Personal Brand Strategy For Speakers

Uche is a vibrant young man who has always wanted to speak on stages. He always said he had messages that the world needed to hear. Uche wanted to be a speaker. His friends will always ask him how speaking would put food on his table and Uche would respond saying at least two speaking gigs per week would pay him. Sounds like a man of faith, but in reality, will this fly? Let’s all remember that he is still ‘wanting’ to be a speaker who expects two gigs per week.

Uche’s dream can come true but he has to have a good strategy. He needs to build a personal brand that will attract people to him. So Uche comes to Bcon to assist him to get started.

First, we let Uche know that speaking is a form of expression. So many people who are speaking today didn’t start out as speakers. Naturally, as you keep adding value to people around you, stages will open to you. If you decide that speaking is your core form of expression, that’s no problem.

Another example is the case of a coach. A coach’s core form of expression is through coaching. This means 80% of the time, you will find them coaching.

Secondly, you have to choose a niche. What do you want to be known for? What do you want to talk about? It could be up to 3 for starters.

After this, Uche has to state his ‘why’. Why do you want to be in that niche? What is the big problem you are trying to solve? Who are those you are looking to help? This phase is very important.

Believing that Uche has since been learning and grooming himself, he needs to start getting seen. People need to start enjoying the gift he has in him. So what do we do?

Uche needs to start creating content on social media. He needs people to start engaging with what he has to say. Since Uche wants to speak more, his content plan will be 80% videos (live and recorded) and 20% text. Uche’s plan is designed this way so that people can see him, his expression, and so on.

As this phase, we recommend Uche gets a mailing list. Oh, you are wondering why? Uche needs a community who will constantly hear from him. He needs to inform them of his speaking engagements especially those who want to meet/see him. If Uche has other products, he needs a community that will buy from him. Uche doesn’t own social media but he owns his mailing list.

Once Uche does this for about three months, his next move will be to organise his own event. A really small event, not more than 30 people in attendance or as Uche wants it. I always recommend starting small and testing the waters. Uche can have this event free or paid.

Uche hosts his event and has it covered via videos and photos. He shares it on social media. Uche’s core form of expression is through speaking so he has to consistently speak online and offline especially since he is just starting.

Uche has started his speaking career but this is isn’t all Uche has to do. If you are a speaker, what is your niche? What do you speak about?

Uche organised a small event to help him build his portfolio and also to give people the opportunity to see and feel his gift. To stand out from the rest, he needs to build his digital assets. We helped him set up his social media accounts. This depends on who he wants to target.

To stand out and appear professional, brand colour and a logo were essential. We also built him a stunning website that had specific information like

– About Uche
– Topics he speaks on
– Contact page
– Gallery with a few images of him speaking
– A blog

We went ahead to design a media kit that he could share with anyone who invited him for a speaking engagement. Now that we had a good part of his branding covered, Uche needs more speaking engagement to help him get known by more people.

We recommended the following –

1. Using the feedback from the first event, organise more events.
2. Go to Eventbrite, search for events where you can propose to speak at no cost.
3. Join a network of experts or professionals. There is always someone organising an event every weekend. Let the group know that you are open to speaking gigs. Of course, your media kit comes in handy here so they know the exact topics you speak on.
4. Keep going live on social media or upload pre-recorded videos.
5. Search for podcasts where you can appear on to give value. That way, you get known by a new audience.
6. Collaborate with other speakers.

Most importantly, Uche knows this is a process and he must document every step of the way to know what worked and what didn’t.

But be rest assured that once Uche consistently implements, he is on his way to becoming a well-known expert in his niche and every stage will be his to conquer.

What’s your take away from this personal brand design we did for Uche?

For every client, the sweetener is in the detail and Uche wasn’t left out. While working with him, there were somethings we pointed out.

First was his brand colour. We just didn’t want to pick out anything that existed and so we dug further. It was quite interesting as we found out his personality and his values. This helped us arrive at a brand colour that could perfectly appeal to his audience and communicate his brand values effectively.

Knowing Uche’s personality was quite easy and we were really excited to work with his kind. We also noticed that Uche knew about technology but wasn’t quite sure how that will help. He needed to understand how owning a website could help him asides branding.

‘You are right, Uche. You really don’t need a website to get started. But you definitely need it to amplify your brand and message’ I told him. Educating our clients is a major part of our work and Uche was no exception.

This was a scenario that was shared with him –

A. A speaking opportunity comes and they want to contact you. They have called about 2 people to help get your contact. Two hours long gone. They hear you are a good speaker but they aren’t quite sure what topics you speak about. They go on google and can find an article someone did of an event they attended and you happened to speak there. Three hours gone and the one person they could have reached – isn’t available. Phone switched off.

B. A speaking opportunity comes. They need to contact you. They go on google to search and your website is there. They open it, go through your ‘about me’ page and they also see platforms you have spoken on. They see your topics of interest. They also see YouTube videos. They fill the form and you automatically get a notification. They even drop you a WhatsApp message with the link on your website just Incase you don’t get the form information. But you look through the form, give them a call and in a matter of minutes, deal sealed!

As we painted these scenarios, Uche’s eyes brightened with joy. Everyone loves the benefits of automation. But more importantly, being available/visible when you are away going about your life is even more lovely. Uche may be sleeping and someone will be busy checking out his website.

How the website looks
Easy navigation
A clear call to action
Clear message/information
Accessibility

These are the things that can help one decide whether to work with Uche or not just by visiting his website.

The concept of starting well is important for Uche because there are tons of speakers who have raised the bar. So if Uche wants to enjoy better perception and opportunities, he has to do better as well.

Looking at Uche’s story, do you think you have your personal brand strategy in place as a speaker?

If not, what are you doing to position yourself for better opportunities?