How To Start Building Your Personal Brand Today with Cris Gordon

Your personal brand is one of the most valuable assets you'll ever build, and it's about so much more than your social media presence.

In this solo episode, Cris Gordon, Head of Beauty at MMC, breaks down what it really means to have a personal brand and why it matters. Whether you're a founder, executive, creator, or early in your career, these are the practical steps to start building one with intention.

If you've ever wondered how to stand out, attract the right opportunities, and become known for your expertise, this episode is for you.

New podcast episodes drop every Wednesday, hosted by Cris Gordon, Head of Beauty at MMC.  

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📲 We'd love to hear from you: hello@hellommc.com

Transcript

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Nowadays, everybody wants to build their personal brand, but they don't know exactly how to do it. What does it actually mean? Am I rebuilding my social? Am I going and speaking on stage? Yes, all those things. But you can't do any of those things, and you shouldn't until you really understand who you are and what you stand for at your core. People that really will follow you, be loyal to your business, or want your service need to understand that you are for them. Everybody has the opportunity nowadays. You have a phone in your pocket. Take that out. That is your own social platform. That is your own media channel. So another thing that you can do right now is write down what is your consistent message going to be? What is that thing that you want to be known for? Because it's not so much about the platform that you're going to be sharing it on, it's making sure that there is consistency in what you are saying on those platforms. It's a brand new day and you know what that means. It's time for another episode of Brandedly Speaking with your host, Moi, Chris Gordon. Today we talk about all things personal brand. Why is it so important nowadays to build a personal brand? What does it mean to have executive brand presence? I'm gonna break down why this is such a necessity in your business in today's world. All right, let's jump right into it. I get so many questions about what makes a personal brand stand out. Nowadays, everybody wants to build their personal brand, but they don't know exactly how to do it. So I get a lot of questions about Chris. What does it actually mean? Am I rebuilding my social? Am I going and speaking on stage? Am I speaking on podcasts? And the answer is always yes to all those things. But you can't do any of those things and you shouldn't until you really understand who you are and what you stand for at your core. The reason why it's so important to understand who you really are before you go and do any of these visibility opportunities is because people need to relate to you. They need to understand what it is that you're either speaking on behalf of, what your expertise is, or how you can help them. The people that really will follow you, be loyal to your business, or want your service need to understand that you are for them. And how do you do that? You build a very, very clear, articulate message about what you actually stand for. So let's start by thinking about the who. Who are you and why are you the person to be the expert in this space? Okay. So I want you to dive a little bit deeper into why you started in the first place. And I don't just want you going off of your resume and saying, well, I started here and then I went and did this. No, we need to get deeper and have that more emotive storytelling when you consistently show up and say your why. And so I want you to really think, what was that point in time that you decided that either taking that next step and starting a business or climbing the corporate ladder and jumping into that next executive role was so important to you? What does it mean to be a part of the organization that you're in? Or what does it mean to share the mission that your business is bringing into the world? To build your personal brand, you need to understand why you do what you do. Because then your personal brand will speak for you. And the reason why personal brands are so important nowadays is because people buy people. It doesn't matter if you're starting a CPG brand, a wellness brand, a beauty brand, a lifestyle brand, a service-based brand or agency. At the end of the day, the people that want to invest in you, invest in your company, or invest in your services want to understand who they're investing in and they want to be brought along for the journey. And your personal brand is going to showcase that the whole way through. All right, so where do we start? Don't get overwhelmed. I think that so many people get really overwhelmed by what does it actually take to get started on a personal brand? Maybe you're scrolling through Instagram and you see some people doing it really well and you're thinking, okay, do I need to completely re-haul my social media? Do I need to completely refresh my website? Do I need to do a whole new branding shoot? And the answer is yes, but not all at the same time. Okay. So start small. Like I just talked about, starting with your why, and then start to slowly build up your credibility in the space. Maybe you're already on LinkedIn and you want to use that as your first step into thought leadership. And so you're already pretty active. And now it's about leveraging your voice or leveraging that why with written articles on LinkedIn. Or maybe you're already really comfortable with Instagram. So instead of thinking I have to redo my whole Instagram and completely relaunch it, start simple. When you start on Instagram and you just start getting comfortable with maybe face to camera, talking, maybe sharing your story, sharing your why, then you'll start to understand what is making your message resonate with the people that are following you. Or even better, what's making your message resonate with new followers? And where do you feel the most comfortable? So by just getting comfortable, starting with one platform, you're already going to be ahead of the game. And then I want you to take a step back and I want you to audit the space. I want you to look up maybe five people that you look up to in a similar or an adjacent space. What are they doing? Look at their brands, really audit their social media, audit their website. Maybe they have a personal website. And most people with a personal brand might also have that personal website that shares what they speak about or what they're an expert in or how to book time with them and really get to know where you can build out your different kind of business ecosystem similarly to some of those like-minded experts in the space, or maybe some of the people that you look up to. By doing that audit, you're gonna start to understand what you're maybe able to do next without having to feel overwhelmed by it. And from there, I want you to think about where are people going to be driven to once you start to share your story, once you start to share your expertise? Are they going to your website? Are they getting a calendar link? When it comes to building a personal brand, you always want to have some type of way for people to be able to connect with you after they discover you. If you don't do that piece, you're kind of missing out on the opportunity to really build your community and build loyalty and have people feel brought along for the ride. And so start small, start with a platform that you really feel comfortable with, and then audit a few others, really get familiar with the space, see what you feel the most comfortable doing as the next step, and then make sure that you have a call to action or a driver on how to continue to build momentum as you grow your community. A lot of people will ask me, okay, Chris, so now that I have this personal brand, but my personal brand and my company, they kind of feel one and the same. Well, they can feel one and the same, and that's okay. Let's give Alison Ellsworth as an example, the founder of Poppy. So when she started Poppy, every single story that she was telling, every single kind of anecdote or emotive connection that she was building with her audience talked about her experience building Poppy. Also, you see everything down to the colors that she was wearing, matching the cans of the bottles, was all connected because she was very strategic about building her personal brand to kind of coexist with the Poppy brand so that as her personal brand grew, so did the Poppy brand. And she became synonymous. And I think that we have to remember it's not about necessarily completely separating yourself from the business. You want to take your business along for the ride. The business should feel a part of you because you're the founder, right? And so, in a sense, you want to make sure that you're on theme. And this goes for an executive as well at a company, right? If there is a company color, let's take, for example, St. Jude, you might see a St. Jude executive at one of their events wearing that signature red color with a St. Jude pin. And so their personal brand as an executive at St. Jude also coexists with the St. Jude brand so that when people get to know them, they automatically think of St. Jude. So at the end of the day, it's important to remember that sometimes your personal brand and your brand is a little bit of one and the same. Yes, a brand needs to still have the opportunity to stand on its own. But today, what we see is that the more people that connect with you, you have an opportunity to bring into the brand as well. And then vice versa, the more people that connect with the brand can automatically start to follow you or follow along. And so we want to make sure that there's this cohesion between both. It shouldn't feel completely off. It shouldn't feel completely disconnected. But you can still make sure that if your personal brand is really fun and really outgoing, and then your brand maybe is a medical business, for example. It's okay that on the page for the medical business, you have to show up a little bit more buttoned up. Perhaps you're a doctor and you need to make sure that you come off as an authority when you're speaking about any of the products in your line. Well, then that's okay. But then maybe on your personal page, you're showing a little bit about how you incorporate your products into your daily routine. Maybe your kids are there, maybe you're talking about life on the go. So you could bring a little bit more personality, but there's still that consistency, that golden thread or that through line between the connection of your authority. And so I really want you to think and maybe even write this down. Take a look at your personal brand, write down on one column all the things that you stand for. In the other column, I want you to write down all the things that the brands stand for. And then I want you to look and see where are there those consistencies and what maybe goes hand in hand. That can be a content pillar that's shared across both platforms, the brand platform and your own. And then maybe what's the differences? What are the key differences of how you have to show up or how you have to speak about something specific, the brand versus your own personal page, and go from there. Let's not overcomplicate it. I don't want anybody out there that's listening to overcomplicate building their personal brand so much to the point where you don't actually start building it because you're scared or you're thinking too much about it. Start to take the leap, see what resonates, and then continue to tweak as you build. So another big part about building your personal brand is where you're actually showing up. People come to me and say, Chris, I want to speak on this stage. Chris, I want to be a keynote. Chris, I want to go on this podcast. The first thing that you have to do is actually go to that conference that you want to speak at. You need to meet people, you need to network. Remember that who you are when you're networking is a direct reflection of your personal brand. If people get to know you face to face, they start to hear your story, and then you're gonna get more comfortable telling it as you're shaking hands and saying hello, the more opportunities are gonna open for you. And so we wanna remember that as you're going out and building your personal brand, if you have the opportunity to get in front of as many people as possible live, that's only gonna help catapult it faster. And if you can't do that, go on social media. Everybody has the opportunity. Nowadays, you have a phone in your pocket, take that out. That is your own social platform, that is your own media channel. And so you have the opportunity to speak into camera, get comfortable, and then be able to broadcast that out into the world. Now, here's the real thing that I want you to think about when you are talking on social media or when you are doing that type of thought leadership or talking head content. Be clear about what you stand for and what it is that you have to say. We don't need people getting on and just rambling with everything feel feeling disconnected. I want you to have that consistent message through and through. So another thing that you can do right now is write down what is your consistent message going to be? What is that thing that you want to be known for? Because it's not so much about the platform that you're gonna be sharing it on, it's making sure that there is consistency in what you are saying on those platforms. And so if you're an expert, for example, I'm an expert in PR. Storytelling is my absolute favorite thing. So I'm gonna get on social media and I'm gonna talk about the importance of storytelling. I'm gonna talk about and flex my expertise in how to tell a good story. What is that framework? Why is it important? How can it change your business? And so that consistent content pillar is how I'm gonna show up time and time again. And so at the end of the day, when you look back at what you maybe wrote down today on what you want your thing to be, or maybe the two or three things that you wanna always talk about, you need to make sure that there's consistency across all platforms. So I don't care if you're on one platform or you're on five, it needs to be consistent. There's also a lot of common pitfalls that we have to be aware of because as you're building a personal brand, I think the reason why so many people either hesitate to build their personal brand or they hesitate as they walk into the room is because they're getting nervous. And the reason why they're nervous is they maybe haven't either practiced their message, they're unclear about what they're gonna say, and sometimes even worse, they don't even know what their introduction is, right? So they don't even know what their elevator pitch is. And so let's take it old school for a second. An elevator pitch, which is commonly known as like the 30-second pitch that you would tell someone if you just met them in an elevator, that's really important that you know very well inside and out, because that's gonna give you the confidence you need to walk into a room and shake someone's hand and say exactly who you are and what you do. And that message needs to resonate. That is why it's called an elevator pitch, because if you have 30 seconds to stand out, to impress someone, or to even, best case scenario, convert them into a loyal either follower or a loyal customer or client, then you don't want to miss out on that opportunity. And so perfecting your elevator pitch is going to be critical before you step into any room or before you get on any podcast. The biggest thing I see, especially when a client comes to me after they've maybe done a round of press or maybe they've gone on a podcast and they're like, it didn't go as well as I thought it would. And I watch the footage, it's not clear who they are and they do not have their elevator pitch dialed. That is the most important part because if you can't confidently say who you are in 30 seconds and what you stand for, everything else that you say thereafter is gonna either feel inconsistent, it's going to feel a little bit confusing, or maybe you're even gonna lose the listener altogether and they're not gonna understand where the through line is or what you're the expert in, or they're not gonna understand why they need to actually listen to you. Nowadays, people's attention spans are so quick. I mean, you have three seconds to engage with somebody on social media, on a podcast, on a stage. And so, in order to really capture their attention, you need to be super clear and very exciting about what it is that you do and who you are. And so I don't want to see you get the biggest opportunity of your life just to mess it up by not being able to excitingly say your elevator pitch so that you can capture the audience in front of you. Let's talk a little bit about how to build your elevator pitch. One of the biggest things that I help clients with is building out that framework of how to tell your story quickly, right? And then you can expand on it in different opportunities. For example, a podcast, you might have more opportunity to go into that deeper dive in that story. But in a networking room or when you raise your hand to introduce yourself quickly, you might really need that dialed in elevator pitch. So I want to tell you a little bit about my framework. And then I'd love for you to check the show notes because we have a digital course that breaks down all of these visibility tricks so that you can really understand how to build your roadmap to larger opportunities, to press opportunities, to speaking on stages, to getting on podcasts and then landing them and actually being able to nail them and do them well so that it converts into more opportunities. It converts into more clients and more customers for your brand. And so when you really think about building that and you're like, I don't know where to start, what should I do? That is why we built all of these resources at brandedly speaking, because I know how confusing it can be for someone who this isn't second nature to. Maybe you're a wellness founder out there and you're starting a supplement brand and you're like, okay, I know that I'm an expert in the world of supplements. I know that I'm maybe I'm a nutritionist or I'm a registered dietitian, but storytelling or brand messaging isn't my strong suit. That's exactly what we're here for. We're here to break it down for you so that you feel confident to be able to build this messaging with our help and our guidance. And so when you jump into the show notes and you see everything that we have to offer, you're gonna understand that if you join a program like ours, you can really change the trajectory of your business in as short as nine weeks. So I'll give you a little sneak peek because creating an elevator pitch is going to be critical. So if there's one thing I want you to take away from this episode, maybe write this down or start to think if you're driving in the car and you're listening to this episode, start to think about what it is that you really want to talk about. Your elevator pitch should have some form of emotion. It should start with your why. Remember, we did that exercise in the beginning of this episode. Why is it that you do what you do? You can usually start an elevator pitch with asking a question. Sometimes it could be rhetorical if that makes you feel more comfortable, so you can set the scene. I mean, for example, maybe I would walk into a room and say, Who out there has a really hard time telling their story? Or maybe you stepped on stage and all of a sudden you clammed up and you didn't know what to say. That's what I do. I help you navigate your storytelling and step on stage and be confident and be able to capture your audience. I'm Chris Gordon, I'm a PR expert and brand strategist, and I'm here to help you build your brand. Now that's my 30-second elevator pitch. Think about that same exact framework for your business. Maybe you're a beauty founder and you have a really amazing product that helps with acne-prone skin. And maybe you want to start with the clinicals because it's always good to have those clinicals or some really impressive credentials that are tied to your elevator pitch because it gets people listening. Through years of working through my acne and having no solution and feeling frustrated, feeling like I was never gonna get rid of the scars on my face and not finding any products that worked for my skin without either breaking me out more or worse, completely drying out my skin. I finally decided to make a change. I found one of the best ingredients on the market. I worked with the best and brightest in the industry, and I formulated XYZ brand. And that's why we take all of our clinicals so seriously, and I'm excited to bring it to the market. So you want to make sure that you are really showing the people why you actually started this brand. Maybe they're then resonating, maybe they've gone through some of the same things with their own skincare journey. So think about the customer who you want to reach, speak about that pain point, and then offer a solution and then introduce yourself all in that elevator pitch. So, in the simplest way, that is how you can create a really strong elevator pitch. You can check out more on our brandedly speaking website and have an awesome day. I hope that you enjoyed this episode.