BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IN 2020 (NEW STRATEGY!)

Summary

In this video, Sunny Lenarduzzi shares strategies for building a personal brand in 2020. She emphasizes the importance of authenticity, storytelling, and leveraging unique personal attributes to stand out in a crowded online space. Sunny dispels the notion that personal branding is solely about aesthetics and highlights the need to focus on personal stories, strengths, and genuine engagement. She encourages viewers to define their unique niche by understanding their audience, collecting testimonials, and creating shareable content. A consistent rhythm and storytelling across multiple platforms are key for growing a personal brand effectively.

Highlights

• Being true to yourself is the most important strategy for building a personal brand. 🎯
• Unique personal stories and experiences are irreplaceable in defining and growing your brand. 🛤️
• Focus on platforms that align with your strengths to effectively reach your audience. 💪
• Collect testimonials as social proofs to reinforce your reputation. 📜
• Create shareable content to enhance your reach and brand visibility. 🔄

Key Takeaways

• Authenticity is key to personal branding. Be yourself and you'll naturally attract the right audience! 🌟
• Your personal story is your biggest asset - use it to connect and inspire. 📚
• Find your niche, niche down, and then watch your brand blow up! 🚀
• Engage genuinely with your audience rather than focusing on vanity metrics. 🤝
• Consistency in content and storytelling builds trust and authority. 🔄

Overview

In the digital age, everyone seems to play the brand game, whether they realize it or not. Sunny Lenarduzzi dives deep into the art of personal branding, advocating for sincerity and embracing one's inherent attributes rather than just focusing on visual aesthetics. She draws from her success to outline how being authentically 'you' can turn into a magnetic force that no perfect logo or color pattern can replace.

Sunny's game plan involves leveraging the power of your narrative. Sharing personal stories can not only define who you are to your audience but also serve as a unique selling point in a crowded marketplace. She places a spotlight on being consistently genuine, sharing her own experience of finally embracing her natural hair as a part of her brand identity, which resonated profoundly with her followers.

For those looking to amp up their branding game, Sunny emphasizes the significance of knowing your audience, being unafraid to polarize, and finding your niche. She advocates for a strategy steeped in interaction and feedback, creating a robust ecosystem where your audience not just follows but actively promotes your brand. By collecting and showcasing testimonials, and doubling down on what works, brands can create a loyal following and an unshakeable reputation.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction to Personal Branding The chapter introduces the concept of personal branding and emphasizes its ubiquity in the digital age. It discusses how everyone with an online presence, regardless of scale, effectively has a personal brand. The narrative highlights the importance of maintaining a strong personal brand, whether for entrepreneurship, job searching, or simply social interactions like dating, stressing that people will likely look you up online for various reasons.
• 00:30 - 01:00: New Strategies for Personal Branding The chapter 'New Strategies for Personal Branding' introduces fresh approaches to enhance one's personal brand amidst the overwhelming digital presence of numerous individuals attempting the same. The author shares their top strategies and tips currently in use for building a personal brand.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Importance of Being Authentic The chapter emphasizes the importance of authenticity in building a personal brand. The author shares personal experiences and insights, explaining that the most crucial element in developing a successful personal brand is being true to oneself. This authentic approach has significantly contributed to the author's substantial growth on various platforms.
• 02:00 - 02:30: Value of Personal Stories The chapter discusses the importance and perception of personal stories, especially in the context of personal branding. The speaker reflects on how personal stories contribute to online brand-building and loyalty. The initial skepticism around self-promotion is addressed, hinting at a deeper purpose beyond self-serving motives. Personal anecdotes, including past experiences with video content creation, are used to highlight changes over time and the effectiveness of personal storytelling.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Building a Business from Personal Experience The chapter explores the evolution of personal branding, emphasizing the shift from traditional branding elements like consistent colors and logos to a focus on authenticity. It argues that being genuine and true to oneself enhances magnetic appeal more than maintaining a perfect aesthetic.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Identifying and Embracing Uniqueness The chapter discusses the challenges of standing out in a world where everyone and everything seems to be a personal brand. With an overflow of individuals vying for attention and validation, the key takeaway is that authenticity and being true to oneself are crucial for distinguishing oneself in the crowded space. The notion, though possibly perceived as clichéd, is emphasized as an essential truth in personal and professional growth.
• 04:30 - 06:00: Understanding and Targeting Your Audience The chapter focuses on the importance of leveraging unique personal attributes and factors to connect with an audience. It emphasizes that while tangible brand elements like colors and fonts can be copied, personal authenticity and individuality cannot be replicated. The chapter highlights the value of being true to oneself and the impact this has in resonating with an audience.
• 06:00 - 08:00: The Significance of Social Proof The chapter delves into the concept of social proof, emphasizing how personal attributes can significantly influence one's brand. It narrates a personal experience where the author realized that their unique characteristics, such as their hair, laugh, and eyes, contributed to their brand identity, regardless of their own attempts to alter or hide these traits. The story highlights the authenticity in personal branding and the inherent significance of embracing one's true self.
• 08:00 - 10:00: Creating Shareable Content The chapter titled 'Creating Shareable Content' focuses on embracing one's unique traits and personal stories to create engaging content. The author shares a personal experience about deciding to leave their hair natural, which unexpectedly led to positive interactions and connections with others who appreciated or related to the natural hair journey. This experience highlights the importance of leveraging unique and different aspects of oneself, be it physical traits or personal stories, to stand out and connect with others through content creation. The key message is to use personal authenticity as a tool for creating shareable content that resonates with and engages an audience.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Focusing on Engagement over Vanity Metrics The chapter titled 'Focusing on Engagement over Vanity Metrics' emphasizes the significance of understanding one's journey in personal branding. It suggests relying on personal experiences and continuously reaffirming and retelling one's story to effectively engage with the audience. The focus is on building genuine connections rather than chasing surface-level metrics.
• 11:00 - 12:30: Niche Focus and Audience Engagement The chapter 'Niche Focus and Audience Engagement' explores the personal journey of an entrepreneur who transformed a small business by leveraging the power of YouTube. The entrepreneur initially struggled with growing their business but found success by creating a YouTube video for clients, which went viral. This experience demonstrated the effectiveness of YouTube as a platform for automated business growth, client engagement, and lead generation. The chapter underscores the importance of focusing on a niche and engaging with an audience effectively to build a successful business.
• 12:30 - 15:00: Finding Your Unique Rhythm The chapter titled 'Finding Your Unique Rhythm' focuses on the importance of identifying and embracing one's personal narrative to build a personal brand. The author uses their own story of building a multimillion dollar business as a case study, encouraging readers to reflect on their own experiences. By writing their 'hero's journey', individuals can discover their unique gifts and talents, including overcoming personal challenges and solving problems for themselves or others. This approach helps in creating a strong, relatable personal brand.
• 15:00 - 16:00: Consistency and Content Recycling Consistency and Content Recycling emphasizes the importance of leveraging one's unique experiences and personal story to achieve success and expertise in a field. The chapter highlights that by focusing on what truly inspires you, you can create a distinct approach that no one else can replicate. The author shares their journey of building courses based on their own system, derived from personal insights and experiences. These courses are proven to work, having helped thousands of others, showcasing the power and value of individuality in content creation.
• 16:00 - 18:00: Conclusion and Final Thoughts The chapter emphasizes the importance of embracing one's unique qualities and sharing personal stories consistently. It highlights that success can be achieved in diverse fields, as exemplified by individuals who have cultivated businesses around niche interests like hula hooping and drone flying. The narrative underscores the value of focusing on personal strengths, particularly in the digital space, suggesting that individuals should choose platforms that align with their skills to reduce content creation friction. The author shares a personal anecdote about ease with video content due to their extensive experience.

BUILD YOUR PERSONAL BRAND IN 2020 (NEW STRATEGY!) Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 Doesn't it feel like everyone is a personal brand these days? Whether you have one follower, one subscriber, or 100 million, if you have any sort of presence online, you have a personal brand. And whether you're trying to be an entrepreneur, or you're just in college or you're trying to get a job, you better believe people are searching for you online in some way, shape, or form. Going on a first date? Bet they Googled you. So, you want your personal brand to be rock solid.
• 00:30 - 01:00 And in this day and age there are some new strategies that we can all implement to make sure that our personal brand stands out in a sea of other people, and millions of other people who are trying to build their name, build their brand online. So I'm going to share with you my best tips and the strategies that I'm now implementing to build my personal brand. If you're looking forward to this, give this video like, you know you want to. I don't know why I might make the sound effect but it just sort of happens.
• 01:00 - 01:30 And be sure to hit the Subscribe button and hit the bell to be notified every single time that I post a new video. I love the topic of personal branding, because there's so many different things that go into it, but the biggest thing that I've learned in the last year particularly as my brand has skyrocketed across all platforms and continues to grow daily, is that there is no better key to building your personal brand than you.
• 01:30 - 02:00 I know that sounds weird. Let me explain. So, when we used to talk about personal branding, and believe me I've been talking about this for a long time, we can cut to a really old video that I did on this topic and I look totally different. I think my hair is a lot darker. It's filmed... I don't know, it's not the best video lighting wise and aesthetically wise, but hey, did pretty well on YouTube. The idea of self promotion is a bit of a weird one, and actually that phrase kind of makes my stomach turn, because it gives you the misconception that it's all self serving. But the reality is you build your brand online, and you build a loyal following by adding
• 02:00 - 02:30 value to people's lives. So I've been talking about this for a while, and when we used to talk about personal branding, it was really focused on things like: having consistent brand colors, having a logo, having the same sort of copy everywhere, and really having a consistent theme and aesthetic to what you do. Now what's really interesting and what's happening with personal branding that I found, is the more you you are, the more magnetic you are. And we've kind of started to veer away from perfect aesthetic, perfect brand colors, all
• 02:30 - 03:00 of these other things, because this is the issue: there are so many people trying to build their personal brand, like babies are personal brands, dogs are personal brands now, that there is an influx of people competing for attention, competing for eyeballs, competing for authority. So the only real way that anyone can compete nowadays, or get seen or stand out, is being true to themselves. And this probably sounds really hippy-dippy to you, but it's actually so true.
• 03:00 - 03:30 And you have to leverage your own unique factors and your own unique attributes. And they could even be things that you maybe don't even like, but that other people resonate with because they're real. Because the thing is, everyone can copy your brand colors, it happens all the time. People can copy your fonts, people can copy your copy. People can copy everything about you, but nobody can be you. So two big things, really interesting. I asked my community recently, I said, "What do you think stands out the most, and makes
• 03:30 - 04:00 you think of me as a brand?" And they said, "Your hair, your laugh and your eyes." It had nothing to do with anything that I actually created, it was just innately who I am as a person, because that's the most personal part about you. And the funny part for me, and I've told this story before, is that I hid my hair for a years. I had flat ironed my hair, I didn't like my curls, I was embarrassed of them.
• 04:00 - 04:30 And then I had a life changing moment and I was like, you know what? Screw this. I'm just going to leave my hair natural. And it's crazy how much people are reaching out to me and saying, "Oh my gosh, I love your hair," or, "How do you do your hair? I have similar hair," and it's just a bonding thing with people. So whatever is different, unique about you, you want to leverage those things. And it could be physical, it could be an aspect of your story, it could be a lot of things. Now that kind of brings me to my next point, which is your story makes you stand out.
• 04:30 - 05:00 So important to understand this. Again, there is an influx of people building personal brands, so you have to really know your journey and you have to really lean on your experience. So a big part of this is figuring out how you got to the place that you're at, and making sure that you reaffirm and retell that story as much as possible.
• 05:00 - 05:30 So, my story and how I help people, and how I actually built a business off of my story and my experience and my journey, is that I used to be an entrepreneur with this tiny little business and I wanted to grow it, but I didn't know how. And I kind of stumbled into creating a YouTube video for my clients at the time, and it blew up. And I realized that YouTube was a powerful platform to build your business on autopilot, and to bring in clients and leads and sales at all times. So I moved into that, I leaned into that, and that's how I ended up where I am today.
• 05:30 - 06:00 And we built a multimillion dollar business based on my story. And here's the thing, if you're sitting there thinking, "Well, I'm not an expert in anything. I don't know what my unique gift is, or how I can really both build a personal brand around it," I want you to sit down and write your own hero's journey. Start from when you were a kid until now. What have you overcome? What hurdles have you faced that you've moved past? What's a problem that you've solved for yourself? What's a problem you've solved for somebody else?
• 06:00 - 06:30 What's something that lights you up? All of those things are clues as to what your story and your experience is, and how you can become your own expert, because nobody has that experience like you do. And I've built courses all around my experience and my journey, using my own unique system because I knew it worked. And now I've worked with thousands of people to make it work for them as well, but it's all based on my story, nobody else's. And that's why nobody else can take what I do and do it, it's unique to me.
• 06:30 - 07:00 And everybody has something that's unique to them. There's people who teach hula hooping and have big businesses. There's people who teach how to fly drones and have big businesses online. So think about your own unique story and tell it, and tell it often. Now, the next thing I wanted to say is play to your strengths. Because a lot of the times when you're entering the online space or trying to build a personal brand, you think you need to be everywhere, and you don't. The best thing you can do is pick a platform that plays to your strengths and creates the least friction for you to create content. So for me, being on video is very easy, because I've been doing it for a long time.
• 07:00 - 07:30 I was in TV before I started on YouTube or any other platform. And I know that I can film a video a lot faster than I can write a blog post, or do anything else really. So I knew that for me video would be the medium that would play to my strengths. So think about yourself and what comes most naturally to you, and that's where you really want to work, i.e. that's why a lot of photographers end up on Instagram, because Instagram is a visual medium when it comes to photos specifically so it plays to their strengths.
• 07:30 - 08:00 Now, the next thing I want to share about building your personal brand is know your audience, and know who isn't your audience. It is good to be disliked, it means you're doing something. So you want to be polarizing. You want to know exactly who you're trying to reach, and exactly who you're not trying to reach. Because the worst thing you can do is try to reach everybody. And prime example of that is if you look up some of the most generic terms online, things like motivation, inspiration, et cetera, look at how much competition there is.
• 08:00 - 08:30 There's massive competition. You're trying to compete with millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of results. So you got to figure out, "Okay, where do I fit in in those results? What is my particular niche in those results?" And I know people get sick of hearing that, but if you look at a lot of the really successful examples in any business, they found a particular niche, they built their momentum there, once they had an audience they were able to branch out. But if you don't niche down, you get lost in a sea of people who have more experience
• 08:30 - 09:00 than you. But you can be successful as a beginner, as long as you find your little pocket and sweet spot to start it. And I talk a lot about that in this video, on how to grow fast and gain subscribers on YouTube. So in order to know who you're attracting, you want to talk to as many people as possible. This is the really simple part about building a personal brand. You can get to know your audience really quickly by talking to a lot of people about what you do, and telling people a lot of your story. Because when you do, people are either going to relate to it or they're not going to relate
• 09:00 - 09:30 to it. If they relate to it, dive deeper with them. Ask them what do they usually consume online? What are the videos they will watch? The channels that they watch, the blogs that they read, the podcasts that they listen to, the Instagram accounts they follow, because that's going to give you clues as to the kind of content that your ideal audience member and your raving fans are going to want from you, and then you can create more content like that on your platforms. The next thing, which I think is probably one of the most important things in today's day and age, and one of the newer strategies when it comes to personal branding, is receipts
• 09:30 - 10:00 are your reputation. You want to be known for one thing, and you want everybody in the world to know that you're synonymous with that one thing, and that you're the best at it. So collecting receipts, meaning collecting social proof, like it's your job because it is, is so important. We have testimonials coming out the yin yang, because I know that it's really important for people to know that I'm actually good at what I do, and that they can trust me and
• 10:00 - 10:30 that my system actually works. So we collect our testimonials in Google Drive. We also have a lot of video testimonials on our wall of fame, from our success stories and our clients. And that just builds more reassurance to say, "Yeah, she's the best when it comes to X, Y, and Z," and you can see when people ask about YouTube and YouTube growth, oftentimes I'll get recommended, and my reputation speaks for me. So receipts are your reputation, collect them like it's your job, keep a bank of them wherever you need to, and share them. I share my testimonials all the time on Instagram, on Instagram stories, on Facebook, on LinkedIn,
• 10:30 - 11:00 everywhere I can. Because I know the more I do, the more people will respect me and understand that I have a good reputation, and that helps to build my personal brand as an authority in my space. And the next piece of your personal brand right now, is that we have moved from vanity metrics. A lot of this comes down to Instagram hiding likes, which you can watch this video all about that. But the thing that I want to focus on with that move was that we aren't so focused on
• 11:00 - 11:30 vanity metrics anymore, we're focused more on true engagement and sharing content. So you want to create content that's shareable. And creating content that's shareable, which I talk about in this video, and I ran this video on my Instagram growth strategy for 2020, is creating content that anyone could share on their platforms without it being something that looks like you. Because I wouldn't share something that has somebody else's brand colors, because it doesn't really resonate with me, unless it's something simple, like there's BossBabe who uses pink,
• 11:30 - 12:00 and it's a really nice shade and maybe I'll share some of their stuff, and I love their account but I'm not really a pink kind of girl. So I prefer graphics that are just black and white, and I think black and white shareable graphics on Instagram and everywhere else, are a really great way to create content that people will be really quick to share on their own platforms, which helps you build your audience. The more you can get little ambassadors in your own community to share your content for you, the faster you're going to grow your personal brand.
• 12:00 - 12:30 So creating shareable content, versus just trying to get clicks and likes and getting that quick hit is so important, because shareable content grows your reach a lot faster. Next I want to talk about doubling down on what works. You probably have seen, and you should know your metrics across every single platform. And what I mean by that is you should know the analytics that actually matter on each platform, and you should be studying them. Because you'll start to see trends that when you share this kind of content about this topic, it gets way more reach and it gets way more engagement, so share more of that
• 12:30 - 13:00 content. It literally is the same across every social media platform. Double down, share more of what works, because you'll grow faster and you'll reach more people. And if you want more info on that, you can also watch this video on how to grow from zero subscribers fast. And I really want to touch on something that I hear a lot. Often we'll ask people, "What's your goal? What do you want to do?" And people say, "I want to inspire people and I want to motivate people." And we're in this culture of just a cycle of constant motivation, and it's great that
• 13:00 - 13:30 you want to motivate people and it's great you want to inspire people, I do too. But if you're just trying to compete in the motivation space, good luck. Because it is competitive AF. So you have to figure out how to find your little area of expertise and like I said, niche down to blow up. So one quick thing that you can do is complete this sentence: I help blank, to blank, by blank. So I help coaches and online entrepreneurs, to reach their audience and monetize their
• 13:30 - 14:00 message, by using YouTube and online courses. That's what I do. And the motivation aspect of that and the inspiration aspect of that, is a byproduct. It just happens, because I'm helping people reach their goals, which is inspiring. And when I share that, people are like, "Oh my gosh, I want to do that." And when I share the stories of how people's lives have changed since they've started working with me and my team, that also is inspiring. So just being in the motivation space is rough. It's hard to grow real fast there, unless you already have a base.
• 14:00 - 14:30 So instead, motivate people through your results, through the action, through the things that you're able to do and impact others with. Impact is everything, impact is inspiring. So that's where you want to start. Complete that sentence: I help blank, to blank, by blank. Just fill that sentence out and you'll start to understand where your niche or your particular category is. And if it doesn't come right away, that's okay. It takes some time, it takes some work, but keep asking questions, keep talking to people,
• 14:30 - 15:00 keep telling your story, and you're going to get to know your ideal audience member, your ideal client really, really well in order to reach more of them. You need to know your ideal client and your audience members on a deep level in order to grow your audience. And I always come back to using your story because your story is motivational. Everybody has a hero's journey, everybody has an experience in their life where they went from not a good situation to a great situation. And if you watched this video, on how to create an online course, I talk a lot about that,
• 15:00 - 15:30 and how to create a profitable course based around your own experience. Because nobody's a better expert than you on your own experience, and if you've solved a problem, hands down, there are other people out there who would pay for your expertise on how to solve that problem. So make sure you check out that video as well. Next thing I wanted to say is find your rhythm, and be consistent. Super, super important that you find your own unique rhythm. There are people on YouTube who post once a month, but their videos are bomb, and so they get this massive exposure from that one video and it's quality over quantity.
• 15:30 - 16:00 I posted once a week until I got to 200,000 subscribers, now I post twice a week. I'm a big believer in quality over quantity, and making sure your content is going to perform well before you even record it, and that comes down to doing the research. But making sure that you have a rhythm and consistency that works for you, because consistency creates trust with your audience so that they continue to show up for you, and continue to support you so that you can continue to build your personal brand. So make sure you find a rhythm that works for you and stick to it, and remember to share
• 16:00 - 16:30 your content across other platforms, and don't think you need to reinvent the wheel. A big part of personal branding is consistency in your messaging, and telling the same story over and over and over again until people fully grasp it, and they know exactly who you are and what you do and how you can help them. So you can take one piece of content, whether it's a YouTube video, a podcast, et cetera, you can split that content up and share it everywhere so that you're active on these other platforms, but you're not having to create content from scratch. So really great tool for this is something called repurpose.io. We use it in my business, it's awesome. I'm not currently an affiliate with them, but they're great.
• 16:30 - 17:00 And it basically allows you to clip your videos or your content into small chunks with like the headlines, and make them really shareable across platforms. So that allows you to make more content in less time and not have to come up with brand new content for every platform every day, because it's just less exhausting. So those are my key strategies for building a personal brand today. And I know these are going to be really helpful for you, so please take action on them and start working on your own unique story.
• 17:00 - 17:30 Because you being you is enough, I promise you that. And it's your biggest asset today, because everybody can build a business the same way, but not everybody is you. Everybody can copy a logo, copy a font, copy a brand color, but not everybody is you. There's nobody that can compete with you at being you. And we live in a day and age where you can get paid to be you. It's a wonderful time to be alive. So, hone in on what makes you you, and that's going to be the biggest advantage to your
• 17:30 - 18:00 personal brand. And keep telling your story because there's someone out there who needs to hear it. If you want to build your audience, build your platform a heck of a lot faster, make sure you go to bossyoutubestrategy.com, and I will show you how to blow up your YouTube channel, and blow up your personal brand in the next 12 months. You can sign up for that at the link below in the description. Thank you so much for watching, check out these videos next to further build your personal brand, and own your niche and dominate, and become the authority on social media.
• 18:00 - 18:30 If you liked it, hit the Like button. Subscribe, hit the bell to be notified, and be sure to share this with someone who needs to hear it. Thanks for watching.