13 non-obvious benefits of building a personal brand

A 'personal brand' phrase becomes more and more popular every single year. Most of us have social media accounts on LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, or any other platform. The thing is that 99% of us don't use them to create content. We use them to consume the content.

I believe that if you read this blog post you're probably considering being a part of that 1%. The question is: Why is personal branding important? Is it really worth building a personal brand? If so what are the benefits of having a personal brand?

Let me answer this question.

Personal branding: A must-have or a waste of time?

There's one big problem with personal brands: It's not possible to build one overnight. A strong personal brand means years of commitment. Years of consistent writing, engaging with others, creating content, adjusting to the trends, niching down, pivoting... In one sentence: Years of self-development.

But there's also a bright side to that. Having own personal brand makes it impossible to replicate it by someone else. That's why it's so valuable!

So let's talk a bit about the prize for those efforts.

Benefits of having a personal brand

Each of us might have a different goal behind his/her personal brand. No matter what's your goal there're tons of reasons why you should consider creating a personal brand.

Let me list those that might be not super obvious:

Benefit #1: You can generate a side hustle

The side hustle has been a buzzword nowadays. Why? Because it generates additional money outside of your main source of income. And what's the best way to handle that? You're right: Creating a personal brand identity!

If you're consistent enough and share valuable knowledge people will trust you. That's a good moment to think about the monetization. Here'swhat creators can do to generate a side hustle:

• selling eBooks
• having sponsorships
• running a community
• doing consultations
• selling online courses
• having paid newsletters
• running blog/podcast/newsletter ads

There's no one and the only way to start earning on your personal branding. You can choose a way that's the best for you and for your audience.

Benefit #2: You'll build a committed audience

It's easier said than done. Why? Because it needs a lot of effort from you. It's impossible to build a committed audience without engagement.

Writing posts on LinkedIn? Reply to comments under your post. Ask additional questions. If you see a vibe send a connection request, then go to the DM and propose a coffee call. Support his/her LinkedIn posts if they resonate with you. Sounds like a lot to do, huh? But that's the way to build truly successful personal branding.

This approach is repeatable for other platforms:

Twitting? Answer the tweet replies.

Blogging? Reply to the comments under the posts.

Sending a newsletter? Ask the reader at the end for an email with his thoughts and reply if someone will send you an email.

OK. But is it worth doing that?

Absolutely! A committed audience is the most valuable asset for every creator. Your people can:

• support you
• give you a feedback
• naturally build a community
• help you increase your reach
• be evangelists of your products
• be your first potential customers

With such an audience you can achieve any goal you want!

Benefit #3: You can generate leads for your business

I know people who generate over 70% of leads to their business thanks to their personal branding. Why? Because they have a very effective personal branding strategy. They know how to attract opportunities. They know:

• Who is their ideal target audience?
• What are the pain points of their potential clients?
• What language do they use?
• What are their desires?

Based on that they create content that literally read the minds of those people.

If you run your business you probably know the answers to those questions. There's nothing easier than starting to create the content, then. Here's the process:

1. Choose one social media platform (If you'll choose LinkedIn and will need help with that 👉 I'm here for you 👈)
2. Consistently create content related to your business.
3. Use 1,000 different words to talk about the same topic.
4. Optimize your profile to clearly show who you can help, how, and what will be the effect.
5. Convert attention generated through your content into leads.

The best part? Those will be hot leads.

Benefit #4: Business opportunities will come to you by themselves

Showing up on social media, showing a bit of personal life, and giving a tone of knowledge has one main advantage:

People already know you. They know who you are. They know what kind of value you stand for. They trust you.

Trust is the foundation of business. People want to do business with people they trust.

If you'll have a choice to make business with a man who consistently proves his value by providing a tone of his knowledge, shares, and thoughts and with a man who has a known name but no online presence who would you choose?

There's a much bigger chance to receive a business opportunity when you'll have a strong personal brand.

Benefit #5: You'll meet fantastic people

One of the main reasons why to build a personal brand is networking. They say that your net worth is your network. And I'm all about that. Moreover, creating content for various social channels means dialogue. Not monologue.

Why?

Because people can react to your content. Comment on that. Reshare that. If they really like that they can DM you and say why they love that.

It's the best way to build relationships with others. On LinkedIn or Twitter, you can talk with literally anybody using such a method.

But there's one thing worth mentioning here: Would you propose marriage on a first date in a real life?

No? So don't try to do it using cold outreach!

When you want to build a relationship do it naturally. Don't force it. Give a lot from you, and don't expect anything in return. That's the one and only way to build relationships with great people.

Benefit #6: You might land a dream job without having a CV

Talking about the benefits of the personal brand we can't skip one important aspect: People who have strong personal brands don't need to have CVs.

Why?

Because employers are constantly looking for A-players. Most of them don't care about your school, experience on paper, or a proper CV. They care about what you actually know. They care about the value you can give to their company and to their clients.

It's really hard to find a good employer. I know many situations where the candidate looked great during the recruitment process, but after starting the job disappointed everyone around him.

If you're known as an expert in a certain field and you constantly prove that, you won't need to have a CV. Dream job offers will land in your inbox and you will be the decision maker.

Benefit #7: You'll leave your comfort zones

The personal brand develops ourselves. Especially if we're introverts.

If we want to attract people we need to think about:

• tweeting daily
• recording videos
• writing blog posts
• recording a podcast
• appearing at conferences
• posting daily on LinkedIn

Most of us never did it before. We might be afraid of being judged. We might be afraid that we won't deliver enough value. We might even don't know how to start.

That's why the first time will be hard. You will need to leave your comfort zone. But when you do this once, doing that each next time will be easier and easier. It will be the best motivation to develop yourself in the future.

Benefit #8: Writing will be a pleasure, not a chore

Building personal branding is all about writing. If we want to have an online audience we need to have a proper content strategy:

• LinkedIn? Writing posts
• Twitter? Writing tweets
• Podcast? Writing scripts
• Newsletter? Writing emails
• YouTube? Writing scenarios
• Website? Writing blog posts

In the beginning, it might be overwhelming. Especially if you're not a native speaker (like me). Moreover, no one was born as a writer.

But there's one good thing:

It's possible to learn how to write in a way people would like to read us. Do you know what's the best way to do it?

Imagine this:

You want to learn to ski. You've read all of the books and watched all of the videos about that. And you're finally at the top of the mountain. You have only theory in your head. Without practicing you won't learn how to ski. You have to take the first ride. And then the second one. And then the third one...

Here's what I mean:

If you want to learn how to write. You need to write. Write a lot. The more you'll be writing the more you'll like it. And the better writer you will be.

Benefit #9: You'll build daily writing and content-consuming habits

OK, so you already know that you'll need to create content in order to build a successful brand. A lot of content. What's the best way to do it?

Writing every single day.

Why it's so important? Because of a few reasons:

1. You'll build a daily habit of writing
2. You'll be constantly developing your skills
3. You'll have enough content for your social media platforms and other places

But there is a dependency here. If you want to write valuable content you need to consume valuable content.

How to do it?

• Read books
• Read blog articles
• Listen to the podcasts
• Watch YouTube videos
• Subscribe to newsletters
• Learn from digital courses

It's a great thing in terms of self-development. You'll learn so many things thanks to the constant consumption of the content.

Here's what my daily routine looks like:

Every day I spend at least 30 minutes consuming valuable content. Then I write for at least 60 minutes. I do it every morning when everyone else is still sleeping. Moreover, it's a great time because I don't receive any notifications.

Those are 2 habits that you can also build for yourself. I'm sure you'll love them.

Benefit #10: You won't need to hire people to scale your income

If we talk about traditional business growth the only way to avoid the salary ceiling is constantly scaling your company. You need to hire new and new people to fulfill current needs. You need to create new departments. You need to manage the people. You need to find new ones if someone will resign, etc.

There are people who love that. But there're also people who hate that.

Many people with strong personal branding become Solopreneurs. What does it mean? It means that they don't hire any full-time employees to generate income in their business.

And the best part?

In many cases, they generate much higher profit than a strong brand with a lot of employees. For instance, they sell digital products. How does it work?

1. They spend a certain number of hours creating a video course.
2. They have it constantly visible online in their shop.
3. They sell it for years.

The magic? Let's say they spent 100h to create that. They don't need to work on that course anymore. The only thing they need to do is to communicate online to their audience, which is constantly growing, that here it is their offer. That's it!

The bigger audience is, and the more traffic they generate, the more passive income they have. And that's all without tens or hundreds of employees. It's only the unique combination of their own skills.

Benefit #11: People will see you as an expert

There's one thing that proves personal brand effectiveness: Being seen as an expert! But what are the key elements to achieve that?

• Make sure that your personal brand promise is consistent in your entire messaging
• Answer the questions that are popular in your target market
• Have a personal website with newsletter and blog sections
• Show up every day on your social media accounts
• Give a ton of valuable knowledge for free
• Show stories of your existing customers

When your target audience will see you as an expert you won't need to sell anymore. People will be asking where they can pay to receive help from you. That's how the right personal brand works!

Benefit #12: You'll know more about the human psyche

Why writing content is all about the human psyche? Because you need to learn how to write in a way people want to read.

You can have the best content in the world but if you won't hook your reader in the first few sentences he'll stop reading and start scrolling. Then your entire efforts would mean nothing.

You need to understand what to do to make your content attractive to your target audience. You need to know what words use to make your first sentence face-punching. You need to know how to write each sentence in a way to make the reader willing to read the next one.

It's all about the human psyche. Here's what to do:

• If you write a social media post spend 80% of writing time on the hook (first sentence)
• Use words that are seeds of curiosity
• Make your content skimmable

Write in a way as if you were reading people's minds.

Benefit #13: You'll open unopened doors

Personal branding has one main advantage: It's unpredictable. You never know what might happen. Your network might open for you unopened doors:

• You'll be invited to be a guest on podcast shows
• You'll be invited as a speaker at conferences
• You'll be mentioned in press articles

All of those little things are dots to the great things that wouldn't happen if you won't start working on your personal brand.

Benefits of personal brand in a quick summary

1. You'll be able to generate additional income outside your main job.
2. You'll have a committed audience that helps and supports you.
3. You can generate hot leads for your company.
4. You'll receive a lot of business opportunities.
5. You'll build a lot of relationships with fantastic people.
6. You can land a dream job without having a CV.
7. You'll leave your comfort zones and develop yourself.
8. You'll learn how to write and love that.
9. You'll build a habit of consuming valuable content and writing every single day.
10. You'll be able to generate 6 or 7-figure income without having full-time employees.
11. You'll be seen as an expert in the eyes of your target audience.
12. You'll understand how the human psyche works.
13. You'll open unopened doors.

Want to build a strong personal brand?

OK, so you already know why it's worth building your own personal brand. But many people are afraid of starting it because they don't know where to start or they're afraid of how many things need to be done for many many months to see the first effects. And yeah that's true. It needs a lot of effort. But you can do it with baby steps. Here are a few tips on how to start:

Start your personal branding on the social media

You don't need to be a creator from day zero. In the beginning take care of your profile presence. Optimize it to show:

• Who you can help
• How you can help
• What will be the effect

Then focus on commenting. Engage with other authors from your niche.

Why comments are a great thing for all beginners?

Because of two reasons:

1. You'll gain some eyeballs to your profile (those might be your first followers if your profile will be optimized)
2. You can start interacting with bigger accounts and 'steal' their audience
3. Comments are great inspirations for your own content

Start with comments and then think about posting.

Think about long-form content strategy

Social media are great attention and traffic generators for your personal brand but they have one main problem:

The content lives there for 2-3 days and it disappears.

That's why if you think about building strong personal branding it's super important to start thinking about long-format ever-green content as soon as possible. What it might be? Think about:

• newsletter
• blog
• podcast

The best part about them? You can repurpose content. For instance, you can record a podcast, then transcript it into a blog post, and then send it as a newsletter. Here's the magic!

Think about hiring personal branding coach

Remember the example about learning how to ski? Imagine that you have a man who will take you by the hand and will come down this mountain with you. He'll show you how to ski. How to avoid falls. How best to brake. What to watch out for. How to work on technique. Which route to choose, etc... Of course, you can try to do it by yourself. It will be cheaper but it also will be much more time-consuming.

It works exactly the same in terms of hiring a personal branding coach. Mentors are cheat codes to success. They help you achieve the goal you're looking for much faster and in a much more efficient way. The ROI of working with them is unbelievable.

If you need help in this area check my 👉 consulting program 👈

Set yourself boundaries

Many people I know think that they'll need to spend 4h+ every day in order to build their personal branding. It's true that you can spend here as much time as you want especially if we talk about social media. But the fact is that you don't need to. Set yourself a fixed number of hours you want to spend and stick to it.

Personal branding is not a luxury it's a must-have for everyone

I hope you enjoy reading this article and that you're encouraged to work on your own personal branding. If you have any questions or thoughts about this article or about starting your own personal brand feel free to 👉 contact me 👈

Thanks for reading!