Ryan O’Keeffe, Founder of Jago. Jago has helped many leaders raise their profiles to have a positive impact on the people they serve.
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Over the last few years, I’ve learned the importance of purpose in personal branding. And why wouldn’t purpose be important? Personal branding is branding after all, and 83% of millennials want to buy primarily from brands with purpose. Gen Z is even more ethically minded. Patagonia—whose brand demographic is millennial and Gen Z heavy—is a great example with its recent “buy less” campaign.
What holds true for brands applies to personal brands, too. Anyone can activate—that is, anyone can start posting, replying to posts, taking part actively in social media and building a brand—but only personal brands with purpose will seem authentic. These are the brands that will thrive. These are the brands that matter. Because when you build your personal brand, it should be for a reason. Before you activate, you should know what you want to achieve and why.
What Is A Personal Brand With Purpose?
It’s all very well to demand personal brands with purpose, but as the owner of a personal branding company, I’m in a unique position to help people build one. So, what is a personal brand with purpose?
Just like with a brand, growing and maintaining a personal brand with purpose means matching our professional goals and personal strengths with our passions. Notice I say matching there, not balancing. Your job should offer opportunities to work on or toward your passion.
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Let’s take me as an example. I always wanted to protect and promote people because of a childhood where I never quite fit in. I had to be a chameleon. My key strength is of a developer, and I love helping and promoting others to win. Put these two things together, and you get the mission of my personal brand: To have a positive impact through the people I work with and stop amazing people from going under the radar.
Both my own active personal brand and Jago brand activities online (videos, posts, speaking engagements, etc.) are a chance for me to live this mission.
Your mission should come from your personal experience, just like mine does, because personal life experience can help you to build a truly meaningful personal brand.
Building A Personal Brand With Purpose
While it is important to draw on your passion within your work, the service your business provides doesn’t have to be directly related to the positive change you’re trying to make in the world. But you should reflect and enhance your purpose at work as well as online.
For example, one Jago client who works in SEO is passionate about reaching net zero. His personal brand is all about this, and at his SEO agency, he has made significant changes to cut company emissions in order to lead by example. He also uses his platform to publicize great projects from other people who align with his values—in this way, he is active in building community.
Here are a few questions to ask yourself to help you find the meaning behind your personal brand:
• Why am I posting content?
• What stories do I have to reflect this purpose?
• Why are these stories relevant to this platform?
• How will others learn from these posts?
The best way to connect with potential customers or followers who might help you on your branding journey is through emotion. That’s why personal stories are so important. So, once you have decided on your purpose, it’s time to come up with personal stories and anecdotes that relate to that purpose. For me, this means talking openly about my own successes and failures building a personal brand, working on my EQ (emotional quotient), and helping others become their best selves. Becoming a B-corp was also part of my own personal brand journey. By being a B-corp, Jago as a whole is living its values.
Being yourself in this way allows you to avoid the social media echo chamber. You won’t be saying exactly the same things as other people if you’re speaking from experience and from your heart. It may be tough to come up with connections between your experiences and your passion at first, but over time it will become natural. At Jago, we dig into our clients’ life stories and help them reframe even early experiences in ways relevant to their purpose.
My top tips for turning experiences into bricks in your personal brand include:
• Talk through memories and stories with other people—they will have new points of view.
• Take notes! Brilliant thoughts can strike at any moment. Usually when you’re in the shower or driving. Remember, you can always use voice notes.
• Learn from media, articles, etc. If something is interesting, why? How are you relating to it?
• Be yourself. If your brand is inconsistent and not you, people will notice. Part of building a brand with purpose is being authentic.
Personal Branding For The Long Haul
The joy about digging deep into who you are to create a personal brand is that what you find will serve you for the long haul. You will grow and develop over time, and so will your brand, but the core truth of who you are won’t. A brand built on the real you is a brand built on strong foundations.
And by avoiding the social media echo chamber and talking about what matters, there’s no time stamp on your brand either. You can continue learning, improving and building your network for as long as you want. Believe me, authenticity never gets old.
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Author: Ryan O’Keeffe, Forbes Councils Member
