For many of us, the most valuable asset we have is ourselves. Even from a purely financial point of view, every job, project, and idea which brought you income has come from you!
Now is the perfect time to invest in yourself and your personal brand. In today's digital age, we often google people to see what comes up.
Guess who might Google you? It's the people who are considering offering you employment, investment, social media engagement, and maybe even new friendship!
Let's get started!
What's a personal brand? 👤➡️👨🍳
A personal brand is your essence in a marketable format. Your brand includes elements such as:
You Name
Your Interests
Your Associations (Certifications/Education)
Your Qualifications, Education, Employment Experience, Published Work (if relevant)
The best part of owning your personal brand is that you're in complete control of what you show, leading to how people will perceive you.
How do I get started? 🏁
Chances are, your online presence already creates a personal brand. Google your name, I'm sure you've done this before, and see what comes up. Are any of your social profiles on the first page? How about some projects, websites, or mentions in the media?
All of these elements make up your personal brand, and it's as easy as a quick google search to find this information.
First Step 1️⃣
My biggest advice to everyone: Check if your personal domain firstnamelastname.com is available. If it is, buy it right away!
What should I do if my domain is not available? 😱
Check if it's available with a localized domain (johnsmith.ca, johnsmith.co.uk, etc).
Find an alternative domain that is available as close to your name as possible, such as smithjohn.com, imjohnsmith.com,
Create an about.me page with your name instead
Update your LinkedIn/Instagram page with your full name
As you can see above, my website is ranked #1 for my name on Google. If someone decides to google me, they will be directed to my website. I am taking control of my name, and my personal brand.
Without this, people might instead be directed to my LinkedIn/Facebook/Instagram which isn't as effective giving a holistic view to who I am.
I bought my domain, or already have one. Now what?
Great! Now that you have full control over a your domain, it's time to start filling it up with content. You can set up a personal blog on Wordpress, Wix, Squarespace, or another website builder.
Next, think of what you content you would want to display. If you're having a hard time, you can use my Ikigai tool to lead you to find your purpose in life.
Some common elements in most personal pages include:
Homepage (Most important, the introduction to your page)
Blog (Write about your life, your interests/passions/expertise, etc.)
About Me (Write a blob about yourself. Who are you? What are your passions?)
Contact (How can people reach you? You can link your social media profiles here)
How can I differentiate myself? 🏋️♀️✈️🌮🕺
I'll be honest, so many personal blogs I've seen all seem the same. Predictable layout, repetitive content, lack of unique elements, and so on.
I wanted to take my personal brand a step further than most, so I created some passion projects to share on my page.
Sharing passion projects can showcase creative thinking, ability to implement ides, and further communicates who one is.
Some examples of projects I've built include: 🌟
Ikigai Generator - A fun project to turn my favorite tool into a digital generator to help people find their purpose. I'm interested in personal development, and
Literally Zero Words - A photography page with zero words, only maps and flags to display photography from 30+ countries around the world
When someone enters my page, they will not only see the common elements of most blogs, but will also be able to find their purpose, digitally travel the world, set better goals, and see my best tips in the cities I live in.
What can I do that's unique? 💫
Create a blog 📝
Only you know the answer to this. The easiest way to get started is to create a blog, and write about the things that interest you.
Combine your Interests 🏋️♀️✈️🌮
Try to combine your various interests, and write about topics that intersect multiple passions. Instead of writing about yoga (there's tons of content out there), or travel (also tons of content), you might write about how you stay active with yoga during your travels.
Show your best photos 🌄
Another thing you can do is to have a photo gallery, and show some of your best photos. You can display photos of yourself, of your travels, your city, or anything really! You can also have multiple galleries if you can't think of just one.
Map together your travels/galleries/etc. 🌄🏞🌉🌁🌆
If you love travel, lived around the world, or have any geographic information you want to display, you can have a map to display this information. I don't see if often on pages, and think it's a great way to differentiate yourself. If you can't build one yourself, you can use Fiverr to hire someone to build one.
Summary - Action Plan 💪
I've made it really easy to get started with an action plan.
💲Buy a domain with your name on it
📝Create a blog and brainstorm topics or ideas you want to write about. You don't have to pump out content weekly, even having a few posts will stay forever on the page.
👤Create an About Me page, and include a photo of yourself/contact info/social profiles
🌄Create some photo galleries of your favourite photos that you want to showcase
💫Create something unique that showcases you. It can be as simple as you want.
Tips to rank #1 for your name
Make sure your name and last name are in the domain of your page (johnsmith.com)
Include your name and last name in the title of your page (John Smith | Vegan Traveller)
Include your name and last name in the description of your page (John Smith is a vegan traveller that has visited every country on.....)
Make sure your About Me page includes your name in the title of the page (John Smith | About me)
Wait a few weeks/months, Google takes a while to index and rank new sites (patience...😉)