It’s Never Too Late to Make Money with Your Personal Brand

Stop thinking a personal brand is for fun.

76% of American Millennials are more likely to buy from a person with a personal brand.

It’s crystal clear.

People don’t do business with companies anymore. People do business with people. A strong online presence has become more important than ever.

It’s about stepping from the dark side to the light. About becoming known for something. The people who do this well do one simple thing:

They focus all their energy, their resources, their efforts on becoming known for one thing first. They become the expert on that one thing.

People like to refer to it as uniqueness, calling, purpose, mission.

The best quote on this topic comes from a guy named Larry Winget:

Find your uniqueness so you can exploit it in the service of others.

This brings us to the question of how do you do that, right?

What Yields Power Is Focus

In any industry, there are two groups of people: the unknown beginners and the well-established leaders.

What separates the two is an invisible wall, coined as “Sheahan’s Wall.” Most upcoming personal brands try to break through the wall by throwing everything they have at it — a YouTube channel, an Instagram page, a coaching business, and so on.

But, “diluted focus yields diluted results,” so most of these brands bounce right off the wall. You have to break through the wall.

Sheahan’s Wall — a concept popularized by Rory Vaden

Bundle rays of sunlight through a magnifying glass and you create fire.

To break through Sheahan’s wall, you need to find your magnifying glass. Go all-in on one thing.

• What is the one small area you can become an expert on?
• What specific problem can you solve for others?

Identify your niche and put in the work to become an expert in it. Once you do this, all the surrounding noise will dissipate, and finally, you see that a small opening in the wall has appeared — an opening that is ready and waiting for you to walk right through.

Only when you’ve broken through, you can think of shifting your focus to other endeavors.

Define Your Uniqueness

Many people wonder: “How can I find my uniqueness?”

Identifying your uniqueness is easier said than done. The things you’ve done in the past and your calling of the future are often a hint of where your uniqueness lies. Branding expert Rory Vaden often says:

You are most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were.

Answer the following 6 questions and you’ll find your uniqueness lay at the intersection of the answers.

1. What’s the problem you want to solve?

There are a zillion problems in the world, but which one do YOU want to solve? What’s causing you pain?

Create the community you longed for or build the tool you once so desperately needed. And so on. It could be anything. Find a problem and provide a solution for it.

2. What’s the thing you’re passionate about?

What things make you get out of bed in the morning? What’s the thing you can’t stop talking about, to the point your friends are sick and tired of it.

If money wouldn’t matter, what would you be doing and why?

3. What do you research?

• What podcasts do you listen to?

• Which books do you read?

• Which shows do you watch?

Write down the resources you spend time with and I’m sure you will be able to see a pattern already.

4. Where do you have results?

You earn the right to talk once you’ve actually done the work & seen results from it. Each accomplishment is evidence of who you’re designed to be and whom you’re meant to help.

You’re most powerfully positioned to serve the person you once were.

5. What would people be willing to buy from you?

People don’t pay for information, but for application.

What are things you can put together, people potentially might buy from you? Not your neighbor or your friend. As long as people don’t pay for it, it’s a hobby.

6. What business do you want to be in?

There’s no such thing as the perfect model. Just one that’s perfectly suited for your situation. For example, if you aren’t into tech, a SaaS product might not be the best fit. But, there are many other possibilities.

In your pursuit of finding the perfect business model, the DARES-checklist that’s extremely helpful. To figure out which path you can take to monetize your audience, the PAIDS-framework comes in handy.

Reputation First

We need to shift our thinking to reputation building instead of personal branding.

A reputation is built up by trust and a personal brand is a trust accelerator.

Because we trust people for different reasons:

We trust people for different reasons: we can see them, learn from them, and they entertain us. And finally, we trust people we feel we know things about. We trust Tom Cruise more than a stranger on the street. Why? Because we’ve seen him on many occasions, so we think we know him.

It’s not about the followers, it’s about the reputation you have with your followers.

Studies have shown that reputation doesn’t necessarily come from a big following or high engagement. The most influential thing? Testimonials.

Why testimonials?

1. You have real-life proof of you executing your services — you helped a person to get from A to B

2. People want to see proof you’re paid.

After this, comes a good website which displays the value you bring to your audience. And, finally, people want to be media-proof. They want to see that you’re featured in the media. This can be anything ranging from posts on social media or guest appearances on blog posts.

Rory Vaden often shares the reputation formula:

Results x Reach = Reputation

You can be the best financial advisor in the world, but I don’t know about you, I can’t buy from you. People want to see something from you.

Prioritize Strategy over Technology

In your quest of building the strongest personal brand possible, the most important question you can ask yourself is: “How can I add value to the audience?”

It’s a matter of teaching the things you know to your audience.

Give as much free value away as possible.

Share everything you know, but in random order. Not to purposely confuse your audience, but to make your audience aware of the fact that they might need your product or service to help them apply the information. You want your audience to say:

“I like your content and I appreciate all the valuable information you share. I’d like to work with you.”

We live in a world where basically everything we need to know can be found on the internet, for free. Yet, we need personal trainers, financial advisors, and other people, products, and services to hold us accountable. People that help us with the application of information to reach our goals. And here’s where your opportunity lies.

Remember, the most important question? Focus on the value you bring to your audience. Then, secondly, figure out where your audience is. Only then, you focus on technology.

You use social media to cover the three E’s: education, entertainment, and encouragement. It’s up to you which one you pick, often there’s an overlap between them. Regular, useful content that teaches your audience is the best and fastest way to fuel your reach.

You might feel pressured by the 24/7 nature of content creation, but you don’t need to spend all your efforts on creating great content. All you need is a killer content marketing strategy. Because you don’t need more content when you can repurpose what you’ve already created.

Monetize Your Brand

Focus too much on the money, and you may compromise your reputation along the way. Don’t make the mistake to treat your audience as a sales channel. Remember trust? People like to buy things, but they don’t like to be sold to.

Direct your attention to solving the problem of your audience and you’ll make money in the process. People don’t pay for information, they pay for application and organization.

The fastest path to cash is to monetize the things you’re already doing. You don’t always have to create an info product as that seems the only way that’s currently promoted online. If you are a designer, financial advisor, or personal trainer, you’re perfectly situated to solve a problem for your audience and earn an income by doing so.

To figure out which path you can take to monetize your audience you can use the PAIDS-framework, remember? It provides you with 5 ways to turn a pile of followers into a pile of cash:

• Product — physical books, a T-shirt, or merchandise.
• Ads & affiliates — YouTube ads, or you become an affiliate and make $$ on a commission base.
• Info-products — ebooks, courses, memberships.
• Deals — third party -, licensing — or book deals.
• Services — selling your time for money — the fastest way to cash.

Be strategic to decide which option to take and when. Each option has its strengths and weaknesses, and it’s advised to avoid diluting your focus by attempting all five at once.

For example, services like one-on-one coaching are often the fastest path to monetization but are also the least scalable. Third-party deals usually come later on in the life of a personal brand, but they are also of high monetary value.

Take Inspired Action

You can execute on all the steps prior to this point, but as long as you don’t take inspired action you won’t get far.

Inspired action is dedicated execution based on a firm belief that you can make a difference and build something unique for yourself. Personal branding is the future. It’s transcending the creator and thought leader space.

Yes, it’s a lot.

But, nobody said building a strong personal brand is easy.

It’s doable.

For those that are willing to put in the work and put themselves out there with a well-thought-out strategy, the future is bright. Your online presence will be the currency of the future.

The best moment to start is today. Grab a free copy of my ebook.