Transcripts
1. You Don’t Need to Be Fake to Build a Brand—Here’s Why.: Hello, it's Morgan and I created this really awesome
37 minute training on personal branding that is based off of my last eight years of being a small
business owner and specifically a personal
brand photographer, because I genuinely think that utilizing your
personality in order to market your business is such an underutilized tool that everyone needs
to know about. This video is going to cover, this training is going
to cover everything from what is personal branding
if you're not quite sure. How to utilize it, how to market with it with some
strategies involved, and just all of the good things you ever had questions about. Be sure to check it out. I look forward to seeing
you in the training.
2. Confident Personal Branding for Creatives & Small Biz Owners [Full Training]: Hello. Hello, everyone.
My name is Morgan, and I want to
personally welcome you to this class today
if you don't know what personal branding is
or are intrigued as to more details about
it and how you can implement it in your own
business, what are the benefits? You are in the right
place. It doesn't matter what niche you
are, none of that. Everyone can benefit
of personal branding. And I think everyone should
because I think it is the only way that you can
build a lasting brand. Notice, I said, lasting brand, not just business because a brand will last
you many businesses. So an overview of what we're
going to talk about today. First off, what is
personal branding? I'm going to give you a
definition and some examples. We're also going to talk a little tiny bit
about resistance to personal branding because I'm sure you probably
have some of it, maybe without even realizing as to why you haven't
adopted this yet, because there is a
lot of resistance out there when it comes
to personal branding. Talk about how it works. We're also going to talk about
why it works and why it's the best way to be able to market yourself
in this day and age. And then also how to implement
it in your own business. Yes, any business, any niche. For those of you
that don't know, my name is Morgan Potter. I have been a personal
brand photographer for the last four years, focusing on serving women
owned small businesses. They're usually service
based businesses. Before that, I did
wedding photography. And now, actually,
I am currently in the pursuit of changing
things up a little bit and going into educating on personal
branding obviously, I know a lot about because
I did that myself. I've had my photography
business for eight years now. I am a huge nerd. I am a cat mom. You can see
Percy chilling back here, his little ears poking out. So I realize I didn't
move on with my slide, but here is my cute
little About Me slide. Full time personal Bram dog
for Cat Mom, huge nerd. That is books, anime,
TV, movies, KPOp, whatever it is that
you think you want to attribute to being a nerd. Huge artist at heart, brand photography education
space. That is me. That is a better
picture of Percy, 'cause he's hiding right
now, which I don't blame. Let's first talk about what personal branding is
and what it isn't. So as far as
traditional branding goes versus personal branding, so a very traditional
brand to have would be something
that is like an image, design, symbol, colors, a name, or some other feature that
distinguishes a seller's good or service from someone
else's or from other sellers. That is what a brand is.
It's usually very visual. A lot of times you will have kind of feelings attached
to it, like Coca Cola, for example, you know, it's
the red and the white, it's the Coke bottle, probably
with some polar bears, and it's going to make
you think of Christmas. Like, that's kind of your
traditional branding and how that plays off of um, kind of colors and
icons, stuff like that. So whereas a personal brand, and this is why it is mainly for kind of
small business owners, especially solopreneurs, one
person who owns a business, because it's much
easier to hone in on. A personal brand utilizes
one's personality and their face to grow
their own business. So that is you. That is me. You are marketing
yourself as the brand. So what is personal branding, kind of a little tiny
bit of history on it? Like I said, it's
still very new. And I don't want to say that
personal branding only just started existing five or six years ago because
that's not true. There is plenty of evidence of personal branding in the
history of musicians, politicians like anyone that you remember for their personality, no matter what they did, that's personal branding and action. But it really became
popularized with platforms that were very
I would say image heavy, so like Instagram, but really with the
rise of social media and small businesses using social media to
promote themselves. So basically what
personal branding is at its very simplest form, is people are using
their personalities, their likes, maybe
their dislikes, things about themselves to grow a more engaged and
trusting audience and to get them to
recognize them more, to build their brand that way. So this also sets them apart from other people
in their industry. So I have to ask, Have I sold you on personal
branding yet? It sounds pretty cool, right? Like, that's a pretty pretty
interesting marketing strategy. Clearly, there are
some hesitations that a lot of people have
about personal branding. So there's a lot of
resistance, I feel like. Just in general,
there is a lot of people who tend
to feel very self conscious about the idea of personal branding or kind
of feel silly doing it. They maybe feel like
it's very self centered, like, Oh, it's all about me. Well, the rest of this talk that we are going to be having
is hopefully going to dispel most of this
resistance for you all because there
are so many benefits to personal branding, and I'm going to talk
about all of them. Let's start with how it works, how and why it now, ironically enough, I actually came across the term
personal branding. It was about five years
ago at this point, which is wild for me to
think about when I was in the midst of doing
wedding photography is my first
photography business, and I realized I didn't
want to do it anymore. And I was kind of trying to research what types of
photography I wanted to do next. So I was scrolling on Instagram. And this was the
time, like I said, when other business owners
were on Instagram a lot, where education was
really growing, I think, on Instagram, as well, or on social
media in general. I was following a lot of other photographers that I
was learning from, that I was following for
inspiration, whatever it was. But I realized that there
was this thing happening. Where other photographers were and it's not just photographers. This is any industry, where other businesses were sharing things about
themselves as owners. Small things, random things. So Jenna Cucher, a lot of
you may know who she is. She is a huge name in just
small business in general, I feel like, but especially for photographers back then because she used to be
doing photography. Her whole thing, her
whole personal brand originally was really built on this foundation of her loving macaroni and
cheese and yoga pants. And you're like, Okay, random. What does that have to do with
her photography business? Point is that it didn't. And we're gonna
get to the point. It's all gonna be making
sense in a minute. There were just other
people. I remember Amy and Jordan were two photographers that I really, really loved seeing their work, and their work was beautiful. But they would post things
about their personal lives, family, especially,
but also, like, their backstory on how
they loved teaching, which obviously
made sense because they were educators, but
they'd both been, I think, elementary school teachers and, like, small random
facts about that. Like, I remember that.
Another photographer that I really loved
that I was following. Yes, these are all photographers just because that's what
I was into back then. Amanda Schrader. She loved
Taco Bell and skirts. Like, that was her
thing. She loved skirts. She made a whole project called the skirt Project,
which is really cool. But she also loved Taco Bell. It was, like, a fun fact
about her very random, right. She even did a photo shoot at Taco Bell. It was very cool. I know other people who
have been like, Oh, diet Coke is my entire existence or people who are obsessed with, like, the Bachelor and
they talk about it a lot. Now you may be wondering
like, Okay, cool. What does this have
to do with business? How does that work? How does
that manifest in a business? What does it have to do
with business like at all? Let's say we take two people in the exact same niche
with the exact same skills. For this example, we're
just going to use photographers because
I'm a photographer. That's what I do. This can be applied to any
niche, though, okay? Let's say you take two of, like, the best photographers in the industry with,
like, a similar style. They're both dark and moody
photographers, for example. If you give them the
exact same gear, the exact same wedding day, let's say,
theoretically, they were both able to be there
at the same time, run the wedding as
their own, right? With the same gear, they're both very talented skill sets. Roughly, those two
photographers are probably going to produce a
pretty similar result. Like, if you compare their
galleries side by side, I bet those two
photographers are going to get very similar shots. I think, obviously,
there'd be some variation. But the end product is roughly going to
be the same, okay? For anyone hiring them, the final gallery is going
to be roughly the same. The thing that is truly going to set those two
photographers apart, those two web designers who
can produce the same website, those two dejas
who can both give, like the same experience
on a wedding day, those two life coaches who can help produce
the same results. The personality.
Their personalities are going to what are going to set themselves apart from one another and other
people in their niche. So, yes, as simple
as it may seem, it is your likes, your dislikes, if you were
extroverted or introverted, whatever is that makes you you, you are what is going
to be able to make that experience with technically
the same end results, a unique experience for
your client or consumer, whatever it is, because
of your personality. You can use your personality
as that extra spice that is going to
set you apart when both of your end products
are roughly the same. What else is gonna
make it unique? Even if you have the
most unique process in history and you're not
sharing it with everyone, it's like you're I don't know. Like, that's what you're
famous for, right? Eventually, someone's
gonna figure it out. Someone's gonna be able to
replicate it no matter what. And you may also be saying, like, Well, Morgan, technically, we can replicate like other people's
personalities online, too, if I see someone
else that has, like, a really good brand or I
want to be like that person. Yes, that is true, but as far as a personality,
replicating a personality, that in authenticity is really, really hard to fake and
people are very good at spotting fakeness like
that online nowadays. So that's not an excuse. So here is why your personality is such a valuable commodity, okay? Here's the example. How many of you are cat people? Show of hands invisible hands. I bet a lot of
you. I don't know. I feel like 50 50
split, whatever. I'm a cat person, okay? I'm a cat person, and I love
cats. They are my favorite. I just realized that, Oh, Percy is just chilling
there. Hey, come here. Just sit here for a while. Yeah. Any other cat
people out there? We love our cats.
They're the best. We love their chill energy. Their I don't give a ****
attitude, cute fuzziness. I personally love
how clean cats are. Dogs just kind of
give me the ck. So, that statement
alone, right there. How did that make
you feel about me? Some of you other
cat people most likely are probably
thinking like, you maybe know me Norm,
like a little bit more now. I know I said I was a cat
person in the beginning, but when you heard
that, subconsciously, your brain, if you were also
a cat persons like, Hmm, yeah, I know Morgan a
little bit more now, and it may be weird
to think about. You may even be
thinking that you trust me a little bit more, too. This is where it gets
a little weird, right? It's like, Huh,
why do I why do I feel like I trust her now
more if I'm a cat person. And those of you dog people
out there are probably like, don't I don't trust her as much. This is why the personal
branding is important, right? Someone else who
is a dog person, you might trust a
little bit more, feel like you like them
a little bit more. So this is because of the no like trust factor in marketing. So this is basically the concept that the more
people feel like they know you, they can decide whether
they like you or not. So if they feel like, you
know I'm a cat person, and then you can decide
whether you like me, basically based
off of that fact. And if you decide
that you like me, people feel more
inclined that they can trust you if they feel like
they know you and like you. So no like trust factor. And more importantly, once they feel like they trust
you know you like you, they feel much more at
ease buying from you. That is where the
business applies. So a quick little example of this just the No trust
factor in action. So for me, I have had clients straight up Bok me
because of my interests. Like, I'm going to say
that right now it is true it's happened
several times with me. And basically, it
goes like this. I had, like, my
client, Kathleen. Kathleen, if you're watching
this, shout out to you, you were one of the
first people to prove the power of
personal branding to me. So Kathleen said she
really loved my work, like, that was a no brainer. She had seen other people
with a similar style, but what really sold me to her, we were on a discovery call, and I was chatting to make
sure we were a good fit. She was like, I read on
your website and saw on your Instagram that you loved Harry Potter and cats.
And that sold me. I was ready to book. Like, I'm ready to book. Like, your interests
have already told me everything I need to know about your personality and how
it's gonna be, like, working with you simply based off of the fact that I
liked I have a huge nerd, liked Harry Potter
and had cats, right? Like, and you may be very
skeptical about this right now, but this is what happens when we feel like we know
someone and can trust them, you feel like you can buy from them and like you know
them a little bit more. Think of it this way.
So whatever is for you, things that you
really, really like. If you found someone
else that liked that same thing and they
serve an amazing product, and someone else serves
that amazing product, too. But maybe they don't like
the same things as you, and maybe they're like
a bit of an extrovert. They really like hiking and they're dog people
just not your people. I say that because I
don't like hiking, and I'm not a huge dog person. Just as an example, I
would go with the person offering the services if the services look
exactly the same, right? They can both build
me, let's say, websites that are
exactly the same. I'm going to go with the person. Who I feel like and I have
more to talk about with, who I can trust more, the cat person who
reads books and stays at home and does
crafts all the time. Right? It's as simple as that. It is bringing that personal
personality element into your business and being able to distinguish yourself
because of that. It sounds so simple,
but it is so true. We'll get to some
more examples later. Okay, so some more benefits
of just personal branding. Like we said, it sets you apart from others in your niche. However, I do want
to emphasize this. That does not make
this a competition of who is the coolest, who has the best personality. It's like, that's not the point. It's actually a really
good liberating thing because that means that you as you are are is what is
going to make you stand out. And like we said, no
one can replicate that. Everyone on this earth, all of those potential
clients out there are going to naturally be drawn to
different personalities. And that's really kind of cool. Should ease a lot
of the pressure off of how do I stand out?
Just be yourself. Now, also, and we'll talk
about this again in a minute. But by having people
associate you with things outside of your direct
business and business niche, you're making yourself
more memorable. It's the difference
between, Oh, Morgan Potter. She's like, one of, like, three or four personal
branding photographers in Sacramento.
It's like, Oh, no. She's the personal
brand photographer who is really into that
KPOp group Stray Kids, and she loves cats
and is a huge nerd. Like, there is a difference
between those two. You're making yourself stand out more and be more
memorable to people. Now, another one is because
of a personal brand, which we'll also get
into that in a minute. Does entail showing
your face online, so it can match the
personality and the face. You are also helping
build more trust between you and your audience,
your potential clients. This is just
because, in general, I feel like people are a
lot less trusting nowadays, as we should be with the rise of AI and you not being
able to trust everything that you see online and people
just not being able to do the research or even have that available to them for
a lot of different things. Being able to authentically show up as yourself
seeing someone's face, this is a much more, I guess, you want to
call it tangible show of trust versus showing up and kind
of staying behind a wall of graphics and
never showing your face. There's something about seeing someone's face and their
eyes and their smile, seeing their personality
that helps build trust. And because of that, helps build more genuine and authentic and longer lasting relationships
with your audience. And I also just want to say, so literally with you showing
up with your face online. It seems obvious, but you're going to be
more recognizable. People are going to be
able to identify you, see your face, see
your brand everywhere. As with, like I said before, if you're hiding behind
graphics and, like, a digital logo and
you never show your face, people are like, Maybe going to recognize
you by your logo, but that does not carry the same weight as someone's face. So last kind of big point for benefits
of personal branding. Obviously, there are so many, but these are the main ones. Personal branding will carry you through multiple businesses. It is evergreen in a sense. So I am a great example. I have been a wedding
photographer. I've been a personal
brand photographer. I'm moving into the
education space right now. But as I mentioned at the very beginning
of this training, because I have built
a personal brand, people that I have had since the very beginning are
still following me. Fellow wedding vendors in the wedding industry
were still following me when I moved out of
wedding photography and into personal brand
photography. And guess what? A lot of them hired me for
personal brand photography. But I had met them before, but because I had
a personal brand, they felt attached to me, attached to my story,
what I was doing, they felt invested in
that journey. Same thing. The people are going to
continue to follow me now into this next evolution
of my business. A personal brand is
amazing for that. Okay, so let's talk
about the power of personal branding
in the real world. I told you I had some
more examples for you. So basically what this manifests as once you've been working on your
personal brand, promoting that, which we'll
talk about in a minute. That's the second half of this is that people are going to start recognizing you and
feel like they know you even though you've never met before, which is a little wild. I mean, I'm sure you've
experienced that maybe meeting someone in person
for the first time, even though you connected
over social media initially. It's that same kind
of phenomenon. So my first example for this
is I had the opportunity to photograph a
women's art retreat in France last year,
and it was amazing. It was so gorgeous. I want to go back. But
I had that opportunity, and basically, I was hired as the photographer
for the trip. There was a Facebook group. All of the women who were
going were located in the US, and we were all flying
over to France. I went there early, so I was
not traveling with them. But I posted in this
Facebook group, like, Hi, I'm Morgan. I'm
gonna be the photographer. A couple things about
me, left at that. I'm not on Facebook
much nowadays, so I didn't engage
much beyond that. Fast forward. I didn't
think much of it. Fast forward to us all meeting
in France at this chateau, this private chateau
that we got to stay at this very first night. And although I see all
the women coming in, you know, I'm photographing
'cause that's my job. And I just remember this one
woman coming straight up to, like, she be lined towards me. And she's like, Oh, my
gosh, took my hand. She's like, Morgan, it's
so nice to meet you. How is Percy doing without you? And I was like, What? Who are you, first of all? She didn't even
introduce herself. Second of all, Percy's my cat. So I'm like, that's the thing that you're, like, asking about. But then it clicked for me. So I was like, a
little thrown off, but then I was like,
Oh, he's great. He's doing great without me. Like, you know, it's
so nice to meet you. She just immediately
went into, Oh, I've been following
all of your stories, and he's so cute. I love everything you do. I
already feel like I know you. The key words. We had never met before. She had seen, like, my post
on the Facebook group. She started following
me on Instagram. She'd never messaged
me or anything, so I didn't know who she was. And but I just remember just
sitting there thinking, like, This is the power
of a personal brand. She feels like she knows
me from half a world away. We've never met before, but she knows so much
about me, which is great. Like, that's the point of it. She knew me before
I ever knew her. And some of you might
be thinking like, Oh, this could be really creepy. Obviously, don't put
anything out as a part of your personal brand that you
don't want being out there. I feel like talking about, like, your cat and your
love of books and, like, Kob and
everything is fine. I'm not too worried about
people knowing that, but if you want to share
personal topics, you can. We'll talk about more
of that in a second. So speaking of KPOp, my second example
is people are going to start associating you
with different things. You are going to
be on their minds whether they realize it or not. For example, as I've
mentioned a lot, because I love them
so much stray kids. They are a KPOp group.
I found them last year. They are just the most amazing people, have incredible music. I love them so much. I talk
about them all the time. One of my long standing clients, Kelly, shout out to you. She doesn't follow
straight kids. She doesn't know
much about them. I don't think she knows much about Cape op at
all. She told me so. But she follows the
Kelly Clarkson show. Last year, stray kids had come to the US and they did a
couple of different shows. One of them was the
Kelly Clarkson show. So Kelly client Kelly. There's a lot of
Kelly's in this story. She sees that, and
she sees stray kids. And she sees that, and she
immediately thinks Morgan. She sends me the real,
and she's like, Oh, my gosh, this is your group
that you really, really like. Like, Oh, they're really
good. This is awesome. And I just like, the fact, when we think about this, that I was the first thing that she thought of when she saw them. It's pretty incredible. People are associating two seemingly random
things together. But basically, what that means
is free marketing for us. As business owners, we want to be on our clients' minds
as much as possible. These are just examples that I like to share because it is the power of personal
branding that I have seen firsthand. I see how it works. I see how powerful it is. And we cannot
underestimate this. I think that is a dangerous mistake because
this is one of the, this is the best marketing
tool that you could implement. Okay, so the second
half of this training, how to use personal branding. How are we going to build
our own personal brand and implement it in
our own businesses? So, how to build your own
personal brand with intention. What we're going to do
first is you are going to start by selecting
your top three likes, your interests to
start sharing online. And I really want to just emphasize the fact
that this does not have to be super personal. A lot of people
when they think of a personal brand,
like, Oh, my God, I have to share my life story
and my trauma to get, like, sympathy votes or
people to, like, relate to me or, like,
my relationships. What? No, you do not
have to do any of that. As I've mentioned in all
of the examples before, it can literally things that you just like or find
interest enjoying. And I also want to specify that they should be genuinely
things that you like, not things that you think other people will like that you like, if
that makes sense. Like, maybe you love coffee. And that's the
thing, iced coffees. You try iced coffees all
the time, wherever you go. I don't drink coffee
very normally, but my sister recommended this. She's like, Oh, it's
very light on coffee. You're probably not
even gonna taste it. And I was feeling
adventurous this morning, and now I'm like,
that's very strong. But that is a great thing a part to share of your personal brand. It can be favorite foods, also, foods or drinks. It could be a specific brand
of something like taco bell, it could be the mac and cheese. It can be brownies, anything chocolate,
whatever it is. You can pick a food.
There is also things like hobbies, which is great. So for me, it's drawing. Crafting is a huge thing for me. My friend who just started she just started
learning chainmail. And she's talking about that as a part of her personal brand. Like, what? I now
know her is the girl who makes fricking chainmail.
Like, that's awesome. How unique? Crochet painting. It doesn't even have
to be creative. It can be snowboarding, pickleball, sports,
anything like that. So it can also be just
general likes of things. Like, you just really like cars, or you really like
fantasy books and reading or a favorite
music group, like I had. So I want you to write down maybe just three things
off the top of your head. This can be a quick
little brainstorm. You can come back to this later, and it doesn't have
to be like I said, does not have to be finalized. You can change this later on. But I want these to be three genuine things that you like. So the second part of building
your own personal brand, and this is one that I could
talk about for a long time. So I'm just going to
briefly mention it here, but I do think is a big
part of a personal brand. The aesthetics of it is having your brand
colors nailed down. So why is this considered a
part of personal branding? Well, colors actually have a lot of psychological meaning. Behind them, which is a
whole fascinating topic. Like I said, brands use
color psychology a lot. Like, for example, color red represents passion, excitement. Yellow is meant to be
really energetic and happy. Green is more for, like,
natural, calming, environmental. Like, I could go down the
rabbit hole with this. I actually have a
blog on it. If you want to check it out,
I'll link it down below. But that's the thing.
Every single color has a psychological
attachment to it. I just want you to double check. Lots of you may already
have your own brand colors, and I know that's no small thing to kind of just
strip down and redo. But I want you to kind of list out your personality traits. Look up, you can literally
just type this into Google, the psychological or
the color meaning of blue or of orange, whatever it is that
are your colors, see if they really
match your personality and your personal
kind of values, I guess, as well as
your business values. For example, what that
looks like is for me, my brand colors are
pink, orange and black. So, pink is really meant
to represent femininity. I serve a lot of women. I work
in the women owned spaces, and that's something I'm really,
really passionate about. Pink is also comfort
and compassion. I always want to make people feel like they are
welcome with me. Orange is another
one of my colors. Orange is excitement.
It is energy. That is always something that
I want to bring to my work. And I think it's very
reflective of my personality. Finally, power and strength, something I value for myself as well as my business values. That is what the color
black represents. So just do, like, a quick little double
check and just make sure that there is not something hugely out of alignment for you, where that is concerned because whether people notice it or not, there is a psychological value
that we assign to colors, and we see your face and
those colors put together, something may be
mismatching on that plane. So it's just really about not
misrepresenting yourself, who you are, you core with colors that may not
align with who you are. So next up is to get your
own personal brand photos. So basically, the purpose of that is to make sure that your face is
going to go online. And I don't care
how you get them. You can take them yourself. You can have somebody
else take them. You can hire somebody
to take them. I just want pictures of you, well lit pictures of you that
show off your personality. So obviously, there's a bit
more strategy involved if you want to hire a personal brand
photographer to do that. But I literally want you
to think, like, Okay, what could I take pictures of that is me crafting,
like, behind the scenes, if that's something
that's part of my personal brand
or me with my cat, or, you know, you on
a hike somewhere. Whatever it is is part
of your personal brand. Just take more pictures so that you can
share that online. And I think it is
always great just to have a lot of photos
of you because that's what you're going
to be sharing in the next steps in your
marketing strategy as a part of people
being able to associate you and your personal brand and your
business together. Photos, selfies,
professional photos, whatever it is, get
photos of yourself, even if it feels awkward. And I promise with the
right photographer, if you are hiring someone, we'll make you feel
at ease and have a photo show actually be
an enjoyable experience. I want you to
challenge yourself to do that for you, for your brand. I have another blog, actually, that I will also link down
below that is about taking your own personal brand photos just with your phone at home. Now, the next thing is really to show up consistently online
with your personal brand. And this is just generally not being able or not being able, not being afraid to share yourself and show
up as yourself. I know this is not a simple ask, and this is something
that is going to take time to be able to learn
how to do with ease. And we'll talk about more
of that in a second. But generally,
just keep in mind, we're going to consistently
want to do this, to remind people who we are what we're doing
all that good stuff. And that is on social media, changing the About me
page on your website or any other profiles that you show up on online
with your business. So next up, strategically,
marketing wise, how can we implement
a personal brand, especially if you already
have a marketing strategy? So this is what that looks like. As I said, I always want you to have your
face in your social feed. I know. It'll be a
challenge for some of you, but that's where having that gallery or at least, you know, a couple of albums in
your phone of G to photos to be able to pick from will make this a lot easier. Whatever it is that kind of
reflects your personality, make sure you have
photos of that and that you share those online. Basically, the trick of it is like Instagram, for example, Instagram used to show the like newest nine
squares, I think, on your profile grid when you clicked on
someone's profile, but now they have, like, the
three by four orientation. So I believe it's
the only, like, six most recent photos show when you open up
someone's profile. You want your face in at least
one of those six photos. At least every six photos,
you want your face. You want people to be
able to see your face, start associating your brand
and your business with it as soon as they land on whatever
social media page you have. Now, if you're
wondering what exactly to post about when you're
posting these photos, this can show up in a
variety of different ways. It's a lot easier
than people think. So this could be as simple
as a selfie and oh, get to know your local
a wedding florist post, whatever it is, with a few
of your fun facts about you, or a behind the scenes post. So here's what I did
behind the scenes of the two back to back weddings
I shot last weekend. Like, I crashed on the
couch with my dog, and we binged Game of Thrones. Like, whatever it is, that
is a great opportunity to be able to show your face and reinforce your
personal brand. Or maybe this is something like, if you want to be a
little more creative, doing a reel with a funny audio
that you think just like, you know, those reels,
you're like, Oh, that's me. Something that you can show off your interests or your
personality with. Make a funny reel about
that. Or interesting reel. It doesn't have to
be funny, I guess. I tend to like the funny ones. So if the thought of
posting to, like, a feed for everyone
to see right off the bat is a little scary for you because you're
just not used to it. Don't be afraid. What I would
suggest is to start with Instagram stories
or Facebook stories or something like that that
is a little less pressure, a little more casual than, like, permanently on your feed for forever for everyone to see. It's less formal. So this can look like showing up, again, behind the scenes a photo of your dinner if you're obsessed
with brownies or whatever. Oh, you brownies for dinner. So another good way to be able to utilize Instagram
stories in terms of marketing is to really use the use the different tools
they have on stories. So that's like the
sliders, the pools, these little engagement hacks on your personal branding,
like, specific stories. It can be like, Oh,
who else loves these? Are you team cow or team dog
or the little question box, which is you know, recommend me your
favorite place to get iced coffee or
whatever it is. It is a more chill way to
be able to start sharing your personal brand and up the engagement of
you and your audience. So as I mentioned before, make sure that you
are updating all of your social media
profiles online with a nice new photo of your face. I don't want any logos
on there anymore. Okay? No more logos. You can do that on
like a little pin post in your grid on Instagram. I want a photo of your
face on your business. People want to see you. People want to know
more about you. And that is what we are here to implement and use
personal branding. So also update your About
Me page on your website. Again, any profiles or
features that you have. If you have a podcast, make sure to update
your photos on that. If you're featured on anyone else's websites or on a blog, whatever it is, ask if
you can send in, like, a new photo or even a new
bio that has, like, Oh, I love, you know, for me, I love KPOpKats and
arts and crafts. Small little thing.
You can still have your bio about your
business and what you do, but add in those three things
of your personal brand. And finally, in terms of
a marketing strategy, I just really want to emphasize
that it's not too much. I want you to keep sharing, even when it feels like
you're beating a dead horse because sometimes
you'll start to second guess yourself
when you're like, I have shared ten times
this month about how much I love my cat across my stories and across
my Instagram posts. Like, people get it. Like, I don't need to share
this anymore. Here's the thing. People
are never going to be, like, annoyed about
that kind of stuff. First off, I think on the
last study that was shown, only 17% of your followers see your new posts
and your new content. So they're probably only getting every sixth post anyways. What this does is this is
just a constant reminder to people of cats and Morgan. Cats and Morgan. They go
together. They go together. Think about it when you see other people promoting
themselves online, sharing their likes
and interest or maybe sharing a promotion, for example, like,
they're running a sale. Do you get annoyed
that they I mean, like, obvious
Morgan Potter, Authenticity Over Algorithms—Every Time.
