Personal Brand: the 4-step guide for those starting from 0

If you consider the Personal Brand a fundamental element to improve your career, in this article we discover 4 steps to create it starting from 0.

Why is Personal Branding important?

Today more than ever, uncertainty reigns supreme in the labor market. How many times have you found yourself applying for a junior position where at least 2 years of industry experience was required?

Especially for young people , entering the world of work is a difficult transition, due to continuous technological changes. The market continually requires new skills and you have to keep up.

As Nicoló Andreula says in Flow Generation: Survival Manual for Unpredictable Lives:

“Millions of people in the Western world have already become "jugglers of trades", experts in juggling more than one job: they lead a jointed existence, in which their income is a composite mosaic. Employments, projects, employments, passive income. Technology is promoting this kind of fragmented working life, and in parallel it is also changing the way we look at ourselves.”

This fragmentation of our professional lives departs from the pattern we learned in compulsory school, high school and college. These institutions have guided us, rightly or wrongly, towards a future made up of the certainty of having a stable job. Study, commit and you will see that you will find your place in the world.

However, technological innovations have undermined the old rules of the world of work, generating irregular and discontinuous career paths . For this reason, many professionals have adapted by managing various activities with which to support themselves, thus becoming "jugglers of trades".

Are you also a juggler of trades?

Pay attention... in the digital world you are probably also a juggler of trades , you've just never thought about it. I, for example, started working as a freelance journalist and reporter, but I got to study the basics of other subjects while working. Video editing and post-production, Design, User Experience Design, copywriting, SEO, front end development, data analysis, social media marketing, all skills that I have developed during my professional career.

Without realizing it, I'm becoming a juggler of trades, and the same is probably happening to you too.

It is no coincidence that today, in the field of digital training, we often talk about the training of T-shaped skills . A vast series of subjects known horizontally, and a narrow circle of subjects studied vertically. In this way our skills are flexible and adapt to changes in the labor market caused by the advancement of technology.

As you may have noticed, the only thing that won't change in this journey is your Personal Brand .

What is Personal Branding?

According to Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos, your personal brand is what people say about you when you're not around . Like it or not, your professional activity will define your personal brand.

In such a discontinuous world of work, your skills and your career path will change. But not your Personal Brand, which will follow you and evolve with you.

How to take care of the Personal brand?

Personal Brand can be developed both online and offline.

The difference is that offline word of mouth is much slower and often limited to a circle of people restricted to a limited geographical area. In this way, you risk being trapped in a circle of current and potential customers who value what you do of little value or who give you few opportunities to grow professionally.

On the other hand, online word of mouth is much faster, and infinitely more powerful. Just think of the professionals who, thanks to the production of online content, have managed to exponentially grow their network of contacts and, consequently, their job opportunities.

Obviously, online and offline shouldn't be thought of as two separate worlds, both create synergies and help shape the Personal Brand.

In this regard we can mention some Italian professionals such as Federica Mutti, Luca Mastella, Francesco Agostinis or Alessandro Vercelloti (the digital lawyer). The skills of these professionals are known thanks to the strength of the Personal Brands they have been able to build.

The 4 Steps to develop your Personal Brand

Now that we understand what a Personal Brand is, let's move on to 4 fundamental steps to start building one .

I state that these 4 steps are the result of my personal experience and my research. They are very useful for those who haven't started this journey yet, because they will most likely face the same problems I faced.

You understand who you are

It will seem trivial, but it is not. Understanding who you are is very important. Online Personal Brand is nothing but your extension into the digital world, don't you want me to say and do things you don't agree with?

Let me explain, we are all the result of a journey that has led us to be who we are today. So pretending about personality, values, academic qualifications and skills is a dangerous boomerang.

Remember that trust is earned drop by drop, but lost by the liter . So I strongly advise you not to pass yourself off as what you are not, because you will pay the consequences in the long run.

How to understand who they are?

Good question, it's not a simple and linear path , self-discovery is a process that continues throughout life . But you can identify what are the motivations that drive you to do what you do, there are different exercises you can train with.

3 exercises to understand who I am

• The 5-step template for creating a mission statement can help you identify where you want to go in your life. This way you will begin to understand what makes you happy and what you can do to achieve your goals.
• The 5 Why exercise. Ask yourself why you want to do something 5 times, going backwards you will find the true values that drive you in your actions.
• A third method is to simply analyze what you do during your free time or when you get bored. On these occasions we often give full rein to our passions and our personality, try to pay attention.

I, for example, was and still am very much in love with online strategy games. When I started dealing with marketing and personal branding, I kind of went back in time, when I was studying strategies to win my games.

Figure out who you want to talk to

Once you figure out who you are, you need to figure out who you want your message to reach. Identify a specific niche , which has certain interests, and communicate to solve specific problems.

Attention! Don't get lost in very detailed analysis and definition of the audience persona at the beginning. Start with a general picture of your ideal interlocutor.

Remember that online communication is not 1 to many, but 1 to 1. Consequently, I advise you to build a relationship with people interested in what you do , talk to them and compare notes. This way you will understand what problems they are facing in their life and how you can help them.

Let's pretend you're a Yoga teacher, to build an online Personal Brand you just need to film yourself with your Smartphone while you do your exercises or talk about your job. Maybe at first not go into specifics, but talk and show everything that can be useful for a neophyte. In this way all the people interested in yoga will find your content online and will start following you.

Going forward, refine the audience persona

Of course you'll need to adjust as you go along , it's okay to start a bit more general at first, but in the future you'll need to define a more detailed audience persona (or even more audience personas).

Going back to the Yoga teacher example. Once you've started building a general yoga audience, you'll need to get more specific to figure out what problems people want to solve with your service. Maybe some people want to do Yoga to relax and explore their self, others because they are always stressed and want to get out of it, still others because they are fascinated by the oriental world. The secret of success will be in your ability to specifically define the people you want to talk to and build a communication tailored to them.

Start producing content now

Well now comes the really hard part, producing content . I say difficult because this is the moment in which we have to get involved and expose ourselves to the judgment of others.

During this journey you will encounter two particularly insidious obstacles.

The main obstacle for those starting from scratch

The fear of being seen from the bottom up is the great barrier to entry to Personal Branding. If you are reading this article, you already have all the technological tools that allow you to start producing content today. So why aren't you already doing this?

In my opinion the limits are not of a technological nature, but of a cultural nature. In Italy we have been educated to refuse bankruptcy. This is because failing at school and university means indelibly staining yourself and losing the chance to redeem yourself. This is why, inevitably, not everyone will have the courage to develop an online personal brand.

Fear when you produce content will be a bad advisor, try not to listen to it. It will tend to make you believe that you are simply making a fool of yourself. You will start wondering how others will judge you.

What will my friends think of me? And my parents? And the * my * companion *? And my colleagues?

The advice I can give you is… FUCK IT .

Probably these people whose judgment you fear will become your first supporters , or at best they will ignore you.

In any case, don't give too much weight to the judgment of others, unless they are part of your market niche. Focus on the goal you want to achieve, help other people solve a problem and share your journey. Don't wait to have perfect content, start and improve over time.

When you start posting it will be the users themselves and rate your work. So set off, make mistakes and learn along the way.

Beware of instant gratification

As soon as you start your project, you won't get any feedback from the public. It's normal, Rome wasn't built in a day, and your Personal Brand is no exception. The problem is that we live in an age where we are obsessed with the instant gratification of likes, follows, and shares.

Your results will improve over time as you begin to understand what works best and what doesn't . So give the right weight to these metrics, focus on the consistency and value of your content.

Which platforms to choose for Personal Branding?

Choose the platforms you know best . I personally chose Facebook and Instagram, because they are the ones I use the most as a user. In support of Facebook and Instagram I decided to use Youtube and this blog.

In the beginning it is best to start with 1 main and 2 support channels. Choose the main channel based on your aptitudes, start from the platform you know best and that you live the most during your daily life.

The benefits of a multi-channel approach

Each channel has its own rules, as Marshal Mcluhan said, " the medium is the message ".

This is why I advise you to select the platforms based on the complexity and type of message you want to communicate.

On my social profiles I share my career paths and my tips on communication, advertising, photography and marketing. This is because Facebook and Instagram lend themselves perfectly to content halfway between entertainment, inspiration and training.

On Youtube I share my expertise on certain topics. I show the videos made by the agency for clients, but also digital creations such as the music production of SloU Cobra and some tutorials.

On the Insight Agency Blog I share my strategic level Marketing skills, which require more insight, in-depth guides on creative writing and photography.

Learn along the way

By producing content, you will realize that your current skills are not sufficient to produce quality posts, videos or articles that generate interest in users.

At this point I advise you to choose courses or books that will strengthen those areas in which you want to improve.

Take courses on what you like

My personal advice is to study more what you like and where you are more inclined. If you hate video editing, it makes no sense to take a vertical course on that topic, you only acquire the basic skills to be able to produce content that is pleasant enough.

Create your own verticals on your strengths . If you like it and you feel good at copywriting, verticalize yourself on that. This way you will learn faster and make your content irresistible by building on your strengths.

How to understand what you like?

My personal advice is to do . By doing we discover not only what we like and what we don't, but also what our strengths are and what we learn faster. If we realize that a specific skill stimulates our interest, then let's deepen it to build our career on it.

Remember to share your learning , because it will be an important part of your journey in the beginning. Document the journey, not just the outcome.

Some practical advice for your Personal Branding

Before concluding the article, I want to give you some practical advice that I myself am applying to develop my Personal Brand.

Personal branding is not everything

The network of acquaintances will serve you to have more opportunities. But remember that what will allow you to be truly marketable on the job market are your skills. Find the right balance between these 2 elements.

In any case, producing content for your Personal Brand will give you skills that can be useful in the future. Building skills and growing your network are not unrelated activities, but they feed into each other .

Remember that the world is offline

Offline relationships are more important than online ones. Try to compare yourself live with other professionals who have already embarked on the path you want to take. They will give you useful indications on how to take your first steps.

Exchange ideas and reflections with them. In this way you will be able to grow faster and expand your network of contacts.

Find your Highway Builders

In the famous book by Jonathan Goodman, Viralnomics: How to Get People to Want to Talk About You , the 4 different types of users who dominate the internet are analyzed. To be successful with your personal brand you need to find what are called highway builders , i.e. people who love what you do (and what you communicate) so much, that they will become an active part in spreading your message.

If you're starting from scratch, highway builders might be among your friends and acquaintances. Learn to recognize them. These people will not only get your message out there, but they'll give you feedback and helpful tips to improve your content. Keep these friends close, both in your personal and professional life.

Copy smart

Take a cue from those who are just ahead of you. Technologies evolve quickly, don't emulate those who have 200,000 followers on Instagram. Rather emulate micro-influencers who have gained 2,000 followers in 4 months in their niche.

Remember that you are unique. Copy the form, not the substance . Your tone of voice must be yours, only in this way your communication will be unique and effective.