HOW TO CULTIVATE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

As you move into your entrepreneurial venture it is important that you cultivate your personal brand and become a thought leader in a specific area of expertise. Being a jack of all trades makes you a very small numerator with a very huge denominator. 

The idea is to get you identified as a trustworthy professional in fields where you are a subject matter expert. 

Be known as a subject matter expert in one field.

This is how Elon Musk has curved his niche in the Electric Vehicle industry and is now a dominant player as a car manufacturer. This type of specialization does not denote narrow-mindedness. It is about forging a brand identity that provides a specialized type of commodity or service, while, being open-minded enough to identify new opportunities when they come up. 

The first thing you will have to do therefore is refining and define your area of expertise. You would certainly be shocked if Bill Gates announced that he has quit the world of computing and now will direct his energy towards lumbering in Canada. What would your reaction be if Lewis Hamilton suddenly took up cattle ranching in Wyoming, not as a hobby but as a full-time profession with cowboy boots and all? You get the idea.

The second thing to consider is whether you are up to the task. Can you walk your talk/ This, therefore, demands that you upskill or pursue further education in your chosen field of expertise. Knowledge is dynamic and evolving, and you must absolutely be at the top of every new idea. Your audience and the public will demand that you offer cutting-edge expertise and if not, they will drop and forget you like similar internet heroes of the past. 

Armed with an identity and the skill to go with, it is now time to identify the appropriate platform where you can share your message. Consider your intended target and their platform of choice, this is where you should set camp and build your profile.

Authorship will uphold your legacy.

Vast knowledge and experience need elucidation and detailed explanation. Podcasts have become the best means of interactive discourse between thought leaders and their audiences. Because you already have a niche, you will find a ready audience who wants more than what is available in the fickle arena of social platforms.

Now, speaking of establishing your credentials and detailing your expertise at length, there is no better avenue than becoming an author. Write a book or two. Do not worry about publishing and sales. Have a book out there that succinctly captures your knowledge, skills, opinion, and experience. Writing will serve you quite well especially after you become famous and people want to learn all about your past and how you made it thus far, a Facebook post just won’t do, giving them a book is the best option.

Build your social media audience and publish daily concentrating on your core constituency. When building your personal brand, don’t underestimate the power of social media. Being a devoted social media contributor is almost essential these days. And equally important is the frequency with which you post. Posting every day on your social media is a great way to quickly establish your presence and eventually become known as a thought leader in your industry.

Be creative and engage in networking with new friends.

Produce high-quality content that helps your audience. Of course, reaching great heights in your field will rely on the quality of your content. Making an effort to follow these other tips will be in vain if what you have to share is not real expertise. Finding worthy content will be addressed with the diligence you put into your education on the topic. However, be aware that your information always needs to be valuable and helpful for your audience.

Work with other experts who will lend credibility and traction to your brand. Interviewing and collaborating with other experts in the field will help in the education aspect of this process. But there’s another vital reason to surround yourself with like-minded people — this connection centers you with established, well-known names in the industry and will help expand your reach.