Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs

Actions and insights to build Brand YOU, the foundation of your business

Donna Rachelson

• Publisher: Tracey McDonald Publishers
• Year: 2019
• ISBN:
  9780639955834
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Entrepreneurship
• Index: Business

Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs provides quick-fire, practical advice and real-life examples and success stories to help entrepreneurs build and market their own personal brands.

In today's fast-paced, interconnected world, you need to have a personal brand, apart from that of your company. If you haven't already got one, you need to start cultivating it into something of your choosing before it becomes defined by those around you.

Learn what your personal brand is, why it's critical to your success as an entrepreneur and what you need to do to grow, maintain and nurture it.

Donna Rachelson, a specialist in branding and marketing, and the author of three books, distils and shares her insights from years of experience in helping entrepreneurs grow and scale their businesses through the building of their authentic personal brands.

Jam-packed with easily digestible nuggets of information and easy-to-apply actions, and with contributions from seven other entrepreneurs from different industries and at different stages of their personal branding journeys, Personal Branding for Entrepreneurs is a must-have in any entrepreneur's personal development toolkit.

PART ONE

PERSONAL BRANDING BASICS

CHAPTER ONE

What is a personal brand?

‘Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.’

Jeff Bezos, Amazon CEO

Think about your hairdresser, doctor, financial planner, personal trainer, bookkeeper, handyman … anyone you pay to render a specific service.

Why do you choose that person? The fact that they do good work is a given. But beyond that, you probably trust them, like or admire them, and believe that they do something better than many of their competitors. Maybe they always give you added value; maybe they make you know how much your patronage is appreciated; maybe they offer you ultimate convenience.

Whatever the case, the ‘package’ they offer you that goes above their skills to include their personal strengths and talents is what is known as their personal brand.

In their own words

Anyone who wants to build a successful career needs to think about their personal brand. In today’s world, people don’t tend to stay with one company for as long. What you take with you when you leave is your personal brand. What makes you more valuable as you build your career across companies, and perhaps even industries, is your personal brand. And, for the first time in human history, you need no money to build a powerful, global brand – if you’ve got a great story and you know how to tell it. The internet and social media are the great equalisers.

When you are building a business as an entrepreneur, you and your business are inextricably linked. What you represent as the founder is effectively what the company’s values are. You need to embrace that and define it. Nothing precludes you from one day separating your personal brand and your company brand, but in the beginning stages you don’t have the luxury. In fact, you’d be missing a trick. Your personal brand gives the business a face, a personality, a set of values and a vision. But building a strong personal brand requires method. It is unlikely to happen without planning.

Gil Oved

We are all branded, whether we like it or not. Effective personal branding is about being deliberate in cultivating how others perceive you. It’s about packaging everything you offer in an authentic and noticeable way that makes you stand out. It’s about knowing yourself and understanding what differentiates you from others with similar qualifications and experience. Powerful personal brands have a sense of purpose and a desire to make an impact.

Stephen Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, put it so well when he said that you need to begin with the end in mind. Imagine it is your funeral – what are the traits, attributes and characteristics that others are remembering you for? What others associate with you is a good indicator of the kind of personal brand that you have built.

FACT! You brand yourself within the first few seconds of meeting someone (and it’s very difficult to change those perceptions once they have been created).

Your brand must be rooted in a deep sense of authenticity. It’s not about trying to be someone else – this will only make people confused about what you stand for. Instead, it’s about taking control so that everything you say and do influences the way people perceive you.

At every touchpoint – from how you introduce yourself to the way you structure your emails, present yourself at meetings and far beyond – you have the power to manage your behaviour, change your response and build on your personal brand. And in the increasingly fast-paced world of work we find ourselves in, there has never been a more important time to do this than now.

Your brand is a bundle of perceptions and it’s important that you take control of your personal brand and help to shape those perceptions. If you don’t brand yourself effectively, others will automatically do it for you.

We are all constantly under pressure to innovate and disrupt everything around us. As entrepreneurs we are under particular pressure to grow and sustain our businesses.

You need to be constantly evolving and developing your personal brand to remain top of mind and relevant to your target market. Your personal brand is your competitive edge.

In their own words

My success as a specialist is entirely built on my personal brand because my business is built around who I am. When it comes to choosing a doctor, you’re literally putting your life in someone’s hands, so you need to believe in them and trust them. My patients need to believe that I am the right person to help them. My personal brand is my credibility.

Dr Dory Neu-Ner

To me, personal branding is the way that you are perceived. When you think of someone’s personal brand, it includes what you see, how the person makes you feel, and the whole experience of that person. It’s not just about appearance. I’m just a regular guy and nobody looks twice when they see me. But I try to make a personal connection because that’s what’s really important to me.

I’d like to be perceived as someone that people can trust, who people know will put in a lot of effort, who will bat for them. When people think of Michael Hewson, I’d like them to think of someone with good character and ethics. He’s not the exciting showstopper person on stage, but he’s the guy who is reliable, will do a good job and is pleasant to be around.

Michael Hewson

Quick myth busting

Before we move on, I want to have a quick look at what personal branding is not because there are many myths and misconceptions about the term.

Personal branding is not about bragging or shameless self-promotion

It’s not about making a lot of noise about how wonderful you are. It’s about identifying your strengths and what makes you distinctive from others in your field. It’s about communicating the value you deliver; raising your profile and getting other people to talk about you in a positive light. The fact is that you might be brilliant. Your business idea might be exceptional. But if nobody knows about you or your idea, you can’t turn your business into a success.

In their own words

As a medical professional, my name is the one that goes on the door, and so my personal brand is the association I create around that name. My personal brand is not for everyone, but when I have patients that connect with it, they tend to stick with me.

Dr Dory Neu-Ner

Personal branding and marketing is not just for celebrities and it’s not about giving up your privacy

Personal brandin...