Personal branding is a topic that I've loved talking about for years. When it comes to what we want people to know about us, one of the biggest goals is wanting people to think we're credible.

This week on the show my friend Shelagh Cummins joined me to talk about credibility. Shelagh and I have worked together for years and she has been instrumental in helping me build my business - she's got a lot of amazing knowledge that Shelagh!

Who is Shelagh Cummins?

A well-known voice on the speaker circuit, Shelagh Cummins is a trainer and business consultant specializing on a mission to help entrepreneurs create their own Profit PathTM to increase sales and revenue. She advocates entrepreneurs understanding how to run a profitable business - and own their value so they can charge what they are worth. Profit allows entrepreneurs to do more work they love and help more people.

How do I establish my credibility?

You are an expert. If you can solve someone's problem for them, then you know more than them. You need to own that and figure out how you can take that expertise and use it to establish your credibility.

How can I build my credibility online?

Be consistent. You don't need to be everywhere, but be consistent where you are. Make sure you're posting regularly and that you're posting the kinds of content that backs up your knowledge. Post with a purpose and if your audience is not on a specific social network, you don't need to be either.

How can I impact people?

You want to create an emotional connection with people that leaves them feeling like you are the right person to help them. You need to intentionally create that emotional connection. Share personal stuff, but also share your business stuff - share your good content. Ask yourself what feeling is being conveyed with your content? Write, create a video - have something out there so that people can get to know you.

Take your knowledge and teach people how to do something. You can do this with great content or by creating an online course. Shelagh's new online course is all about creating online courses and you can find out more and get some free training from her website at Create Profitable Online Courses.

Links & Resources

Shelagh Cummins Profit PathTM

Create Profitable Online Courses

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Episode three focuses on how people perceive you based on what you are putting online about yourself.

What is personal branding?

According to Wikipedia, you can define personal branding as the ongoing process of establishing a prescribed image or impression in the mind of others about an individual, group or organization. Personal branding often involves the application of one's name to various products.

Personal branding is important for someone whose business is built around his or her name, such as myself: Lara Wellman Digital Marketing. It is important to think about how my business, my business name and myself are interconnected.

Why is personal branding so important?

Whether or not your business name is the same as your personal name, you are still linked to your business’ reputation. People will Google your business and, more than likely, they will see your name attached to it. In the eyes of a client or customer, you are your business.

How do I find out my personal brand?

1) Browse incognito: because browsers are designed to find content that is most relevant to you, if you Google yourself you are more likely to come up with more hits about yourself than someone else would, since your Browser knows you are interested in you. To prevent this you need to browse incognito, here’s a link to a tutorial to show you how on various web browsers: http://www.7tutorials.com/how-browse-web-incognito-all-big-browsers).

2) Ask a friend: Ask a close friend to Google you and report back on what they find out about you. You may be surprised!.

At the end of both of these activities, take notes of what you find out about your personal brand. Is the information online telling people what they should know about you?

Create general guidelines for yourself and your business outlining what you want people to think about you and your business based on what is online. For example, are you okay with images of your children or other family members being online? What about complaints? Do you tend to post negative comments on Facebook or other website? Remember, those are searchable online and are representative of you and your business.

How do I make the right impression online?

What kind of information do you want people to find about you and is any of that missing? Fill those gaps! This means filling out your LinkedIn profile, and being cautious with personal posts on any social network. It's very important to think of anything you post online as having the potential of being seen by everyone. Think before you post!

This includes professional images – including headshots. If you are a professional and want people to take you seriously then a professional headshot will help you achieve this. Before you meet with a photographer think about what you want people to think about you when the see your professional headshot? Write down these keywords and bring them with you to your photo session. This will help ensure that your professional photos really speak to what you want people to see. Then keep this in mind with every photo you post – it’s okay to be fun and quirky if you are comfortable with people seeing that photo (now and in the future) and know it may connect with your audience somehow.

Remember, the more new, compelling and relevant information that you put out there, the more the old stuff will be slowly pushed down and out of Google search. So, create content that reinforces what you want people to know and think about you and then work to maintain and manage your personal brand online.