Honorable Mentions

Thank you to Juliana Wall, owner of Juliana Wall Photography for sharing her experience and advice for building a personal brand.

Knowing yourself can transform your business!

Honor and celebrate your strengths — BUT try to be comfortable with your blind spots

-Listen to the replay of RTS Monthly chat on YouTube with Sarajane Case

Personal Branding 

Definition: The conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility.

Lean into the WHY behind your business, the WHY behind your passion and why you do what you do. 

People crave human connection. We all want to feel seen, heard, and loved. Personal branding is a way to create a business centered around YOU, your personality, your experience and expertise and ultimately, how your service or product can make a positive impact in people’s lives. 


Actionable Strategies

Infuse your personality into your business. Basically, your “About Me” page but intertwined into every aspect of your business.

Make sure your logo, brand colors, fonts and website FEEL like you, and it all is a reflection of who you are. 

Write website copy, client emails, and social media posts the way you actually speak in real life. People connect with people. Not professional corporate robots. 

Don't sound like a stiff corporation in emails. Think about how you talk to your best friend. You want your ideal client or customer to connect with YOU, so writing things the way you talk will instantly draw them in. 

Niching Down

Identify your soulmate client (ideal client) and design your business and marketing to speak just to them. Market to attract your soulmate client

You're able to focus all of your time and energy pouring your love into your clients and the people you want to serve. 

People want an expert they know and trust will take care of them. You don't go to a general surgeon when you need heart surgery. 

The theory of attracting and repelling

When you show up as yourself in your business you will naturally attract people who connect with you. THOSE are your people. These people will fall in love with you and your brand and be loyal brand ambassadors, especially in your niche. 

 Simultaneously, you want to actually repel people away who are NOT your people. You can't serve everyone and you will not be everyone's cup of tea. There are people who you wouldn't vibe well with or who your product actually wouldn't serve them. You do yourself a huge serve weeding those people out just from your marketing. 

For every "No," there are 10 more people who will say "Yes" right around the corner. 

Show up on Social

Use Instagram stories to show your day-to-day life, behind the scenes, and sharing interests.

Post photos of yourself in your feed (every 9th photo or so) paired with captions that share your life, personality, interests, struggles, etc. 

Utilize reels to show up with your face and provide value or entertainment

Build the "like, know, & trust" factor so that when they need your product or service, they will immediately buy from you because they already love you


Real Talk 

It’s human nature to be naturally drawn to a certain kind of person or group of people. We all want to feel like we belong to a community. 


Just how not everyone in life will like you, you will run into people you just don’t get along with and that’s okay. Not everyone is your client so you shouldn’t try to market to everyone.

There can be 1,000 other businesses in your industry, but there is only one YOU, and you are what makes your business unique.

You make the experience in your business different from anyone else. Embrace it. Own your superpower. 


Resources

Books
-Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action by Simon Sinek

-Building a StoryBrand: Clarify Your Message So Customers Will Listen by Donald MiIller 

-Built to Belong: Discovering the Power of Community Over Competition- by Natalie Franke

-I Am My Brand: How to Build Your Brand Without Apology

Enneagram Personality Test (just one version)

BombBomb- Video Messaging Service