A recruiter's personal brand isn't built on selfies or emotional oversharing, but on aligning your values with your ideal customers' values. Share stories about work-life balance, leaving corporate jobs, or switching off to be present. When your content reflects transparency and honesty, customers think: this person gets me.
Chapters
Are you, recruiter, feeling overwhelmed and maybe a little bit frustrated about the endless hype of building a personal brand? Well, have no fear, because today I'm going to talk about what personal branding really means and how you can use it to tap into the hearts and minds of your ideal customers. You see, a lot of people think that personal branding is just about a bunch of selfies, being overly emotional, and coming up with a catchy phrase. But that's just not the case. Really, personal branding is about connecting with your customers on a deeper emotional level. The best definition I ever heard was personal branding is your customer's gut feel about your product, service, or company. So the question is, how do you create a strong personal brand or a positive gut feeling from your customers? Well, it all comes down to beliefs, values, and reasons why. If you think about it, every single person on this planet, including yourself, have their own unique set of values, beliefs, and reasons why— things that really motivate them and drive them them to do what they do. Same goes for your customers. Every single one of them will have a unique set of beliefs, values, and reasons why, and it's your job to understand them and tap into them. And a powerful personal brand is when your values, your beliefs, and your reasons why align with your customers. We call this brand resonance. And brand resonance is all about creating a deeper emotional connection with your audience and triggering a positive response. You see, it's all about understanding your customers on a deeper level. I mean really understanding them and then shaping your content strategically to align with their worldviews. For example, some of our best customers hold values such as transparency, honesty, and integrity. Some of their beliefs are going above and beyond for customers will pay off in the long run. Some of their reasons why are supporting their family and being able to spend quality time with their loved ones. Having control over their day-to-day and not having to answer to anyone, and getting recognition from their peers. On that basis, Sam and I will create content based on those values, beliefs, and reasons why. For example, we may craft a post about how important it is for me and Sam to switch off from work, to put work to one side and spend time with our partners and actually be present with them. Another post could be telling stories about how we used to work in the corporate world how it was really unfulfilling, and how we used to answer to bosses that didn't truly respect us, and how working solo or as an entrepreneur now gives us control and freedom, and it gives us our time back. You see, a powerful personal brand brings you a lot closer to your ideal customer. If you get it right, then your ideal customers will start to think, hey, that person gets me, they understand my worldview, and they can help me achieve what I want. So the next time a LinkedIn guru tells you to slap a selfie on LinkedIn or pour your heart out for no good reason, take a step back and really think, think, will this piece of content resonate with my ideal customers? Will it align with their values, their beliefs, and their reasons why?
