Building Your Personal Brand With 5 Simple Tips

TechBeat: Josh Pitts Shares 5 Top Tips For Building Your Personal Brand

Have you underinvested in your personal brand? The fact is that you are a key part of the way your business presents itself to the world—find out why personal branding is so important in the latest episode of TechBeat.

Nexus CEO Earl Foote was joined by Josh Pitts on this recent episode of TechBeat to talk about the necessity of personal branding in the modern business world and how to develop yours:

All About Josh Pitts

Josh is the Founder and CEO (Chief Enthusiasm Officer) of Shred Media. He has spent the last decade in the mortgage and real estate industries, and recently he has refocused his energy and efforts on Shred Media. During his time with the company, he has helped build it into the industry’s #1 Attention and Impact Agency.

While Josh originally planned on a career in the medical field, it soon became clear that it wasn’t the right fit. Taking after his mother, a successful entrepreneur, Josh instead worked in medical sales for some time before being introduced to the mortgage world.

A contact of his asked Josh for assistance optimizing their social media efforts at their mortgage brokerage firm. After working with them, Josh gained a feel for the industry and decided to pursue a career there. He gained his mortgage license, and the rest is history.

“It clicked for me,” says Josh. “I could help people achieve the dream of homeownership.”

Josh continued working in that field for the better part of a decade before pivoting to where he is now with Shred Media. He found himself drawn to the work of creating and optimizing promotional marketing content—it represented a new challenge to which he could apply himself.

“We help companies grow their brand, grow their presence, and create great social media,” says Josh.

What Is Personal Branding?

“Your personal brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room,” says Josh. “It’s the trust and respect that you build with people, and that’s what you’re trying to portray.”

It’s important to be aware of what makes you likable, what has propelled your ability to sell your services or product all of these years—it’s you. No matter how great a service or product you offer, the truth is that your business relationships are the result of others connecting with who you are.

That’s your personal brand. It contributes directly to your long-term success as a member of the business world. By understanding how your personal brand is built and seen, you can better control and optimize it for your purposes.

5 Tips For Personal Branding

1. Share First, Sell Later: One of the most critical errors Josh sees is business owners trying to sell directly from square one on social media. Selling will come later—start by sharing your hobbies, interests, and passions. This will allow you to connect with like-minded people and build a network and a community.
2. You Won’t Connect With Everyone: It’s important to accept that you won’t connect with every person who sees your posts. The more specific your interests and content are, the more people it will fail to attract—but that’s OK. Building strong relationships with fewer people is more important than weaker relationships with more.
3. Start Relationships: While social media will never be a viable alternative to in-person connections, it’s an entirely feasible place to kick off your long-term relationships. You can plant numerous seeds and slowly cultivate them into long-lasting connections that eventually move to in-person events.
4. Strive For Authenticity: Your audience always knows when you’re fake or simply trying to sell something. Start from a place of authenticity and honesty with your content, and people will connect with it.
5. Work With What And Who You Have: At the beginning, it can be difficult to make an impact. Don’t forget that you can rely on your extant connections in the business community. Produce joint content with business partners and friends in the market to boost each other’s presence and take the work out of finding interview subjects and thought-leaders.

Don’t Undersell Your Impact On Your Business

“You’re going to change somebody’s life,” says Josh. “That is the journey of creating a brand.”

As you begin the process of building your brand, don’t forget that it will take time before you start to see the returns. It may be a long journey, but it will be a fruitful one if you stick with it.

“Don’t let fear hold you back from that new adventure,” says Josh.

To learn more about personal branding best practices from Josh, make sure to check out the complete recording of this TechBeat episode.