Developing Your Personal Brand And Creating Your Authority Business Model
Part of developing your personal brand is creating an authority business model around it and having clarity on what you are trying to achieve.
As a personal branding expert and coach, I understand fully the importance of knowing what your business stands for. Some people may think that developing your personal brand is just about what your logo, or website looks like. Aesthetics can create a favourable impression in that first few seconds when people find you, but your brand runs deeper than that.
One of the pillars of my business is establishing authority within my industry and niche. For that to happen I must know exactly what my business looks like, and how it is structured. This became crystal clear a few months ago whilst attending a mastermind retreat in Bali through a powerful day long exercise.
The host of the retreat is a person who has enjoyed success in Hollywood. Working as an actor and then transitioning into producing before establishing himself on television in New Zealand.
Now he has turned his attention to help people present themselves live on stage and through public speaking. He helps people fine tune the message that they want to deliver on stage using stories to attract people to their business. What he emphasised though was that you must know what your business looks like for that message to have impact.
The first day was focused on creating an authority business model. Your authority business is like an onion with many different layers to it. When you strip it down you will eventually reach the core, and this is what we had to do with our businesses.
How To Strip Back The Layers When Developing Your Personal Brand
I am going to share with you some of the insights from Bali and they are the same I shared within my Build Your AU Mastermind. The first thing to do is look at everything that you do within your business. I found the best way to do this was to create a visual plan using some old school methods. The liberating part of this exercise was to do a complete brain dump on everything to do with my business.
He said to imagine three buckets and each bucket was going to become a pillar for your business. Then brain dump everything you do onto the good old post it note and come up with as many as you can.
What you will find is that when you analyse these posts it notes it will become apparent that they fall into three categories. Each of these categories will become the pillars and foundations of your authority business model. Then what you do is break each pillar down into a further 3 sub pillars to create a 9-step process for your business.
I explained this in much more detail on the members mastermind but below is a visual interpretation of my own authority business model.
My Build Your AU Authority Business Model
My authority business model is to help people create their own personal brand. The 9 sub pillars are the questions that I will ask them and then help them solve. The Build Your AU training program is designed to help them through every stage of this process.
Your authority business model will look different to this, but the principle is the same. You will have three main pillars and then sub-pillars branching away. Business is generally based upon problem solving so you must look at what problems you solve.
Once you have this is place you will then have clarity on what your business is and the message you want to deliver.
How Do You Deliver Your Message?
After the first day of the mastermind retreat the focus shifted onto delivering our message to who we wanted to attract. The most important thing about your message is making an impact in the moment. You will know your message inside out, but the moment relates to a snippet of your story.
You may be on stage or on video, but that moment will be different to every person who is watching you. There is no substitute for delivering your message live because you will be living the moment. You can control the space and time at every point of delivery dependant on the audience you have in the room.
As you are presenting your story you will feel connections with certain people in your audience. Some will be on the edge of their seat because they are resonating with you now and in the present. At the same time, you will notice people who are not connected, and it is important not to take it personally. Don’t worry about them because you will have around 80-90% of people connected so that will be your focus.
When it comes to live presenting you may be starting to feel a little bit uncomfortable as to what needs to be done. Uncertainty creeps in because you are at the point of stepping away from your comfort zone. We all have this protective bubble that we use as a barrier to the world. We feel safe because we are not allowing anything to enter the space that we control.
Going Beyond Your Boundaries
It is important for you to remember that I was at this point several years ago so I needed to make a shift. I realised that the only way to move forward is to embrace uncertainty and break through my protective bubble. By stepping out of your comfort zone you will allow yourself to explore your inner self. We all create boundaries, but it is only when we go beyond those boundaries you realise just how powerful you are.
I mentioned exploring yourself and although this can be daunting it can enjoyable. It gives you the chance to become playful and creative and one of the best mediums I find is doing Facebook Live presentations. It is a great way to dip you toes in the water and test things out. You can play with different equipment and methods of presenting and it is unscripted. The rawness of your presentations will become obvious and it is one of the most relatable things for people watching.
People have become blind somewhat to the perfectly scripted and lit presentations that people give. There is a time and place for them but the times when you are not looking your best and you “um” and “ah” is what makes you real. There will be times when you must pause and think about what you want to say. When this happens it sometimes creates that moment, I was referring to earlier.
The people watching will then become hooked with anticipation because they are resonating to you there and then. What you deliver in that moment could make all the difference and turn that person into a lead and potential client in the future.
Developing your personal brand relies you on getting uncomfortable with uncertainty. If you would like to help then contact me here.
Helping you build your authenticity, authority and audience.
Trish Davies
Build Your AU
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