Make it about you: the ultimate guide to building a personal brand

Of all the things you could possibly talk about, promoting yourself isn’t always easy or comfortable.

But a personal brand doesn’t have to be weird and self-indulgent. It’s a fantastic and practical way to own your digital identity, while sharing your personality, unique skills and values with the world.

The best part: you have ultimate control over how you choose to build your personal brand by highlighting the most authentic and compelling aspects of yourself.

So where do you start? Here’s our step-by-step guide to creating your personal brand.

Why invest in your personal brand?

Is building a personal brand worth the effort? And if so, why?

1. A personal brand helps you build credibility. People like to engage and do business with folks they know. Sharing your knowledge and expertise can position you as a thought leader and trusted source.
2. It makes you memorable and different. A personal brand lets you highlight all the things that make you truly unique—be it your skills, values or even sense of humour.
3. It can create opportunities for you. Putting yourself (and your expertise) out there in a meaningful, authentic way can help attract your desired audience. With that audience comes jobs and other opportunities that align with your interests and passions.

Steps to building your personal brand

Step 1: Your personal brand needs a home on the internet—and a .CA domain is that perfect place to start.  It immediately signals to your audience that you’re proudly Canadian, and it helps build a strong, trustworthy digital identity. Pairing your domain with a custom .CA email address  adds even more credibility and boosts awareness of your brand.

Make sure to check out our guide to picking a good domain name before you dive in!

Step 2: Do a little soul-searching

Building a personal brand is a long-term, ever-evolving process. But if you chunk it out into manageable bits, it’s not nearly as awkward or intimidating as you might think!

Start by asking yourself the following questions:

• What makes you stand out? Think about the ONE THING that separates you from the pack of people with similar skills or experiences.
• What are you passionate about? Find the thing(s) that gets you energized and never feel like work.
• Who do you want to inspire? Understand the people that you want to connect with. Knowing their wants, struggles, goals and desires can help you create content that truly hits home.

Step 3: Build out your personal brand website

Once you’ve got your .CA domain name, you’ll want to build yourself a website. For the most part, this will be people’s first impression of you. It’s your single most powerful marketing tool where you’ll showcase your expertise, share your story, provide ways of connecting with you and more.

For all the other technical bits and pieces, dive into our guide to building a personal brand website!

Step 4: Create real and authentic content

One of the main pillars of any successful personal brand is having good, engaging content.  Now “content” doesn’t strictly have to mean writing. It could be anything from imagery with cheeky captions to daily vlogs and instructional how-to videos.

When mapping out what kind of content you’re going to create, here are a few things to keep in mind:

• Be consistent in sharing: if you’re only posting once a week or less then it’s going to be almost impossible for you and your content to gain any engagement. Posting more regularly keeps you in front of your audience. We recommend creating a monthly content calendar that can help you stay on track and organized.
• Decide on your tone and voice: how do you want to come across via your content? Is buttoned-down and professional your vibe, or maybe you’re more of a playful rapscallion. Keeping a consistent tone and voice is all part of creating a personal brand that people will come to remember.
• Sort your content into pillars: come up with a few general categories that your content will cover—e.g, technology reviews, personal stories and how-to guides.
• Create value for your audience: everything you post should be focused on providing some kind of value for your audience. It can be anything from actionable tips and useful information to relatable aspects of life.
• Repurpose, repurpose: we’re big fans of taking one piece of content and then reformatting and remixing it to fit a bunch of different formats and platforms. If you have long form of content, it can be edited into shorter, Tik-Tok-friendly clips, or transcribed into a blog post with visuals.
• Create your own style guide—and apply it: your personal brand should have its own distinct visual identity. Once you’ve established your tone and voice, think about the colour palette, fonts and visuals that can be consistently implemented across your website and social platforms.

Step 5: Stay authentic, but don’t be afraid to grow and evolve

The core of your personal brand is YOU. Stay true to the values and vision you set out with. As much as the world around you may change at a break-neck pace, your core brand should be consistent. That’s what builds long-term loyalty and credibility with your audience.

Embracing growth and adaptability is never a bad thing. Like you, your personal brand will evolve over time. Let your audience be a part of that journey—share your experiences, lessons learned and fresh perspectives.

With that, we wish you luck on this personal branding journey and look forward to being dazzled by all that’s awesome and authentically you!