Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Marketing Expert John Danes to talk about personal branding. John is a 19-year-old Entrepreneur from Nashville, Tennessee. Today, he’s sharing his best personal branding advice.
What is Personal Branding?
Well, the dictionary definition of Personal Branding is the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. In my eyes, that is spot on. Most people try to position their businesses as this massive thing and then put themselves in the background. With social media, individuals can position themselves as businesses and drive traffic to their other ventures from their follower base!
How to Build a Personal Brand
In my opinion, the fastest way to build a massive personal brand is through podcasting. In August of 2018, I launched my podcast, The No Excuses Show. I started reaching out to entrepreneurs through Instagram and asking them to collaborate and appear as guests on my podcast. To my surprise, many of them said yes! As I interviewed more high-level entrepreneurs, my following and influence started to grow. When I had my 17th episode, I rose to 39th in the world in business podcasts!
The Benefits of Personal Branding
Personal Branding has presented me with an exponential amount of opportunities. In Nashville, there are not a lot of young entrepreneurs. Most of the people my age are taking the traditional route, going to college and partying. Building my personal brand has given me the opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals all around the world. My all-time favorite thing that’s happened to me through personal branding is getting to interview Grant Cardone. I also recently had my first speaking engagement in New York, getting to speak in front of 150+ people at Netcon. I wouldn’t have been presented with either of these opportunities without personal branding.
John’s Top 3 Personal Branding Tips
- Content – With personal branding, most individuals are hitting the gas in neutral. They are putting out content about so many different things and topics, and their social media isn’t aligned with any one thing. Invest in nice content; if you can’t afford it, learn how to make it, and start distributing it.
- Multiple Channels – This is one of the most crucial personal branding keys. Don’t just be on one platform! Many times, people have only built up an audience on one platform and are incredibly hurt by it. I’ve seen people who have only been on Instagram, built up a following, and then their page gets shut down. When that happens, all the work they’ve done is gone and they’re back to square one. If my Instagram was shut down tomorrow, I’d still have my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and my Podcast. Only being on one platform makes you incredibly vulnerable.
- Value – You could invest thousands of dollars in content, but if the content you’re putting out isn’t quality, then you’ll see no results. On my podcast, many individuals have shared information that has made them millions of dollars, and they haven’t held back. I believe that’s why my podcast has performed as well as it has.
So, Can Anyone Build a Personal Brand?
YES! When I was first getting started, the most attractive thing to me about Personal branding was the fact that there’s no barrier to entry. Obviously, the more information and budget you have, you’ll grow quicker, but you can start at zero. If you can hustle, collaborate, and stay consistent, you can win with personal branding. Obviously, it’s recommended that you have some business or platform to drive traffic to, but even that isn’t required. Look: Kylie Jenner just passed the billionaire mark because of personal branding; so, the model works, but the question is who will put in the actions to succeed with it. After seeing what personal branding has done for my life and business, I recommend everyone to take action on personal branding as soon as possible.
John is the Founder of one of Nashville’s top Digital Agencies, 99MEDIA, and the Host of Top 100 Business Podcast, The No Excuses Show.
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