By Georgia Kirke with special guest Jason Butler
Building a personal brand can feel daunting and overwhelming if you try to do everything at once, but if you are determined and patient you will build credibility and attract the right people for your product or service.
Financial services entrepreneur Jason Butler is a perfect example of someone who created valuable content with impressive results. Jason is on a mission to break the taboo around money and help put you firmly back in the driving seat so that you can create the wealth and lifestyle you deserve.
He’s also a columnist, author of multiple books, and a fountain of knowledge when it comes to personal branding.
Jason’s enthusiasm for helping people take control of their finances has also contributed to the success of his brand, and although he didn’t set out with a definite strategy he’s consistently taken action to grow his business. In this blog he’s sharing five of his top tips to help you streamline your to-do list and create a personal brand that sells.
- Believe in yourself.
- Make notes.
- Build a bank of content.
- Create different touchpoints.
- Be patient.
- Believe in yourself.
Jason: “I believe I have a lot of experience, knowledge and perspective that will make a difference if I share it. I’m always looking to improve my expertise, my experience and my knowledge but we have to meet people where they’re at, on their terms, when it suits them, and in a way that engages with them.”
Your level of self belief will shine through in everything that you do. It’s often useful to revisit all of the qualifications you have, the testimonials you’ve received, and notice how far you’ve come. This helps to build self belief.
Jason: “Most of us think that we’re not ready. We assume that someone knows more than us or that what we’ve got isn’t worth having! You’re as good as you need to be, and even if there are people who are slightly better than you, you can get better. It’s like running; there are always four or five nerds right at the front and you might never be in the nerd pack, but you can keep an eye on them and keep running!”
- Make notes.
Jason: “I don’t force myself to write until I feel ready. I make a series of notes of my thoughts from what I’ve noticed on podcasts or TED Talks that week; I carry a notepad around all the time and make sure I get ideas and diagrams down on paper. I even take my notepad to bed sometimes!”
Note taking is a brilliant way to reduce writer’s block; even if you just have a few words written down they’re likely to spark new ideas for a piece of content.
- Build a bank of content.
Jason: “My blogs are always written a week in advance and I make sure I have four or five podcasts in my content bank ready to go while I might have another six or seven waiting to be edited. It’s a bit like having an emergency fund! Once you start to build up a back catalogue of material for the next four to five weeks you can relax when you go on holiday or enjoy a last-minute trip.
I think of my content bank as like bagpipes; if you don’t have any air in the bag (or content in the bank) you can’t make any music. You need to keep topping up the bag with air, so at some point even if you don’t breathe into it for 20 or 30 seconds you can still play music because it has residual air in it.
Your content is the same; as long as you have a repository of content for each of the mediums you’re working on you’ll feel less anxious and it becomes a well-oiled machine. Then, once you’re in the habit of creating content and topping up that content bank, it no longer becomes a chore and is as easy to factor into your day as brushing your teeth.”
- Create different touch points.
Jason: “The mountain doesn’t go to Muhammad, you’ve got to go to the mountain. Think about the platforms that your ideal clients are using and that are easy for them to consume; podcasts are intimate, blogs can be short or long form (which gives me scope for graphics) and take anything between one minute to five minutes to read
While a podcast or blog is like an episode of a box set, a book is more like a film and lets your audience really get to know you. If they like you, they’ll want more of you. A book might then lead to a public speaking event which might lead to consulting or sponsorship. There are so many opportunities when you start sharing regular content.”
Jason has been very successful at creating magnetic content and finding ways to repurpose it.
Jason: “There’s always something for me to write or talk about. I might revisit an earlier topic and find a new slant on it; I must have written about 90 different ways to build an emergency fund by now!
When I started my YouTube channel I was just going to pop a few talks on, but then I started to record the Money Minute videos because they’re quick, don’t take long for me to edit and most people can find 60 seconds or less to learn something useful that’s going to help them for the rest of their lives! They were a quick way to add value.”
5) Be patient.
Jason: “The platforms that I use to push out my content are all linked. I didn’t ever sit down and create a master plan or map out how I was going to bring my message to the world. I just tried little things that appealed to me and as I got better at that one I added in something else. You don’t need to do it all overnight.
In the five years that I’ve been active in the financial wellbeing space I’ve built up good results. Now, if you’re in the UK my name will come up early on in a Google search and I haven’t done any search engine optimisation or paid advertising; I’ve got that result by continually putting out videos, podcasts, blogs, books, testimonials and leveraging content through other people with similar audiences.
When I was learning to fly a Cessna in my 20s I found that you can’t take off at 60 knots; you can only take off at 65. The reality is that you can be grinding away at something and thinking you’re not getting anywhere but all those marginal gains and course corrections are building up to help your personal brand take off. Don’t lose heart!”
I hope you’ve found stacks of value in Jason’s personal brand journey; often when aspiring authors and brand builders first approach Write Business Results they feel overwhelmed by how much extra time they think they will need to share or schedule content, and learn how best to leverage each platform.
In addition to supporting you to create books, blogs and podcasts we also offer a personal brand virtual assistant (PBVA) so that your brilliant content is seen by the right people, in the right place, at the right time. You can find out more here, or why not book a call with our Personal Brand Developer Rebecca Tinworth?
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