If you struggle with showing up on social media because you feel like it’s narcissistic or you’re just not confident in showing up online, or you struggle with knowing how to grow a personal brand, today’s podcast episode is for you. Don’t go anywhere! 

In today’s conversation with Jessica Zweig, we cover what personal branding is (and what it isn’t. Hint: it’s not really about you!!) and how to grow your brand. We talk about how to handle showing up online when you aren’t confident, social media marketing tips, and how to stand out online with so much noise.

Jessica is such a breath of fresh air in her no BS, calming, real approach to today’s conversation and we’re so so excited for you to get a solid dose of encouragement, strategies, and tools to go out and kick butt with your marketing and mindsets. 

Jessica’s Story 

Jessica Zweig is the CEO of SimplyBe. Agency, a premier personal branding firm based in Chicago, serving clients across the globe. Named a “Personal Branding Expert” by Forbes, a Top Digital Marketer To Watch by INC, and honored with the Gold and Silver Stevie® Award for “Female Entrepreneur of the Year” in 2018 and 2019, Jessica facilitates sold-out workshops and speaks on the power of personal branding to corporations including Google, Salesforce, Virgin, Nike, and Bank of America. She also hosts the top-ranked marketing podcast The SimplyBe Podcast and recently launched her book, Be: A No BS Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth by Simply Being Yourself.

Jessica believes that teaching what she has learned and can only do that authentically on her platform unless she is on the same journey. 

 

Personal branding and the biggest misconceptions 

First, it’s not an act of vanity. Personal branding gets a bad rap because of the influencer world being very ego-driven and with CEOs or celebrities. Sometimes those people are doing it for the wrong reasons. 

A personal brand is a 360-degree version of your entire life, what you do, your personal life, your design, and communicated out into the world to drive your business and ultimately impact others. 

The first thing people need to understand is: what is your identity as a brand? 

We look at any brand in the world such as Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Apple and we know exactly how they make us feel, who they are for, we know exactly what makes them different. 

You need to ask yourself those same questions. You are a brand. Define your core message, core differentiators, who you are talking to, what makes you different from the other companies trying to reach out to your client avatar. What are you sharing that is consistently online that creates a compound awareness of your story. 

These are a lot of questions that people skip. They miss the strategic know-how of how to cut through and position yourself as an expert. 

The second piece is coming from a place of service. You want to connect yourself to the consumer. Identify who are some of your role models or impactful leaders who know their narrative, they are crystal clear and are also trying to make a powerful impact. 

That is personal branding done well. 

 

Why authentic branding is not an act of vanity, but an act of service

First and foremost, here are a couple of questions to ask yourself. Tune in every single time you go to your phone or screen to share a piece of content, imagine visualizing a girl, your target audience, on the other side of their phone receiving that piece of content. 

Ask yourself, what is this person going to feel? 

How is this person going to be up-leveled? 

How can I improve that person’s moment or day in sharing this? 

What is in it for her? 

With your captions, your photos, your tone of voice. Ask yourself that honestly. If you can’t answer that honestly then don’t share it. There is no point in you sharing it. 

The second thing is an exercise from Jessica’s new book Be. At the beginning of the book, she has her readers do homework on identifying three people: personal and professional, who love them and would be willing to do this with them. Ask them these two questions: 

What is my value? 

What is my unique intrinsic value? 

Have them all write it back out in a written form. What you will hopefully get is your value. What you are giving to people, what makes you, you. What is the heart of the way you do what you do? It is one big mirror. That will help you drop into how to be in service. How to approach your audience and serve them. 

When someone shines that light on you, it gives you a lot of confidence and clarity in what makes you great at what you serve and give. 

The mindset when you are confident in your looks

If you are hot, own your beauty. That is an amazing thing. We should all love ourselves and believe in our beauty. Inside and out. If someone is going to be put off because you have self-confidence in your look then they are not your people. We all know that we are more than what we look like on the outside. Beauty is only skin deep, the truth is it is an energy. 

Authenticity is love over fear. Authenticity shows up as love, love shows up as service, service shows up as kindness, connection, and community. Inauthenticity shows up as fear, ego, separation, competition, jealousy, and more. It is an energetic impulse. 

We need to take down the swords when we look at other women, those swords are honestly coming towards us, first and foremost. Instead, clap for a girl or woman that is in her light and is looking amazing. 

 

Not feeling confident in your looks?

The journey to put yourself out into the world is within, not without. The work you must do to believe in yourself and know yourself has to take priority. You have to invest in it. That could be working with coaches, getting rid of toxic friends, or taking care of your body. Educate yourself. You might have to do a lot of inner work to feel authentic in your skin. 

You learn your confidence on the job. You have to just try it. Put yourself out there. Feel the fear and do it anyway. You grow the muscle of confidence that way, there is no start line, you just go. 

 

Top principles for marketing on social media

First of all, know your channels. You don’t have to be on every social media channel. The more we spread ourselves thin the shallower our results are. Pick your lane. If IG is it for you, focus on that. There are lots of channels that can serve your business that you know best, so pick your lanes and stay the course. Once you are there, stay consistent. You don’t need to post seven days a week, maybe start with four to five. If you’re on Instagram, on stories show up as much as possible. Utilize the functions for each platform. 

Engage with people, this is a dialogue, not a monologue. Respond to every comment. Spend time in your DMs. Get to know people. Don’t look at them as accounts or likes. They are humans behind those phones. Engage with people’s content, make people feel like you care about them as much as you want them to care about you. 

Quality and consistency are key. Have a point of view- stick to it, have an ascetic- stick to it, have a tone- stick to it. Have a style of content-stick to it. People like to know what to expect from a brand. 

The most important part of building a strong social media platform

Understanding your brand, knowing your audience, and sticking to your lane. Figure out what you want your audience to be hungry for. 

You have to pick your lane, but you also don’t have to pigeonhole yourself and talk only about one thing. The bolder you are, the more you take a stance, the more willing you are to not be liked and not be for everyone, the more you are going to magnetize your people. 

Tips for Cutting Through the Noise on Social Media 

No one is you. It sounds cheesy but is so true. That is your superpower. Tune in to what makes you, you. What lights you up? What is the thing you have to give that no one else has? 

Manage your screen time. Unfollow people that trigger you or make you feel small. We all suffer from comparison and the imposter syndrome game. You are responsible for your own social media experience, the more you are looking outward and projecting this story that they are bigger and better than you. You are relinquishing your power and control. 

Come back to what are you here to give and think about your audience. 

 

Biggest lesson Jessica has learned in business  

When Jessica started her magazine, she got in touch with this woman who had just sold her magazine for 130 million dollars to Comcast. She reached out to her to see if she would mentor her and she said yes! 

The first question she asked her was this: “How do I make money? I want to monetize this thing.”

Her advice was not to focus on making money, focus on building a beautiful platform for the women that she wanted to write for. Focus only on that and the money will come. 

Care about people. Treat people like you genuinely care for them, go the extra mile for them. People will rise to meet you and that is how you create loyalty, community, and results. We need to operate in business in humanity and love and you will always win. 

 

 

Show notes

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