Common personal branding mistakes — Scott Turman // BrightRay Publishing

Scott Turman, Founder and CEO of BrightRay Publishing, talks about the potential drawbacks of founder branding startups. In our digital age, personal branding has become an essential tool for professionals looking to stand out in a crowded marketplace. It's the art of presenting your unique identity, skills, and expertise to the world, but it's not without its pitfalls. Today, Scott discusses common personal branding mistakes.

About the speaker

Scott Turman

BrightRay Publishing

Scott Turman is Founder and CEO at BrightRay Publishing

Part 1Founder Branding may be holding startups back — Scott Turman // BrightRay Publishing
Part 2 Common personal branding mistakes — Scott Turman // BrightRay Publishing

Show Notes

01:15

The importance of personal branding

Building a personal brand is crucial because it's not enough to rely on your work speaking for itself or that things will happen organically. You need to proactively shape what people find when they look you up, as your brand is what others say about you when you're not around.
01:44

How to train Google on who you are

Establish a personal domain that showcases your name, images, and expertise. This proactive approach helps Google define your profile, potentially leading to the creation of a knowledge panel that enables you to control the messaging about you or your company.
03:37

Common mistakes in personal branding

In order to build your reputation, you must avoid failing to freely share your knowledge and expertise. Additionally, adopting a mindset of knowing everything and resisting learning, hinders growth and adaptability.
04:41

Leveraging published work for thought leadership opportunities

Scott wrote a book for the engineering community and gained their trust, and it helped him build his team. However, it was until he became a published author that doors opened for interviews on TV and podcasts to further establish his thought leadership.
06:22

The top three tactics for personal branding

Optimize your LinkedIn profile and ensure your headshot is appealing, as it's often the first place people look. Secure your own domain name (name.com) to lay the foundation for a strong personal brand, and make sure to have real accomplishments to back it up.
09:28

Why direct mail is an underrated tactic for personal branding

BrightRay Publishing sends copies of their authors books to their top prospects in order to bypass gatekeepers and directly reach decision-makers. Another creative strategy entails ordering your book through Amazon to their address, making it impossible to ignore.
11:55

The power of personal branding through books

Personal branding is an active process, where you curate what people find about you, creating a compelling persona that attracts business, connections, or attention. To start, you need something valuable to offer, and a book is an excellent tool for showcasing your expertise.

Quotes

"Think of Google as a child. Ultimately, you've got to train Google on who the heck you are. That's how the knowledge panel comes about." - Scott Turman
"The knowledge panel, in my opinion, is as far as you can go in terms of controlling the messaging about you or your company." - Scott Turman
"You want to give 90% away and only ask for 10%. Building that brand and giving away your expertise is really how you're going to build yourself up, to begin with." - Scott Turman
"Every time I see people go into the toilet in terms of businesses, it's because they couldn't be told anything. They certainly couldn't be taught anything. And as a result, the world changed and they didn't." - Scott Turman
"No interviewer wants to talk to you until you're published. I couldn't get on TV or podcasts until I had something to say because I was a published author." - Scott Turman
"The first thing we do for our authors once we get their book published is, we FedEx their book out to 150-200 of their top prospects. That circumvents the machine and you go right to the person that can make the decision." - Scott Turman
"Personal branding is a verb. It's the act of curating what people find and sanding that down to give that persona that you need for them to either want to do business with you, contact you, or want to gravitate toward you." - Scott Turman