If You Don’t Know How to Show up as a Personal Brand & Keep It Real, Read This

So, Who Is a Personal Brand, Really?

Few months ago I was doing a training on social media marketing and one of the participants raised his hand to ask a question. He said: “I’m a part-time barber and a musician I love to post about both things. But can my followers actually understand who I am really?” Have you ever asked yourself a similar question? The chances are that if you have any confusion about drawing the line between talking about your offer and your personal life, you have not defined what it is to be a personal brand. So, what or who is a personal brand?

A personal brand is anyone who is the face of the brand and provides the offer and acts under their own name (or a pseudonym). The personality is an important part of the branding. And because everyone’s face is truly unique, your customer don’t just buy your product or a service, they also buy into you, your identity, and charisma.

The amazing thing about being a personal brand is that it’s based on relatedness and relationship. If you are relatable, people will build trust in you and they are more likely to buy from you. They feel like they know you even if they never met you in person – which is something that’s possible to build on social media. So, the quick answer is that finding the balance of how much personal and how much work related stuff you post, is up to you. But there should be a mix of both.

<Read More: 5 Things that Stop Personal Brands From Getting Results on Social Media>

What It Takes to Be a Personal Brand

I have a huge respect for all personal brands. One, it takes something to be an awesome human being living your life doing what you love and making a difference to others. And when you’re starting, you must be a jack of all trades and handle everything from mastering your craft, creating an offer, and making sure it sells. As well as posting on social, managing your website, filling out the tax return… and other things.

Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky to start doing only that thing they’re great at and they have to do “the other job”. It can sometimes feel discouraging. You compare yourself with others, have high standards for yourself, and maybe that other job feels in the way of your dream. And so you rarely talk about it, possibly hide it, and then you’re afraid to show your true colours, because you feel like you’re just pretending. So what’s the way out of this trap?

Show Your True Colours

Ever been there? Me too! When I took a huge dip with my freelancing two years ago, I decided to get a job on a shop floor on Regent Street and then hoped nobody would find out because I sure was a total failure having this job while lecturing at a university. Those two simply things simply din’t match! And yet it was the best thing I ever did. I was able to stand up, save up, and get to my dream faster. My only wish is that I share about it because when I finally opened up, I saw it inspired other people to pursue their dreams.

Do you also struggle to show all parts of your personality on social media? What do you do to overcome that?