3 Pillars of a Personal Brand — The Ultimate Formula
Ignore the even One Pillar & your Personal Brand is Dead.
Every person has a personal brand whether they want to manage it or not.
You cannot build a great building without strong pillars. And the strong pillars need solid ground. So, first, you have to develop a strong ground & then strong pillars for a great building.
This is not a blog about how to construct a building, let me add the personal brand.
Before explaining the above example first we have to understand what is a personal brand & why it is important.
The pillars of a personal brand are actually the definition of personal brand, & the pillars are part of the Formula that I created to Develop & Build a Personal Brand That is why we cannot separate the definition from pillars.
I will reveal the Formula & Definition below.
What is a Personal Brand:
If I have to define the personal brand in one word I would say “Reputation”.
“Your personal brand is your reputation”.
You may have heard this line many times but here is the catch, This definition is for the general public & this definition is right not wrong but need clarity.
There is a good formula for reputation & with that reputation formula, you’ll understand what is reputation.
(I’ll explain that later)
For Now, Understand this.
Reputation is:
What people see, What they feel about you, What they think about you, What they do in front of you & behind you & What they say in front of you & behind you.
Now, this definition of a reputation is for those who are not familiar with the marketing & branding industry.
I’ll reveal the detailed definition below.
Why Personal Brand is important:
Keeping the above definition in mind (Personal brand = reputation)
Now, listen to this, “People Buy From People”
We do not connect with the strong graphics of any brand but we connect more with the human behind the brand.
If your reputation is huge, everyone knows about your work & talents that means more opportunities. this is as simple as 2+2=4.
Why we care about TESLA & SpaceX is because the reputation of Elon Musk is insanely strong. We know who he is & what are his ambitions.
Why we care more about Apple & not Microsoft is because the reputation of Steve Jobs is more strong than that of Bill Gates.
Ancient Roots:
Personal brands are not new, the origins start from the day the first human was created on this planet earth.
Look at all the ancient heroes, they are heroes because of their personal brand. & their personal brand was too strong that we still remember them today.
The building:
you remember the building with pillars. To build a great building you need Strong Pillars & Solid Ground.
To build a personal brand you need 3 Pillars & a solid ground.
Solid Ground:
Solid ground is your Mindset. it’s your thoughts, your perspective. it sounds simple but it’s not.
Remember: Your Personal brand is not about you, it’s about what problem you solve for others.
What’s in it for the audience is what matters.
Now giving & helping others always start with helping yourself first.
The process is inside-out, not Outside-in. First Fix yourself then fix the world.
That is why your Mindset is very important. If you think you’re ready to give back & you’re Perspective is clear on things that need clarity then it’s time to start the work on Pillars, The ground is ready.
Remember: you don’t need to be all perfect. we all grow with time, we all grow with each problem we overcome. What you need is to cover the basics, you need to be your best self & that’s what matters.
Here are the 3 Pillars of a Personal Brand.
Reputation:
If I have to define reputation in one line it would be:
How Many People Know you?
Reputation is just One Pillar of a personal brand not a proper definition of a personal brand.
We see many people use reputation as a definition of a personal brand which is correct to some extent but there is much more to it.
Let me define reputation first.
Reputation is What you did, What you are going to do & How many people know about it.
Here is the Reputation formula:
Results x Future Results x Reach = Reputation
Results:
Results are the things that you did.
You wrote a book, you are a host of a successful podcast, you are a successful YouTuber, etc all those things that you achieved including degrees & learnings are your results.
It is important to have strong results.
Future Results:
Future Results are things that you announced publicly that you are going to do. That is your Ambition.
You announced that you are going to write a book.
OR let’s take the example of Elon Musk. He said he is going to create the colony on Mars & make humanity multi-planetary. That is his ambitions or the results he will achieve in the future.
Reach:
Reach is how many people know about your results & your future results.
your followers on different social media platforms, & your followers offline is all included in your reach.
Results Future Results & Reach, all three are connected.
If you have a huge following on social media & you tell them your results, your reputation will grow.
This is simply human nature. Look at Elon Musk did something he created TESLA & SpaceX successfully and with the help of the internet, he told everyone & his reputation increased.
For a Strong personal brand, we need a strong reputation.
For those who are building their brands right now, let’s suppose you have all the good results but you’ve zero audiences on social media & no one knows about your results, so your reputation is zero coz no one knows about you.
Reputation is so important that you see many people think of reputation as your personal brand, which is true but not completely.
Relationships:
If I have to define Relationships in one line it would be:
How Many People do you know?
you can say that it is your Network. Most people think of it is as your network which is also right but I think the word “Network” itself would be very limiting that is why I called it a relationship.
How many quality relationships you have is insanely important for your success & career.
You may have heard the phrase “Your Network is Your Networth”
This line is insanely true. now look at it from the perspective of relationships. you have to develop a quality relationship with people you want to.
“85% of all jobs are filled through contacts & Personal references”
(Brian Tracy)
That is why you need a strong network. How many people do you know is your network. Always try to improve your network & make sure you have quality members in your network.
Without your Network or relationships, your personal brand is your reputation & it will be just hype without any good outcome.
Think about this: We all have networks but we don’t know about it or we don’t care about it, those successful personal brands you see, they all care about their network.
“More business decisions occur over lunch & dinner than at any other time, yet no MBA courses are given on the subject of networking”
(Peter Drucker)
Profile:
your profile is your Resume or I would not use that word, the better word is Portfolio.
For a Strong personal brand, you need a strong profile.
A profile is the things you did, your experiences, your learnings, etc. Sometimes it can be confusing with “Results” that I have explained above in the reputation formula.
It is similar to Results but the thing that makes it different is that we also include the things in the profile that is not even our audience or general public knows.
Let me explain:
The Formula to build a strong profile:
Public Results + Private Results = Profile
Public Results:
Now, it is the same results that I’ve explained in the reputation formula. The things you did, your degrees, you are the author of a book, host of a podcast, your years of experience in some industry, all of your public achievements.
Private Results:
I am a big fan of this one. These are the things you do to improve yourself. how many books do you read?
Private results are the things we do but do not share with others.
you read a book to improve, you learned a new skill or you try practicing to be more productive, you try to manage your time more effectively, you try to improve your public speaking.
These are all things that we often keep private, not all the time, but often.
Remove the private results & your profile is your Results that I mentioned in the reputation formula.
Now, these 3 pillars are connected to each other & are also connected with the ground.
“The Bigger & Strong your Profile is, The Bigger & Strong your Network will be.
The Bigger & Strong your network is the Bigger & Strong will be your Reputation.
The Bigger & Strong your Reputation is, the Bigger & Strong your impact will be on society & the more you will be Paid.”
And without a solid ground that is your mindset, These 3 pillars cannot be built.
That is why I called it the 3 pillars.
And here is the famous definition of a personal brand I have mentioned thousands of times.
Personal Brand is the Combination of Your Mindset, Your Relationships, Your Profile & Your Reputation.
Here is the Formula:
Reputation + Relationships + Profile + Mindset = Personal Brand
You can put that formula in 2 ways. Both are Correct. (Look in the Picture)
Now you can see why people confuse reputation with the personal brand because they don’t look at the other pillars. Without those pillars, a personal brand wouldn’t exist.
Conclusion
If you want to build your Personal Brand, start the work on the ground.
