7 Phases of Every Profitable Personal Brand
Welcome to the Uncloned Insider Audio newsletter. My name is Audria Richmond®, and I am your marketing and launch strategist. I work directly with my clients to show them how to build uncloned brands and launch profitable marketing campaigns. We are the brand you come to when you want to become or remain the obvious choice of your industry. Hey, y'all.
Audria Richmond®:What's up? I hope your weekend was amazing. I have to say y'all before we dive into today's audio newsletter. I am so proud of myself for keeping up with this audio newsletter. Man, do you know how hard it is to be consistent?
Audria Richmond®:So I had made a commitment that every Monday come hell or high water, you all are gonna get a audio newsletter, and we've been able to keep it going. So, hopefully, I didn't jinx myself, We can keep it going for every Monday. So, hopefully, you all been enjoying it. Also, if you haven't listened to the previous audio newsletters, maybe you're new to our email list, make sure you when you you know, if you got here, you came here as a result through a click through the email. Make sure you listen to the back catalog so you can catch up on some of our previous episodes.
Audria Richmond®:They all fire in my opinion. I like to get in and get out. I don't ramble. Okay? So that's something you can appreciate about the audio newsletter.
Audria Richmond®:But without further ado, let's jump into today's topic. So today, we're gonna be talking about 7 phases of every profitable personal brand. I've been building my personal brand here for about 10 years, and one thing thing I can tell you is that I have learned a lot. If you don't know this already, I have a best selling book called Are You Ready for the Yes? How to prep your personal brand for lucrative opportunities.
Audria Richmond®:That is the book that we're going to be referencing. If you would like to follow along, and or get a copy of the book, you can head over to arjurerichmond.shop, to grab a copy of the book, or you can locate the link, inside of this email that we sent you today. So the personal brand, I did some research when I was developing my personal brand. And one of the reasons why I wanted to develop a personal brand to begin with was I wanted to get unknown for something that I didn't wanna be known for, if that makes sense. I really was, like, transitioning into the online marketing space, and I wanna develop my personal brand.
Audria Richmond®:I wanted to stop being called my nickname that I had back home. I was transitioning out of being a professional photographer and graphic designer, and I really wanted an opportunity to kinda reinvent myself and do something different. And my personal brand developing my personal brand was the answer. And, you know, I went from operating as a company, like, all of these different brands that I had. You know, we had a company called photography business called Noobier Creative Images.
Audria Richmond®:We had a juicing business called Juice Me, Baby. We had a magazine called Love Do Art Magazine. We had, you know, a little film studio that we was doing called Red Heart Films. Your girl done did a lot. Okay?
Audria Richmond®:But nevertheless, I wanted to come from behind those brands and showcase me, Audre. Right? Because I knew that if I built my personal brand, it gave me the autonomy to do whatever I wanted to do with my brand. Right? And one thing about a personal brand is extremely forgiving.
Audria Richmond®:Meaning, if you decide that you want to be known as a, I don't know, a TikTok coach as an example, but you decide you no longer want to be known as a TikTok coach, you actually wanna pivot into becoming a golf expert, you can do that more forgiving as a personal brand than you can if you were a company brand. If I'm a brand and I started it off selling burgers and then next Friday, I decide that we're gonna be a catfish joint, that's not gonna be very forgiving. So just keep in mind that, like, personal brands is very forgiving because it's attached to a person. And one thing we know about people, we're very dynamic. We change all the time.
Audria Richmond®:So, anyway, when I was doing some research around personal branding and as I was beginning to write my book and I was already in the throes of developing my personal brand, one of the things that I realized is that every single personal brand has 7 phases that makes them profitable. We talk about this inside of Are You Ready For the Yes. If you reference, page let me get the page for you. Page 79. If you go to page 79, in your book, we we break down the different 7 phases.
Audria Richmond®:I'm gonna give you a highlight reel, but if you want, like, the full blown course like material, I highly recommend you grab the book. But every single personal brand that you are aware of, that I'm aware of, any celebrity, any influencer, one thing you would know about the personal brands, there's 7 phases that make them profitable. Right? So the we're gonna go over these 7 phases, and we're gonna have a good time. Again, I'm not gonna do a super deep dive, but this is more like a highlight reel.
Audria Richmond®:Right? Like, that's how I'm gonna go about it today. So from the personal brand, that's the first phase is your personal brand. And there's a there's a few components that make up your personal brand. The first thing that make up your personal brand is your name.
Audria Richmond®:How do you wanna operate and what do you wanna be called? For me, back home, my nickname back home was Nubia. Right? And I didn't wanna be called Nubia anymore. I wanted to be called Audria Richmond.
Audria Richmond®:Right? I had just got married, and I was like, no. I wanna, like, be me. I don't wanna hide behind a nickname. I don't and I was also thinking about, like, okay, where do I see myself in the next 20, 30 years?
Audria Richmond®:Do I wanna be called this nickname, or do I wanna be known for my name? And one thing that I know for sure is that your name will your name will will make millions if you develop it in a way where people can develop affinity in a relationship with you. Right? So the first thing you gotta get clear on is what do you want your name to be? Right?
Audria Richmond®:Like, how you wanna operate with your name. And then you go and buy your domain name. It blows me how many people do not have their their name as a domain name. So stop what you're doing. Go get your name, first and last name dot com.
Audria Richmond®:If that's taken, get the middle initial and get that. If that's taken, at least get, your first name .com. Just try to find different variations that make sense. Right? But you definitely wanna go and own your domain name.
Audria Richmond®:The next thing you wanna get clear on is, like, what do you wanna be known for? Like, what's the story and experience that you're utilizing to power up your personal brand? The next thing you wanna be clear on is your personality. Right? Like, what type of personality will your personal brand have?
Audria Richmond®:Hopefully, it's you. Hopefully, you're not developing a personality outside of who you are to to build and cultivate a personal brand. Hopefully, your personal brand is a reflection of you. Right? Me, I'm very goofy at times.
Audria Richmond®:I'm also very serious at times. I think I'm pretty funny. My husband don't think so, but I think I'm pretty funny. I love business. I love watching the movies.
Audria Richmond®:I'm a very creative person, and you can see a lot of those key components in my personal brand. Right? Also, when you're developing your personal brand, you have a brand identity. And your brand identity has different components. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Your personal brand identity. Number 1, what's your branding style guide? Some of the key components of your branding style guide may include colors, typography, brand patterns, like, the language you wanna use. Like, for instance, most people know I say Maine. A lot of people know I say cool beans.
Audria Richmond®:Like, I have these little sayings that I say. Right? Like, what are some of those sayings that you're known for? Also, like, what's the vibe and the mood you're going for? That also can be a part of your brand identity.
Audria Richmond®:Another way to kinda look at your brand identity is, like, what type of clothes are you going to wear? Like, are you always known for wearing, like, a suit and heels and a bad purse, or are you known for being laid back with a hoodie and a snapback? Like, what's the vibe of your brand? Right? Because, like, your style and your clothing is also a part of your identity as well.
Audria Richmond®:So the next thing you wanna do is make sure you cultivate a beautiful personal brand website. Make sure you go and get some professional photos of yourself, and then make sure you go and claim your name across all social media channels. So that's phase 1 of your personal brand. Number 2, we have speaking. Okay?
Audria Richmond®:So speaking is phase 2 of your personal brand. And speaking, a lot of times when people think about speaking, they think about a microphone, you're on stage, and you're, like, going crazy. Right? Like, no. What I want you to think about when you're when you're speaking is that your voice can be used everywhere.
Audria Richmond®:I'm using my voice right now. We're creating this audio newsletter. If I was recording a podcast, I'm using my voice. If I'm going live on any social media platform, I'm using my voice. If I am putting myself out there and I'm creating my own launches in virtual events, I'm utilizing my voice.
Audria Richmond®:If I'm speaking at my own event, I'm using my voice. So just keep in mind that when we talk about speaking, speaking is very universal. It's not just about you having a stage I mean, you having a mic and you being on stage. Speaking is about you verbally standing for something. You speaking about things and become and becoming known for that thing.
Audria Richmond®:So that's what it that's what it boils down to when we start talking about speaking. Alright? Now another thing that you wanna think about with speaking is like what you wanna speak about. Right? Like, you can develop a flagship keynote that you're always going to reference and utilize, or you can come up with a series of topics that you love to talk about.
Audria Richmond®:So for me, I love talking about offer development, launch campaigns, personal branding. I do like talking about publishing. So I have a few topics that I like for people to, like, think like, when these topics come up, I want them to think about me. If somebody say, hey. Who do you know for marketing campaigns and lunches?
Audria Richmond®:Boom. I come up. Right? So when you're thinking about your speaking and what you wanna be known for speaking, it's also about what you say a lot online. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Do you actually talk about your expertise and what it is that you know how to do? Right? So begin to think about that. That's speaking. That's that's phase 2.
Audria Richmond®:Phase 3 is publishing. Do you have a book? Do you have a workbook? Do you have a planner? Do you have a card deck?
Audria Richmond®:Do you have a game? What kind of publishing can you create to establish authority and credibility? Right? So think about all of the different ways that you can publish and put yourself out there. And publish doesn't always mean like a physical bro book or a physical product.
Audria Richmond®:Publishing is also another form of publishing is publishing an article, publishing a written newsletter, like on a blog or LinkedIn. I know LinkedIn has this cool feature now called the, like, a newsletter where you can write a newsletter to your audience and develop people to come and watch it and check it out and things like that. Right? So publishing is not just for physical publishing in that sense. Publishing is also digital.
Audria Richmond®:Another form of publishing is the post you make on social media. What kind of threads are you posting? What type of post you're making on your Facebook page, your LinkedIn page, your Instagram page. What kind of what are what are you publishing? Right?
Audria Richmond®:Publishing is so, diverse. So don't just think about just books only. Media. Okay. That's number we're on 1, 2, 3.
Audria Richmond®:So that's phase number 4 is media. Right? Are you featured in the press? Who's checking for you? Who's featuring you?
Audria Richmond®:Who's interviewing you? Right? That's a form of publishing. And publishing is not just online, but it also can be offline. What radio show can you get on?
Audria Richmond®:Who can you go where can you go offline to go speak and develop your, you know, your brand and who can you talk and communicate with, and they get to know you. Right? So when you think about, like, are you in the media or if you're in the press, that's also a great indication that people like what it is that you're talking about. The next phase of your personal brand is your products and services. What do you sell?
Audria Richmond®:Right? A lot of the times when people are developing a personal brand, they don't have a way for people to learn how to work with them. Right? Like, they don't have any courses. They don't have any physical products.
Audria Richmond®:They don't have any digital products. But just speaking speaking is not the only thing you can sell. And the longer you stay in that bucket without creating any type of product suite, if you will, that's beyond just you getting on the stage, you're really limiting your income, right, big time. And so when you're when we're talking about developing your personal brand, it is so essential that you have products at the very least. And services can be some you know, if you're a graphic designer or if you are a stylist or something like that, then it makes sense.
Audria Richmond®:Obviously, your service is your service. Right? But if you are someone that teach things and you're a coach or a consultant and you have a certain level of expertise, just because you go and speak on those things or workshop on those things does not mean that you should not have your own IP and your own products, right? All right, the next phase of building your personal brand is events, right? So one thing about events.
Audria Richmond®:Right? You can do events online or offline. I know a lot of the times when people think about events, they only think about they only think about the fact that, like, oh, I gotta go rent a venue and I gotta have a 1000000 people in my event. No. Okay?
Audria Richmond®:You can if if the closest thing for you to do is host a virtual event or a virtual conference or a virtual workshop, then do that. Start where you are. But the beauty in having and hosting your own events is that you don't have to beg for permission. You don't have to hope and pray your speaker situation gets selected. Right?
Audria Richmond®:Like, you know, I'm not gonna sit here and beg somebody to be on their stage when I can create my own. And the quicker you get to the point where you are leveraging your own stage, whether you're creating that experience virtually or in person, it's gonna be a game changer for your personal brand. Alright? That's number 6. And number 7 is partnerships.
Audria Richmond®:I do not recommend that you that you jump into partnerships until you have established the 1 through 6. Right? So number 1, we talked about your personal brand. Number 2, we talked about speaking. Number 3, we talked about publishing.
Audria Richmond®:Number 4, we talked about media. Number 5 is products and services. Number 6, events. 7 is partnerships. Most likely, people don't wanna partner with you until you are established.
Audria Richmond®:Meaning, you have something going for yourself and they could see a reason for it to be mutually beneficial. If they don't have a reason for it to be mutually beneficial, then essentially they're gonna be wasting their time. And when you go to pitch yourself to a brand or whoever, they gonna wanna know what's in it for me. And if you cannot display or talk about what it is, what's in it for them, then they're not gonna be so quick to partner with you. There's a lot of people who reach out to me and be like, hey, girl.
Audria Richmond®:I wanna partner with you and this and the third, and I'm like, cool. You know, how are you gonna help me do my thing? And it's crickets. So you wanna make sure that when you start seeking partnerships, sponsorships, you know, all of those types of things that you can add value. But, hopefully, the reason why it's number 7 is that you don't start seeing people with powerhouse personal brands do partnerships until they have established themselves.
Audria Richmond®:Right? So just a quick recap. Alright? So number 1 is personal brand. Number 2 is speaking.
Audria Richmond®:Number 3 is publishing. Number 4 is media, like press and media. Number 5 is products and services. Number 6 is events, and number 7 is partnerships. I really do hope that you got a lot of value from today's audio newsletter.
Audria Richmond®:Please let me know your biggest takeaway inside of our free UnCloned® marketing Facebook group. Until next time y'all. Let's go live an UnCloned® life and build an UnCloned® brand.
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