Do you feel like you have more to offer the world and you’re ready to build a personal brand that combines your unique passions and talents and helps others? Building a personal brand the RIGHT way not only allows you to make more income but also make an impact! Today i’m going to share all my secrets on how to build a strong personal brand as an online teacher.
First i’ll explain what exactly a personal brand is, and then i’ll share my 5 essentials to building a personal brand!
Hey I’m Danie! I’m so glad you’re here! I’m an online teacher, entrepreneur and coach. I help people build lives of freedom through online teaching and building scalable brands on YouTube! Doing these 5 things has helped me double my income in my own personal brand…I know they’ll be helpful for you!
What is a personal brand?
Let’s first quickly cover what exactly is a personal brand? When you build a personal brand you’re building a perception of what your offer is to others. It’s essentially how you consciously differentiate yourself from others in your industry in order to be seen as credible, as an expert and increase your impact and influence.
If you’re on social media right now, you have a personal brand, because you’re portraying yourself to others in a certain light, whether it’s conscious or not.
When you start building a personal brand it’s a conscious and thought out effort to shape people’s perceptions of what you offer rather than people doing it on their own…because people will make those judgements on their own…personal branding helps YOU better shape those judgments and perceptions that people have…especially when done right!
1. No one cares about you – Offer Value
The first key in how to build a strong personal brand as an online teacher is to remember and continually remind yourself that no one cares about you.
This is the most important rule to building a personal brand, and it seems to go against everything that a personal brand stands for..but it actually doesn’t.
A good personal brand caters to others. No one cares about you on social media…they just care about what you can offer them
Think of your favorite social media influencers…they probably have taught you something. I know mine right now is this lady who teaches you how to pose for photos…i don’t even use her poses i’m still awk BUT I love her because she teaches me something.
A good personal brand knows that it’s there to serve others. My motto on my bathroom mirror is “What can I give, not what can I get.”
So remember, a personal brand caters to others and not yourself. It offers value.
2. Target audience – Talk to ONE Person
Going along with that, the second key in how to build a strong personal brand as an online teacher is to pick one person you want to talk to and help.
Talk to everyone and talk to no one. If you can pick just one person you want to help and talk to, your brand will grow exponentially faster than if you try to talk to everyone.
I am a digital nomad (well not right now, but hopefully soon i’ll be in South Korea YAS). Anyway, normally I am a digital nomad and online teacher…I speak to digital nomads and online teachers…most of my YouTube clients are online teachers and digital nomads. Of course I have clients that aren’t digital nomads or online teachers, I’ve got a client who works in health care right now!
Speaking to just one person doesn’t mean you’ll repel all others, it just means it is that much easier to speak to the right people and grow at a faster rate.
If you are having trouble figuring out the one person you want to talk to, think of what I call in my coaching program the 3 S’s – your story, struggles, and strengths. With these three things in mind, who does your story best speak to? Often times I find our ideal target audience is just our past self.
3. Niche down – Have a Specific Offer
So, now that you know the one person you want to talk to, the 3rd tip in how to build a profitable personal brand is niche down.
I will say this over and over and over again…the riches are in the niches!
A niche breaks down the person you want to help (which we just covered), the problem you help that person solve (remember a good personal brand brings value), and then the desired outcome you help them achieve.
EXAMPLE: I help unsatisfied online teachers build scalable youtube channels that create income + impact.
A good niche is something you feel called to do. It’s your dharma. It’s a part of your heart’s calling and it combines your talents and passions in a unique way. If you need help honing in on your niche, but sure to check out my 1-Week to Niche course where I take you from 1 million ideas to 1 and hone in on your true passion to stand out and scale.
4. Be Weirder
The fourth step in how to build a strong personal brand as an online teacher is to be more weird.
I found this quote on pinterest that i would like to steal and claim as my own: “I attract success by being my authentic self.”
Personal brands that copy other brands and influencers will never scale super big…because they miss the secret sauce – authenticity.
Stop copying others and use your unique strengths, story and struggles (what I call the 3 S’s in my coaching program) to stand out and differentiate yourself from the rest.
We learned at the beginning that personal branding is all about differentiating yourself from other brands…you can’t do that by copying others.
So, be more weird. Be yourself.
The blue ocean strategy in branding and marketing asserts that by offering something unique and different than the competition you allow yourself to be in a blue and open ocean without any of the competition because you stand out so much instead of being in a red and overcrowded ocean where there’s lot of competition and other fish in the sea.
For example, my client Ashely Liliana wanted to start a personal brand helping LatinX women travel abroad because she was tired of only seeing a certain demographic of successful influencers in the travel sphere…she used her unique story, strengths, and struggles to create an impactful brand that stand out from the rest and speaks to one person. She’s killing it. It was scary for her to put herself out there at first, but the other day I watched her doing a live stream interview she was invited to be on the other day…she’s already being looked to as an expert for advice in her field! Heck yaas!
5. Pick ONE Platform + Be Consistent
The fifth key to building a strong personal brand is picking one platform and staying consistent.
Don’t try to grow your personal brand on every platform. Every platform has its own rules, its own algorithm that you’ll need to learn. So pick one. Master that one.
Need help deciding on a platform? Ask yourself:
- How do I like to show up?
- Do I prefer showing up via picture, video or audio?
- Where is my target audience my ONE person looking for answers to questions or looking for information/inspiration
- Where will my information and efforts go the farthest? Where will I best be seen?
I will always recommend growing your brand on YouTube BECAUSE:
- You can rank in search for YEARS unlike instagram or tiktok where you rank for hours…
- You’re more quickly seen as an expert in your field on YouTube rather than something like Instagram
- Less people are willing to put in the time and effort to make videos, so if you are willing to, you reap the benefits! Because again
- YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world to Google
I have a lot of clients who come to me wanting to start a blog, and I always ask them…it is because it’s less scary then putting yourself out there on YouTube. The answer is always a yes. So, if that’s you as well, I highly encourage you to start scared and go with the platform that has the most potential. It’s a lot easier to rank in YouTube search with videos than Google search with a blog. I would know. I have both.
Once you pick the platform, then you need to show up. Consistently.
Consistency is the key to success in entrepreneurship. It’s a marathon and not a sprint. Show up for your people. Offer them value. Become known as an expert quickly because you niche down and build that trust by being your weird self and showing up on the daily.
I now show up 6 days a week on Instagram as well, but when starting my main focus was and still is YouTube.
6. You Don’t Need a Large Following – Cultivate Relationships
Haing a strong personal branding allows you to make money and impact without a large following.
For example I refer for online teaching companies, mostly GOGOKID. I know channels double, triple mine where I still get more referrals than them. Why? Because I have strong personal branding. You know me really well. You know my personality. You know bits and pieces about my life.
If you offer value (in a specific way–niched down) and you also show up authentically as yourself, people will want to work with you – the right people, your one person.
You have something to offer right now. I tell all my clients, you can have clients immediately. You are experts in your niches. You know what you offer works, because it worked for you. Start scared. You don’t have to be 100 steps ahead you only have to be 10 steps ahead.
Look at me, I don’t have a massive channel, but I know what I offer works and is helpful. I do these 5 things:
- I offer value and know no one cares about me but of the value I bring to the table.
- I talk to one specific person.
- I have one specific niche.
- I am authentically me. What you see is what you get (especially on my insta stories sorry not sorry).
- I started on 1 platform and I consistency put out videos every week without fail.
If I can do it, you can do it too. Start scared. Stay weird.
