Podcast episode #22 – How to start your personal branding with Hannah-Grace Fraser, expert on social media and personal brand

Everyone has a personal brand, but it’s particularly useful to think about it if you’re a founder, freelancer or executive.
Personal branding is about who you are, your values, your connection to your products and what appeals to you. It is about your understanding and your expertise as well as what others perceive about you. As you become liked, trusted and recognized, so does the value of your personal brand. In this podcast episode we interviewed Hannah-Grace Fraser on how to start your personal branding.

How do you start your personal branding?

Personal brand is about you, but it should be relevant to your business as well. Ask yourself, what do you stand for? What are your values? In your business, what do you bring to the table that makes you different? What makes you stand out and what is your unique journey that has brought you to this point?

As Jeff Bezos put it:
“Your brand is what people say about you, when you are not in the room.”

Therefore, you need to be careful about what you put out there and the question then is, how do you filter? Often it is easier to show passion about a business in person, but online this doesn’t come across. So, it becomes an issue of marrying the real you, with the online version.

How to filter the important?

Ask yourself “What makes you stand out?”
One exercises is to brainstorm for 5 mins and write down everything about yourself, your personality and your personal story so far. Then go over it and decide what actually matters for your business. Be aware of generic descriptions like “I am hard working”. This doesn’t make you stand out. The idea is to find values and personality traits that make you different. What you bring to the table that is unique and how does it make you an expert in a specific niche.

How to communicate your message?

Firstly you need to bring your story to life. Weave your traits in across your profile and build a strong narrative. Your headline and content should all link back to one of those strengths to remain consistent with your values, your expertise and finally your brand. Be aware however that building a brand takes time and is not accomplished within a year. Secondly, you need to know where to post your content so that your message comes on a fertile ground.

How to build up your network?

Identify who is your target audience, who is you your ideal customer and get get familiar with channels they use to communicate. LinkedIn is a great tool to do so. Look for individuals in your target audience and engage with them on LinkedIn.
Reach out to other people in your industry, share ideas, write comments on their profiles. Start small, but be consistent. Post regularly and interact with others. Even a small like gives you exposure to people, which may be outside of your niche as well.

Btw, people who show vulnerability, are more appealing to the audience so you may share your feelings about certain topics and where appropriate as well. It’s about learning and sharing experiences.

Strategy for startups

Should you brand your name or your startup? This depends on the end goal and It doesn’t have to be the one or the other. It can as well start as a personal brand and later, turn into your companies brand. The important thing is to be consistent in your message and pair it with the one of your company. The setup remains the same however. Identify what makes you unique, find your audience and bring out your message.

Bonus: Personality tests

To understand who you are, you need to self-reflect and you need to build self-awareness. This can be difficult. Therefore, personality tests can be used as a vehicle to help you and you can include the results in a catchy phrase summarizing you with wit and precision.

How to start your personal brand with Help’n’Trade?

Everyone has something that they are good at and can share with others. You just need to get confident doing so and show your expertise. People will trust you with time.

If you would like to have more insights, reach out to Hannah-Grace Fraser to help you build your personal brand:

e-mail: hello@hannahgracefraser.com
website: hannahgracefraser.com

….and how can Help’n’Trade help you start your personal branding? On Help’n’Trade mobile application you can create your own offers. Whether it is your skills, your knowledge, or your service. You can offer it all in exchange for feedback from people, for their service or request whatever suits you best. Over time, you’ll accumulate feedback, which is your prove of an authority and your personal brand. Help’n’Trade is great to start, experiment and receive valuable feedback from the market, but also it will help you get your first customers. Check our application for yourself, give it a try and let us know what you think via your preferred social media channel.

If you are curious and want to learn more about Help’n’Trade, read our blog post, where we introduced Help’n’Trade or read about us page.

Want to stay in touch or appear on the podcast? Contact us via our social media channels and share with us what is on your mind.

Our team