To Create a Sense of Who You Are That you Can Project to Others
A Case Study: Gerald’s Story
In his two years working as a freelance personal trainer at a city gym, Gerald had grown his client base to full capacity. He loved his work, and he felt great about the positive impact it made to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of the people he worked with. He wanted to help more people. He knew the only way he could do that would be to go from a one-person band to forming a company, beginning by bringing his fellow personal trainers on board to join him, and in time, perhaps, expanding and opening his own gym.
Not knowing where to start, Gerald asked his flatmate Harry, who worked in marketing, for advice. Harry was happy to help. As he wanted to work on his fitness levels for his first triathlon, they agreed to a swap of their respective areas of expertise. Harry would help Gerald work on his personal brand, which according to Harry, was the key to Gerald building his company. And Gerald would help Harry get in shape for his upcoming event.
Gerald had never worked on his personal brand before, or so he thought. But according to Harry, his skills, values, and how he built relationships had shaped his personal brand from the moment he had first become a freelance personal trainer.
Harry said the three steps Gerald needed to take to build on that were:
Step One: Educate Your Audience
Harry told Gerald that his approach to serving people by creating helpful educational posts had helped him create a bond of trust and that trust would carry over into people’s trust for his company. He said his approach when meeting potential new clients helped them to recognise and appreciate his ability as a personal trainer and also his strong presence of character. He said that that’s important because whether in person or online, Gerald is the product. His character is who he is as an individual, and this follows through to who he is as a business. Because who he is as a business is an extension of who he is as an individual.
Harry explained how in his approach in getting new clients, Gerald had naturally created a bond, trust and a relationship with his clients, potential clients, and everyone else he’d engaged with.
Gerald got his clients in three different ways:
- He had a relationship with a gym, and they would refer people to him. Gerald would take them through a free personal training session, during which he would first discuss with them what they wanted to achieve. He would then take them through key exercises that would help them accomplish that. Following on from the session, he created a workout plan that they could follow on their own. He also always included helpful information on nutrition. Recognising how skilled, knowledgeable and helpful Gerald was as a personal trainer, most people signed up for his one-to-one training.
- He had built a website for his personal training work. He had shared blog posts to help people maintain good physical and mental health and wellbeing. He shared his personal workouts accompanied by photographs. He had created videos that demonstrated how to focus on different parts of the body when working out. He had created plans to help people prepare for sporting events, such as marathon or triathlon training. He was always helpful in answering people’s questions, and when they inquired about his personal training, he offered them a free session at the gym he worked from — taking them through the same process he took with people who came to him directly from the gym.
- Word of mouth referrals. Because of his great work, his clients happily recommended him.
Gerald’s persona, according to Harry, is one that naturally applies the fundamentals of personal branding to everything he does. To build on this good foundation he has set in place, he said Gerald could utilise social media to connect with more people and that Instagram was a good platform for this. The best way to connect with people on Instagram was through stories because they can resonate and inspire in the moment. He said Gerald could adapt his educational style from his blog to Instagram by easily converting text, photographs and videos into storyboards. Harry said he would help to set this up.
Step Two: Promote and Support Other Experts in Your Field
Harry said that showcasing the expertise of other good people would help to build his credibility and that collaborations and mutual support can be beneficial to all parties. It would help his brand by demonstrating he respects his fellow experts.
Harry suggested Gerald and his fellow experts in the field could host Q&As or conduct interviews through his blog or by hosting a podcast to help readers and listeners learn about ways to maintain good physical and mental health and wellbeing. Harry said a key part of his branding is contributing to the ongoing conversations in his field. This would allow him to do that while also raising his profile.
Step Three: Express Your Expertise as a Guest
Harry suggested Gerald could also market himself and his business through guest posting by writing and submitting original content to his industry publications or blogs. He could also approach podcasts in his field to be a guest on their show. This approach would build on the last two steps because it would position him as a source of knowledge and expertise.
Through the in-person and online conversations Gerald had with his clients and potential clients, he understood the challenges they were experiencing. Steps one and two would give him even more insight.
Step three would enable him, as an expert in his field, to build on his authority further by sharing his knowledge and expertise. Increasing the respect, he was shown as a personal trainer from everyone he worked with to the wider community of his industry. This is a win-win for all because it helps to increase audience exposure. Over time his influence in his field will grow, along with his business and personal brand.
Epilogue
With Harry’s help, within a short space of time, Gerald brought on three personal trainers, and his company was officially formed. Working together, they’re making a positive impact to the physical and mental health and wellbeing of an ever-increasing community through their excellent programmes, shared knowledge and expertise.
With Gerald’s help, Harry completed his first triathlon with gusto. Gerald had helped him train intelligently to maximise his performance while respecting other areas of his WorkLife that were important to him.
How to Build Your Personal Brand to Help You and Your Company Grow Assignment
Use Gerald’s story to guide you through these steps:
Step One: Educate Your Audience
Step Two: Promote and Support Other Experts in Your Field
Step Three: Express Your Expertise as a Guest
Words Of Wisdom
Your personal brand drives everything you do and is unique to you because it comes from your beliefs and values. Whether as an individual you’re self-employed or employed, or whether you want to grow your business, you can adapt and apply one or all of the three steps to build your personal brand. This will help you create a sense of who you are that you can project to others through your true personal brand identity.
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As a WorkLife Learning Practitioner and Writer, I create learning programmes and resources to help people manage, develop and transition their WorkLives in good, challenging and bad times.
The focus of my work begins by helping people identify a WorkLife path that’s true to their core values, purpose, and motivation. This is followed through by creating meaningful short and long-term WorkLife plans while enabling self-coaching, self-directing, and self-leadership to drive these plans.
I bring you stories created from questions and answers drawn from WorkLife lessons. What I’m trying to do is to highlight different solutions, to provide you with a pathway so that even if a particular story doesn’t apply to you, you understand there is a path to follow.
Whatever you want to do, there is a clear path to it, and once you understand those steps, it becomes much more intuitive, and hopefully, it motivates you to get started. Because that’s what you need most, the motivation to get started. The motivation to follow your vision.
I created The School Of WorkLife book series to help people continuously fine-tune their learning, development and growth in the areas most important to them. Click on the series to see all the books available and previews of what’s inside each book.
How To Build Your True Personal Brand Identity is book 5 in the series. Click on the title to see a preview of what’s inside the book.