How to Apply Storytelling to your Personal Brand
Not sure where to start with storytelling for your personal brand? Then, try these five simple steps.
For weeks, we’ve discussed the value of storytelling, including its science, art and characters. By now, you hopefully appreciate its worth. Now, let’s explore how to practically apply storytelling to your personal brand.
Tip #1. Humanise your personal brand through your content plan
Like a corporate brand, your personal brand should have 3-4 defined content pillars. This will vary from person to person and depends on your personal brand vision, niche and key messages.
Here’s an example. Someone with the vision of being a finance thought leader might focus on these pillars:
Personal finance
Industry news
Money mindset
Note, content should focus on delivering value in one or more of the following categories:
Educational value
Inspirational value
Entertainment value
Ensure at least one pillar humanises your brand. Such as adding a fourth ‘behind-the-scenes’ content pillar to the finance example above. This shares the person behind the work.
William Shakespeare famously wrote, “All the world’s a stage”. Leadership authority, Michael Hyatt, highlights the three key stages you have:
Front stage: When you’re actually performing visibly. This is usually what your boss and others actually see.
Backstage: What you do to prepare for your on-stage time. This usually goes unseen.
Off stage: Seemingly unrelated to your work, but still essential. It prepares you to perform in the other stages.
A humanised content pillar helps you share your backstage and off-stage activities. They provide context for your audience.
People don’t just want your highlights reel. They want to know the character behind the achievements.
A humanised content pillar helps share your story in real-time.
Tip #2. Share your story in your personal brand bios
Your personal brand bios are precious real estate to share your story and key messages. Consider this, when preparing them:
Follow a framework
Personal brand guru, Mike Kim, in his book You are the Brand, suggests these stories:
Your Founder Story: Your origin story and how it connects with your field.
Your Business Story: This demonstrates the big problem you’re helping solve. This is the ‘why’ behind your venture.
Customer Story: This shows the transformation of people you have worked with.
Remember, your 'About Me’ is not about you. It serves your audience.
As discussed in my earlier blog, I also recommend using Donald Miller’s Story Brand framework.
Add your ‘off-stage’ activities to your bios
Add insights into your life outside of your work. Remember, people want to get to know the person behind the work.
You’re likely a well-rounded person with lots of interests and relationships. But, focus only on what’s most relevant to your vision and personal brand positioning. Where possible, explicitly tie back the relevance to your work.
Tip #3. Sum up your personal brand story with a one-liner
In his book Building a Storybrand, Donald Miller recommends a story one-liner. Inspired by Hollywood, where writers pitch a logline to studio executives. Loglines make or break a pitch and are used in the movie’s marketing. As Miller suggests, scroll through your streaming services to see loglines at work.
Your one-liner becomes the answer to the question, ‘what do you do?’ For your personal brand, it should highlight:
The problem
The solution
The success
A one-liner sums up the mission your story is currently on.
Use your one-liner across all your bios and other communications.
Tip #4. Use storytelling in speaking opportunities, workshops and meetings
In John Maxwell’s, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership he presents the ‘Law of Connection’. It states that ‘Leaders touch a Heart’ before they ask for a hand. As Maxwell reminds us of the old proverb, “to lead yourself, use your head; to lead others, use your heart”.
Just getting down to ‘business’ at public speaking engagements, workshops or other meetings is a missed opportunity. Connect heart-to-heart first, as business is personal. And people connect with other people.
People buy emotionally first and then rationalise with logic. My earlier blog shared the science of storytelling. A story helps build emotional connection and trust. So, introduce storytelling into your day-to-day communications.
If you are sharing a personal story, ensure the following:
It’s authentic and meaningful: Connect your values and experiences to your potential audience.
It serves your audience: Your choice of a story should only be used as a tool to help your audience's processing. They should recognise their own experiences, feelings and aspirations. Details help transport the audience into the experience. But, it must be universal enough to be relevant.
Connect the relevance: Position clearly why the story is relevant to your audience.
Sharing a story helps build a connection. Help others buy into the person before presenting the vision.
Tip #5. Highlight your key story characters
Humans are social beings. Share the main characters of your story. Perhaps, it's your team members, peers, mentors or closest family.
From a storytelling perceptive, this provides context. It demonstrates your values. Humans are naturally suspicious of people without relationships. So, show you have them.
Storytelling can take several forms. Try these simple techniques to make your personal brand just that - personal.
So, how are you applying storytelling to your personal brand?
PS. Next week, I’ll be sharing the most important part of personal brand storytelling.
