Dr Gary Crotaz, PhD; Executive coach; award-winning author of 'The IDEA Mindset’; and host of 'The Unlock Moment’ podcast.
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When I started working on my coaching brand, celebrated author and podcaster Patrick McGinnis gave me some excellent advice. He said “They’ll buy you more than they’ll buy your ideas. If you want to build something big then you have to put yourself at the center.”
It made me focus differently, moving away from the creation of just another meaningless company name and logo and embracing my personal brand in the work I was doing. As a deep introvert, initially, it felt very unnatural, but over time I found my voice and, looking back, it was the best thing I ever did. Over the next two years, I created a website, an award-winning book, a podcast and a speaking portfolio.
I’m still on that growth journey, but looking back over the last two years, there are some clear lessons I’ve learned to build a personal brand that underpins a profitable business. Here's a simple plan you can follow.
Figure out your brand.
“What is the question to which the answer is you?” That’s the most impactful personal branding question I know.
It’s not enough to list things that you feel you have some expertise in. You need to focus on topics where other people perceive you to be an expert. I surveyed people who knew me well and the comment that came through, again and again, was my ability to find clarity out of complexity. I brought it through in the mission of my book—“clarity of thought, clarity of decision, clarity of action”—and in the theme of my podcast—“discovering remarkable clarity about the path ahead.” When people are searching for clarity, they think of me.
Once you know your brand, you can figure out whether it needs its own name, a logo, a color scheme or a clever framework. Those decisions are much easier to figure out if you are clear on the brand at the heart of it.
Figure out how you make money.
As Celine Dion said, “I don’t just sing for free. It’s my work. You’re paid for what you do. And I work hard.”
You can’t figure out how to grow your personal brand until you’re clear on how you make money. Is it through selling one-to-one or group coaching? Is it by selling online courses? Is it by getting paid for speaking engagements? Is it by helping other coaches build their experience? There are many ways to make money, but it’s hard trying to be a jack-of-all-trades, master of none.
Think about your natural talents and strengths; ask for the opinion of those who know you best and give you honest feedback. You’re likely to have one or two principal sources of revenue. Other streams may support those, but understand which elements drive revenue and which ones build brand but not direct revenue.
Figure out where you want to show up.
Once you know how you make money, figure out where you want to show up. Building and maintaining a brand is easily a full-time job and never more so than if you’re trying to be present on every social media channel, in every content format and in every country.
Who is your customer? Where are they based? How do they consume media? How would you expect them to find you? Be there.
Start by focusing in on just one channel where you can be regularly present. Over time you can gradually introduce new channels. But there’s nothing more depressing than spending hours posting to a handful of followers on a series of unconnected channels. Trust me, I’ve been there!
Figure out how you want to show up.
What do you enjoy talking about? What do you have enough to talk about? What does your audience want to hear about? And does all of that connect with the zeitgeist of what is going on in the workplace and in the world? If you want to build a brand, then you need to be relevant, resonant, authentic and consistent.
Repetition doesn’t just help the recipient remember what you said and that you said it, the science also says that it makes them more likely to believe that it’s true.
Bringing your personal brand to the fore can also feel quite exposing. How authentic, honest and vulnerable are you prepared to be to the outside world? Test your narrative with some people who don’t know you that well and figure out where you want to draw the line on how open you want to be.
Embrace the power of the podcast.
Building presence and reach is about consistency over time. Research suggests that the average hit podcast has been going for seven years; most of the biggest shows have hundreds of episodes. That’s a significant investment of time and money before a podcast reaches the kind of scale that makes it profitable.
Going on other people’s podcasts can be a great way to build a new audience for free, although you’re going to have to have something interesting enough to say to get the bookings! When I was starting out in podcasting, I found that many podcast slots weren’t available unless you had your own podcast and also a book—they just had far too many guest requests and it was an easy way to filter.
Building your personal brand is a significant commitment of time, effort and money. It very rarely happens overnight, so you’re going to need reserves of resilience to keep it up on the days when you’re just not feeling it. Be smart—if you’re up for it then focus, and stay focused with this plan. The payoff can be well worth it if you can make it through and build an audience who really loves to hear what you have to say.
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