How connection + credibility lead to commercial impact

🤘 Define your CREED

💪 Identify your CROWD

✍️ Create your CONTENT

🤔 Stoke people’s CURIOSITY

🤝 Build CONNECTION with like-minds

🙌 Spark CONVERSATION

🫶 Love your COMMUNITY

👊 Execute with CONVICTION

We’re bombarded daily with an endless parade of online marketers and the like spruiking their latest hack or shortcut formula to grow our audience and turbocharge our business.

But sometimes, we just need to sit back, take a deep breath and reacquaint ourselves with the bigger picture and what really matters.

We need to think like human beings, not online funnel junkies, and consider the basics that have worked for many of us for many, many years (and will continue to do so despite whatever tech is in vogue at the time).

The foundation of our success from a personal branding point of view comes from first building a profile and trusted reputation in a way that’s purposeful, sustainable and respectful.

It’s about strategically positioning ourselves to take advantage of the opportunities that come with being an active, relevant participant in today’s ‘Reputation Economy’.

So, what are these ‘basics’ I speak of? What’s going to help us build our professional brand for the long term, in a way that not only shows respect for the people around us, but also helps us create commercial impact in the marketplace?

I believe we need to:

• RECOGNISE and acknowledge what we stand for as a individual (what do we want to be known for, professionally?)
• ASCERTAIN who we want to appeal to (who makes up our ideal audience?)
• POUR our heart and soul into creating authentic content with our intended audience in mind, ensuring we do it with passion, purpose and strategic intent (without the expectation of getting anything in return)
• EXPLORE ideas in public, and freely share our knowledge, insights and experiences with others (while also being accessible to those who want to come along for the ride and interact with those ideas)
• INVEST time in acknowledging others in our digital neighbourhood: promote their stories, ideas and causes, and when it makes sense to do so, connect like-minded individuals for their potential mutual benefit
• SHOW UP consistently and with an open heart; have belief in our thoughts and our ideas but also share our platform by including others in the conversation and be willing to hear their take on things as well.

In essence, this is all about reinforcing our reputation ongoing, eschewing the ‘quick hack’ path to converting ‘prospects’ into clients and customers and instead, building a personal brand that people know, like, trust and respect, one that’s top of mind with your audience, and talked about in a positive way in the marketplace.

Then, you can sprinkle your ‘magic marketing dust’ on top because the foundations are already solid and in place: the heavy lifting of your brand has been done, making the pathway to a transaction a lot more smooth.