Growing Your Personal Brand
Everyone has a personal brand. How will you steward yours?
Everyone has a brand.
No, really. They do!
From Fortune 50 CEOs to new hires fresh out of college, every person has a personal brand to steward. Your strengths, skills, passions, past experiences, and more are all a part of it. But branding, to me, is really about feeling more than anything else.
How does the sound of your name make someone feel?
The power of personal branding is in its ability to bring your community together around the things you care about most. Brands are natural mobilizers - good ones carry impact wherever they go.
Your brand also carries weight in your community and marketplace. And how you show up in the world to tell your (and maybe your organization’s) story has great potential for impact.
Maybe you’re trying to rally donors around tangible needs that your organization addresses.
Maybe you’re trying to rally customers around a new technology solution.
Whatever the case may be, donors, customers, and other audience members are watching and learning from what you say (and don’t say!) across the channels they connect with you through. Whether it’s LinkedIn, email, or a company-wide newletter, silence and disengagement are missed opportunities to advance the causes you care about as a leader!
For some of you, the thought of that missed opportunity weighs heavily. Personal branding can feel like an uphill battle, making leaders fear seeming selfish or self-serving to unknowns about the ins and outs of social media platforms they (really) would prefer to steer clear of.
Making the Case for Personal Branding
Finding yourself struggling to navigate stewardship of your personal brand?
Know this: it’s not just you.
Personal branding is hard. And it is for every leader. No matter what the LinkedIn gurus say…
But it’s not all smoke, mirrors, and follower counts in the world of brand strategy.
Maybe the idea of engaging an audience sounds less than exciting to you. I get it.
But what if growing your personal brand meant also growing your business?
What if it helped your marketing team clarify your organization’s message?
What if it helped your sellers close more deals?
What if it helped you impact the lives of more customers or donors?
The best leaders out there know that it’s not about them. Or likes. Or followers. Or having all the answers. They’re playing the long game—one that benefits their people and brings fresh perspective into their broader business ecosystem.
Do I have you convinced yet? I’m hoping so! Let’s get to work.
“Gabby creates amazing content that has resulted in leads and referrals.”
Whether you’re trying to build more of a platform on LinkedIn or get your new website up and running, telling your story well will require thoughtfulness and planning. Throughout our time working together, I’ve seen glee clients achieve everything from double-digit follower growth to new leads and speaking engagement invitations. So this approach…it really works. And it all starts with solidifying your goals!
Clarifying Your Goals
First things first: what are you trying to accomplish? Answer that question first. Are you trying to prepare for a book release? Drive traffic to your website? Drive donor engagement? Everything you do from here on out will be informed by what you’re hoping to achieve through building your personal brand.
Owning Your Voice
Before the writing begins, the first step is discovering the tenants of your brand and how they can authentically show up in and through your content. Is your tone polished and professional? Or is it real and raw? Align on specific language that describes the heart of your voice and tone. This part of the process, done right, ensures consistency across channels and content types so that everything you share from here on out really feels and sounds like you.
Knowing Your Audience
Are you writing for a global audience of Gen X or Gen Z’ers? Or mostly middle-aged women living in the southern-half of the United States? Decide who you’re targeting and be as specific as possible. Then, move towards really understanding the core needs of your target audience. What keeps them up at night? What gets them excited? Use this knowledge of their needs to strengthen the relevancy of the content and CTAs you later create.
Establishing Thought Leadership
Every audience has things they’re looking to learn from the leaders they follow. Maybe yours wants to hear about poverty alleviation in the global south or maybe they’re excited about leveraging AI for automation. Threading the needle between who you are, who your organization is, and where both are headed is…complicated. But good thought leaders are clear about their domains of expertise, giving their audience a balance of consistency and enough variety to stay curious and engaged.
Ideate with Intention
Great content ideas come and go, so whenever they do, write them down! Keep a repository of them in a OneNote, Trello board, Word doc…whatever works for you. A system like this – simple and scrappy as it is – will help make sure none of that content brilliance goes to waste.
Creating a Content Plan
You have your ideas. Now it’s time to organize them. Look at the month ahead…what’s going on at your organization that would be helpful to share about? What leadership lessons are you learning? How do those tie into your bank of ideas? And how can you frame the content to make sure it’s timely, relevant, and still aligned to your brand identity? All important things to think about when creating a content plan that works for you and your audience.
Still have questions? I’ve worked with everyone from VPs in tech to University leaders to create personal brands that are authentic and impactful. Let’s get started on yours today!
