Ditch the Boring Playbook: How to Build a Coaching Personal Brand that Truly Resonates
Maybe you have been in the coaching or consulting industry a while and are now seeing a few people rise to the top of your niche. These are the people getting invited to speak on stages or to pull up a seat at higher level tables. They are getting book deals and media coverage which makes it easy to sell out almost anything they offer. No matter if they sell to corporations or individuals, sales suddenly seems effortless.
Be memorable: become the face of your brand.
You can be inspired by this rise to fame or you can be depressed by it, but you can’t deny there is power in a personal brand.
A personal brand gets you KNOWN in the wider sense, and being sold out in the practical sense.
I just saw a post on social media with people saying, “You don’t need to be the face of your brand. Personal brands aren’t necessary for huge growth!”
While that may be true in Venture Capital investment land, if you are a consultant or a coach, you will have more success if you are the face of your brand.
Take a look at the brands we recognize immediately. Apple had a face; the face was Steve Jobs. He is the reason you have an iPhone in your hand. Or the reason you dislike Apple if you own an Android!
Disney had a face in the 1950s. His name was Walt.
Walmart had a face: Sam Walton. He was iconic in the 1980s.
Virgin Records, and Travel? The face is Richard Branson
Amazon is Jeff Bezos.
Tesla is Elon Musk.
We remember brands with faces attached to them more than we remember brands who don’t have faces.
If a company has no distinct, personal-brand founder, they get personal brands to endorse! Nespresso has George Clooney, Dior has Charlise Theron and Natalie Portman. Nike has Michael Jordan. Rolex has Roger Federer. They become the face of those brands. Because our brains love faces.
There is a reason for this and it is scientific. “Sticky brands,” (or brands that stick in your mind,) are easier to remember with a face attached. A personal representation of the brand itself.
Our brains don’t like to process information, because processing is inefficient and takes up energy. Our primal brain prefers visual information over words because words take too much time and energy for the primal brain to decipher. Our brains love visual cues. We can quickly assess if the brand is authentic, or inauthentic, safe or unsafe, refined or low end. We are constantly using the information coming into our realm of vision then determining who and what we will feel safe to buy.
And it is done in an instant.
Your reaction to personal brands is involuntary because it starts in your subconscious.
Are there tech companies without the face to the brand? Yes, but can you remember them? We usually remember the big ones because we have seen them multiple times before. We aren’t remembering them for their qualities.
Do you have any picture in your mind when you think of SalesForce? You might have the logo but it isn’t sticky in the brain, and you don’t have any emotions about it.
Do you have a passionate feeling associated with Kajabi, Dubsado, or Hubspot?
Me either. The reason: those brands have no faces. They rely on problem- aware customers and affiliates. Hubspot relies on marketers WITH FACES. Hubspot often uses Neil Patel’s blogs to advertise and create interest on their site. And lots of expensive ads.
It’s easier to sell your products and services as a personal brand because we prefer buying from people. We have emotional connections to faces. We want to identify with the brand because of the personality of the owner. Likewise we want to distance ourselves from faces we don’t trust.
One of the trends I am seeing is a saturation of products and services in coaching and consulting areas. Everyone seems to be a life coach, fitness provider, anxiety and performance coach, Gallup Strengths coach or Diversity and Inclusion coach. And all of their offers, photos, messaging and stories sound the same.
Unfortunately, our brains don't have a face to lock onto as the go- to person. When we do find someone who stands out, we tend to become a fan. And we stick with that person because they are obviously different from ANYONE else in the industry. Our brains are constantly trying to save calories. A personal brand is an easy and efficient choice.
Personal brands are memorable.
When we start an online business we believe our selling points are our credentials, how passionate we are, and our client’s results. Almost every established entrepreneur in your field has similar impressive credentials, passion, and results.
Look at any major hotel chain website, there is nothing different in the language, photos or message. We have great amenities, we have specials, we have a package with breakfast included. You could interchange Hyatt with Hilton with Marriott, and you wouldn’t know which site you were on because they look the same.
Coaches and consultants also look and sound the same.
Take any spiritual coach and look at her message. Her services are often interchangeable with almost any other spiritual coach. She believes she is being “different,” because she has better branding photos or a tweaked program. But we are constantly comparing similar things in our brain, if it is similar, we will disregard and find the different thing in the market (with a face) that stands out as someone we want to buy from.
It is why you see people complaining about the success of more popular coaches. They don’t understand why that coach’s ‘face’ (brand) is stuck in the audience’s mind, yet they are passed over consistently. They are frustrated because they are competing on benefits, and that isn’t why people buy.
Storytime.
When I was in grad school in Lubbock at Texas Tech, I decided to get a tattoo. Back then no one had tattoos unless you were in a bike gang, the merchant marines, or the navy. Most girls didn’t get tattoos so to prove I was not most girls, off to the tattoo parlor I went.
One hot and dry summer night, I marched in, chose a rose tattoo for my shoulder, and sat down to wait.
Inside the shop the artist was waiting with a little boy, maybe 6 years or so, playing with hot wheels in the front area. The artist told him to go in the back and play. The boy said “ok dad” and went into the other room.
The dad/tattoo artist was extremely soft spoken. He was affectionate with his son and I remember the sweet way they interacted.
You are more memorable than what you sell.
Then I got my tattoo, paid and left. Loved the tattoo and I was excited because it looked so good!
About a year later I moved to a new town and there’s mail from my mom. Inside the envelope there’s a big article cut from the Lubbock paper. In large loopy cursive lettering my mom had written:
“IS THIS YOUR GUY?”
The article was about a crime. The person who committed the crime was indeed my tattoo artist. He was wanted in Florida and had skipped bail, left town and had been hiding out for years in Lubbock. He was extradited and taken back to Florida.
Wanted for double homicide.
When anyone says “oh I have the best tattoo story.”
I’m like —*maybe not.
Now you’ve heard that story, you probably won’t forget! It sticks in your mind because it’s unusual. Who do you know with a tattoo that was inked by someone who committed a double homicide?
Probably not many folks can claim that fame.
A personal brand is MEMORABLE. Memorable for what makes you a person, as much as what you create in your business. Memorable for your creativity, your authenticity, your personality. As a personal brand, you become more memorable than what you sell.
Personal brands are recession proof.
Oprah is a personal brand who has stood up to several recessions and owns a conglomerate of companies.
Tiffany’s is associated with the personal brand of Audrey Hepburn-they went UP on their prices during the pandemic when every other luxury brand was hurting.
Michael Jordan is still considered the greatest basketball player of all time, and his Air Jordans are both expensive and sought after by every generation from X to Alpha.
I can think of several examples where the product is basically the same, but the likeability of the personal brand wins the sale. Clients will say things like “she is my person!” Or, “I just knew intuitively she was the one I wanted to buy from.”
These are the same popular coaches who manage to sell out expensive “invisible offers.” This mystifies the market and makes them angry! Because why would you buy something when you don’t know what it is?
Clients bought the invisible offer because it was sold by a known personal brand. Not because of the benefits.
The benefits are secondary and not as important as the emotional connection to the personal brand. And even if the offer isn’t mediocre, you will see those clients defend the coach to the end.
Ever heard the phrase, buy with emotion and justify with logic?
Your subconscious is actually calling the shots. We don’t buy from who might be best, we buy with our primal brains. We buy with the brand who creates the strongest emotional connection to what we desire. We buy from the person who is the obvious choice because we are saving calories and love differentiation.
A fantastic personal brand is a cinch to spot.
Our brains actually enjoy getting to know the person, binging on their content and falling in love with everything they do. We ENJOY the process. Because once we decide we like this person, we will look for validation for our decisions that this is the right person to hire!
Ah the brain. So wonderfully Complicated.
It doesn’t have to be.
The answer is simple.
Start working on becoming a personal brand and become lightyears different from everyone in your niche; superlative in everything you do.
Put a flag into the ground and micro niche down. Stop looking at your competitors' marketing, sales pages, reels, and posts of your competition.
Stop competing at all.
Be a brand your clients fall in love with and move out of the comparative into the superlative.
