5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Build A Personal Brand

This morning I was listening to the “Leaders in the Trenches Podcast,” and Lee Odden was the guest talking about thought leadership.

Lee said one thing that really struck a chord,

“The route to industry visibility is not through popularity, it is through amazing work.”

Defining Amazing Work

Amazing work and popularity create different types of visibility on social media.

"Amazing work is about becoming a doer and getting noticed for what you have achieved for others."

Popularity is more of an ego driven motive. This motive is “me” vs “we” focused.

A deep understanding of how you define amazing work will be the deciding factor of whether you achieve amazing work.

1. What Value Do You Bring To Others On Social That Is Special?

Social media is a very noisy space.

If you don’t have a clear understanding around the value that will make you stand out, then you’re not going to get very far.

Are you the expert of your industry? If not, that is ok… You just know you have some major work ahead of you.

Are you a connector? There is major value in connectors, especially in the social world.

The question is… What is going to make you a special connector? What is going to make people hear you, versus just see you.

Noise will always be heard, but value is rarely seen.

2. What Is The End Result You Are Trying To Achieve With Your Personal Brand?

It’s imperative that you know what the end result is that you’re trying to achieve.

If you are in sales, is your goal to be the expert in your industry? Or is your goal to generate more revenue and crush your quota?

These are two separate end results that will require different strategies to achieve.

Are you a marketer looking to drive more traffic to the site? This is a great end result and can be easily measured.

If you know what you are trying to achieve, you can create a plan to get there.

3. What Audience Do You Believe Would Get The Most Value Out Of Your Personal Brand?

If you know your value prop, and what you are trying to achieve, it’s time to figure out who can help get you there.

The hardest part about building a personal brand is creating a targeted audience that can benefit from the value you bring.

For example; if you sell marketing software, but nobody that is in your social network works in marketing… You’ll never get an end result of more revenue.

Identifying who your target audience is will allow you to create a strategy around finding where that audience lives.

This is crucial to ever getting an end result.

4. What Is Your Motive With Your Personal Brand?

Motive is the key factor in having success with anything that we do.

Do you have a motive that is strictly driven by receiving value?

Or is your motive driven by giving value?

You have to identify if the reason you are giving is really driven by receiving.

All of these are important to identify up front.

5. What Do You Want People To Say About Your Personal Brand To Others

A personal brand is only as good as the reputation behind it.

Your reputation is what people will say about your brand when you are not around.

What do you want people to say?

Do you want to keep everything positive?

Are you looking to stir the pot?

Of course, both of these will have an impact on what others say about you.

You want to think long and hard about this because reputation can last a lifetime and in some cases can't be redone.

In Conclusion

Personal branding is your future.

You will decide if you are going to leave a lasting impression.

Your work will decide if you leave a legacy.

Get focused and get committed.

The world is waiting to see your amazing work!