Founder Brand Feature: One Way You Can Fast Track Your Success
Founder Brand Feature with Ellen Yin
Welcome to the first Founder Brand Feature!
Every other Thursday we’ll be sending a newsletter that features an impressive founder giving exclusive insight about the impact their personal brand has had on their business. We also chat about what strategies these founders have used that have had the most positive impact on their personal brand.
This week’s Founder Brand Feature:
Founder & Podcast Host Ellen Yin
“Her journey from "Cubicle to CEO" began when she quit her corporate marketing job at the end of 2017...without a backup plan.
To date, Ellen has served over 9,000 entrepreneurs and brands through her online courses + marketing agency services. She also hosts the award-winning Cubicle to CEO Podcast, rated a "new & noteworthy" show by Apple Podcasts during its release week.
Ellen's business insights have also been featured in Forbes and on the TODAY show with Hoda & Jenna, in addition to many other impressive publications.”
Exclusive Personal Branding Insights:
Could you share your perspective on the role your personal brand has played in building your business?
“I personally think my business couldn't be what it is today without my personal brand. It has been absolutely crucial as not even a strategy necessarily, but I think business at the end of the day is about the relationships that you build.
It's very difficult to build a relationship with a non‑human, right? The saying “people buy from people, not brands.” I think that's really true because as humans, we crave connection and storytelling is one of our most native and natural forms of communication.
Anytime you can show up as a person, let people into your life, and let them get to know you and your journey more, it creates those opportunities for connection. That connection has been what has sustained and allowed me to actually make drastic pivots or make drastic transitions in my business.
Some of the people that I connected with five, six years ago are still with me today. These people have worked with me in all sorts of different capacities. I don't think that would have been possible without my personal brand.”
What have been some of the methods or strategies that have made the biggest difference in building your brand and authority as an entrepreneur?
“I'm a marketing minimalist. I always joke that if someone like Marie Kondo was a marketer, that'd be me, because I really think you should toss out anything that doesn't bring you joy.
In the online business industry, we're often overwhelmed by all of these, you know, all of these shiny objects, all of these strategies, all these platforms that we should show up on, do this, do that. I really think that it's created this obsession with feeling like you have to post every single day... feeling like you have to grow your following, or you're not, you know, doing what you should be doing as a business owner.
I have this belief that the faster and more efficient way to grow in your business is actually through borrowing audiences, which all come back to, building relationships, and having a strong personal brand.
One of the biggest strategies I think business owners can do is to partner with other people in their industry who serve a similar audience; podcasts, different media forums, Instagram lives, a blog, a newsletter. There are so many ways to collaborate.
It doesn't mean that if you get on someone's podcast, that magically that's going to change your business overnight, it could happen, but it's not likely. I think if you keep in mind that, you know, everything kind of comes back in one way or the other and you getting in front of new audiences and the right audiences without having to wait months and years to build up your own, that's going to be your leverage. That's going to be the thing that's going to fast‑track your success more than all those other shiny objects strategies are going to do.
Instead of feeling like the only way to build a connection and to build a personal brand is to put the spotlight on you.
When it comes to networking, one of my favorite quotes of all time is, “become interesting by first being interested.” I really try to live by that rule because I do think that if you can create an opportunity for someone you admire, someone that you would love to establish a relationship with, if you can create an opportunity for them and support them in the work that they're doing, your personal brand is naturally going to be built from that. It has nothing to do with just showcasing yourself or putting the spotlight on yourself.
I would encourage people to start there.”
What has been the most surprising benefit from building your personal brand?
“There are so many. I think it's really difficult for me to pinpoint one thing, but one thing that's, you know, not even business-related, but just life-related. I find it so fascinating that most of my closest friends, people that I speak to on a daily, weekly basis, almost none of them live locally.
It's exciting to me when I think about the fact that, if I wanted to go, you know, travel the world for a year, I could probably plan that entire trip around just staying in people's homes; all through the relationships that I've built over the years through my business and online.
That is what blows my mind. I can't believe that I've met people in places and through situations that in my wildest dreams I couldn't imagine our paths crossing. They would never be someone that I would have physically bumped into in my life, but because of the business, I’ve been able to form these relationships and connections.
I think there's so much beauty in that. It's really about friendships. That's been what's most exciting for me. I love that.”
“You never know who you're impacting. You could be making huge impacts in someone’s life, even if they don't ever choose to reveal that to you.” -Ellen Yin
More about Ellen Yin: ellenyin.com