Personal Brand Building Part One & How to Create a Foundation of Trust

Personal branding isn’t just for influencers—it’s the key to building trust, growing an audience, and making money online. In this episode of Her First, we break down the three must-have pillars of a powerful personal brand: knowing your core values, defining what makes you unique, and getting crystal clear on your audience. We’re also calling out the biggest branding myths (spoiler: “just go viral” is trash advice) and showing you how to build a brand that actually converts. If you’re ready to stop winging it and start treating your brand like a business, this episode is your game plan - Part One with Part Two next week.

Time Stamps:

02:34 The Importance of Trust in Branding

04:07 Defining Your Personal Brand

10:04 The Power of Referrals and Word of Mouth

12:12 Building a Genuine and Authentic Brand

19:39 The Role of Visuals in Personal Branding

22:34 Embracing Imperfections in Personal Branding

23:28 The Effort Behind Viral Content

24:33 Switching Focus to Written Content

25:59 The Importance of Research and Testing

28:05 Foundational Pillars of Personal Branding

29:26 Identifying Core Values and Passions

34:29 Defining Your Unique Value Proposition

39:34 Clarifying Your Target Audience

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Transcript

Episode 078: Personal Brand Part One
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Joanna Newton: [00:00:00] you might say, well, how come someone else just films a video and they just hop into their car and film a video and it's great and it goes viral.

That's probably not what happened. There was probably a lot of thought and intention and effort put into that video that you don't even realize happened. 



Michelle Pualani: Hello, and welcome back to the Her First Podcast, where we talk about high achieving women, their personal brand, the challenges that they face, and how they've been incredibly successful at what they're doing now. I'm Michelle Houston, a coach and mentor for Personal Brands, along with founder of To Be Honest Beverage Company.

Joanna Newton: And I'm Joanna Newton. I'm the co founder of millennial marketer, a agency that helps people create courses and online programs.

Michelle Pualani: And although this show is geared towards personal brands, We haven't really done an episode that specifically talks about what is a personal brand and how do you build one? So that's what today is all about the influencer marketing [00:01:00] industry is projected to grow to $21 billion. So what that means is our world is changing when it comes to business, and if you're not following along, you're actually just not paying attention and you're completely and totally gonna lose out. What is an influencer? It's a personal brand. What is a singer? A personal brand. What is a celebrity? A personal brand. What is a content creator coach in the online space? A personal brand. Yes, you have faceless accounts. Yes, you have brands who are created around, you know, the vision of what that product is. But predominantly what's happening in our world is the popularity of personal brands. It's how Zendaya and Anne Hathaway are hired by Cartier sell their diamonds, Because their faces are recognizable. They've created personal brands for themselves based on what they've been able to do. the world that we're heading into revolves around this concept of a personal brand.

Even employees know [00:02:00] how important it is for them to have a personal brand the digital space, either via LinkedIn, their Instagram, or what they're putting out into the world, it's valuable to a company. It's valuable to a brand and it's valuable to yourself as you either grow your career or are looking at starting your own business or in your own business. Are a content creator. So it's incredibly important to have this idea of personal brand that you're creating for yourself, which is a representation of you, a magnified sense of your own personality and what you offer the world, be something that people can engage with. We are more likely to invest in brands when we have trust, when we have that we can buy into when we can be loyal to a brand or to a business.

how to build a personal brand, how to cultivate it for yourself is of course, the through line of this podcast. And as we speak about different celebrities, but today we're going to talk about how you can identify it for yourself, how you can start to build it and think about how. impactful it [00:03:00] is. And today we're really going to share some data points to help drive this point home so that you can think about this more critically. Something like 81 percent of consumers must trust a brand in order to even consider buying from it. 81%. So you could be missing out on 81 percent of sales if your audience doesn't trust in you and therefore are not going to buy from you.

Joanna Newton: And if you're listening to this episode today and think it's not for you because your intention is to not be an influencer or celebrity or a household name, I challenge you to Stick through, stay listening, because whether you like it or not, you have a personal brand. You have one, and it's really a question of if you're being intentional with it, and you're trying to cultivate it and grow it.

But you do have one, whether you want one or not, with the people you're with, your circle of influence, and the spaces that you're in. Even folks who aren't intending to be celebrities, [00:04:00] influencers have like massive followings and get brand deals, need to have a personal brand, whether you're trying to grow your business or get a job.

Michelle Pualani: So let's just break down what a personal brand is. You've heard it used before, you kind of have this loose concept and idea. It's ultimately a representation of you or of a person in whatever space they're in. We're talking about the digital space predominantly, but this could mean TV, commercials, it could be billboards, etc. How a face, is being presented in the world. And we're not going to get into the conversation of AI, but I will say there are AI accounts now who are completely AI with a personal brand and identity that are doing um, Brand deals that sell things. So that's a whole route for the future that I don't think I'm ready to touch yet today We're talking about real people showing up and creating their personal brands.

let's just start with a little bit of a definition So [00:05:00] your personal brand is a unique blend of your personality and your skills your skills and the values that you're presenting to the world. We've talked a little bit about a character ultimately you want to think of this personal brand or representation of you as a little bit of a character.

So it's a magnified opportunity for you to present things about yourself to the world that people are going to buy into, they're going to pay attention to, they're going to connect with, they're going to relate to, and ultimately hopefully trust in order to take that next step with you. When you are asked that question from building a brand, it's often, what do you want people to say about you?

It's your reputation. It's what people think about you, how they feel about you, What they're sharing with other people to talk about on a daily Who you are. How do you want that to be presented? Because ultimately, what we're trying to communicate here is that you control this narrative. You get to be the one who decides, what do people say about me? How are they going to talk about me? How do they describe me? What are they going to feel when they walk away from my content? What are they going [00:06:00] to feel when they open up my emails? What do, what's the ultimate sense that I want them to get from my brand as a whole in order to move them toward, again, the programs, the products, what it is that I'm trying to share, or even your message, if you're looking at it from an impact perspective. Do I want people to feel encouraged? Do I want them to feel motivated? Do I want them to feel excited? Do I want them to feel happy? Do I want them to feel. Reflective, do I want them to feel more introspective? What is that thing that we're trying to accomplish by the content that we're putting out into the world?

What we're going to focus on in this conversation is predominantly, Digital. And I'll share another fact with you is that 77 percent of consumers prefer shopping with brands that they follow on social media and that social commerce sales are expected to reach 1.

2 trillion by 2025. That's this year. So 1. 2 trillion are going to be spent through social media platforms buying things. Now Now trillion is a lot to wrap your mind around, [00:07:00] but that is a lot of opportunity in front of you. People are spending money online like they never have before.

Even if someone might not have felt comfortable making a digital purchase five years ago, COVID, everyone buys stuff online now. It is so common. And from a social media perspective, it's important to have a following because people can build a conversation, a community engagement around your brand.

If they can follow you on Instagram, if they can find you on TikTok, if they can watch your videos on YouTube. it's more likely that they're going to buy from you because they're engaging with you on a social media platform. Again, 77 percent of consumers prefer shopping with brands that have a social media presence and that they follow. So paying attention to these things, paying attention to the way that people are taking actions and knowing that social media holds so much power in order to not just connect with your audience, but to get them to buy from you too.

Joanna Newton: And think about the last, new [00:08:00] product you bought in your life. So not like the milk you buy every week or the eggs you buy every week or the things that are just like in your rotation of refills. think about a brand new product that you tried for the first time and think about the process you went through to make that purchase.

I can think of one that I've already made some repeat purchases of was like a new protein bar. I don't love protein bars. I need to like make sure I get enough protein, but a lot of them have a bad aftertaste, like aren't that good. and I started getting a bunch of like fitness creators that I follow on Tik talking about these built.

Built protein bars, they're basically like a chocolate covered marshmallow kind of consistency. It's something I've never seen before. And people would try them, the different flavors and, Eat them on camera. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to go try these because they just look so good.

They look up my alley. I'm going to try them. But I saw several creators using them now built itself. Doesn't have [00:09:00] like a big social following, but they really, I guess in their launch really leveraged. All of these other influencers that are in the space that other people know, like, and trust, I'm sure they're affiliate deals, whatever.

But I would have never just gone to the built website. I would have never Googled good tasting protein bars, come across the built website and be like, those look interesting and buy. My experience was I got recommended that product from. Multiple influencers are in the space that I follow. Then I like made a first purchase because of a person, and likely you have a story like that. There is something that you tried for the first time, whether it be a food, an article of clothing, makeup, whatever it is, where you did it based on What feels like a personal from someone you know, like, and trust.

Michelle Pualani: And I just had to Google built protein bars to see what this was about. 

Joanna Newton: You should try them.

Michelle Pualani: I know, they look honestly like a candy bar, which I think is [00:10:00] dangerous.

Joanna Newton: You still have to like, not eat the whole box. That's like the key here, but they're really good. 

Michelle Pualani: some of the examples of personal brands we talk about on the podcast are rather large names, but this can go all the way down to your micro influencer level. So, the people that Joanna are paying attention to, sometimes you don't even know their names.

Like, I follow creators, I don't know their names. I don't know that much about them, but because a person is telling me or referring me to something that they've tried and they liked. That is huge and we forget that Referrals are actually still the number one source of business and sales in the world. And that can be affiliates. It can be ads by people who have used the product or UGC creators or things like that. Or it can be your friend or your family or someone else. I work in business in a physical product space in our local community. So we're looking for attorneys right now. I don't just go to Google.

Same thing, like Joanna said, like I don't just go to Google and say, Hey, Attorneys in San Luis Obispo. I go to my [00:11:00] community and I say, Do you have any attorneys that have specifically worked around these things that I'm looking for, securities specifically right now, and have been successful with businesses in the community. And so, The word of mouth referral piece is so important here, even if someone's not going to physically speak your name to someone else, you have to think in the same way that you're creating a personal brand that someone's going to want to refer to someone else. And how can you do that? How can you make your experience with them so high quality, so awesome, so interesting, so educational, so entertaining that they can't help but want to share your content, either through stories, sending it to someone, Or, again, telling someone, hey, I had this really great product, program, service experience with this coach or with this creator, and so now I'm going to pass that person on. it's important to create that personal brand for so many reasons, but that especially is of note. People are going to invest in, purchase, word of [00:12:00] mouth, and referral When we talk about the importance of building a personal brand, thinking through some of the things that you're trying to ultimately create from the get go can be really helpful of the how you're building that personal brand. So thinking about yourself as genuine and authentic, right? You have to kind of discern what that looks like. And for me, that actually took a really long time because I felt like I was showing up so much in the expectation and in the form of what other people wanted to see for me. a whole other personal development discussion that I highly encourage you to go down is like, who are you genuinely and authentically? Do you have a sense of humor? Do you really, prefer intelligence and like data and analytics? Are you very rational or are you very artistic? Like, what are those things about you that you want to bring to the forefront? And then using those things to establish authority and really build trust with your audience, with your prospective buyers, with your potential clients. An example here. Marie Forleo, if you haven't heard of her before, she [00:13:00] is a big time business and not quite personal development, but she really speaks to business and digital business in our space. She has a whole program called B School. She's been featured on TV and news outlets. She is upper echelon in terms of like the people that we look to Amy Porterfield, etc And she has a philosophy called everything is figureoutable. from an entrepreneurship perspective that phrase and with that statement She's really appealing to someone who has an entrepreneurial spirit Or is a business owner, or has come from a place of resilience and not having everything laid out for them.

So when I think of Marie Forleo, built into everything is figureoutable. I know that she's been through some sort of challenge, some sort of difficulty, You know, perhaps maybe a self made, She's not having things just lined up for her in a way that someone who is really privileged or comes from money has. And so she's creating a brand of scrappy, able to make it [00:14:00] happen, willing to problem solve, and is looking to accomplish big things. goals. And that is a way to create a personal brand in a really simple, accessible way that creates that authority, that trust, and brings in the type of person that you're trying to speak to. And so from a data perspective, Personalized content can increase engagement by up to 74 percent. So with the advent of AI and what we're seeing with faceless accounts, yes, there is a potential for growth, for reach, or the content that you want to kind of just slap together and put out in the world. But adding that personal touch and integrating your own personal brand is going to increase the engagement you're going to see on your content by 74 percent, which I think. Makes it worth it to take the time, the effort, and energy in order to embed your own personality into what you're creating.

Joanna Newton: One thing that I find that like coaches, creators, want to be able to do when they're just starting out, you know, before they have that personal brand presence is there's such a strong [00:15:00] desire to just throw ad money out in the world and get sales. You know, people say, I don't have the time to build the personal brand.

I can't do that work. I want to just Have ads, set it, and forget it, and they'll convert. Unfortunately, I wish it worked that way. I wish that you could just start running ads and then immediately get a return on your investment on your ad spend immediately, and then that would work great.

Unfortunately, I have never found that to be the case. I'm sure there are outliers. I'm sure there are cases of someone just throwing ad money out there and getting sales and it being great. I've worked with over 200 course creators and I've worked at. four different corporate companies in my life, and I've never seen that to be the case.

But what I see work every time is this idea of when you grow a personal brand, you can build a business on it. And when you grow a personal brand, eventually your ads will work. And when you grow a personal brand that happens, but getting from zero eyeballs to 5, 000 eyeballs is the hardest [00:16:00] hurdle. It takes the most blood, sweat and tears connection work.

And when you get to that level, all of a sudden these other strategies that, are a little bit more sustainable, a little bit more set it and forget it. They work, but you have to do the work first. You have to build that following. You have to build that connection. You have to put yourself out there and have that personal brand first.

Now it can look like a lot of different things. Someone like, Marie Forleo, at one point she had zero eyeballs and had, and had to get to that 5, 000. And I'm sure if you ask her, it wasn't ads that did it. Now, does she have an ad strategy now? I'm sure she does. Is that ad strategy successful?

I'm sure it is. Would that ad strategy have worked when she had zero followers? Probably not, right? So I think when we think about this brand building in the early stages, you can't look at someone who already has it and be like, well, they're just running ads. Well, they weren't running ads when they started.

So let's, think about what [00:17:00] you have to do to get there.

Michelle Pualani: Yeah, and ads are really designed to either test or amplify. So if you're trying to get a message out into the world, test it really quickly on a cold audience. Great, but you should know where you're starting from in order to do that. You have to understand the messaging component and maybe you're just tweaking a couple things.

It takes a really complex, comprehensive understanding of ad sets and campaigns, A B testing, and being able to figure out what are the tweaks, the changes, to be able to accomplish something like that in order to test. So you better have some experience with what you've done before in order to jump into that world. other thing too is once you've situated in an organic level what people are paying attention to, what draws them to you, then ads are meant to magnify that. So a lot of the big personal brands that you look at, You're seeing ads because they already have structured a strategy around their organic content.

They have a certain reach and now they're at a level where that makes sense for them. And then it works as a matrix, right? Like the ads feed into the organic content. There are people who do [00:18:00] ads. you know, and that's just what they focus on and just how they make their money. But I will say it's not as scalable if you don't also have some type of organic traction or channel. I do know businesses and brands who get successful with it, but it's a ton of budget. you're really figuring things out. It is complex and they've usually got teams or agencies who have done a ton of it. And that's not necessarily where a lot of personal brands start. that's okay. You have other ways of approaching this.

So again, things to think about and the why in order to create the how of your personal brand, thinking of these two things, they feed into each other. So having a consistent way to attract your ideal audience is really important when you're building your personal brand. What do you want someone to feel?

What are they looking for? Why are they going to find you? Why are they going to follow you? Why are they going to pay attention to you? Someone like Oprah is speaking to a person who is really wanting inspiration. Who is a little bit more emotional, touchy feely, looking for personal development and personal growth, and is going to do it [00:19:00] from a really empathetic space, right?

Like, she always makes people cry on her Soulful Sunday, or that's the type of personal brand that she's been able to create. Now, Gary Vaynerchuk is like cutthroat, straight to the point. You need to be putting content on it every day. If you're not, you're missing out, you're losing.

Who is the type of person that he's drawing in? Someone who probably needs a kick in the pants, who wants a little bit more of an aggressive or assertive style of speaking, who, is ready to kind of get down to business, isn't wanting to be so much in the touchy feels. what is that consistent narrative that you're going to put out into the world in order to attract the ideal client, the ideal audience that you're actually looking for through your personal brand? And then the way in which you do that is somewhat visual. Yes, auditory, but somewhat visual, especially today, considering is such a big part of our digital presence and landscape, and it predominates what people consume. So when you're thinking about standing out in a crowded market, you have to do that You have to do that in a way that [00:20:00] people are going to pay attention to what you're doing.

I think Amy Porterfield is a really good example here because she has such a polished image. She presents like such a put together, like her colors, her design, the way that she looks on every single webinar and all of her ads. Like everything that I see from Amy Porterfield is so incredibly beautiful. Buttoned up and put together. It's just so polished and that's her visual image. That's what she's presenting the world. It's blue It's yellow. It's bright. It's vibrant. It's got this big beautiful smile she also is relatable on the front of being an American girl Husband kids, you know like home life.

She doesn't really like go out to party. She's not sharing that type of content She doesn't really travel share that type of content. She really like demonstrates the relatable mom, stay at home, like family life. when you recognize some of the data points around that is that 55 percent of brands first impression are visual.

So when someone comes to your page, when [00:21:00] someone goes to your website, when someone sees your content, the visual aspect of that is so important. Does that mean that everything has to be clean all the time? No, there's someone online who is like Her mess is her personal brand, right? So whenever she's doing videos, there's laundry in the background, there's dirty dishes, there's everything.

but she plays into that, and that's part of her narrative, is that I'm okay with the mess, and I want you to be okay with that too, and so she owns that confidently. Just knowing that what you're going to create visually is an interpretation of someone who's seeing your content and paying attention to it. This one I thought was interesting because there is a lot to color psychology, but consumers are 81 percent more likely to recall a brand's color than its name. So for me, obviously, I know the name Amy Porterfield, but I can recall that she has this blue and yellow brand color. If you think of Amazon, what's the color that comes to mind?

If you think of Nike, what's the color that comes to mind? If you think of Apple, what's the color that comes to mind? Some of these brands with the big names, [00:22:00] gonna remember the name, but are there any brands that you can think of? KFC, Target, etc. Where colors just pop into your head. you may not be at the point where you've created an entire brand guide and color scheme, and that's okay. But kind of thinking through what is the color that you want to predominate and then maybe Google some color psychology and see what that feeds into. Because the mind will make decisions just based on the perception of that visual aid. 

Joanna Newton: And I love that you brought up that your personal brand doesn't have to be perfectly curated. Your imperfections can be a part of that personal brand because I know that's one of the things that prevents people from sometimes wanting to show up. Whether their makeup isn't done, their hair's not done perfectly, their background isn't perfect, their house is a mess.

You can take those things that are uniquely you and put them into your brand so that way people can connect with you and they expect to see it. they're creators you interact with [00:23:00] on a regular basis and like watch their content, think about what it is that makes you stop and listen to them.

is there something that very quickly signals to you that they are who they are? What is that? And I hope after you listen to this, you kind of think through that and think about the content that you interact with. And what is it that, makes you stay? what is it that makes you watch the second video and the third video and then check out their website?

Go through that process. There's going to be something about it that really connects. The other thing that I think about with a lot of content creators I think as a consumer, it's really easy to look at what you're, what they're making and think, Oh, they just hopped into the car and filmed that video, oh, they just like picked up their phone and filmed that video. the videos that go viral and get a lot of attention and people want to follow and comment on. There was probably a lot more thought put in into it then then you think in terms of their background and what was there and what was in the visuals and what they're wearing and what they're holding in their hands.

There was probably a lot of thought put into that. [00:24:00] They may have filmed five different hooks for that video, 10, 12 different hooks for that video to really perfect it. And then they picked one at the end. They might have filmed the beginning at the end and pushed it around. Like that 30, 60 second video, you might say, well, how come someone else just films a video and they just hop into their car and film a video and it's great and it goes viral.

That's probably not what happened. There was probably a lot of thought and intention and effort put into that video that you don't even realize happened. And so just always keep that in mind I recently made a decision to kind of switch to actually focus on written content. And one of the reasons is it's a I felt like making videos consistently was a barrier for me to be able to grow my personal brand.

Because for me, the time that I'm like, Most ready to make video content is like afternoons, but afternoons right now is like [00:25:00] prime meeting times for me, for my clients or my team or across time zones, like it's hard for me to block afternoons to create video. But it's very easy for I, my most free times are in the morning and it's very easy for me to write in the morning.

I'm not in the space to film videos in the morning. I'm just like not there yet, but I can write. So I decided to focus on platforms that Focus on written content because right now that's what I can create and that's what I can take the time to think of right to like play with what's the first best opening line that's going to make make the most impact.

What emojis can I use to add visuals? What graphic could I add? I can really develop that style. So I'm focused there because the work it takes to make video content right now for me is just not. my life right now. I hope it's there one day. It's not right now. So I'm like working with what I know I can do and what I can actually put the, the depth of thought into.

Michelle Pualani: And that's so true. Every [00:26:00] single influencer, content creator, coach, business owner, personal brand that I know in the online space, all of their successful videos have typically been because they've scripted, they've A B tested, they've trialed, they've repositioned, they have edited, like, it's not as simple as everyone makes it look.

And I think that's one thing that's really freeing, because when I was first getting started, and especially like with YouTube, YouTube is a platform that takes so much data driven, SEO driven content. Formulation of content. It takes 75 percent research and 25 percent execution. And I used to think like I could just Put something together title it what I thought it would put it out there in the world and it would be successful when really the creators who are being successful in the digital space and have created the personal brand put so much time and energy into research and so much prep work into what it is that they're creating and then they'll put things out into the world.

It won't do what they wanted it to do so they try to [00:27:00] retest reassess shift and change. I think Ali Abdaal creator who got really famous on YouTube for productivity. He was at an event that Joanne and I, actually we met at KHL in 2023. So cool. Okay. In any case, he talked about a YouTube bit that they had put out.

It didn't get the reach, the engagement that they wanted, which for them was like a couple hundred thousand views. They reformulated it, reposted it like two weeks later, and it got over a million views. And it wasn't about refilming it. It wasn't about, I'm going to scratch that all together. It was about how do we make it fit the platform?

How do we do the research to better improve it? So it's so important to keep. in mind is that again, your expectation will completely determine your level of success. Don't have the expectation that you can just put stuff out in the world and it's going to go viral. And if you do, and it is great, but it's unlikely that you're going to be able to recreate it.

just know that that's the case. And it's really [00:28:00] freeing because now you have all this opportunity to research and test and improve your skill at content creation. So now we're going to cover the foundational pillars. There are three that we're going to talk about, and this is the reflective strategy in getting into the how. Our next episode is going to be all about the actionable steps.

So make sure you hit subscribe, come back for that next episode, and then we'll take you through the actual practical ways that you can approach this process. But this is your chance to kind of take a step back, reflect on your own internal compass, before you start to go out into the world. I'll list them out and then we'll explain them just a little bit more.

So number one, you're going to identify your core values and passions. going to define your unique value proposition as number two, and you're going to clarify your target audience as number three. Now you may notice that this kind of mirrors similar to like a normal brand would identify similar things and probably some competitors and other aspects of their reflection before they move into the business. Plan creation before they move [00:29:00] through those steps. You're creating a brand, you're creating a business, and I don't want you to forget that. So often we're like, Oh yeah, I'm just going to become an influencer, get into TikTok. I'm just going to post some videos. But the most successful personal brands that we see, content creators, etc. Have all gone through the process of seeing themselves as a business, as a brand, and establishing these pieces. Maybe they didn't do it at the very beginning, but within the early stages, they realized that they needed to solidify some of these things. core values and passions. What are they for you? These are the things that Independent of what you were doing in the world, you would still show up in this way. everything goes away, you don't have to work, you don't have to create content. What do you still love? Like, what do you value from a lifestyle perspective?

Is it connection? Is it community? Is it You know, relationships. Is it kindness? Is it intellect? Is it and analytics? Like what are, what are the things and [00:30:00] values that you actually consider integral and important to you? then what are you passionate about? What do you actually care about? Is knitting something that you're always, always, always gonna care about? Is book reading something that you're always, always gonna care about? Independent of what you're doing in the world, soccer, dance, music, like, what are those things that you actually care truly about and how are they going to feed into your personal brand as you expand it? So, thinking as on some examples, Oprah is built on this idea of empowerment and authenticity.

She is like, She is who she is. She wants to bring that out in all of her people, all the people that she talks to, what she's encouraging from her audience, and she really wants to empower people to take their life back into their own hands. One of Taylor Swift's core values is connecting through storytelling.

It's what she does in her songs, it's what she does in her concerts, it's what she does in her content creation, and how she presents her brand in the digital space is connection, and she does it through storytelling. So first you're going to identify those core values and those passions.

Joanna Newton: [00:31:00] This is something that as I've developed my personal brand, I've really been able to figure out. Now, I didn't like sit down and make a plan before I started. It just kind of happened to me, you know, like I just started kind of like developing as I go. And one of the things that I wanted to sort of be about when I first started creating content was like being a marketing guru, like giving the tips, the tricks, all of that.

As I started making that content and as I, as I started working with more and more clients, I realized that like my passion for helping people as much as I'm a marketer is actually more about organization and business systems and how to break down a really big goal into little steps. If that's a marketing plan, yeah, I can take this marketing launch and break it into all of the steps and the pieces so that it's not stressful to run.

It goes well every time there aren't issues, there aren't problems. What I'm actually passionate about is really helping [00:32:00] founders grow step by step in a way that feels manageable and sustainable and possible. I figure that out by working people while thinking about my, my personal brand. yeah, I love marketing and I think it's fun and I love those things, but actually what I love is that, and that's like unique.

It's not what everybody else is putting out in the world. It's one of my core values for myself. And this year for me, a big challenge I've given myself is how do I now take that I know that that is my core value. That is what I do best. That is like what I want to put out in the world. Now I'm figuring out how to turn that into content so other people see that.

Right, like how do I take that that's within me and put it out in the world so people get okay Joanna, Joanna's the person that if you want to grow your business, she's gonna tell you how to do it step by step That's what I want people to say about me. And that's what I'm working personally this year I'm putting out into the world

Michelle Pualani: And sometimes it takes time. Like you're going to reflect on these [00:33:00] pieces and you're going to come up with an answer, but that might not be the full picture. And that's okay. It's let, let that be the case. Let there be some flexibility and fluidity and this approach to your personal brand and knowing that it may change.

It may evolve a little bit over time and that's okay. Especially if you go super niche with your topic. So let's say that. So my. physical product is in Sober Curious and Alcohol Free Lifestyle. So it's a non alcoholic hemp infused spirit alternative. Now, if someone were going into that space and they were saying like, I want to review non alcoholic beers, And like, that's my niche, and that's my focus, and I'm passionate about it, and I care about, uh, sober curious living and alcohol free living, and so I'm going to talk about and review beers.

Well, over time, it may be that you start to incorporate non alcoholic wines, and then maybe non alcoholic spirits, and then other functional drinks, and then you start to give tips around sober curious living and living alcohol free. So knowing that there may be some expansion or some change or differentiation in what you're [00:34:00] doing, and be okay with that.

It's like, I don't remember what the idiom or the saying is, but it's like if your politics don't change as you grow at generation over generation and you get older, you're not doing it right, because ultimately they should change. Your priorities will change. Some of your values will change. Ideally, you're starting from a place of like, this is core to me, and I'm always going to care about compassion.

I'm always going to care about, you know, world hunger, but Sometimes things do evolve and you have to be okay with that. after you've kind of established your core values and your passions, number two is to define your unique value proposition. So Joanna has been able to do this over the past couple of years as she's been doing what she's doing. Organizational structure. And I can help someone grow their business step by step. That didn't necessarily come. the first day that she put content out into the online world, right? But I want you to think about how you can start to think about what you do is unique. So let's just say you really love underwater free diving.

So there are people in the digital [00:35:00] space who talk about underwater free diving already. What is the unique value proposition that you're going to offer that just tweaks it a little bit? let's say you're underwater diving and you're spearfishing.

Well, maybe you do it in a humane way to the fish that you're catching. That would be your unique value proposition or maybe you do it in a way that anyone can learn Anywhere in the world so they don't actually have to be in a tropical location in order to learn this So thinking about the way that you are going to curate How you're talking to people and what you offer in a way that's unique to you Is that one of the unique value propositions that I love a personal brand brings to the table is Tim Ferriss, and one of his books is the four hour work week. Now, his value proposition is not necessarily just lifestyle design or or living a successful life or making money in business, it's how can you do it in the most efficient, shortest time possible so that you get the most bang for your buck and the most efficient, successful [00:36:00] way to do it so that you can enjoy all the rest of your life or build that lifestyle into what you're doing.

And he's done it in such a exact, really catchy kind of way that people can really understand and hold on to. So thinking, what is that unique thing that's going to take the core values and passions and turn it into just what you offer?

Joanna Newton: and this piece here is so key To actually getting sales, like your unique value proposition in your brand and getting an out into the world is going to be key in making you money. Now, whether you're looking for a job, whether you're just doing like one on one consulting packages, or you want digital products, whichever one of those things is that unique value proposition is going to get you really easy yeses, We're sometimes so afraid to be specific, but being specific gets you opportunities.

One thing that I get on a regular basis is requests for very like high [00:37:00] level executive positions at companies. And I don't have like a huge following on LinkedIn or any of that, but it's very clear the type of work that I do. I really help education based brands scale in meaningful ways. It's in my work history.

It's in my content. So people will reach out to me and be like, Hey, you know how to sell into schools or Hey, you know how to sell educational products. I'm a startup. I haven't started any marketing yet. I need someone to spearhead for this. Me. with me. I have funding. Are you interested? Right? I get a couple of these a quarter.

Um, a lot of times I talk with them. They're not like a right fit for me because I have like a whole business I'm running, but I draw those opportunities in because of like the uniqueness of my profile. If you're trying to look for someone to help you market your education based brand startup, I am [00:38:00] one of, you know, a small group of people who are the right fit for that in, in the country.

So when you think about your unique value proposition, you're basically making yourself not have to compete with anybody because you're the only one who does specifically what you do.

Michelle Pualani: And this essentially makes you not comparable to anyone else, and that's where you want to be in the market. You don't want to be out there among a hundred competitors offering business coaching services. You want to define your unique value proposition in a way that someone sees your content and says, Yes, this is the person for me.

This is the program that I need because you're speaking directly to what it is that I'm going through. And they don't even know you. Price shop, they don't look at other opportunities or other. because you've been able to present yourself in a way that just pulls them in to you. it's such a beautiful way to think about your brand, to think about your ascension of that customer and how you're going to move them through your products and programs in a way that [00:39:00] just appeals to what it is that they're seeking, what they're needing, without having to essentially quote unquote sell them on what it is that you do.

I have one more pillar that we're going to break down, which is clarifying your target audience. But make sure you subscribe because in the next episode, we're going to talk all about practical steps to building your personal brand. So these are the actionable things that you're going to do, taking all of this reflective and why data and move it forward and then some common mistakes and how to avoid them. And then the way that you're going to sustain your growth. with your personal brand over time. So make sure you tune into that next episode. then that third pillar, what you're going to reflect on before we start to build those action steps is to clarify your target audience. Who are you speaking to?

Who is the type of person that you're going to draw in? What's that ideal customer? What's the ideal client persona? Who is that person that you want to bring to you? And this is more so psychological. A lot of times people start with demographics, gender. profession, where they live, [00:40:00] how much money they make, etc. I want you to think psychographics. I want you to think, what are their emotions? What pains are they experiencing? What thoughts do they have? How do they live their life? What are they seeing in their reality? What are those kind of like deep, deeper, darker thoughts that they're, uh, Not able to even want to speak out loud.

That's how you're going to clarify and really approach your target audience. when you think about some of the people and who they speak to, Jay Shetty is a really good example because he focuses on relationships. He focuses so much in his on purpose podcast on celebrities and their challenges and how they've been able to evolve and grow. So who is the type of person that he's speaking to? He's speaking to the type of person who is being been through some stuff, who is looking for another way, who is wanting more mindfulness, more connection, more heartfelt relationships in their lives. And in his live events, a lot of times someone will [00:41:00] call someone that they've had a difficulty with and make a connection. He's speaking to people who want to heal relations, who want to remedy things in their lives, and he does it so beautifully and so incredibly well. So when you're thinking about clarifying your target audience as a part of this, it could be a younger version of you. It could be the friend, the family member that you really want to help and support.

In your coaching, in your products, in your programs, who is that person? What are they thinking? How are they feeling? And what do they really want? And that's how you're going to identify your target audience.

Joanna Newton: And I love thinking about psychographics when designing like your client avatar, your target audience, whatever you want to call it, because it's. in some ways more specific and less limiting at the same time. Because ideally what you are going to offer someone in the end of some sort of product program service is some sort of transformation.

You're not selling the thing, you're selling the result of the thing, And if you [00:42:00] can tap in to, to an audience, like from a psychographic level, then that transformation is going to make so much more sense. And think about silly story I shared about buying protein bars for a second, The people, the influencers who are talking about the protein bars, they weren't just saying, Oh, buy this protein bar. Here's the price. Here are the flavors. Here are the nutrition facts. It was like, if you want to increase your protein intake and have something that doesn't taste like shit, try this. And for me, I want to increase my protein intake.

Okay. I think protein bars normally taste bad and I don't like them. So like they just tapped into my exact problem with the solution to that problem. And it's something as simple as a protein bar can have a psychographic targeting and transformation statement. Those things are even more important when people are spending thousands of dollars for a service of a program and [00:43:00] Even more important when it's a less tangible Transformation because people have to buy into that transformation.

So focusing on that psychographic commonality the mindset or the problem people are looking at versus saying I want men 35 to 45 I mean, who wants men 35 to 45? But that's a whole nother conversation for another day, other than my husband and yours. They're good.

Michelle Pualani: Okay, so I hope that was helpful. I hope that gave you really like the foundation that you need to start thinking about your personal brand or reorienting your personal brand if what you're doing isn't working to give you kind of a concept, an idea of some things you might need to dig into. Or if you're in a place of pivot, evolution, change, growth, that happens too where I need to kind of reassess.

I've been going in this direction for a while and I've been getting the inkling or the feeling to be able to shift, to be able to change. So that was the foundational, the why, the understanding, the personal [00:44:00] brand, and the basic work that you're going to do before we head into our actionable strategies.

So stay tuned for the next episode. We'll get into the steps you need to take in order to actually make this come to fruition and see your personal brand Take off to be out in the world to represent who you are in an authentic and genuine way. Well, also to Joanna's point, taking them through that buyer process, because ultimately, independent of whether you have products, programs, services or not, a personal brand is selling yourself.

And so we have to think about it from that strategic perspective. You're selling yourself to someone and it doesn't have to be icky and it doesn't have to feel crummy. It can feel really exciting and wonderful. And as a connection, I want you to think of as a closing exercise, I want you to think of your favorite brand, your favorite product. Whether that is mascara, or something you use in the kitchen, or a piece of fitness equipment that you really enjoy, what is that thing that you would tell a hundred people about, that you always like to [00:45:00] talk about when you're in that setting? And I want you to think about your personal brand in the same way.

way. How can you invest in your personal brand in a way that is going to make you so excited that you just can't wait to tell people about it? anyone who will listen, you're going to tell them your core values, your passions, your unique value proposition, and who you're speaking to, why it's going to benefit them. So thank you so much for tuning into the Her First Podcast, and we'll see you on the next one.