How To Leverage Your Personal Brand for Your Business
Everyone has the capacity for a personal brand. When Kreativ Alchemy develops a brand identity for an entity, we think about that entity’s characteristics and personality traits to determine how the brand will look and communicate. It’s actually easier for you to identify those characteristics and personality traits within yourself.
Think about the different ways you present yourself and communicate when you’re at work or with friends, family, or someone you barely know. Your coworkers see you as a brilliant data analyst, whereas your friends know you as the ultimate jokester. Those are both defining characteristics that make you, you.
Personal branding is all about leveraging those characteristics to create a stronger relationship with your target audience. For example, what data analytics tips can you share with your coworkers to bolster their image of you? What jokes will you tell at work vs. to your friends?
So, yes, everyone can have a personal brand. However, let’s take things a step further for business owners.
What if you’re no longer just a data analyst? You own a data analytics firm. If you play your cards right, you can strategically leverage your personality – especially the characteristics and qualities that differentiate you and your firm from the rest of the pack – to land better clients, form stronger relationships, and ultimately be more profitable.
What is Personal Branding?
If you look up “personal branding definition,” you’ll find many articles about developing a personal brand. Those articles provide a great framework for personal branding, but they don’t address one of the most critical use cases for your personal brand – promoting your business.
Business owners and executives should create personal brands that pick up where their businesses fall short. For example, if your business is very straight-laced and technical, your personal brand can communicate in a more casual, down-to-earth, and humorous way. Your personal brand will humanize your business and help you reach a different subset of your target audience.
Case Study: Personal Branding for Real Estate
Our foremost example of leveraging a personal brand for business success falls with our client Robert Gash of Colorado Country Broker. Robert is a real estate agent in Western Colorado, and for several years, he had been working under another broker branding himself as Colorado Country Broker. That worked well for the time being because he could use Colorado Country Broker as the name on his social media channels, flyers, postcards, business cards, etc. to promote his services and listings outside of his boss’ services and listings.
However, in April 2020, Robert opened his own brokerage, United Country Real Estate Western Land & Lifestyle Properties. At that point, Robert had two brands working toward the same goal, speaking to the same target audience, and competing for views, followers, and engagement. That’s when he called Kreativ Alchemy.
After getting to know Robert’s brands and goals, we developed a personal brand identity for Colorado Country Broker. We designed a logo, brand guidelines, and content plan that not only differentiated Colorado Country Broker from Western Land & Lifestyle Properties but could actually help the brokerage get more listings.
Western Land & Lifestyle Properties relies on listings – it speaks to sellers. Therefore, we positioned Colorado Country Broker as a medium to allow Robert to communicate with potential buyers. Colorado Country Broker showcases and celebrates the western lifestyle. Through Colorado Country Broker, Robert attracts buyers who want a lifestyle they can only achieve by purchasing what Western Land & Lifestyle Properties is selling.
To further elevate the impact of Colorado Country Broker, Robert can use the audience he’s built of potential buyers to encourage sellers to list with Western Land & Lifestyle Properties. He, or Colorado Country Broker, speaks a buyer’s language, and he already has a dedicated following to whom he can promote his listings.
By investing in personal branding with Kreativ Alchemy, Robert was able to:
- Differentiate between his brand and his brokerage;
- Leverage multiple channels of outreach to get new listings and find buyers;
- Effectively communicate with not only his revenue-driving target audience (sellers) but their target audience too (buyers)!
Working With a Personal Branding Consultant
Are you in a similar position to Robert? Maybe you’re an executive or a business owner, and you’re not your business’ brand, but you know that your personal brand could enhance it. Maybe you have a platform, but you’re struggling to drive traffic from it to where the money is. You could benefit from working with a personal branding consultant like Kreativ Alchemy.
I hate to be the broken record that reminds you everyone has a mini-computer in their pockets, but it’s true. Everyone is hyper-connected and branding themselves one way or another. Why wouldn’t you want to brand yourself in a way that benefits your business?
To talk to Kreativ Alchemy about your personal brand identity, send a message to info@kreativalchemy.com.
