The Complete Personal Branding Blueprint (Foolproof)
Anyone can use this to build and monetise their personal brand
Sam Winsbury
June 05, 2023
Engineers, hello!
I’m turning 24 (🥳) this week and it’s coming up to 5 years I’ve spent in the personal branding world.
During that time, I have helped over 130 founders and CEOs become thought leaders in their industry.
I’ve built a successful agency in the process.
And I frequently get asked to speak, write and consult on personal branding.
But do you want to know a secret?
I actually use the same 5 step process every time I help my clients.
It’s very simple.
If you follow it well, it’s unreasonable for you not to generate 6 figures from your personal brand.
Over the next 5 weeks, I’m going deep into every stage to give you the authority blueprint.
But here’s the process at a glance.
Authority Positioning
Audience Building
Network Growth
Amplification
Conversion
Let’s run through it.
1. Authority Positioning
This is the foundation of your personal brand.
The most important part, but also the part most people skip.
(Don’t be like most people…)
It’s the single biggest differentiator between those who profit from their personal brand and those that never make a penny.
And it’s all about articulating why people should listen to (and ultimately buy from) you.
Why you over the 850 million other people posting content online?
There are three parts to it:
Your Audience
Your Value Proposition
Your Credibility
You can start to tackle this trifecta by asking yourself these questions:
Who are your audience and what are they suffering from?
What does their ‘Utopia’ look like and how can you get them there?
Why are you best placed to be the person that guides them there?
2. Build An Audience
Once you’ve nailed your positioning, you need to put yourself in front of your target clients at scale.
In doing so, you’ll create the most valuable asset you could wish for:
An audience.
Start by optimising your social profiles.
They’re a great place to demonstrate your positioning.
Then produce a consistent stream of content across the three stages of the funnel:
Top Of Funnel / Awareness Content - to attract new audience members.
Middle Of Funnel / Consideration Content - to build trust with your existing audience.
Bottom Of Funnel / Conversion Content - to turn them into paying clients.
Do this consistently for 2 years. Not 2 weeks.
You’ll become known as a thought leader.
Respected as the authority in your space.
3. Grow Your Network
Be proactive in encouraging opportunities into your network.
Don’t just sit there and wait for them to come.
It’s simple…
Add connections
Send DMs
Engage
Go to events
You want to create the impression of being omnipresent.
The more frequently people see you, the more familiar you become.
The more familiar you are, the more likeable and trusted you are.
4. Amplify Your Presence
Now once you’ve built a solid audience across social, you should look elsewhere.
Eventually, you want to build an audience you own.
But first, look to other people’s audiences.
Appear on podcasts
Land PR features
Write guest blogs
By landing features like these, you expose yourself to pre-built, targeted audiences in the thousands, tens or thousands or even hundreds of thousands and millions.
But that’s not all.
You also drive credibility.
Social is great because it’s so accessible.
But that also means anyone can post there.
Thing is, not everyone is ‘worthy’ of being featured in Forbes, or WSJ, or Sky…
So if you land a feature on them, you are seen as ‘worth being featured’ - i.e. very good at what you do.
5. Create Conversion Systems
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be a thought leader just for the clout.
I want to actually drive opportunities from it.
This isn’t about ego. It’s about developing your career/business.
So how do you actually ensure your personal brand is driving commercial results?
What you can’t expect is for people to convert willy-nilly just from your content.
Some will, but it’s a big jump in commitment to go from investing 60s in consuming your content to 4 figures in working with you, for example.
So you need a system that turns followers into customers by gradually increasing the amount of commitment they make.
That might be downloading a guide, attending a webinar or having a demo.
This content should be higher value, gated and provide a clear next step towards working with you.
Now if you do those 5 things well, you’ll be well on your way to an industry-leading personal brand that actually grows your business.
Over the next 4 weeks I’ll dive into each one in detail to give you an actionable roadmap for implementing them.
If you can’t wait that long, check out the Influence Engine Personal Brand Course.
(it’s free if you’re signed up to this newsletter)
If you’re not, but would like to be, hit the button below:
Speak soon,
Sam
ps. Here are a few ways I might be able to help you:
1. Building a Personal Brand. We’ve built over 130 at Kurogo!
Need something else?
I also open up 2 spaces for private consultation every month. Reply to this email if you need something bespoke.