Investment In And ROI [Return Of Investment] Of Your Personal Brand Part 1/2

Remember last time you performed surgery on yourself, cut your hair or built your roof?

Chances are – you haven’t.

We of course engage a professional to help us.

However, when it comes to our personal brand – the ONE (and only) asset that we truly own and that not only future-proof our career but fast-track it – we try every possible way around or out to not invest.

Having invested quite heavily in my own personal and professional growth over the years, I want to give you a glimpse behind the scenes of where I’ve invested in, the 3 areas that I’d consider essential to invest but also the ROI, the return of the investment. Curious to dig deeper? Then let’s go!

By now you probably know that I’m always fascinated by behind the scenes everything  I always want to understand how and why things work but also look behind the curtain of people I follow, leaders I learn from and people I’m simply obsessed with.

So if you’re anything like me – then you’ll love this episode because I lay out the investments I’ve made to date, how it translated into return (from revenue to reputation to network) and my top 3 tips when it comes to investing in your own brand.

So you’ve been thinking of taking your personal brand serious and consider to invest in bringing it to life and manage it more strategically (‘cause spoiler alert: you already have a personal brand, it’s just a matter of a) what it is that you’re currently known for (and if that aligns with your future goals) and b) by whom you’re known for (and if these are the people that help you get where you want to go) and wondering – where to start to invest and how much does it cost?

First things first – as much as I’d love to give a definite answer – it’s impossible. Not everyone starts at the same level so the investment that applies to you depends on your starting point. I’ve done a little digging however in prep for this episode to give you some guidance and also to share the levels of investment I’ve made.

Now during my research, the very first result that came up was Gary V (no surprise) and he suggests that leaders should be at least $300k a year, which includes 3 people working on your brand, from videography, graphic design, copywriting and project management. Now whilst I’d agree with that for already established leaders and high level executives, this investment isn’t possible for everyone.

So what does it require then?

It depends on your end goal (like most of the time – start with the end in mind) and clarify the arena you want to play in. Think about it from a hobby’s perspective – when you’re running once a week for recovery, you most likely will only need a pair of shoes and that’ll  will last you quite a while. However, if you’re training for a long-distance competition or are a professional runner, you will not only need a proper pair of shoes and have to change them more often because of the miles you do but also regular visits to the message therapist, probably a nutritionist, sauna etc.

Same goes for your personal brand. It can be as simple as having a well-written ‘about me’ section for your LinkedIn profile and your CV if you want to (passively) improve your chances of getting contacted by a recruiter or hiring manager. And it can be as complex as having multiple professionals working on your marketing assets incl a studio set up for your videos, professionally designed slides, a speaking coach and everything in between.

I’ll go through some of the key foundations that you have to get sorted and also give you a range for the pricing of each, and some extra elements that you might want to consider when building your personal brand. 

Let’s kick us off with the most important investment – your personal brand identity. As much as people think it’s your external assets like a website or logos or colour scheme, it starts with clarifying the identity you want to build long-term.

What’s the impact you want to make in this world, how do you want to be perceived and by whom and also addressing challenges why you haven’t been able to achieve this status. 

Working on your mindset is a massive part of personal branding as you literally put your name on the line when you put yourself out there, in one or another way.

To be honest, investing in my personal growth is an ongoing commitment and I don’t think there’s ever going to be an end in sight. Because: new levels, new devils. 

The first big investment that I ever made was in a mastermind, only having my own business for about 6 months or so at that stage. I remember it as it was yesterday – it was a $10k USD investment – the biggest investment I’d ever made at this stage. Did I feel uncomfortable – gosh! I can’t even tell you how nervous I was.

But I also knew that I wouldn’t be able to grow at the rate that I wanted on my own, knowing what I knew back then, having the circle of influence I had. Most of my friends and peers were in cushy full-time roles and didn’t understand the highs and lows of running your own business.

Plus – most of them also hovered around the $120k yearly income mark and I knew I wanted to reach much higher levels. But I also didn’t quite know how to go about it and neither did any of those around me. So I did invest and let’s just say- I made back the investment not even 8 weeks into the program. Not necessarily just because of the content they taught but of the people in the program. Some of them had 6-fig months and it was absolutely normal for them. This was when I realised the potential and also how small I was playing. 

Since then, I’ve invested well over 6-figs in my personal development over the years and it’s also what I continue to commit to every year: 2 big investments which is usually a combination of 6-12months long masterminds, 1:1 coaches and also some smaller courses for a few hundred dollars. At the time of this recording which is April 2022, I’ve already made my 2nd big investment for the year and already have my eyes on another investment.

That’s a topic for another day though as I still want to do a little more research and experience it myself a little more before I commit. I see those investments obviously as my own growth accelerator but also commitment to be and do the best for my clients.

From investments I’ve made and research for them that I’ve done I’ve seen everything from $10 - $250k. Again, depends on where you’re at and what you want to achieve which level of investment is right for you. However, coaching and learning is the biggest chunk to invest in as it’s the foundation for success.

The most fancy looking website or incredible sounding ‘about me section or pitch won’t land if you haven’t (and continue to do) the groundwork and work on your growth. Limiting beliefs happen at every level. I can attest to this so well because as much as I thought my first mastermind – which is now 6 years ago was a stretch – the current mastermind is a much bigger stretch.

And guess what- they actually don’t give us any content. It’s all about us doing the work, figuring things out and stretching our own mind.  

Your personal brand identity has 2 sides to it though: your value proposition (which is basically the inner work, aka clarifying what you want to be known for, the promise you can and want to make and how you’ll deliver it) but then also the visual and verbal identity, meaning: how will you bring it to life. This is where marketing takes over because you probably have experienced first hand, that simply being the best isn’t enough when no one (and I’m talking about the *right* people know about it.

What forms part of your visual and verbal identity is your brand style guide that covers how you want to show up and do so consistently and cohesively.

It starts with the colours that you want to be associated with as colour psychology does play a big part in how we’re perceived but also how recognisable we are. From my own experience, I can tell you what a massive difference my visual rebrand has made that I had last year.

From more pastel, neutral and I’d even say now in hindsight, washed out colours to the very strong and bold turquoise and dark blue. Not only does it stand out more, on social media, on my website, on my speaker kit but also the calibre of clients it attracted – it’s chalk and cheese.

I did realise that even I who’s preaching how important strategic visibility is for your success, I did realise that the soft and washed-out presence didn’t reflect the value I promise to provide and the impact my clients want to make. And whilst I’ve engaged many graphic designers over the years, I reached out to a particular brand designer who was specialised in strategic personal brand design.

Again- big difference to other designers who are more executers of briefs and don’t question the reason behind it. She is also my go-to now when we work on the visual identity for my private clients who invest in the bigger engagement and get their marketing assets also designed and developed by us. I don’t promote this much as it’s only for a handful of clients for whom we provide a deluxe package but back to the hobby analogy – this type of investment isn’t for everyone as not everyone has those very big and impactful goals.

Another ongoing investment that falls under that category visual identity is photography. If you’ve been following me for a little while, you’d have seen some behind the scenes photos from  my own photoshoots and shoots we do with our clients.

I personally do at least 1 shoot every quarter, sometimes even more, depending what’s coming up. I did one when I developed online courses as I needed some footage that goes with the content. I also did one when I wrote and launched the book to use them to promote it. Then of course photos for my social media profiles, the website, speaker kit and proposals.

Plus- we also change our look regularly and there’s nothing worse than using photos from like pre-Covid when we either looked completely different or also when our professional and personal circumstance was different. For example- you may have been in a very regulated industry and your look was more button-up and corporate.

But for the last year, you’ve been freelancing or even changed the industry, but your look doesn’t reflect the change.

Remember that – in the digital-first world we are in and with shorter windows for personal interactions, most people check out our online profile and presence to either form their first impression or continue the research into us. If their in-person experience is completely different to your online presence, there’s a disconnect and it makes us less trust-worthy as we can’t quite make sense of it.

So the goal is to align your ‘offline’ presence with your online presence so that these first and ongoing interactions also without not being in the room or on zoom, do the heavy lifting for us and position as the Go-To in our industry.

Personal Brand Identity development usually includes your logo, colour palette, and fonts as well as some guidelines on how to use these elements as well as how to design pieces like social media posts, infographics or any other visual components of your brand (i.e. thumbnails for videos, animations within the video, banners for social media, etc.). It can cost anything between a few bucks if you go to places like Fiverr, or it can be millions of dollars as was the case for Paula Scher, who was paid $1.5 million to design the Citibank logo. But these are the extremes. On average, to build your personal brand as a leader, you can expect to pay between $5,000 to $50,000 for brand identity. 

The other investment in your visual identity I already briefly mentioned and I highly recommend you to invest in is your photography.

And I mean more than a generic headshot. I mean an actual Personal Brand shoot where you show you beyond your titles, meaning: in action shots where you are on the tools (aka how to make your magic happen), personality shots (aka your surrounding which can also be staged which we do in our monthly photography sessions that’s aligned to the Personal Brand we work with and then the actual headshots which you still need for social media profiles and website features etc.

But if you’re serious about building your Personal Brand, showing you in action and letting your photos speak for themselves makes a massive difference. The pricing for a session can be anywhere between $300- $10k+, depending on the number of photos, photographers, location, and wardrobe changes. 

One investment I couldn’t recommend highly enough – and that applies for you no matter the industry, profession, or role you’re in: it’s Canva.

I’ve had the premium subscription for probably the last 5 years and it’s not only a timesaver but ensures professional looking and consistent designs. Canva is a graphic design app that allows you to design anything you want, from presentations (I literally have all my presentations on it) to proposals, social media posts, business cards, logos and everything in between.

I absolutely think the premium version is worth its price as you can save your colour hex codes and set up your branding with your fonts and logos and don’t have to change them manually all the time. 

Another aspect of your visual branding is your online presence, your home base that you own, not just your social media profiles.

Whilst it’s good to have your profiles polished and up to date, in the end, you don’t own any of the content nor contacts and if you want to eventually commercialise your Personal Brand, having your own data base and access to all your content is critical.

That leads us to a personal website. Again- it depends on how sophisticated you want your website to be, also the pricing depends on that. I made the mistake early on that I invested a ton in a custom-built website and in the end, after having had 3 different developers working on it, I couldn’t update anything myself anymore as it was all custom-coded. I spent well over $10k and I would not recommend that investment at all. 

In fact, I even don’t have your own website high up your priority list early on as there are other, more important elements to invest in first: mainly your value proposition, your positioning and messaging around it. There are so many website templates out there, from Squarespace (which I’ve switched to and we use to develop the website for our clients) to wix etc.

Look for no-code websites if you just get started so you can also maintain it yourself which for me, is an important aspect as I hated being dependent on the developer making the smallest changes (and then charging an arm and a leg for it).

Overall, a personal brand website can be between a few hundred dollars with only a few sites and limited functionality to $20k+ that has unlimited pages, scheduling functionality, shopping cart, and a ton of other bells and whistles which again, you probably don’t need at the beginning. What I like about Squarespace though is that it grows with you. I started with a lite plan and have upgraded to the eCommerce plan as I have more digital products to sell directly from the site and also needed more pages etc.

Biggest advantage certainly is to be in control over your brand, marketing, and content assets as well as contacts if you decide to build an email list.

Again- that’s a necessity if you want to commercialise your Personal Brand down the track and the earlier you start with collecting email addresses from people who resonate with your message, the higher the chances that your first launch or announcement of a commercial offer will succeed.

Without audience, you won’t be able to sustainably monetise your Personal Brand so this should be a priority.  So whilst building a following and presence on any social media platform is very valuable especially for social proof and searchability, you don’t have full control over that influence. Algorithms can change and platforms can come and go. This is where the website comes in. 

Personal Brand Marketing Assets

Now onto marketing assets – they again, depend on your goal. When I refer to marketing assets, I mainly refer to speaker and media kits (which you can absolutely design in Canva, using the shots from your Personal Brand shoot). I see them more of a necessity and applicable for most thought leaders who want to become known for their message as you can save a ton of time but also, control the narrative you want people to use when talking about you.

When do you use the kits?

You can use these kits to pitch yourself to be a guest on selected podcasts, apply for guest contributions for industry magazines, put yourself forward for speaking engagements as conferences and events and of course, use when you’ve been asked to be a panel or keynote speaker, collaborate with someone for a workshop series or have a media appearance.

The last 2 marketing assets that I’ll mention is podcast and video.

Again, these two investments shouldn’t be priority 1 when you just start out as they require consistency and commitment for you to see results.

Plus- at the beginning, you’re literally just figuring out your message and won’t have it perfect straight away which makes consistency quite hard to achieve. Enjoy the process of testing, trialling, refining and even pivoting – just because you’ve decided on one direction, doesn’t mean you have to stick with it forever. Part of the communication process, right after the clarification part in my program, we look into your content pillars that support your message.

As cute puppy and baby photos are, they probably won’t be part of your content strategy when you don’t want to be known as working parent or dog lover (especially when it doesn’t align with your overall message). Whilst I absolutely believe that showing your full self has so much power, I also do think it requires some intention.

Think of your own experience – when you’ve never had any interactions with someone, how curious are you about their kids’ birthday or puppy’s vomit incident during the night? 

I do recommend using those events to connect it with your strategic content pillars that are aligned with your positioning, eg when you are a leader and want to talk about your lessons learned as parent and how it relates to your role- different story. However, posts and content need to be thought through and not just thrown out when you feel like it.

Same goes for videos and podcasts and since there is more financial investment included, from a good microphone to a camera to the hosting platform, an audio/ video editor etc – I wouldn’t recommend investing in it before you’re clear about your ideal positioning, the content pillars and who you actually want to get in front of. Just because YouTube gets a lot of traction doesn’t mean it’s your channel to grow. 

Especially if you haven’t done many videos before. I said it before and I’ll say it again- everything you do and put out there, requires commitment to consistency and cohesiveness so you want to start small, make it sustainable and build from there.

You’d get disheartened and frustrated when it’s just all too hard and because you won’t get massive results after 5, 10 even potentially 100 episodes, you won’t be able to keep it up. And therefore also clarifying the type of personality you’re, your strengths and how to leverage them wisely is a big part of coaching.

There’s no point to force yourself to do a weekly video when you dread it and have to record for 10h to get a 1min clip done. Again- it's a process so enjoy the journey and build up to it.

One last thing that I will say though when it comes to content creation, may it be for social media, videos, podcasts, you name it- I’m a big fan of batching. In fact, this episode is the first one I’ve done in over 2 months because I’ve already pre-recorded a ton over Xmas and Jan as I knew we were moving and wasn’t sure how long it would take us to settle in, ho quickly I could set up everything that the sound quality works etc.

Now my batching process might be a little extra because these days, I plan, create, and schedule content for at least 2-3 months ahead but I do recommend to at least look at the month ahead. This is also why my content creation workshops always look at the month to come rather than the month we are in. 

Also a little update here: I’ve changed the format from live events to on demand training because I know, we’re all busy. 

Nothing has changed in terms of the content – you still get access to the monthly strategy incl all keydates, content ideas for any profession or industry, the latest news and updates on LinkedIn + how to use them and of course, the 20+ copy & paste captions to make your own content creation a whole lot easier and you don’t have any excuse anymore to not show up. If that’s something you’re interested in, hop over to content-creation.club for the details.

You’ll still get the fresh content delivered on the 3rd Tuesday of the month but in form of a Trello board that is constantly updated with the latest pr-recorded training, the content ideas, tools, and tricks to help you leverage content to build your authority.

A big goal for most of my coaching clients is also public speaking and giving keynotes at bigger conferences, industry events and even making media appearances a regular occurrence.

For this, I do recommend some public speaking training and also voice coaching, to give you some more structure around your presentation but also a confidence boost being equipped with a few more tools and tactics to come across as more assertive and confident.

Next week in fact, we have a special guest joining us- Sally Prosser who’s a top voice and public speaking coach. She shares a ton of very practical tips what we can do to use our voice with more intention and control to build our authority brand. Make sure to subscribe to the podcast and not miss it!

Now back to the investment and pricing of you building your Personal Brand – what does it actually cost?

Whilst we covered most aspects of building your Brand and profile, a price that most leaders don’t consider is the investment in time that is required in the different phases of the process. 

Especially early on, you won’t see too much tangible outcomes as it’s all about defining your value proposition, the message around it and the voice that is most aligned with you and the bigger picture you want to be known for, the stories to support your claims, your signature process or method that helps you guarantee and predict the outcome and of course, also what you don’t stand for.

So yes, at the beginning, it will feel like hard work is happening, but no results will be visible. Most of the work done in the initial phases, when building the foundations of a brand, is not visible. It’s the same as when a tree is growing. The roots grow first. 

The process of building a brand using the framework I developed, the 3Cs can be divided into three phases:

• First comes clarification

• Then communication

• Finally commercialisation

The clarification phase is when you get really clear with you and how you want to show up to the world, identifying where you’re now, where you want to be and the strategy that gets you from A to B.

This phase can take 30-60 days and includes a lot of (structured and intentional) soul searching, reflections, coaching and also research. It’s all about (internal and external) insights and information gathering that you can then use to make qualified decisions how you want to use them to communicate your Brand to the world (and with world I mean to people who matter, your ideal decision makers).

Then phase 2 kicks in – the communication part where your value proposition actually comes to life through visual elements, colours, fonts, photography and you logo. This phase also included your content and communications strategy incl the channels that are relevant for your big end goal.

Finally, only after these two phases have been completed, we can begin with the commercialisation phase, where we look into building a strategic network and packaging your intellectual property into a commercial solution that aligns with your goals and bring it to life through marketing assets that suit your personality.

Again, it takes time to get some traction with it and even in this stage, you’ll see that you still tweak and refine, possible even change direction again. You need to get feedback to become an in-demand authority. Building your thought leadership and authority status doesn’t happen in isolation – it’s a constant conversation (and I also mean online engagement) and does require adaptations to what’s happening in the market as well as reflect changes you make based on your personal growth journey.

That’s however, the beauty of building a personal brand that goes beyond your credentials- it allows you to pivot easier as you’re known for characteristics, your personal story as well as your professional credentials. 

Taking people on a journey and showing behind the scenes, lessons learned, as well as a change of direction (and what made you do it) is what gets you the buy in and avoids speculations. Like it or not – people will always have an opinion and will make up their mind about you. If you take the narrative in control by being intentional about what you put out there and also make it easy for others to see and understand what you’re all about, the more you’ll get the results you want.

Now if you’re still on the fence and not quite sure whether to invest in your personal brand, then stay tuned for part 2 where I will share the ROI of Personal Branding and how you can measure it. It’ll be released in a couple of weeks as next week, we have Sally Prosser joining us for some very helpful tips and insights how to build our personal brand leveraging our voice. It’s fascinating interview and some of the tips- I guarantee you you wouldn’t expect! 

If you’re curious and want to get started with building your Personal Brand – then listen up because you can grab my free workbook over at impaccct.com/freebies