The Ultimate Practical Guide to Building Your Personal Brand
By: Bianca Bass
Tags: Branding, Freelancing, Marketing, Self, Personal Branding

1. Understand that not sharing your skills is a disservice to the world — and yourself

“How you leave others feeling after an experience with you becomes your trademark.” -Jay Danzie

Let’s be honest, you already have a personal brand because, by default, you already have a reputation. This is simply about improving it.

I can hear your internal monologue right now. “Why would anyone care? / I don’t want to be one of THOSE people / It’s a lot of effort and… Netflix is so good.” Believe me, I know.

But hear me out: when you don’t share your skills, you do the world — and yourself — a disservice. Because sometimes you really are the best person for the job. And if you don’t let the world clearly know what your skills are, then they can’t benefit from them.

You can be the best of the best, but if no one knows it, you’re missing out on opportunities that are meant for you.

If previous recessions have taught us anything, it’s that nothing is certain — not even full-time jobs. Especially not now. That means it’s your responsibility to ensure people in your professional life remember you for the right reasons.

Put simply, it’s not about simply uploading a new profile photo and writing a bio. It’s about adding real value to people and positively building on your reputation every day in incremental ways. Shall we?

2. Start by identifying your three core values

Pro tip: for personal branding to not make you feel like a sleazy car salesman, you need to start by determining what’s really important to you— your values and the kind of work you want to do.

In my client workshops, I typically start by asking:

When do you think of yourself and what you have to offer the world, what words come to mind?

Whatever words come to mind, write them all down and then take a few minutes to go through and narrow the list to three. This exercise is intended to help you home in on the things you most value about yourself and, above all, what you want people to feel when they interact with you — online and offline. Mine are:

Empathy, enthusiasm, and expertise.

And FYI, you should revisit your three words at least annually. Your personal brand is an asset you must constantly evolve and shape.

This three-word exercise is designed to be the foundation from which you make all of your professional decisions.

3. Write your personal mission statement

Ok. So, you’ve got your three core values. Let’s talk about mission statements.

A few practical rules before you get writing:

Your mission statement should be concise (consider three sentences your sweet spot)

It should be something you can easily memorize and share with people

Golden rule: Remember that your mission statement starts with you, but should always end with how you serve others.

Here are a few examples I love:

What do they all have in common?

They all champion personal curiosities .

. They all create genuine value for their audiences.

for their audiences. They don’t over-promote themselves. Instead, they let associated brands and publications do so for them

themselves. Instead, they let associated brands and publications do so for them They give us something to remember them by

by They create intimacy by speaking like a human . None of their copy would be out of place to a friend on WhatsApp

. None of their copy would be out of place to a friend on WhatsApp They stand for something

They’re for someone, not everyone

Ready to write yours? Take a piece of paper and ask yourself the following questions:

Who am I, really? (Personally and professionally)

What legitimizes my story?

Why do I do what I do? What’s the driving force behind my work?

How can I serve others with my skills?

If you want to get formulaic about it, here’s a good format to follow:

I’m a <how you describe what you do> that <your focus area> by <how it’s different> for <your target audience>, who need <why they should care> in an era of <the most relevant cultural trend>.

4. Identify 2–3 social media platforms to focus on

Real talk: If you’re for everyone, you’re for no one. And if you’re everywhere, you’re probably going nowhere (and are going to be exhausted in the process).

Content fatigue is real. These days, the best personal brands focus on 2–3 social media platforms, max. You really don’t need to TikTok, Instagram Story, and Facebook Live every hour. Thank god.

Instead, your personal brand needs to be improved with true intention. That means quality, not quantity, so your followers can actively look forward to your posts when they appear. That means focus.

Me, for example? I’m a big believer in both Instagram and LinkedIn. Why? Because my audience are typically 20–35 year-olds that follow me for marketing advice. And where can 20–35-year-olds be predominantly found when they’re in pursuit of marketing advice and inspiration? Instagram and LinkedIn, of course.

To establish the platforms that are right for your personal brand and the content you’re planning on posting, here’s an exercise:

Set a timer and spend five minutes making notes about the *one person* you want to speak to with your content. Name them. Visualise them. Think about their social media habits. Think about their goals. And, most importantly, identify how you can help them get there.

5. Focus less on networking and more on doing really great work

I’ll keep this one short and sweet. It’s not the sexiest piece of advice, but it’s arguably the most valuable.

Instead of working solely on your social presence, going to hundreds of networking events, or ‘appearing’ to be busy, focus on doing actually great work.

That project you did recently? That’s your personal brand. Your personality in a meeting? Yep, also your personal brand. Your Instagram captions? Them too. Focusing on making all of these things as great as they can be is true reputation building — and will give you interesting content to share, too.

6. Write an article that balances professionalism with your personal story

Contrary to popular belief, personal branding isn’t about you. It’s about putting your stamp on the value you deliver to others.

Drumroll, please. With everything we’ve covered, it’s time to kick-start this next phase of your personal brand by writing an article. Think of this article to be the beginning of your personal content strategy.

No matter what your industry or what you want to say, your article needs to cover two things:

It needs to combine your professional opinion with your personal voice, drawing on what’s happening in your life right now

It needs to help the specific people you want to help (think back to the exercise we covered in step 5)

7. Consistently share content that sparks a conversation

Once you’ve shared your first article, keep sharing whenever you feel you’re adding genuine quality and value to your audience’s timelines.

Pro tip: I use something called the 80/20 rule for my content and it works. The idea is that 80% of your posts should be sharing other people’s content and 20% should be your own.

Good content is a conversation. Be the break from the same-old, self-indulgent content on your audience’s timeline.

Add real value, personality, and humility, and engagement will follow. Opportunities will follow too and your future self will thank you for it.