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Welcome to Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass. Jon is the founder and CEO of Image Group International, an award-winning image consulting and personal branding pioneer established in 1989. This podcast will bring you old-school wisdom, inspiring ideas, strategies, and hacks for the new tech world. Here, you will learn everything about personal branding: the system, the techniques, and the right mindset to have a successful personal brand, image, and reputation.

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Hello everybody, and welcome back to my show. Today. We're focusing on authentic personal branding for young entrepreneurs and freelancers. I haven't done a program like this for a long time, so I'm actually looking forward to it before we start our chat, let's connect on social media. You can find me on Twitter or x at John, underline Michael. On LinkedIn as John, Michael, and on Facebook as image Group International. So let's get started with this show. I want to mention this quote before I get the energy happening. And it's this one, and it's actually unknown. An entrepreneur is someone who finds new solutions to old problems at every corner. And that's actually the beauty of entrepreneurship. And entrepreneurship is the, you know, the engine, center of any free enterprise economy. So let's keep that in mind for today's podcast. So building an authentic personal brand is especially important for young entrepreneurs and freelancers who are just starting out, because it's your unique story, your voice, your personal values, that will set you apart in a crowded marketplace and an ever less trusting digital world that I've spoken about frequently in the past. Now we'll explore how you can craft and grow a personal brand that is true to who you are and also resonates with your audience. First define what I would say is your brand's core values and mission. So what do you stand for? Take some time to reflect on what matters most to you and how you want to impact your industry or community or even anything else, and that means your values and mission will then serve as the foundation of your brand and guide you on all your decisions and actions, especially in challenging times. And what that means is a challenge in times. That means when there's no free money around, right? So you've got to go out and create it out. Then this is very important part of your mindset. So really understand that the entrepreneurship is not a looking, you know, is not a world where you're looking for freebies. You've got to go out and create that because as an entrepreneur, you've got the energy to do that. You haven't got the conditioning of expecting people to do things for you. So for example, if sustainability is important to you, let that be a central theme in your branding. And of course, your content, or your content, in this case, your communications. Now remember your personal brand, and branding matters because it's your currency, it's your business card to opening new doors, it's your you know your personal brand is what will create your first impressions to potential clients, partners and stakeholders that are potentially looking up at you from the perspective of all you know, will I want to be involved with this particular individual? Yes, your personal brand will actually cement part of those relationships for you. Now, authentic personal brand helps to create lasting, positive impressions, and it also showcases, of course, your unique strengths and values. So authenticity, in this case, you know, your authentic brand builds trust, a subject that we've spoken a lot about in the past, people are more likely to engage with you and support also individuals who are genuine and transparent.

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A strong personal brand reflects the reliability, professionalism crucial for gaining trust in business relationships, and also when you operate from that sort of positioning, that whole concept of thinking, then you are starting off from a very solid foundation. Next, what you want to do is define your niche. Young Entrepreneurs and freelancers often face the challenge of standing out in a crowded marketplace, especially as they might have limited resources. A well defined personal brand helps you carve out your niche, making it clear that you special. You know what you specialize in and white people should choose you over your competitors. Always create a personal brand strategy with a long term vision, though, and of course, you can always change tactics as you develop as a young person or new to entrepreneurship, chasing immediate or instant results is a risky in my experience, unsustainable adventure. Sure you can strike a lucky deal. I get that however, the most successful entrepreneurs in history, no, it's a process. And yes, sometimes you strike gold, but you can't depend on that. That does not mean you can't make mistakes or fail along the way. Right? Most first time entrepreneurs will experience some of this. But the important thing here is to really take it on board that it's long term and anything short term, if you do get quick short term results, fantastic, but don't depend on that. So the key message is to think beyond short term and consider where you want to be in the next five years. That's something as a bit of a guide. This includes identifying your ideal clients, the kinds of the kind of projects you want to work on, and the platform is where you want to establish your presence among others. So having a clear vision helps you stay focused and makes your branding efforts more coherent and definitely more fun, Next, create a compelling personal narrative, share your story on selected socials in a way that connects with your audience. And you know, yes, you don't have to be omnipresent on all channels unless, of course, you have a team to do this for you. So trust me when I say this, for you to be on all channels and doing that effectively, you better have a team, because anyone that is doing that all by themselves, it's really a full time job. And if you're doing that as a full time job in building your brand, how you're going to do everything else to bring the income or the revenues required in building your business? So your story could be your journey could be the challenges you have faced, and of course, your times you know your ups and downs. People love to hear stories. So authentic stories, remember, build trust and make you also more relatable. For instance, if you're a designer, you might share your journey of overcoming, creating blocks. You know, this is a big one. This could be also very similar to writers and anyone else in the whole creative space.

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So personally, I have always, you know, in this space, been a designer. Originally, I've always respected, I've loved continuous learning and self improvement, and I suggest the same to all people I know and respect that I say this to this to you, because I can't tell you how many people I meet that are so well academically educated, but have not considered self improvement as part of their ongoing personal growth, career growth, business growth into the future. They think just because now they're academically educated, that that's enough, and we all know that that's not true. I also recommend stay updated with the latest trends and best practices in your industry, and really the world at large, because geopolitical issues also will impact on you somewhere down the track. So when you're aware, of course, a lot of the things you can't make any impact on, but at least awareness, at least gets you to plan, attend workshops, take online courses, and of course, read industry publications even better other industries. That's certainly what I do, and that gives you the contrarian edge. Share your learning journey with your audience through blogs, videos, social media, posts and podcasts, like I'm doing with you today. This not only demonstrates your commitment to growth, but also adds weight to your brand. Engage in meaningful offline and online networking. And the offline networking is very, very important if you got to meet people, okay, you cut if, especially in the space we're talking about here, you got to meet people, you got to build real relationships. And that's how it works in the real world. So of course, the digital is designed there to sort of be a tool for you, but you know, face to face is what you're really going to get comfortable with. Focus on building genuine relationships and just collecting connections for connections sake, participate industry specific forums, online groups and discussions, or even become the speaker in some of those forums, share insights, ask questions and offer help where you can people really get it when you're authentic, when you want to really help, and help is not something you can fake, because it takes a caring type of energy, and you can fight that for too long, certainly if you've been doing this for a long time. 

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So even if you're thinking of becoming a coach as an example for you truly, you gotta like people. You gotta really, really like people if you're going to do this successfully, if you treat coaching, and by the way, if you treat coaching as a transactional game, please don't come into this industry, because you can give us then all a bad name. So meaningful interactions can lead to valuable connections, of course, mentorship opportunities and potential clients. And I can't tell you how many young mentors I've been sort of involved with over the years, and what that also led for them in their particular careers. But of course, also helped me, because I knew I was giving back what you know, great people have given back to me in the past, and finally, build a personal brand, website or portfolio, having a professional online presence separate to your corporate brand, I think, is vital not I think I know you can create a website, an online portfolio that, of course, showcases your work, testimonials and personal brand story. Be really aware, though, you know, ensure that it is visually appealing, you know, easy to navigate and optimize for search engines, because that's how the algorithms will rate you. And if it's not specifically well search engine optimized well, then potentially people might not find it. So that's essential in the digital world. We all know that, and especially for personal brands and SMEs, a well crafted website also acts as a digital business card and a powerful tool to attract potential clients and collaborations. So keep that in mind as we wrap up building an authentic personal brand as a young entrepreneur, Freelancer is all about staying true to yourself, engaging genuinely with your audience and consistently offering value beyond your competitors. However, as a side note, staying true to yourself does not mean begging on a street corner to survive. It means having the courage to have a goal and the courage to create building a strong and memorable brand that attracts opportunities and builds lasting relationships is the start to new possibilities. So I think that's enough for today's episode. Before we finish our chat, I kindly ask you to connect with me on social media. My Twitter Twitter/X as Jon_Michail, my LinkedIn is Jon Michail. And you can find his image Group International on Facebook. If you enjoyed our chat, please rate us on Apple podcasts and subscribe for more valuable content. If you need our help in elevating your personal and business brands on Instagram and beyond, please contact patricia.bosa@imagegroup.com.au - until next time, I wish you a big Cheerio.

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Jon Michail’s Personal Branding Masterclass Podcast is sponsored by Image Group International, a global team of practical, digitally savvy personal brand and image strategists based in Australia, committed to maximizing your impact, influence, and authority in the business world. To learn more and apply for personal coaching, seminars, and group workshops, please visit imagegroup.com.au or call 1800 631 311.