Here’s Why I Started a Personal Brand

The real reason why I started a personal brand was not intended for me to build a business on. It was meant to help me get hired as an employee for another tech company. Now I help build powerful personal brands for others, but here’s what I was thinking at the time.

I think it was back in 2015 when I was working for another employer when I realized that I was no longer passionate about what I was doing anymore. Thinking that maybe I was in the wrong career was definitely a thought that I had. But after some long thoughts and speaking with some past colleagues, I did come up with a conclusion that I felt was true to myself, I was working for the wrong company. And that took me on the path of looking for a new job.

Now I knew that I wanted to find myself in a position that would take me back to the root of my passions. This would be a combination of getting to work with more design again, especially dealing with typography, but also still keeping me within the development side of things (more front-end related development). And after spending a few months looking for these types of positions, I quickly realized that I was looking for something that a lot of other people wanted as well. This meant that I was dealing with a good amount of competition.

The research made me say “Oh Shit“

After realizing that I was dealing with a large amount of competition, especially because I was looking at some more big-name tech companies and start-ups, I knew that I needed to get through all of the white noise somehow. And this definitely became clear once I started doing some research about how many potential candidates were applying for these positions. I found that some of these positions were probably getting anywhere from 75 to 250 applicants applying.

Right there it was an “oh shit” moment for me. This definitely made me question whether I should even apply for some of these positions or not. And knowing that I was not hitting every check mark on the job description was also a factor that made me question myself. So with that in mind, I know I needed a way to try to stand out from everyone else. This made me think that I wanted to show who I was and the type of employee I would be. And this led to the creation of a personal brand.

Creating a powerful personal brand

Not knowing where to start, I started writing thoughts and ideas into my notebook. Trying to put me in another person's perspective was the start of my thought process. I wanted to make sure that I was coming off as a genuine person and not someone who was arrogant or a Mr. know-it-all. Trust me, I had flaws, and I wanted to show that. I wanted to let people know that I’ve been through some shitty jobs and worked for the wrong people. But I’ve also had some great experiences working with some amazing people that help put me on the right track.

This type of thinking was what I considered relatable content. Knowing that I didn't want to work for someone who just wanted a workhorse, is why I started putting my thoughts out there, good or bad. I realize that I wanted someone to hire me for the passion and excitement I had for my career. Wanting to learn and be put into a challenging environment was also important to me. Having had some great opportunities in the past where I learned so much within a short amount of time, was due to these factors.

Circling back to my thinking of relatable content, my thought was if someone could relate to me as a person, they can start to build a connection with me before they even speak with me. So, as I developed my personal brand, I made sure to share the passion I called my career, as well as, some of the ups and downs I’ve had to deal with.

Something else I learned was that a fundamental component of building a personal brand is that you need to market yourself without marketing yourself, and you need to be personal without being too personal. It’s a fine line, but it’s also where I started. And in my opinion, thinking this way will do good to keep you on the right track when developing your own personal brand.

The unexpected twist to my story

So back at the beginning of 2016 I was still working full-time as a front-end developer but was actively looking for a job. I was surprisingly presented with an opportunity to start my own business. It was a risk, to say the least, but after a long talk with my fiancé at the time (now wife), she said to me “well, you always wanted to start your own business“. That was the final thought that made me take the leap to start my own business.

So I ended up putting in my two weeks and March 1, 2016, was the first day working for myself. The major challenge I had, outside of starting my own business, was that I did do this on a whim without much preparation in place. Luckily, I already had an established personal brand built. Now, the messaging was geared towards getting hired by another employer and not hiring me to build your website. So I obviously had to tweak all of my content in this new direction.

From then on I’ve been running my business as a personal brand and boy has it had an impact on how I deal with all of my potential clients. What I’ve found is that once someone lands on my site, they start to look around at my work and services. But then they take a look at my about page to get to know a little more about myself.

And then that usually leads them down another path of some of my secondary pages to learn more about who I am and what I’ve been up to over the years. At this point, a large percentage start to feel they have a connection with me because there are a lot of things they can relate to their selves.

And this is what I call the power of relatability. Multiple times a year I have potential clients reach out to me explaining their issues and why they would love to bring me on to help out. And then towards the end of their message, they will take the time to call out some type of fact that we have in common (ie I am also passionate about making pour-over coffee, I love to downhill mountain bike as well, or my favorite number is 22 also).

At this point, when I see something like that tells me that they've completely vetted me and are reaching out because they already feel they have a solid connection with me. The best part of this is, at this point, I feel I’ve won half the battle. Everyone is comfortable and the rest of the pitch comes down to me and how I break down my build process, and ultimately, can they afford me. And this is why I’ve stuck with having a personal brand.

Should you build a personal brand?

If anything I said above has you thinking the same, then having a powerful personal brand might be worth looking into. And here comes the shameless plug. I just so happened to have released my first course, and it’s all about building your own personal brand. Now, this can be done without having to purchase a course. Just think as a person and how you’d like someone else to be presented. But if this is something you might be interested in, check out my course.