Have you been wondering what all this stuff about personal branding is about? It’s
something you’ll need to do online. It’s amazing how much it has to do with
belly dancing and scuba diving, read on to see what I mean….
Have you ever wondered how to brand yourself, when there’s so many others blogging and wanting attention and branding themselves.
There are all these “leaders” on the internet who’ve branded themselves already.
You might be thinking to yourself, “why should I bother when there’s so many others out there? 
Well, here’s why I think you should bother
- because there’s no-one else like YOU, and only you can be you!
Thinking back to when I learned to scuba dive, my instructor branded herself just by being her.
The scuba diver above is a picture of me just after I learned to dive, I love this picture because it shows I can actually achieve whatever I want to do. (learning was a
real challenge for me:-)
Anyway, back to my diving instructor. She loved diving so much, and she wanted
all her students to be good divers so they could enjoy themselves.
She was always there when I needed her.
Like one night when I went on my first night dive, and my buddy and I got lost (because it was so dark), she found us while making sure everyone else stayed
with her as well.
Now, you might choose a niche which is belly dancing, or scuba diving, or just being YOU.
The trick (not really a trick – the skill) is to just be You. My scuba diving instructor doesn’t teach people to swim, even though they need to be able to swim before they can learn to dive.
She limits herself to teaching people how to dive underwater because that’s what she knows and loves best. You can’t be known for everything, so stick to what you know and love.
Or, stick to something you really want to know and love.
Create your Persona
My scuba diving instructor is pretty funny and sometimes scary underwater. One time there were about 8 of us diving together and we came across this
rather large stingray. It was not long after Steve Irwin had passed away, so we all kept our distance, even though we were in awe of this magnificent creature.
Our diving instructor went pretty close to it, and afterwards she told me she was going to get really close, but she thought we might all freak out.
Anyway, sometimes on the internet, it’s not easy to just be yourself, so it is easier to create a persona that mixes who you are and who you want to be.
That way you may find it easier to magnify the personality traits needed to attract the right people.
It seems that…
We fall in love with those who are brave enough to do what we think we can’t.
Look at how so many fell in love with Steve Irwin! As long as you’re basing your character off who YOU really are, you’ll be able to keep it authentic and still
look great as just yourself.
Finding Your Voice
My scuba diving instructor talks and laughs with all her students, just like she’s one of them.
She never looks down on anyone even when we do something really stupid underwater like getting caught in some fishing line and not being able to get out.
She just helps you out, and we get on with having fun on our dive.
So….. branding yourself online is the same as someone like a scuba diving instructor branding themselves. It is all about being genuine and showing people that you are one of them. Sometimes we try to teach people things and sound more authoritative.
We do this because we think our audience will trust us more. Instead of that, it can alienate you from the people you’re trying to connect with.
Another tip for branding…
Make your brand accessible.
My scuba diving instructor creates a community around herself. She has social barbecues and social dives, and makes herself available. People can go down to her shop and talk to her whenever they want. She’ll take us out diving with her if that’s what we want.
When you make your brand accessible, you become part of your community.
Answer questions and praise those who are doing well.
Your personal brand is YOU
It’s who you are, what you believe, and what you want to put out there to others.
So, what does a personal brand mean to you?
Let me know in the comments on this post here…
Remember to always have fun whatever you choose to do!
Julieanne van Zyl
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Great post Julieanne! When you decide to work online you are exposed to so many things that you would like to try and do everything at once and quickly to be there. But we forget how important it is to first brand yourself, especially when you are new to this internet world.
Thank you for reminding us this important concept.
Paola
Hello Paola, I agree, we often forget that we're here to brand ourselves first! And if you're new, it's sometimes hard to understand where the money comes from in branding yourself.
Hi Julieanne,
Great insight about personal branding. It is so true that we are drawn as human beings to people being their authentic selves. It is those that are brave enough to shows the world exactly who they are and share their gifts with everyone that become successful in life and in business.
I have always wanted to do scuba diving, do you do it regularly?
Deirdre Rutherford recently posted..7 Steps To Extraordinary Confidence
Hi Deirdre, yes, it’s those who are brave enough to share themselves. I’ve watched some people who could be really really successful. And, they’re scared of being authentic on the internet, they listen to too much gossip.
We could go diving together once you learn Deirdre. I don’t go as regularly as I would like. We were going to go last sunday but as you know it rained and rained and rained:-) This Sunday we’ll go!
I totally agree with you, people need to be themselves and just do it. I think the biggest thing holding people back from creating their own brand online is that they think they need to be like somebody else, when in reality they just need to put themselves out there.
Joel Broughton recently posted..Network Marketing Multiple Streams of Income
Hi Joel, thanks for dropping by. Yes, it’s easy to just be yourself!
Have a terrific weekend, Julieanne
Julieanne van Zyl recently posted..A Network Marketing Business Scuba Diving and Going Downstream