5 things I wish I’d known before I built my personal brand

This is the last of the series on personal brand versus business brand. Today, I'm sharing the five things that I wish I had known before I built my own personal brand, because I just kind of jumped in and figured it out as I went. I didn't really know anyone in my business network. I didn't know anyone personally, who had built a personal brand.

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I just saw that it was what a lot of the bigger names out there were doing. And I thought, “You know what? I want what they have.” And I think also a big part of it was I was like, “I don't want to have to try and come up with another business name. I don't like naming things. Let me just go with my name.”

 

1. I wish I had known it would require a big step outside my comfort zone

Although in hindsight, maybe I'm glad that I didn't know because if I had known what a big step it was going to require, maybe I wouldn't have done it. But also, I built so much confidence in the process because it felt uncomfortable. I felt like, “Who am I to be talking about this? Who am I going to be putting my face on the internet.” And in doing so, in showing up as me, I built so much more confidence.

 

2. You will take everything a lot more personally than if it were under a brand name

The second thing I wish I'd known is, honestly, you'll take everything a lot more personally than if it were under a brand name, because it feels like any negative feedback is a personal attack. Especially those comments on Facebook ads, especially the people who reply to my EDMs, my emails that I sent to my list, with some not so nice things. It feels like a personal attack. But it's also made my skin a lot thicker because I've learned that I can't be for everybody, and that's okay.

 

3. You have a level of responsibility and accountability that comes with being a leader

I wish I'd known that I would have a level of responsibility and accountability that comes with being a leader. And I wish I'd known that the more my brand grows, the more this responsibility increases. I kind of realized this after my brand grew so quickly, where suddenly I was in this position where I was like, “Oh, there are people who actually listen to my advice. Oh, okay.”

And then I froze. I was like, I was so scared of saying the wrong thing or doing the wrong thing, teaching the wrong thing, that I said nothing as a result.

 

4. You’re going to have to stop being a control freak in order to scale your business

The fourth thing that I wish I had known was that I would need to stop being a control freak, in order to actually scale my business. And that is probably something that would have happened regardless of whether it was personal brand or business brand. But it's hard.

It's really hard when it's your personal brand, because you have to trust other people that they are going to portray when they show up as you online, when they write content for you, reply to emails for you, that they are going to be showing up in the best way possible for your brand.

 

 

5. I wish somebody had said, “Steph, you are going to have an identity crisis at some point

You struggle to figure out where your personal brand ends and where you begin. You're going to struggle to know which part is you, and which part of you is your brand? And there's going to always be that challenge. How much of your personal life do you share to your business personal brand, and how much do you keep private?

How much of your business do you share with your personal life and how much do you keep business only?” All of those things, I mean, I've definitely felt like I've had a bit of an identity crisis the first half of this year, this year so far. So, it's a really challenging thing to sort of put the boundaries in between, okay, this is business Steph and brand Steph, and this is human Steph. And that's been really challenging. And when I figure it out, I will share it with you guys.

 

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