128 | From service-provider to ‘personal brand / founder’

So in last week's episode where I was sharing about how I'm using AI intentionally in my business, I also talked about the areas where I don't think we really want to get AI involved or what people are really wanting from actually working with humans.

And that is connecting with an actual client.

person and a human and why therefore it is even more important nowadays to have a personal brand where people can connect with you as an individual.

So I wanted to talk a little bit more about personal brands and what that means because we see nowadays even with like big corporate brands that were typically sort of faceless or all about the product or all about like we do this as a company kind of thing even nowadays brands like that are getting more actual humans involved and getting like the faces behind the business involved, or they create almost like a persona or a mascot or something that people can actually really connect to on a human level.

And I think it is mainly because of AI and bots being everywhere and everyone sounding like AI people are just seeking out really like authentic content and authentic people to work with and I've been banging on about personal brands for years even before AI like I do really think that it's so important especially if you are a service-based business one of the reasons why I've always talked about it being so important is if you are like a website designer or a graphic designer or whatever it is and you are just sharing your portfolio work online, but you're not sharing anything about you, what happens is your audience or potential clients will end up comparing your brand or your business with someone else who just shares their portfolio work online.

And all of those people are just gonna be comparing should i work with you or should i work with that person and just comparing you based on your work your um like design style or even your prices which is what we really don't want we don't want to be have being compared constantly based on just our prices because then you end up with a race to the bottom um even being compared solely on your portfolio work it doesn't encapsulate everything that a client could possibly experience with you versus someone else and that's where a personal brand is really useful because you basically become incomparable to someone else your audience follows you for you and your personal takes and your the way that you approach things people connect with you and the things that you share from a personal perspective So it doesn't just become about how expensive or cheap you are.

It doesn't just become about whether you make really feminine pastel websites or really minimal websites.

Or if you're a marketer, whether you sell Facebook ad services or email marketing services, whatever it is, people aren't just comparing you on that because they've already decided, hey, I really like this person.

I'm really trusting this person because they're always sharing information.

sort of their authority angles and their experience but also their takes on things and they've got opinions on things.

I really trust this person and I like their style and therefore I'm going to save up to work with them or I'm going to put them on my vision board to work with them or if it's not something out of their price range it then just becomes a hell yes to type of inquiry for you where people have already decided basically that they want to work with you and then they get in touch and essentially you end up with way less people ghosting you after you've sent a proposal after you've had a sales call because they've kind of already made the decision that they want to work with you because of everything of that your personal brand that they've seen and that they've connected with and actually getting in touch with you and speaking to you on a call and getting your proposal is just taking that next step and just getting them over the line, basically.

So I've always been of the opinion that sharing more of you on your social media, on your content, just everywhere on your website, in all of your touch points is really great.

But also now coming at it from a in an era of AI point of view, like it's so good to be able to show that you're a real human and not just a company that's using ChatGPT to create all their content or you're not just a bot or just the same information that's regurgitated over and over again.

The people who are actually going to pay the higher prices or join waitlists to work with you and who aren't gonna be the ones comparing you on price to other people They're the ones that want to see the human behind the brand.

They want to be working with people that they really vibe with, that have the same values as them, that is taking a human first approach.

They want to know that when you're delivering a service, you can actually really relate to them and understand them.

Just think about if you are looking to hire a contractor to come and help you with something, whether that's copywriting or design, work or help doing anything in your business or even in your life the businesses that probably come to mind quickest for you or that you find to be most memorable are the ones that are human-led where you've connected with a person behind that brand because having a personal brand just makes you more memorable just beyond your work or what packages you offer there's a whole other reason behind why i think having a personal brand is so great as well and that is the ability to um be really flexible in how you make money what i don't want people thinking is um oh i can't have a personal brand because i don't want to share like my whole life online i don't want to be an influencer so how i see the core differences is with an influencer, their life is monetized.