How Storytelling Powers Your Personal Brand
Brand story
If you’re an entrepreneur and business owner you’ve probably heard these expressions hundreds of times already. When I first heard how important is to build a personal brand, and how storytelling could help me to do it, I didn’t even understand what those words meant.
When it comes to branding, people automatically think about the big names, such as Canon, Nike, McDonald’s, Mercedes, or Google. They have built a company brand and it’s usually not always clear, who is THE person behind the scenes. This is totally fine because those brand names work for themselves already, everybody knows what they are about. However, I, as a one-person-business-owner -solopreneur-, I need to build first a personal brand, then maybe later a company brand. It is crucial, how people see you in business, what they think about you, your services, or products.
When I decided to start my own little photography business, I thought I had nothing to do with branding. But I soon realized, it was something I had to do. Everybody has a brand – you either know it or you don’t, but you do have one. One of my favorite quotes comes from the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. He said: “Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room.”
It’s your choice if you want to let people create your brand image, or you want to control your brand and what people think about you. A great way to work on your personal branding is to have professional personal brand photographs taken of you, that are true to your values, that are authentic and unique, resemble your values, and connect with your audience.
When Apple was working on its first iPod, one day the engineers presented the prototype to Steve Jobs. He examined it closely but wasn’t impressed, at all. He thought it was too big. His people tried to explain to the boss why such a complicated and powerful device couldn’t be any smaller, as all necessary parts wouldn’t fit in it otherwise. But Jobs stepped to the fish tank and dropped the iPod prototype in it. As it started sinking, air bubbles started appearing. Do you know what Steve Jobs said when it reached the bottom? “Those are air bubbles. That means there’s space in there. Make it smaller.” Bang!
When I first read this story, it made a big impact on me. It’s short, memorable, and has an unexpected end. The story highlights the most important values of Jobs, and of course Apple: minimalism, risk-taking, and innovation.
This story tells us about Steve Jobs’ leadership style, brand values, Apple product quality, and so on. Such stories can elevate a company’s (or a person’s) brand image in our minds. These stories help customers understand more about the company. It helps to connect with them.
As an entrepreneur, you sure have your own story, you just need to think about it. Here are a few tips for you, what kind of stories people usually like.
1. The pain-point, the struggle, the before story – just tell your audience, how your life was, before you started your business, why you started your business. What were you struggling with, what was hurting you inside? Why did you desire the change?
For me, it came before my 40th birthday. I just started to think about what I’ve done so far, and what was coming. I was living a pretty happy but ordinary life, I was lucky to have everything I needed, but not everything I wished to have. I’ve earned enough money with my previous jobs to travel the world, but couldn’t save much. I spent my money on seeing over 56 countries, which I don’t regret. That’s something nobody can ever take away from me. But after I got married and my son was born, my traveling was reduced to almost zero, and I felt a huge gap in my life, that needed to be filled. I went through some tough periods and felt totally hopeless several times. I knew I had to change things. From ordinary life, I wanted to make an extraordinary life. I wanted to make an impact on other people's lives. So finally I made a decision to change my life for the better. And that is already the second point.
2. The breakthrough-story, the a-ha moment, the life-changing decision. Usually, there is an exactly definable moment. This happens when you keep trying for a long time. You fail, you get up. You fail again, you get up again, you repeat it, but never give it up, until that moment finally arrives when you’re ready to take the next (usually very scary) step.
In my case, it was to quit my job, leave my employer and team (they were not very happy with my decision) and start my own photography business. I was scared, I only knew I didn’t know anything. But by then I was confident about myself, I knew what I wanted, I just didn’t know how I would achieve my goals. But I went with the “Done is better than perfect.” quote and step by step I figured out the HOW. And voila, here I am today as an international personal brand photographer living in Munich, Germany.
You’ll see, people are always interested in success stories, so tell them yours!
3. The third type of story you can share with your audience is about your results. How did you help your customers, what progresses have you done along the way. Share some case studies, get testimonials. If one of your clients tells a story about you or the work you’ve done together, it counts double – if not triple.
When I see my clients using the personal branding photos I took of them over and over again on their social media, it makes my heart full. When I receive emails, talking about what a great experience I provided with my photo shooting to them, how much more confident they feel themselves after working with me – it's priceless. When I gave in my papers to request authorization for my business, and officially become a personal brand photographer, I was shivering and full of doubts. But now, just a few years later, I photograph successful entrepreneurs, businessmen, and businesswomen. I got to photograph several celebrities, like Dolph Lundgren, Jay Abraham, Vanilla Ice, Jilian Michaels, and Vince Vaughn. I traveled to Los Angeles, London, Barcelona, Budapest, and Hanover for photoshoots. I've helped over 100 clients, business owners build their personal brand with a beautiful picture gallery. And a few days ago I received my first (hopefully not last) international award of WOW Awards 2020 – Best Photographer. What else can I wish at the moment?
What’s your story? Share a few bits from your journey!
