A brand for yourself AND your business with Chellie Philipps — Christine Means Business

When people think about a brand, their mind usually goes to Nike, McDonald’s, or Starbucks and the big logos, bright colors, and different fonts. But, according to Chellie Philipps, we are all a personal brand. Personal branding is not new, it’s been around for a couple of decades but it’s really gotten more prominent because of the use of social media. People now have access to us in ways that they’ve never had before, so we really need to be intentional about how we set up our personal brand and what it says about us.

Chellie Philipps is a sweet-tea sipping sassy Southerner with a passion for helping dynamic career-minded professionals stand out for all the right reasons. She’s a coach, a corporate trainer, and a motivational speaker as well as the author of two books “When in Doubt, Delete It” and “Get Noticed, Get Hired.” She has her own formula called the Successfully Ever After formula and it is designed to make you irresistible in the workforce. Whether you’re looking to land an ideal career perfectly matched to your skill set so that work feels more like a “get to” than a “got to” or you want to create a culture where employees thrive, she’ll show you how personal branding sets you up for your success.

Personal Brand and Business Brand

Chellie explains that as an entrepreneur who has their own business, you need to have both a personal brand and a business brand. When you set it up correctly, your business brand can transform a small business because while the business is unique, you as the owner and the developer are even more unique and authentic. When people see that in you, they develop that know-like-trust factor that we all want.

In Chellie’s own words a personal brand is what someone thinks about you when you’re not in the room to tell them. A personal brand encapsulates the whole of who you are, what you have to offer, what you do excellently, and what you stand for. Personal brand is all about exhibiting your strengths, your skills, and what makes you unique from somebody else. This is important, whether you’re building a career in the corporate world or as a business owner because in both of those cases, you want to make sure that you stand out.

Where to start building your personal brand

If you’re not sure where to start when it comes to building your personal brand, Chellie’s advice is to start on LinkedIn. When you type your name into Google, if you have a LinkedIn profile, it will come up before anything else. And in the business world, that’s where you want to be seen. Chellie advises all her clients to pay special attention to, what she calls, “high-value real estate” on LinkedIn and that is: your headline area, your photo area, and the summary area. She believes that if you’ll really focus on those three things, you can start making some real progress in getting noticed and strengthening your profile. Also, just like any other platform, LinkedIn promotes more those people who are engaged and are providing value.

What do people need to know about you?

Another thing that Chellie believes is extremely important when you’re building your personal brand is to do some introspection. Think about who you are, what skills or solutions you bring to the table, and what it is that you want people to think about you when they think of you. Also, know that your branding will change along the way and that is totally fine (I change mine every year and a half, so don’t worry about it) Your brand is flexible; it grows as you grow and it changes as your skills change. So, the earlier you start building your brand, the more you can get clear on your messaging and what you want to put out there. Also, keep in mind that your brand isn’t just what’s online, it’s about the interactions that you’re having with people as well. People are forming an opinion of you based on your interactions with them and your interactions with people are even more impactful to your brand and your reputation than what you’re going to find online.

Be authentic

Chellie’s last piece of advice when it comes to building your personal brand is to be authentic. Whether it’s online or in-person, you cannot change the core of who you are and you need to embrace that. When you’re building out this brand, think about the stories that are your life. What is it that has made you who you are, and how can you weave those stories into your brand? Those stories make us unique, that’s what people are going to resonate with. So, don’t be afraid to share yourself in your brand because that is what adds that authenticity piece. Chellie believes that with everything that’s happening in the world, trust is at an all-time low and people are afraid to trust but you can earn their trust by having these conversations that are vulnerable and authentic.

If you want to connect with Chellie and find out more about the work she does, visit her website and make sure you follow her on Instagram.

And if you want to get an amazing free gift from Chellie, visit https://chelliephillips.com/planner.

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Originally published at https://www.christinemeansbusiness.com on July 7, 2022.