5 steps to a successful personal brand. The art of self-promotion

An expert on personal brand, public speaking and the art of self-realization Alina Solodka-Dolya talks about how to upgrade a personal brand and gives advice on effective self-promotion.

Each expert comes to a stage when he / she feels that he / she has done everything possible for his / her promotion, but the desired result in the form of a new audience, a larger flow of customers and, accordingly, money are not there. Why is this happening?

Because we are missing out on the most important component of the professional activity of any specialist in our technological time – the formation of a personal brand.

In this matter, we most often rely on chance rather than encouraging people to think the right things about us. Traditionally, I have two news for you: good and very good.

• a personal brand builds every day, whether you do something for it on purpose or not!
• it depends only on you what quality bricks will be laid in this “house”.

The hardest part is getting started, but you are already on the right track.

Here are 5 simple but very effective ways to help you start building a personal brand or upgrade an existing one:

Get rid of fear and shame

Most often building a personal brand (in the experience of my clients) gets in the way of various limiting beliefs. Everyone has their own bugs in the head that need to be caught and killed. Someone is struggling with the impostor syndrome – I’ll take another 100500 courses and then I can share my knowledge or my favorite – it’s a shame to talk about my achievements, suddenly others will think that I’m bragging. I have a great antidote – others don’t think about us at all.

Write down any attitudes that prevent you from making a loud statement. Why don’t you share expert information on social media? Why don’t you talk about your merits and successes? What’s stopping you ?!

Define your values ​​and strength

To build a good house you need to lay a quality foundation. In the case of a personal brand, it is an awareness of your values ​​and advantages.

Once you answer the questions:

• What is important to me? (freedom, security, development, your option)
• What do I believe in?
• What do I want to broadcast to the world? (or give to the world)

Many things will fall into place, and most importantly, you will understand in which direction to move, who your people are and what your environment should be. There should be no more than 5 core values. Then make a list of all your strengths, even the most subtle at first glance. Write correctly ?! In our digital age, believe me, this is a competitive advantage.

Make a set of rules

Every self-respecting expert should have rules that he / she does not break and does not allow others to do so. For example:

• I do not work for free in commercial projects
• I do not reply to messages after 19:00
• I answer emails within 2 hours
• My services cost … and I do not do discount

Then it will be easier for you to communicate with people, negotiate and promote your personal brand. And what is important is to get the desired result from this interaction, since many have no rules, which means that you are the king (queen) of the mountain.

Keep your goal in focus

What are you missing as an expert now ?! Recognition, publicity, regularity in manifestations in social networks, confidence in your competence. The list can be long, for personal brand consultations people come to me with very different requests. Someone lacks femininity (in feelings) to achieve a goal, and someone wants to become an expert on TV, but so far there is not enough competence or understanding of how it works.

Define your goal in the context of your personal brand!

Examples: Become a media expert, appear in thematic publications, write an expert book, launch a course, expand an audience on social networks. And keep it in focus all the time, every step and action you take should bring you closer to your goal. When you think about what is relevant to you now, you can easily refuse the most tempting offers and not reproach yourself for it.

Ask yourself more often: will it bring me closer to my goal?

Use social media as intended

The most effective tool in promoting a personal brand is social media. Facebook, Instagram is the base, you can also add YouTube and Linkdin. What is the mistake most experts make? Messy and irregular maintenance of their social media accounts.

In marketing, there is such a thing as “effective touch theory”, so your touches (actions) aimed at your audience should be constant and productive.

What to announce on social media:

• Successes. Talk about your achievements (completed a new educational course, met a guru in your field, improved your qualifications, you were interviewed, etc.).
• Lessons. Share your unique experience (how did you come to the profession, who was the first client or what request, what mistakes you made, etc. – show that you are a human being and you also have bad days).
• Successful cases. Tell about the success of your clients (without names), what projects you are most proud of, what happened, show your vigorous activity, if there is none – act!
• Expert opinion (arguments and facts that confirm your expert value, professionalism and competence).