Speaker 1: what's up everyone. Welcome back to my channel, the best place for new coaches, content creators and entrepreneurs. In today's video, let's talk about personal branding. Specifically, I want to share with you guys my tips, tricks, and strategies on how I've been able to build a really strong and recognizable personal brand on social media. So on line now, before we begin, and before we dive in, I do want to really define what personal brand truly means, because I feel like personal brand and personal branding are two terms that get thrown a lot in this internet space. And I feel like not a lot of people actually know what it means. So even if you did a quick Google search, let's say you search for what is a personal brand. This is generally the first definition that will pop up. And I tend to agree with this definition. And that definition is personal branding is the conscious and intentional effort to create an influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority of someone of influence and elevating their credibility. And also it allows them to differentiate themselves from the competition. I tend to agree with this definition of what a personal brand really is, because a lot of people think that, Oh, my personal brand is this. And they think that's their personal brand. But the reality is, is personal branding is really what the public sees in you. And there might be a mismatch. I might think that I am the most generous person in the world, but maybe the public doesn't see me that way. Maybe the public sees me as selfish, greedy, entitled all these different things. And then there is a clash of what my personal brand means to me and what my personal brand means to other people. And that's why it's really important for you to understand that because once you understand that your personal brand is really tied to what others associate you with. So for example, if you think of my name, Vanessa Lau, what are some words that come up? What are some adjectives, verbs, terms, things that pop up for you, feelings, whatever, then that ultimately contributes to what my personal brand really is. And so once you kind of understand this, now you can make a conscious effort to be consistent in your marketing, in your communications, in your positioning, so that you can get your perception of what your personal brand is communicated to the public so that the public can be at the same page as you. I personally think that that's really important to make sure that, you know, you're on the same page with your audience in terms of what your personal brand really is. Because if there is a disconnect between that, then you're probably not doing a good job in terms of communicating what you really want to be perceived as and what your personal brand truly is. And so that's why the mission of today's video is to help you bridge that gap and make sure that whatever you believe is your personal brand, that you're able to translate that well online so that the public can be on the same page as you. And that is ultimately how you're going to be able to create a very strong, cohesive and recognizable personal brand. So if that's already getting you excited, then keep on watching until the end of this video. But as always, we always do shout outs in this community. So before we dive into the video, let's go to the shout outs first. Massive congratulations to this week's YouTube channel and Instagram profile of the week. Thank you for supporting this channel. Now, if you're interested in being featured too, all you have to do is take a picture of this video and post it to your Instagram stories. Just don't forget to tag me, or you can leave a comment in today's video. Anyways, guys, let's get right back into the video. All right, welcome back. Now, the first step that I want you to take, especially if you are absolutely clueless about your personal brand, or maybe you have an idea, but you want to solidify it even more. You want to have crystal clarity on what your brand truly represents. I highly recommend that you look into the 12 different brand archetypes that exist. Now, if you were like me a few months ago, and you're asking yourself, what the heck is a brand archetype? Don't worry. I'll explain that to you in a second. But the reason why I even know about brand archetypes and the importance of brand archetypes and recognizing them is through my experience of working with brand up brand up as an agency that specializes in branding and design. And I actually outsource a lot of my work to them. They're the reason why I have such a strong personal brand and how I've been able to really be consistent with it, but also be super clear with it as well. Through working with them, they helped me develop a clear brand guide that I reference all the time. And through this brand guide, which really makes it clear on what my brand voice is, what my positioning is, and also what my aesthetics are. I've been able to maintain consistent branding across my website, which by the way, they also created for me, my podcast, my Instagram, and also my YouTube. And I referenced this brand guide all the time and how we even develop this brand guide was through me really exploring what type of brand archetype I belong to. Now, the idea behind these brand archetypes is that basically all brands around the world fall under one of these 12 brand archetypes. And these brand archetypes represent just universal identities that most brands are composed of, including mine and yours and fortune 500 companies and all the brands that you see around the world. And so I do want to take some time in this video to walk you through quickly the 12 different archetypes that exist and give you an example of some companies that fall under that archetype. And maybe while you go through these 12 archetypes that you can identify which archetype you belong to, because I assure you the moment that it clicks for you, the same way that it clicked for me and you identify which archetype you fall under, it's going to be a lot easier for you to really lean into that archetype and convey the same values of that archetype across all of your marketing and communications on social media, and even outside of social media as well. Now, the first archetype is the outlaw. The outlaw is all about breaking rules and that you don't have to settle for the status quo. A really great example are these brands such as Virgin, Harley Davidson, and diesel. The second archetype is the magician. The magician believes that anything can happen and your dreams can come true. As long as you believe a really great example of this is Disney. The third archetype is the hero. And this is actually the archetype that I really identify with. And that is that if there is a will, there's always a way and that you can always make it happen through determination and outworking the rest. And a really great example of a company that does this is Nike. The next archetype is the lover. The lover is a really romantic type of brand and that it's very sensual, empathetic, and soothing. A really great example of these lover brands is Chanel or Victoria secret. The next archetype is the jester. The jester is a really silly brand and that it's all about enjoying life. And a really great example of that is old spice or M and M's. Then there's the everyday man. The everyday man is all about belonging and it's all about treating each other with honesty and friendliness and being humble. Target is a great example. And so is Ikea. Next, you've got the caregiver. The caregiver is all about being of service and loving your neighbor and also making sure that you are a service upon one another. A really great example of that is WWF, UNICEF, a lot of nonprofit organizations. Next up, we've got the ruler. The ruler is all about having control and having power and is all about being articulate and having excellence. And some ruler brands are a lot of the luxury brands that you see today, like Rolex, Mercedes and Louis Vuitton. Following that, we've got the creator and the creator is all about innovation, seeing potential everywhere and being inspirational, daring, and provocative. A super great example of the creator is Apple. Following that, we've got the innocent. The innocent is all about safety, feeling safe, feeling wholesome, being honest and humble. And a really great example of that is a vino and dove. Afterwards, you've got the sage. The sage is all about education, sharing wisdom. And as you can see, a lot of universities fall under this BBC and a lot of radio stations or new stations. And also Google last but not least, we've got the explorer. The explorer is all about freedom and not feeling fenced in. Really great example of that is Jeep, Pentagonia and the North face. It's all about being fearless and daring and being exciting. And actually I also really resonated with this as well. And this I would say is my secondary archetype, whereas the hero is my primary archetype. Now, as you can see, just by expanding your knowledge to these 12 different brand archetypes, it already is super helpful. And the moment that you self identify with maybe one or two of these archetypes, it can really help you speed up your personal branding process. For me, the moment that I self identified with the hero archetype as my primary archetype, and then the explorer archetype as my secondary archetype, it really served as a guide on how I personally wanted to communicate and show up on social media. So make sure you comment below and tell me which brand archetype you think you belong in. Cause I'd be super curious to know now, once you've chosen your brand archetype, or maybe you've identified with a brand archetype and it's helping you get a little bit more clarity as to what direction you want to take your brand. The next recommendation that I have is the three by three method. Now the three by three method is something that I developed because it really helped me to navigate my personal brand and stay consistent with it. And I even mentioned the three by three method in this older video of mine, but I know that since the last time that I launched this video, my channel has grown by a lot more. And many of you probably don't even know what the three by three method is. Basically what the three by three method is, is when you take three of your values and three of your content pillars, and every time that you release a video or you do something on social media, or you do anything in your business, you really revert back to the three values that you have and the three content pillars that you have and you revolve your business around that. So for example, the three values that I have in my business is high value. So every content that I produce, everything that I ever do, whether it's free or paid, it's a value of mine to make sure that it's always of high value. The second one is transparency. So what I always value is making sure that at every step of the way, no matter how big my channel gets or how big my following gets or how much money I make, that I'm always going to be transparent with my audience. And I feel like I've done a good job in honoring that, especially on my podcast and some videos that I've posted on YouTube, or even some posts that I've done on Instagram. It's a value of mine. And then the third value that I have is high energy. I always want to make sure that I maintain that high energy and that I convey that on my social media platforms. Even in my videos, I'm always bursting with energy. When I do my group coaching calls with my students in the boss Graham Academy, I'm also super high energy. Even when you look on my website, the colors that I've chosen really exude energy because these three things, high value, transparency, and energy are so important with me. And I try to ingrain that in everything that I do within my business. So those are the three values that I have. And once I've identified these three values, the next thing that I look into is my pillars. These are the three content pillars that you want to be consistent in within your personal brand. So for me, even in my YouTube banner, my three pillars is social media, coaching and entrepreneurship. These are the three things that I always consistently talk about, whether it's in my podcast, Instagram, my blogs, my YouTube channel everywhere. And so that remains really consistent as well. And when you combine the three values and the three pillars, now you really have, you know, a reminder for yourself of what you need to be consistent in. Every time I do a piece of content, I uphold these three values. Every time I do a piece of content, it's likely going to fall under one of these three pillars. And that's really helped me to maintain that consistency. So if you ever get lost in terms of your consistency on your personal brand, or you need a reminder of who you are and what you want to convey, then definitely follow my three by three method because it has helped so many people. And I want to make sure that it helps you as well. Now, at this point in the video, there's a key word that I have been saying a lot, and that is consistency. Now, I really want to share with you something that has been really helpful to me in terms of how I can ensure that I am consistent within my personal branding. Cause remember in the beginning of this video, I said that you can think that your personal brand is a certain way, but what your personal brand is comprised of is the public's perception of you. And that's why it is so important to be consistent because the more consistent that you are in these things, the easier it is for the public, AKA your audience to be on the same page as you. And what has really helped is to create a brand guide for your business or for yourself. Now brand guides are not only super helpful to you if you're a solopreneur, but it's especially helpful if you end up outsourcing work to other people, you hire contractors or you hire employees to help represent you as your brand. So for example, even though my team has grown and I have a video editor, I have a social media manager. I have all these people who helped me run my business because I have a brand guide. Everything from the outside looks consistently the same. And with this brand guide, this is the reason why on Instagram, on YouTube, on podcasts, on my emails, everywhere you go, it's pretty much the same brand voice, the same brand aesthetic and the same vibe. And so when you're creating your brand guide, you can see it in two parts. The first part is your visual brand identity. This is basically the aesthetics of your brand, your logos, what type of fonts that you use. It also includes your color palette, all these different things. And this is something that actually brand up helped me develop in my business. Just to show you really quickly, this is what my team and I reference all the time, or even when I outsource things to other people, I quickly send them the brand guide so they know the exact fonts that we use, the logos that we use and when to use the logos, our color palettes and all the hex codes that come with those color palettes and everything like that so that even if other people are handling my brand, they know exactly what vibe we want for the aesthetic. So that's one part of your brand guide. The second part of your brand guide is more of the intangibles. It's not about the aesthetics, but it's more about your messaging, your voice, and your positioning. This is where you can add the values of your brand. Like we talked about in our three by three method, as well as the language that you use in your business. So to give you a clear example, this is what is in my brand voice guide. Basically I tell my team, Hey, we're real. I have a no BS approach to educating my audience. I'm not going to fluff things up for people. And by the way, I have it pulled up right here. We're honest and we're genuine. I really, really value transparency. Like I mentioned in the three by three method, not only this we're energetic, so we always want to make sure that our content leaves people feeling energized themselves and that inspires them to take action. And finally we're relatable and we're transparent. This is something that we always want to make sure that we convey in our posts, in our content, in the way that we deliver and we communicate our emails, everything like that. We always tie a lot of our lessons to my personal stories or making sure that no matter how big the business gets, that we're still really talking to our audience and going through the journey with them. Instead of talking down to our audience, these are things that are really, really important when we're communicating with the Vanessa Lau brand. Not only this speaking of brand voice, it's also really helpful to do some wordsmithing and wordsmithing is something that brand up taught me. So by the way, guys, like brand up is literally the best. And they helped me so much with my personal brand. Definitely check out the link in my description box because they are so awesome to work with. There's two ways to work with them and you can check it out in the description box below. But with brand up, we also did some wordsmithing. And what that basically means is really choosing the language that you want to use in your company, in your brand and the language that you don't use. So a clear example of this is in my company, I use language like boss. I use very, very unisex language. I also swear in my brand sometimes. And so I've actually compiled a list of the words that we use. But in addition to that, I've also compiled a list of words and phrases that we don't use. A lot of other entrepreneurs out there call their audience babe or girl boss or sis or honey. That's something that I don't do in my brand. And I make sure my whole team knows that. And that I know that when I do my communications so that it's consistent. So as you can see from this wordsmithing exercise, I was really able to identify the language that I'd like to use in my company and the language that I don't want to use. Now, if you are a solo printer, you might not need to go this in depth, but especially if you're someone who has a team or you're someone who's outsourcing things to other people, doing this is a very, very helpful exercise. And once you've really identified the words that you use and the words that you don't use your values and what's against your values, it really creates a very nice brand guide that you can pass off to other people, or that you can use as a reminder to yourself for everything that you do here on social media, or even outside of social media. Because remember, I said that your personal brand is essentially what the public's perception is of you. And the more consistent that you can be, and the more firm that you can be when you communicate your values, your language, your aesthetics, everything like that, the clearer your audience can be in your personal brand. And that is the way that you can make sure again, that everyone is on the same page. Now, so far in this video, I've talked about brand archetypes, the three by three method and my tips and strategies when it comes to building a brand guide so that you can maintain that consistency when it comes to really showing up on social media and making sure that your personal brand is recognizable and known amongst everyone in your audience. Now, while you wait for next week's video, make sure you also check out these two videos that I have right here as well. I talk about my three pillars, which is coaching social media and entrepreneurship. So make sure you check out these two videos while you wait for next week's video. As always guys, I appreciate you. I hope you guys have a great day, a great week and a great life. And I will see you in the next one. Good luck with your personal branding. Bye guys.