Founder Brand Feature: How to Gain Personal Branding Clarity
Founder Brand Feature: How to Gain Personal Branding Clarity
with leadership coach, speaker, and author - Garland Vance
This week’s Founder Brand Feature:
Leadership Coach & Author Garland Vance
Garland Vance is a leadership coach, speaker, and author. Here are some stats that Garland is working to change:
71% of companies don’t believe that their leaders can take them into the future.
83% of companies believe that it’s important to develop leaders at every level of the organization.
But only 5% of companies have a strategy and plan for developing those leaders.
His mission is to help companies develop the current and future leaders they need to succeed. He works to break down complicated leadership ideas into simple tactical actions. Garland also has over 20 years of leadership experience and development in corporate and nonprofit, including working with Chick-fil-A & Fortune 500 companies. Forbes named his book 𝘎𝘦𝘵𝘵𝘪𝘯' (𝘶𝘯)𝘉𝘶𝘴𝘺 as "one of the books everyone on your team should read."
Could you share your perspective on the role your personal brand has played in building your business?
One, it’s been a financial benefit. I've done more business this year through LinkedIn than I expected to which has been great.
Second benefit that's come through my personal brand... which I think is more important is really the relationships that I've been able to develop with people who are attracted to the message that I'm putting out about leaders leading intentionally and living unbusy lives.
What have been some of the methods or strategies that have made the biggest difference in building your brand and authority as an entrepreneur?
The biggest thing that helped me is getting really, really clear on the personal brand that I wanted to create.
The first thing that I tried to do is understand: what are the results that occur when I work with people?
Result #1 is that entrepreneurs and business leaders stress less and accomplish more because I helped them beat busy‑ness.
Result #2 is I help leaders get crystal clear on the purpose of their organization; the priorities, the plans, the people, the processes, the problems that they have.
Result #3 is I help leaders develop more leaders and better leaders, so they have a higher quantity and quality of leaders within thier organization.
So as I became really clear on the results that I give to other people, then I started getting clear on, okay, what characteristics do I want people to see consistently from me that would help them get those results?
Final thought is that I think a lot of people, when working on personal branding, want to focus on who are I and what makes me unique? I don't think anybody cares about that. I think what people really care about is what can you do for them? What results can you get for them? So that's where I decided to start when building personal branding.
What has been the most surprising benefit from building your personal brand?
To me the most surprising part of building a personal brand is the relationships that I've been able to develop both personally and professionally!
I think when you put yourself out there and you build your personal brand, people begin to either love you or hate you, right? But the people who are really drawn to you, the people who are attracted to you, begin to connect with you.
So that's, to me, one of the biggest benefits of building this personal brand is the connections that I’ve creates. Sometimes those have really awesome financial incentives, but more than anything, it's those relationships that are really gonna shape your life.
Final Thoughts:
For years I avoided the idea of creating a personal brand because personal branding felt, and sometimes even now, feels selfish to me. I’ve realized that it isn’t if you don’t make it so.
I would just really encourage you if your motivation for building a personal brand is that you become really famous and you become well‑known, then don't do it. That's a terrible reason to build a personal brand.
Make your personal brand about the benefits and the value that you can add to other people and how their lives are going to be better, and as a by‑product, your life is going to be a lot better as well.
“The first thing that I tried to do is understand: what are the results that occur when I work with people?
Then, I started getting clear on, what characteristics do I want people to see consistently from me that would help them get those results?”
-Garland Vance
More about Garlands Vance:
Web: AdVanceLeadership.live and killbusy.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/garlandvancepage
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/garland-vance
Twitter: www.twitter.com/garlandvance
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCccPJdIqTSwzV_nDWy03AxA