Bring the Human Touch into Your Personal Brand

When Taylor Swift crafts a story through her music, she's not just writing lyrics; she's building a personal brand that connects with millions. In this episode, I'm talking about how shaping your narrative can leave an unforgettable mark on your audience. It's not just about visibility; it's about connecting on a human level that goes beyond any corporate identity.

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Transcript

The Power of Personal Branding

Speaker 1 0:03

You're listening to Brand Butter a straight talking occasionally in your face , no BS branding podcast for modern marketers and business owners . Here for those who want to understand the influence and power of branding and how pairing , association , consumer behaviour and design thinking can impact what people see , think and feel . I'm your host , tara Ladd , sometimes funny , sometimes vulnerable and often unapologetically blunt . Founder and creative director of Brand Design Agency . You're one and only Hi , hi , welcome to this week's episode of Brand Butter . Today I'm actually going to bring in the conversation around personal brand , mainly because that's the topic of discussion at the moment for me , but really to drum home the importance of it as it rolls out this year , we've all seen as brands well , I guess we've seen as trends hit the market and then everyone , six months later , wishes that they were in the game before it blew up . Let me preface by saying that right now is your time to get into personal brand , and I don't mean that in a way of adding more to your plate , although it is a task and you need to commit to it , but it's really important to start the conversation . So , without even realising if you are a founder within a business , you are a founder within a business or someone of high level leadership , regardless of what you think you are searchable , and when you are searchable , it means that there is a narrative out there that you aren't controlling , and so the general profiles will pop up of social media accounts and whatnot . But when you actually take the effort , or control the effort that goes into building a personal brand , you not only control the narrative , but you build relationships that far outweigh any business brand can do so . When people see a business brand , they see a logo , they see a culture , they see a banner , and when they see a personal brand , they see a person , and business brands that exceed are the ones that put their people at the front . Now , that means that anyone that is showing their internal culture is more than likely to build a relationship , because somewhere along the lines , a person has become likeable .

Speaker 1 2:41

And so when I talk about this , I want to bring in three really good examples that are , you know , top level . Well , it's no , it goes without saying . I've done a whole podcast on this already . But Taylor Swift Taylor Swift isn't just a musician . She far outweighs that with her values and everything that she does . She has blown up , and the interesting thing is and I'm doing a whole podcast episode on this , so watch out is the mere exposure effect in full play . And so what the mere exposure effect is is seeing something over and over and over and over and over again , until you feel like it is the only thing that you're seeing . And it's kind of like and I put it this way when you go to buy a car and all of a sudden you see that car everywhere , and it's not because you you know there's more of them on the road , it's simply because more people well , not more people , but you're just more aware of seeing more people with that car . And there's literally .

Speaker 1 3:55

There was a whole study in this on a book that I was reading . It's called Nudge . I think it's called Nudge Yep , and I'm still reading it now . It's pretty heavy , but they speak about this in the fact that there was a guy that complained to a sports magazine I think it was about how many women were being featured on the front cover of a magazine . And the magazine wrote back and said every month we release both . There's men and women on the front cover , and it was only because he was taking notice of women that he noticed that narrative more than the other one . So it's really interesting how what we see and what we perceive is shaped by you know what goes out there . So she's just everywhere , and the Barbie movie was a classic example of this as well . But we feel like we're seeing more of her when really it's just that she's doing all of these things that people are talking about , and it's the things that she's doing that are becoming , I guess , talkable .

Speaker 1 4:59

There's something I saw yesterday with her writing a song about a child that died of brain cancer , I think it was . It was a form of cancer , and she requested the mother . Well , she spoke to the mother and asked if it was okay if she wrote the song , and she said it was fine , and all of the proceeds of that song went to pediatric cancer research , and I feel it's things like this that people are aligning to . It's not the music , and that's the difference between personal brand and business brand is that you're putting the human element at the front of everything that you do , and so another great example of this is Lewis Capaldi . I don't know how many of you follow him on TikTok , but his profile is something that I will actively search out because he's just an awesome dude and watched his documentary , which I thought was super humbling to show his real life experience of being diagnosed with Tourette syndrome and living with disability , and speaking about it so openly and raw and just being really authentically himself is just another example of why people love him .

Speaker 1 6:20

I think these things that make us unique and individually us are what help people build connection , and I had this experience when my son , ari , had a liver transplant at nine months . He's now four and a half and doing brilliantly . But when I went through this process , I found it incredibly hard to speak about because I didn't want it to look like I was capitalizing off his illness , but what that actually did was stopped me from talking about something that was deeply embedded in my identity , and since I've started to speak about it , it has helped me to generate deep connections with audiences that are going through the same thing and other people that have dealt with other types of illnesses not only themselves or their children , but their family members , being carers , and understanding , respite and the pressure and the things that just aren't accessible in society in terms of laws , and all of these things start conversations that far outweigh you as a person , and so the general effect is that when you start to talk about something , other people start to talk about it too , and we'll see this with conversations of people that do good things . Right , they might film someone and they ask them a question , and then they give them money and people are like , oh , you're just doing it for Instagram . You know what , even if they are doing it for social media ? What that does is it creates a ripple effect . People feel that they need to go out and do something similar because it creates that feel good motion . When you see people doing things , other people are more inclined to do things like that too . That also works in a negative way , so people have to be very cautious . That's why there are trigger warnings and things that are on things , so people are very much persuaded by the influence of others .

Personal Branding and Authenticity Power

Speaker 1 8:29

In case you haven't noticed that recently , however , lewis Capaldi is a great example of showcasing how , when you talk about something that's deeply personal , what that did for him was it brought him down from pop star status to everyday person . That just happened to get famous . What he does with his narrative across his social media is he connects with the everyday person and people find him super relatable and connect with him on that level , that give him the ability to connect in a way that is authentic . So , instead of coming out like , oh , this is the life I live and you'll never be here , he's saying this is what I've done and you can too . It gives people this ability to think that they can do it as well , even though that's not his intention . The way he comes across is really raw and real and he shenanigans with . Is that Neil Horan ? Is that his name ? The guy from One Direction ? Like it's just really funny . It brings them down to such a normal level that people just connect with them so much better .

Speaker 1 9:34

No-transcript , oh , hey , hey . Just interrupting you here to let you know that on February 13 , tuesday 10.30 , australian East and Daylight Savings time , we have a masterclass on build a banging personal brand . We know the impact that personal brand is going to have . This year we're going to see this really blow up and we want our people to have a leg up of what they can expect and how they can use personal brand to amplify their brand presence and make big moves . It's going to be very simple to have 60 minutes , but it's just going to be laying down what you need to be doing , how you can align it and what image you can set for yourself by creating your own narrative . So if you're interested , be sure to check out the show notes . It is hanging on down there . I'll let you get back to it .

Speaker 1 10:34

And another example of you know cracking personal branding is Greta Thunberg . Like , I know that that wasn't her intention , but if we look at what she's done , she's essentially become the face of climate change because she felt so deeply passionate about the subject and , regardless of what you think about her , I think she's incredible is she has just spoken about something that she deeply is passionate about and that's her topic of discussion , and so she's gone out and she's created a whole community of people , made us all think very differently about the way that we live our futures and started a conversation on a global scale that has had her take the stage at the UN . She's taken the UN stage is what I meant to say ? Like that's insane . And so this is where we start to see shared values stepping up into the limelight that aren't glorified , materialistic crap . Everyday people doing everyday good things . Now I understand that Taylor Swift has obviously been in the music scene for a while too , but a lot of the things that she's being , I guess , praised for are everyday people , things . It's the rights for others , it's the advocating for things , and I mean , it depends on which side of the fence that you swing in terms of politics , but I personally feel that she's quite progressive , so she's using her voice for good reason .

Speaker 1 12:04

There are then , obviously , haters that say you know , we're rising a celebrity above . You know other things happening in the world and you know what . That's true as well , and this is just what humans do . So it's the basic understanding of human behaviour and how we can connect with people on levels that , I guess , create that connection of Relateability and like resonating with an audience . And so we've seen and I don't know if you follow Alex Hamozi , but he is a great example of building personal brand . His business brand is called acquisitioncom , but his personal brand is what blew up , that made acquisitioncom a thing . And so how do you do this ? Well , really , I'm in the process of building mine at the moment . I'm a firm believer of do one thing , do it well .

Speaker 1 12:58

So , while I'm not , that's not about perfecting the things that I put out , but it is about making sure that I'm nailing the way that I need to speak about something the conversations , the outline , and I don't know if you're following , you want to know only at the moment , but I've pretty much nailed the content over there . So lacks and things I don't feel are a metric that I am too concerned about at the moment . What I'm really looking at is reach , impressions and saves and shares , and some of the things that I've posted lately have got things that are . You know , that blew my mind . To be completely honest , the content that I've put out over the last four weeks has been better than some of the stuff like almost top 10 in all of the stuff that I've put out over the last six months . So , with that , it's talking to the conversations of and do you know what I did , to be completely honest , obviously not only figuring out what my audience wanted to hear and see is that I really stepped back into the driver's seat and brought the people back to the front .

Speaker 1 14:00

Interestingly , we are a design agency , but the work that we do can sometimes take three to six months because we do it good and so we don't have work churning and burning . A lot of the work that we're doing is big picture thinking stuff , and so you'll see the end result and lots of stuff come from the end result , but a lot of the work in progress stuff is what I'm going to start to record . So you won't see a portfolio displayed because , again , like that's quite limited in the work that we're pushing out , it's all pretty much one client . So we do post that stuff . But to me , what's more important is understanding the thought process . That goes beyond the design . You know , the design is the execution of the thought process . The design is obviously really important , but that's kind of what's important .

Speaker 1 14:47

And so what I'm doing on my personal brand is I'm talking about the things that I'm experienced in , and that's design , psychology and behavioral insight . So it's understanding how people behave and think and act and how we can speak to them on a level that is personable and conversational , and also design visuals in a way that attract attention to enhance that narrative . So that's the conversation that I'm leading by , but at the same time I'm also talking about me , ari's transplant , I'm talking about my life with ADHD , I'm talking about life , building a business and all of the things that are associated with human behavior in society . So they are my conversation topics and that's pretty much what I'm speaking to at the moment and that will start to evolve . My heavy hitter is linked in at the moment .

Speaker 1 15:41

I'm planning to go pretty hard on that , but also have a bit more fun with the way that I use Instagram , and so if you're someone that is ready to build a personal brand , don't overthink it , I think . Just understand the key metrics of what you want to be known for , or the key topic conversation , like if someone was to turn around without you in the room and say , oh , that's that person , they do this . That's where you pretty much want to nail it . So I've already nailed that . People know that we do brand strategy and identity , and that's pretty much where I want to stay . Aside from that , it's moving into the big picture thinking , but that is under the strategy banner and that's what the work has been coming in for . So it's it's .

Speaker 1 16:25

You are what you put out , yeah , and so when we start to look at how a business brand differs from a personal brand I did a whole podcast on that a couple of weeks ago you want to bring your human element to the front , and I mean by that is understand what your audience wants from you , or building an audience off the back of the things that you want to speak about . What you put out is going to directly correlate to the type of people that you bring in . If you show humor and fun and enthusiasm , people that are attracted to that stuff are going to come . If you show that you're only about tactics and you know trending music and finding the next best thing on Instagram , that's the type of client that you will bring in . So you know and obviously not everyone's in that space . It's just the first thing that came to my head , but that's pretty much what it'll be about . So what is important is to understand the narrative that you want to think .

Speaker 1 17:18

If you were to leave a legacy behind and you would have passed away , what do you want people to say about your funeral ? Build those things into your personal brand and start the discussion , because you'll be so surprised at how quickly you can grow as a personal brand and channel that you know that influence into a business brand . Now , as you would know , we've got a whole bunch of stuff going out about this at the moment , so feel free to go over and check it out , but I've got some really good things coming out and I'm so excited to share with you all . I know that I keep talking about it . It's because we're just building the systems in the background which we're working on . But yeah , it's a big discussion and it's a conversation that we all need to be really actively looking at as we move through AI and start to figure out what it is that the human element can bring to the table and can guarantee you . It's who we are as people , because no one else can be you . So that's it for this week .

Join Me Next Week for Masterclass

Speaker 1 18:21

Join me for next week and , if you haven't already , be sure to join the masterclass . If you haven't looked at that , if you're listening to this , at a later stage there may be a recording for that . So keep your eyes peeled . But yes , I hope you enjoyed and , as always , if you have to , if you wanna ask a question , feel free to jump over on socials and slip into my DMs . But that's it for this week . I'll talk to you soon . Music Did you like that episode ? I hope so , because if you did , why don't you head over to whatever platform you listen on and rate and review ? It's much appreciated and helps others know what we're about . Music If you wanna follow us , you can find us at You're Wanna Knownly underscore AU on Instagram or head to wwwyouwannanownlycomau MUSIC .