Do you need a personal brand?

Personal brands seem to be the thing to do these days.

I see people all over the internet saying “you have a personal brand regardless of whether you’re running it!” and I suppose that’s true. Kinda.

But is a personal brand for everyone?

Do you really HAVE to put yourself out there on the internet to grow a company or climb in your career?

The short answer is no.

The long answer is if you are willing to try, it could help you grow in a lot of different ways.

Believe it or not, I was super against starting a personal brand until 2018. I followed all the gurus. I knew I could, and maybe even should, give it a shot. But I didn’t want to.

I told myself that my company should stand on its own, without my face being plastered all over the internet. I didn’t want to be another talking head saying motivational crap that no one believes.

In hindsight, I think I was just scared.

Because a personal brand is… personal. It’s YOU. Publishing your own ideas, with your own face attached.

It can attract a very personal kind of criticism. (Y’all would not believe the shit I’ve read on the internet about myself over the years. I won’t even go into it.)

For me, the potential pros ended up outweighing the cons.

And I don’t think it’s a coincidence that period in which my company finally grew to 7-figures directly correlates to the time I was hustling building my brand

During my personal branding journey, I’ve learned:

It’s possible to grow your business without being an “obnoxious salesperson.”

Instead, I do what feels right to me, and provide as much value to people as humanly possible. It’s not all attributable, but I believe that everything you give to others comes back ten-fold.

You don’t have to be offensive or controversial to build a personal brand.

I see so many brands blowing up by being mean. Subtweeting, talking poorly, putting others down. That is not my jam, and you can grow without people arguing in the comments.

Building a personal brand can drive real business results.

I just checked our CRM… 24% of Accelity’s all-time revenue is attributed to my personal brand on LinkedIn. That is a lot. of. cash. If you’re willing to stay consistent and do the work—it pays. Quite literally.

Have you been thinking about starting a personal brand?

Maybe this is just the sign you needed to jump in. 😉

Have questions about starting or growing a personal brand? Leave them in the comments.

#personalbranding #socialmedia