5 Difficult Questions to Ask Yourself When You’re Building Your Personal Brand

Throughout September 2020, we're hosting a live webinar series called The LinkedIn Opportunity. In this three-part series, I’m teaching people how to take their LinkedIn presence to the next level.

At the base of the series are some foundational teachings on personal branding.

The first webinar, titled 'Let's Get Personal,' was 50 minutes focused purely on asking the difficult questions you need to ask when building a personal brand identity.

I've had some great feedback following that first session, and here’s some of it: (PS I’m not sharing this to prove to you how ‘cool’ I am, but rather to convince you to join in on the action. If this webinar series sounds like something you need, then head over to sign up here!)

And now, for the reason you're here.

Here are my five most-pressing personal branding questions from the webinar and why you need to answer them:

Personal Brand Clarity Question 1: What do I want to be known for?

Your subject knowledge and expertise? The lifestyle it has created for you? Your work ethic? Your success story?

An experience or accomplishment that changed your life? Or perhaps you have one big message that you want to put out into the world? What is it upon which you want to build the foundation of your personal brand?

Whatever it is, have a crystal-clear picture of it, write it down, and have it in plain sight whenever you sit down to plan, execute, or take any step towards furthering your personal brand's reach and influence.

Personal Brand Clarity Question 2: What problem do I solve in the world?

This is not an answer you want to fumble with. Not only must you have a deep understanding of the problem you solve, but you must also be able to express it in a clear, concise, and intriguing manner.

What problem do you solve, for whom, and what kind of a difference does your solution make? Ask yourself: How do I make life easier for my clients or customers?

Personal Brand Clarity Question 3: Do I have a personal brand business model, and do I even want one?

Ok, this is sneaky, because it’s two questions wrapped into one, but they’re worth asking together.

In this extremely on-point episode of The School of Greatness, Rory Vaden and Lewis Howes talk about a few different models for monetizing your personal brand.

It's a good idea to think about your personal brand's strategic role in your career and business plans – is your personal brand going to be the base of your business growth? Is it going to serve as a sales channel for your business, or will it be a business model in and of itself?

Personal brand revenue streams can come from speaking professionally, growing your social media presence, and then collaborating with brands as an 'influencer,' writing books and other sellable content, consulting, teaching, etc.

Personal Brand Clarity Question 4: What am I designed to do (and not do)?

Another way to put this: What skills do you have on hand now that you can use to establish and grow your personal brand? Perhaps you can write, take great photos, maybe you're a great storyteller, a great networker, or a great speaker.

Perhaps you've got none of that, and your superpower is your consistency, focus, and dedication to learn and execute something effectively.

Think about how you're built and how your natural strengths and inclinations can help you here.

While you're at it, also think about the gaps in your abilities that you will need to offset with extra time, money, or support from other people.

For instance, I am pretty bad with numbers (11 + 21 takes a few seconds of deep contemplation for me) – so it's something I've hired help for.

Personal Brand Clarity Question 5: What would it mean to me if this personal branding thing took off?

This is a big one. It might just be the fuel you need to keep going when the going gets tough.

How will life and work look different if you do actually get your personal brand off the ground? Would you quit your job and make it your full-time focus? Or is this a nice-to-have?

This will help you make some very practical decisions about the amount of time your personal brand growth effort will take up on your calendar and decisions such as investing in photoshoots, courses, hiring a designer, building a website, etc.

I class this as a 'difficult' question to answer because this is where you decide to dream big or play safe and small – which one is it going to be?

We talked about these questions and so much more on the first webinar of The LinkedIn Opportunity Webinar Series.

If you see this before September 10th, you’ve missed one webinar, but it’s still not too late! I'm happy to catch you up with the slides and get you ready for Webinar 2, which is on Thursday, September 10th, at 17:00 CET.

Sign up here – it’s completely free. No catches. Does not end in a sales pitch.