4 O’s of Personal Branding To Grow Your Expert Business

How do you effectively use personal branding to grow your expert business?

I’ll start by telling you this. Personal branding isn’t just about the logo you use or the color scheme you use throughout your marketing. Personal branding is about the perception you, your message and your brand creates in the minds and hearts of your audience.

And if you desire to truly create an expert business, personal branding is exactly where you start. See, if people don’t perceive you as unique and different, how will they ever believe you’re an expert?

So, let’s jump into it, shall we…

(Can’t believe this is what I looked like without a beard, which is SOOO a part of my personal brand now)

As you can see, these 4 O’s are incredibly important to bring into your expert business.

But how do these personal branding strategies look once you apply them?

I’ll tell you how by sharing a little story. You ready?

I once met a woman named Ruth who was a Mary Kay consultant. She expressed frustration about not being taken seriously at business events, networks and seminars because her business was in network marketing.

I believed that she could still take her business to the next level so I advised her according to my own personal branding steps.

My question to you is:

Have you set yourself up as an expert in your niche?

 

Let’s dive in!

Here are 4 things that can absolutely take you from newbie status to expert status and help you build the business of your dreams.

1. Your Opinions and Perspective Separate You From Other Experts / Leaders

 

Let’s talk about Oprah. Oprah takes an opinion even though she’s not necessarily a specialist on health or education or finances. She might know a thing or two about it but she hasn’t gotten any degrees in these different areas that she interviews people about.

The important thing is that she has an opinion and her opinion sways what her audience does. She says, “Hey read this book,”  and everyone’s running to buy the book.

Why?

Because she’s positioned herself as an expert. Now she has this audience that is listening to her opinion and the thing about it is that she’s merely sharing other people’s expertise. She’s borrowing from their credibility in those areas.

So the first key is to have an opinion in your industry because when you stand for something people you know people will gravitate towards that.

They’re looking for a leader and you can be that person.

2. Organize Your Expertise To Take People On A Journey

 

What do I mean by this? I mean organize your testimonials, organize your knowledge. You have to gather all this ammunition that you already have to prove that you are, in fact, an expert.

Because people who are not experts don’t do that. They’re so busy doing the ins and outs of their business they don’t take the time to organize to create this positioning as an expert.

Here’s an example, if you talk about a dentist and an oral surgeon you know they’re similar because they’re in a dental field. But the dentist is a general practitioner so what they do is they clean teeth, they do x rays, maybe they do repairs.

But they’re making a hundred dollars for the x-ray.

They need a whole lot of people in order to make the same amount of money as a surgeon.

Experts take the time to organize their thoughts, their processes, and create targets for each client profile instead of doing blanket marketing and spending thousands on bringing in less than what they know they should.

Which leads me perfectly into number 3.

3. Outreach (Marketing & Promotion) Are Incredibly Valuable In Your Expert Business

 

At some point, you have to be comfortable with educating others about your product or service. You think, “Hey I’m an expert. I’ve had success. Now let me go out there and get more attention.”

Experts are very specific on letting it be known that they’re good at what they do. They’re good at letting others know that people have had favorable results with their services.

Experts know who they’re targeting.

They specifically target a select group of people (target market, Ideal client), whatever you prefer to call it.

Using high-value outreach means you’re educating people, you’re showing testimonials, you’re showing case studies, you’re providing them with all of the tangibles and hitting their pain points in a way that no one else has been able to.

4. Opportunities Shouldn’t Only Be Created, But Cultivated

 

This is it. You’ve taken the other three steps to set apart your personal brand. You’ve worked hard to become an expert, but there is one more crucial point where many fall short, and that is that they don’t create opportunities.

You might have had opportunities that passed you by that you may look at now and shudder. Or you may think you haven’t had the right opportunities. I want to challenge you.  

As an expert, when you educate people, when you have an opinion, when you organize your positioning, when you do high-value outreach, THEN you get opportunities to do things you wouldn’t normally do.

Opportunities come easily when you actively share your unique experience, stories and perspective.

I’ll give you an example. A few years ago when I was still in the finance industry I got called upon a Chicago news channel and they asked me to speak on the subject of foreclosures.

They did a short 30 to 45-second report on foreclosures and I was the one offering four steps to avoid foreclosure.

I was an expert because I had an opinion. Because I organized my thoughts. Because I had outreach and because of my outreach I drew media attention. I had an opportunity that I wouldn’t have otherwise had.

 

I hope this list has been helpful for you in furthering your personal brand and growing your Expert Business.

Using these 4 personal branding strategies are part of what it takes to develop your You – Factor (your secret sauce to what makes your expert business, and YOU unique).

If you want more flexibility, more time, more leverage, more freedom in your expert business, or if you want help with defining your personal brand, I’ve got a brand new course coming out called The You – Factor Formula to help you define and discover how to build the business of your dreams.

And if you have questions, make sure you comment here or DM me on Instagram @AlexNavasPro.