies using Twitter were updating their statuses on where the hottest parties were, who was speaking where, and even updating the Mark Zuckerberg debacle as it was going down.  I was very impressed and told myself I’d join when I found the time.

I’ve found the time now and have already officially started to send Twits.  Is that what it’s called?  Either way, once I get the lingo down, I’m sure it will be helpful for Personal Branding and really giving people the opportunity to get to know me on a much deeper and personal level.

The Art of Preparation

My football coach in High School used to preach that the way we practiced was the way we’d play in games. Football taught me a great deal about discipline and work ethic, and it certainly taught me about preparation. While I don’t play football anymore, I do give presentations, speak at meetings, meet new people, etc. The main thing I’ve learned about preparation is that Preparation=Confidence.

I wanted to share a few lessons my football coaches taught me that can help you prepare as well. They all boost your confidence and help you succeed when you need to most.

1. Know your plays: Know what you’re going to do and how you’re going to do it. If you’re giving a speech, know what you’re going to say and how you’re going to deliver it.

2. Learn the big picture: In football, things constantly change. If you stick too close to what you prepared for, you might get burned. Get used to the unpredictable.

3. Know your opponent: Who’s attending your meeting? What questions do you think you’ll be asked in your presentation? Know what’s going to happen before it does, and you will succeed.

4. Relax…but keep focused: The best athletes and speakers are relaxed. Notice how the best athletes always have a sense of composure. Their bodies are almost limp because they are relaxed, focused, and confident.

5. Don’t be afraid to win: If you stay too rigid, you won’t be able to do anything amazing. Don’t be afraid of your audience or your opponent. Be flexible and allow yourself to make a game changing play.

Follow the coach’s advice and we can get you to deliver better than you could have ever expected. Know what you’re going to do and be confident doing it.