Victoria Rayburn [00:00:00]:
Remember, your personal brand is the gateway to deeper connections with your audience, the key to establishing authority and the foundation that will enable you to make business and career pivots. Essentially, having a strategic personal brand can only help your small business hey there, you're listening to the Priority Pursuit podcast, a podcast dedicated to helping small business owners and leaders define, maintain and pursue both their personal and business priorities so they can build lives and businesses they love. I'm your host, Victoria Rayburn. And y'all, I am going to say something that I know many of you don't want to hear. And that is, if you are a small business owner, you need a personal brand. Now, many small business owners shy away from the idea of personal branding because they believe that their products or services should speak for themselves. However, in today's competitive market, establishing a personal brand is essential if you want to create long term business success. So whether you need convincing or already have a personal brand that you want to refine, in this episode, we're discussing both why you need a personal brand and how you can establish one.
Victoria Rayburn [00:01:12]:
First of all, let's talk about what a personal brand is and isn't. Because while it's similar to a business brand, there are some key differences. We have talked about business brands on the show in the past, but in case you need a refresh, a business's brand is a business's identity, image and reputation. Basically, your business's brand is a person's gut feeling about your business and what comes to mind when people think of your business, your products and or your services. Your personal brand, on the other hand, is what comes to mind when people think about you as an individual. It's the unique combination of qualities, values, expertise and personality traits that make you you and differentiate you from others. In other words, your personal brand is how you're perceived by your audience, peers and industry. While your business and what you offer should certainly be part of your personal brand, your personal brand is typically going to be separate from your business's brand.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:08]:
Now there are exceptions. For example, if you are the face of your company and your customers typically work with you directly, your business's brand and personal brand might be one in the same. For example, when I was a wedding photographer, I was the face of my company and even though I certainly had help behind the scenes, my clients worked with me directly. As a result, my businesses brand and personal brand were so intertwined that they were essentially one brand. Treefrog, on the other hand, has its own brand and Treefrog is part of my personal brand and part of Kelly's personal brand and our personal brands support Treefrogs brand. However, Treefrog's brand and our personal brands are separate. If that's confusing, I am so sorry. But basically, if you're the face of your company, your personal brand and businesses brand can be combined.
Victoria Rayburn [00:02:57]:
If you aren't the face of your business, you need a separate personal brand. Now, you might be thinking having a personal brand is a waste of time. People don't need to know me, they need to know about my products or services. However, there are several benefits to having a personal brand and because of this, I firmly believe that most small business owners should take the time to develop and implement a personal brand. First of all, people buy from people, not businesses. And they don't just buy from anyone, they make purchases from those they know, like and trust. And today, consumers are increasingly looking for true connections with the individuals behind businesses, often before choosing to support a business. In fact, 77% of people are more likely to support a business when its founder has a strong personal brand and the founders personal values align with the consumers values.
Victoria Rayburn [00:03:50]:
Basically, having a personal brand as a small business owner allows you to humanize your business and foster relationships, even if they're just virtual ones with your audience so that they can know, like and trust you. By simply sharing your story, your values and what matters most to you, you can create a sense of connection and reliability that ultimately leads to sales. Because again, when customers feel a personal connection to you, they're more likely to choose your business over your competitors as well as become loyal repeat customers. Long story short, having a personal brand allows you to differentiate yourself, especially in a crowded market, and connect with customers on a deeper level, which can help drive long term success for your small business. Another reason you should build a personal brand is to establish authority. Through your personal brand, you can showcase your expertise, knowledge and experience in your industry or niche. This helps position you as a leader in your field as well as a trusted guide which if you've listened to any of our past episodes about using story elements and marketing, you know that this is important. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, I want to encourage you to check out our blog post titled why Small Businesses should use storytelling and marketing, which we will be sure to link to in the show notes.
Victoria Rayburn [00:05:08]:
But when you consistently use your personal brand to share valuable insights, tips and advice with your audience, you can demonstrate your expertise and establish credibility, which helps you earn the trust respect of your audience and helps them see you as a go to resource. And this will help establish you as a sought after expert and open doors for speaking engagements, collaborations, partnerships and other opportunities that can increase both your and your business's reach and profitability, and even help you diversify your income. In addition to helping your business grow and establishing authority, having a personal brand can also help enable your business to pivot. It's no secret that the last few years have been pretty chaotic for the world as a whole, but they've been especially chaotic for small businesses. Now more than ever, it is so important for small businesses to be able to adapt regardless of what the world or economy throws at them. And this might be surprising to you, but having a strong personal brand gives you the ability to pivot and change course as needed. Because whether you launch a new product or service, enter a new market, or start a new business altogether, your personal brand gives a solid foundation from which you can make strategic shifts because your loyal audience will be more receptive to changes and transitions and will likely be thrilled to support you along the way. Just to give you an example, when I started my personal brand, it was very much as a wedding photographer.
Victoria Rayburn [00:06:32]:
However, as I added coaching and education for other photographers and small businesses to my services, I received a lot of support and even excitement about this decision because my audience felt a personal connection to me. As a result, they celebrated these new services with me and many even invested in them. Then the same thing happened again when I decided to close my photography business altogether and partner with Treefrock. Honestly, one of the reasons I am so adamant that small business owners need to have a personal brand is because having one of my own has allowed me to make career and business changes and lead a life that better supports my family. I mean, I now have a career that allows me to keep my daughter at home with me almost every day, with the exception of days where I have meetings and need to like recruit the help of grandparents and babysitters. She is currently hanging out with the wonderful grandma sues while I record this podcast episode. But yeah, I truly don't think I'd have a career where keeping my baby with me would be an option if I hadn't developed a personal brand. So, like I said before, there are multiple benefits and reasons to develop a personal brand.
Victoria Rayburn [00:07:39]:
But you know, how? How do you build one? Now? If you've listened to a single episode of priority pursuit, you know that the best way to clarify your message and brand is to write your marketing guiding statements. Well, this is also true for your personal brand. We have talked about marketing guiding statements and I don't even know how many episodes at this point. But in case you aren't familiar with this idea, marketing guiding statements are written guidelines that position your brand and business as a trusted partner, and the process of developing these statements gives you the information you need to write clear, concise and effective messaging and a story based framework. When you take the time to create marketing guiding statements, you and your marketing team can refer to these statements as you work on writing website copy, blog posts, social media posts or developing any other kind of content to make sure your marketing is customer focused rather than braggy or salesy, and making sure that has the power to convert your ideal customers. While your business needs marketing guiding statements, so does your personal brand. Your marketing guiding statements include talking points, your one liner, your story pitch, sales script and why. Now, chances are your personal brand marketing guidance statements are going to be very similar to your business's brand's guiding statements.
Victoria Rayburn [00:08:53]:
I want to encourage you to write guiding statements for your personal brand so you can have easy access to clear messaging when you need it and so you can ensure your personal brand speaks to your ideal customers, whether it be through the content you're developing or when you have in person conversations. Essentially, think of your marketing guiding statements as the gps of your marketing and brand efforts. Once you've written them, you'll know exactly what to say to connect with and convert your ideal customers. Because we know that small businesses marketing can't succeed without queer messaging, we put together a free mini course that walks you through exactly how to write your marketing guiding statements. And you can use this course to write guiding statements for both your business and your personal brand. To take the first step to effective marketing for small businesses writing your marketing guiding statements mini course, visit the link in the show notes or go to treefrogmarketing.com marketingguiding statements, which is all one word without any spaces, hyphens or special characters. Again, if you want to clarify your message so you can better connect with your ideal clients, learn how to write your marketing guiding statements for both your business and your personal brand by visiting the link in the show notes or by going to treefrogmarketing.com marketingguiding statements. While writing marketing guiding statements will give you clear messaging for your personal brand, you also need to help people get to know you.
Victoria Rayburn [00:10:17]:
After all, the point of having a personal brand is to humanize you and your business and to help your audience connect with you. Now, you don't have to tell your audience everything about your life, but defining and using brand topics is a strategic way to help prospects connect with you. In case you aren't familiar with this idea, brand topics are simply areas of your life and business that you share and that you want people to think about when they think of you and will be of interest to your ideal customers. Just to give you an idea, my brand topics are priorities. Marriage, motherhood, specifically being a working mom Patty who is my dog supporting small local businesses self worth slash battling perfectionism small business marketing education small business SEO education. You'll notice that some of these topics are directly related to my services as a marketer and SEO coach, while others are personal. Your brand topics will look different than mine because you want your topics to help your ideal customers feel connected to you. With this in mind, I want to encourage you to identify five to nine brand topics.
Victoria Rayburn [00:11:22]:
To choose your topics, think about your audience and what aspects of your life they will either relate to or find interesting and how you can serve them with helpful content. Now don't overthink this and only share what you're comfortable sharing. You simply want to pick brand topics that make your audience think things like yeah, me too or I love that she's so passionate about that. Just to give you an example, while married is very much part of my brand, my ideal client isn't necessarily married. However, they are familiar with marriage and as a result, this brand topic still interests them and helps them feel more connected to me. That said, I remember talking to one of my students a few years ago who's a very high end wedding photographer. As she was determining her brand topics, she initially thought she wanted to make her chickens one of her brand topics. However, she realized that her ideal client, who was a bride who lived in Chicago and appreciated the finer things in life, would not find chicken content relatable and might even be repelled as a result of this kind of content.
Victoria Rayburn [00:12:20]:
I know determining your brand topics can feel daunting, but again, all you need to do is think about your ideal clients and what aspects of your life they will either relate to or find interesting and how you can serve them. If you're stumped, ask a friend or family member, or better yet, your ideal client what aspects of your life could be relatable or interesting. And again, heavy focus on the relatable. Please, please don't hear this and think my life is not interesting enough for me to have a personal brand. No, the world people love relatability, so roll with that. Please do not let this advice give you some kind of existential crisis. I promise you that there are things about your life that people will relate to and find interesting. Okay, so something else you'll want to do while developing your personal brand is to establish a consistent voice or tone.
Victoria Rayburn [00:13:11]:
To do this, I recommend deciding how you want to talk and communicate with your clients and then keeping that voice consistent both online and in person. This prevents any disconnect and will help your potential clients know exactly what to expect when they work with you. For example, I'm naturally a perky and pretty bubbly person, so when I was a wedding photographer, I made sure this voice came through in all of my content because I knew I could be overwhelming and annoying to shy, reserved brides. To prevent disconnect and help potential clients decide if they're comfortable working with me, I was sure to use the same perky, bubbly tone in all of my copy by using exclamation points and phrases I regularly use in person. Kelly, on the other hand, is very direct at everything that she does. As a result, when she produces content or a member of our team assists her in developing a video or something for her personal brand, we're sure to make sure that this content is true to her direct, helpful, no nonsense tone I know that your english teacher probably told you not to write like you talk, but in this situation you can. I promise. With this in mind, take some time to determine how you want to communicate with your clients and if it helps, write down adjectives to describe the tone you want to use and even phrases or words you want to incorporate.
Victoria Rayburn [00:14:32]:
When you have a consistent tone, you will attract the clients who are a good fit for you and repel the ones who aren't. And friend. That is the whole point of marketing your business.
Natalie Franke [00:14:43]:
What would you do with an extra 45 minutes every workday? That would save you 16 hours a month or roughly eight days a year. And over the course of your career, we're talking about over one year of your life. Saved all that time back? Well, many independent business owners spend far more than 45 minutes a day on administrative tasks, and with honeybook you can get that time back and then some. Honeybook lets you easily manage projects, contracts, invoices, scheduling and client communication, saving you time and allowing you to better serve your clients. For a discount on your first year of honeybook, visit Honeybook.com and subscribe with the code priority pursuit. 45 minutes a day adds a quickly use it to focus on what matters most.
Kelly Rice [00:15:28]:
Many small businesses don't have an effective marketing strategy, and because of this, they try one tactic after another without seeing results. This not only prevents consistent business growth, it makes managing marketing efforts more difficult than it should be. As a marketing agency for small businesses, we understand how frustrating it can be when hard work doesn't deliver the results that you want. Because of this, Treefrog has defined developed a proven four step marketing system that will help any small business grow. On our website, you can also schedule a 30 minutes discovery call to discuss working with Treefrog to build a marketing strategy that will allow your small business to finally see the growth you've been working so hard to achieve.
Victoria Rayburn [00:16:06]:
Now, when establishing your personal brand, you also need to think about your visual brand. And in my experience, and simply based on some of the most well known personal brands, you know things like Jenna Kutcher and Jasmine Star, you can create the most cohesion and success when your personal visual brand is consistent with your business's visual brand. In case you need some help with this, let's talk about a few ways you can create visual cohesion and establish a consistent visual brand for your personal brand. First, use your business's design elements. This means sticking with the same fonts, colors, marks and other design elements so that there's cohesion between the content you share and what your business shares. This will help keep your visual brand consistent and clear. Next, keep your image and video style as consistent as possible with your business's photo style. There are all kinds of photo style out there and none are necessarily bad.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:03]:
But having a clean image with natural skin tones next to a dramatic, warm image with deep shadows is going to create a disconnect in your and your business's visual brand. So if you haven't already, I highly recommend deciding what you want your brand's image style to look like and only using imagery that fits that criteria. Also, please know that I'm not saying you have to have a personal brand session done once a month. Well, I'd argue that you should have one done at least annually. And I mean once a month is by no means a bad idea. I mean, if you can do it, please do. But you can absolutely utilize photos and videos taken with your cell phone as well. And by simply using the same presets or taking photos and videos in a similar way and in places with similar vibes and light, you can create consistency and cohesion.
Victoria Rayburn [00:17:47]:
And this is important because having consistent photos and imagery will prevent your audience from getting distracted by inconsistencies in your visual brand so that they can focus on your messaging. Next, dress in a way that reflects your visual brand. This by no means means that you should only wear clothing that has your logo on it. It simply means that you should show up online and in person dressed in the way that you want to be perceived. Just to give you a few examples, if you want to be perceived as professional, add a blazer to your outfit or show up wearing business casual attire. If you want your brand to be perceived as high end, wear high end clothing, or at least clothing that looks high end and clean. You know, clean lines, neutral colors. Or if you have a lifestyle brand, feel free to show up in leggings and a sweatshirt.
Victoria Rayburn [00:18:32]:
There is not a wrong answer, but you want to make sure that you aren't creating a disconnect for your customers. For example, if you're an event planner with a very posh brand who plans million dollar events, you likely shouldn't ever show up in person or online in sweatpants and a messy bun. You've surely heard the saying, dress for the job you want to have. Well, it's the same thing here. Simply dress in the way you want your brand to be perceived. Now, once you've established your personal brand, you know, what do you, what do you do with it? First, you need to determine what tools you're going to use to build your personal brand. This can include social media, email, or even a website that's specific to your personal brand. Then you need to show up in these places.
Victoria Rayburn [00:19:14]:
Now, you likely don't need to use all of these tools or show up on every social media platform. Instead, you simply need to choose and commit to the most effective tools for your ideal client. For example, at this time, I only utilize Instagram, email and this podcast I regularly post on Instagram. The Treefrog email list receives emails directly from me and we release a new podcast episode every week. Kelly, on the other hand, utilizes LinkedIn email marketing in our podcast. While Tree Fray exists to help small businesses, Kelly works with our bigger small business clients and I work with solopreneurs and other smaller small businesses. As a result, Kelly and I use our personal brands to communicate with our ideal clients so that Treefrog's full client spectrum is served well and so our audience can connect with the individual who is best suited to serve them. Again, you don't need to show up everywhere.
Victoria Rayburn [00:20:08]:
Instead, choose a couple platforms based on how your ideal client wants to be communicated with, even if it's just one social media platform and utilizing email marketing, after you know where you're going to show up, you have to actually share content. Now, you may have heard marketing educators recommend evenly distributing your brand topics on social media, meaning, if you look at your nine square Instagram grid and have nine brand topics. Each brand topic should appear once. If you need rigid guidelines like that, feel free to use them. However, in my opinion, that often leads to forced, somewhat random content. Instead of doing this, I want to encourage you to simply keep your marketing guiding statements and brand topics in mind and sprinkle them in or make mention of them when it makes sense. For example, as I make notes for podcast episodes, if I can tell a marriage related story that relates to the topic we're covering, I'm absolutely willing to do it. Or if there's a trending Instagram audio that would fit well with my motherhood, SEO, or any other brand topic, I'll use the audio to create a reel.
Victoria Rayburn [00:21:13]:
Basically, as you create content of any kind for your personal brand, look at your marketing guiding statements and your brand topics. Chances are these items will both inspire content and having these elements in front of you will help you remember to incorporate them, which will make your content more relatable, memorable, and allow your audience to feel more connected to your brand because they feel like they know you. Now, before we wrap this episode up, I do want to address a question that people often ask us about personal branding, which is, do I have to share everything about my life online? And the answer is no, absolutely not. You should only share what you are comfortable sharing. For example, motherhood is one of my brand topics. Over the years, I've shared about our fertility journey and now I share about being a work from home mom. However, I keep my daughter's information very private. I don't share her name, we never share photos or videos of her face online, and this is just to protect her privacy.
Victoria Rayburn [00:22:11]:
So while motherhood is part of my brand, my daughter is not part of my brand. I also share about marriage. And while I have certainly felt called to share about some of our marriage struggles over the years in hopes of helping others feel less alone when their marriages and relationships aren't social media perfect there's so much about my marriage that I don't think I will ever share online. It might seem like I share a lot in social media, but reality, very little of my life sees the Internet. That said, I firmly believe that God gives each of us testimonies to help others. So share what you feel called to share and know that you can use your personal brand to make an impact if you so choose. But you do not need to share every aspect of your life online. For example, while I share a lot about our marriage, I mean, I do share some about our marriage via social media and with my audience, I share a heck of a lot more with the people who are actually in our lives and we can have, you know, in person conversations.
Victoria Rayburn [00:23:16]:
Okay, another question we're regularly asked in regards to having a personal brand is can someone else handle my personal brand for me? And the answer is yes, to an extent. While you can certainly have a social media manager or copywriter handle your personal brand for you, especially if you take the time to write your marketing guiding statements and brand topics, people are naturally good at stiffing out in office in office ten city wow. I don't know why that word is so hard to say, but as a result, I want to encourage you to either personally create, or at the very least, have a heavy hand in the content that is created for your personal brand. For example, while we have team members who are responsible for developing Treefrog social media content, it just wouldn't make sense for them to write my posts about marriage or motherhood or grab behind the scenes videos for my personal brand. It often makes more sense and it's just more authentic for me to do these things. And chances are the same is true for you. I know this can feel like one more thing to add to your plate, but again, having a personal brand is so important in long term success of your small business that it is a wise investment of your time and or resources. We've talked about the 80 20 rule in the past, which, in case you aren't familiar with, is the principle that in nearly all situations, 80% of results or consequences are a result of 20% of causes or effort.
Victoria Rayburn [00:24:41]:
In business, that means that typically 80% of profits and growth are a result of 20% of work. In other words, only 20% of what you actually do like yields profits, while the other 80%, while still necessary, does not. Friends, I want to encourage you to think about your personal brand as being part of the 20%. Whether this means you need to create systems that allow you to prioritize your personal brand or you need to take other things off your plate, your personal brand needs to be a priority. All right y'all, if you were on the fence about taking the time to create a personal brand because you either didn't think you needed one or because you just weren't sure how to create one, I hope you now see the value of having one and are committed to developing a personal brand. Also, I know this is a lot of information. Well, you can certainly go back and listen again. Every priority Pursuit episode has a corresponding blog post that summarizes the episode and more or less provides checklists.
Victoria Rayburn [00:25:41]:
In case you need a checklist for this episode, visit the link in the show notes or go to priority pursuit.com to see this episode's blog post. And remember, your personal brand is the gateway to deeper connections with your audience, the key to establishing authority and the foundation that will enable you to make business and career pivots. Essentially, having a strategic personal brand can only help your small business. On that note, thank you for tuning in to another episode of the Priority Pursuit podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, we hope you'll take a moment to share share it with your small business friends to leave us for you on Apple Podcasts, and that you'll join us next week for even more marketing boundary and priority driven tactics you can use to build a life and small business that you love.
