A few months ago I visited a networking event at a cafe in Birmingham, I was just going to meet a friend who was actually guest hosting the event and I thought it would be a nice way to catch up with him. but little did I know, I was about to have quite an insightful conversation.

So I hop into my Yaris and head towards the cafe which is about a 15-minute drive from my house. I arrive fairly early, park up, and head inside. I walk up the stairs where the event is taking place, and I notice an older gentleman sat in the corner. If I remember correctly he had his notebook and pen at the ready waiting for him on the table in front of him. He catches my attention because my assumption was that this event would be more attractive to a beginner or younger audience. I didn't approach him at first because he was in conversation with someone else so I proceeded to sit down and make myself comfortable.

At a later point during the event we eventually cross paths and introduce ourselves to each other, It's at this point I learn that the brother has actually been working in the marketing industry for the past 20 years. As you may be aware, I'm pretty interested in the whole personal brand malarky so I basically ask him to break down for me what I need to do to establish an effective personal brand. I write down the advice he gave me and that leads us to where we are now. I want to share the 3 pieces of advice that he gave me. But instead of just reading them out to you, I thought that to help illustrate the principles, I'd share a case study of someone who I believe implements these 3 principles in a really successful way.

So without further ado, I present:

How to build a personal brand that people love.

A Freshly grounded case study.

I'm choosing to define a personal brand as simply what people say about you when you're not in the room. It sounds simple, but there's something that's hiding in plain sight that people aren't cognisant of. This is important so please pay attention.

Lets imagine that a personal brand is a coin. I'm not going to insult your intelligence, everyone knows that a coin has two sides. The first side of the personal brand coin is the story you tell others about yourself, but the reverse side of the coin, one may argue, the more important side of the coin is, the story that others tell about you. In other words, how people understand you, what do people say about you?

Storytelling is a deep subject that I will create content regarding in the future, but if you're interested in learning some effective storytelling frameworks and how you can apply them to your brand, head to the bottom of this essay to see how you can get a free pdf.

Now that we understand that a personal brand is a two-way relationship, let's move onto the three-step equation... Allow me to explain.

Step 1.

Explain your mission.

"Freshly Grounded is a weekly podcast founded by 2 British Muslim entrepreneurs, Faisal and Sam. The boys discuss anything and everything from business, lifestyle, conspiracies and current world events."

This is only half of the story. To explain your mission you need two things. You need to explain what you do, and you need to explain why you do it. Explaining what you do is the easy part, explaining why you do it takes a little bit more work.

Over the past 7 years, Faisal has released 370+ podcast episodes. This is how Faisal has explained his why. Every piece of content reinforces to his audience that he is fulfilling the promise he set out to fulfil. People will love your personal brand if they can see that you're being authentic and genuine. He's been doing this for almost a decade now and just keeps on delivering.

To keep it simple, you just have to put in the reps and be authentic, which is easier said than done. To be genuine and to be authentic, you have to know who you are, which is a difficult task, and one that I'm working on myself. Look, people aren't idiots, if you're playing with them, if you're not keeping it real, it's easy to see through, and ultimately it will ruin your reputation and trust, which I don't think is something that can easily be healed.

Before I start getting too existential, let's move onto step 2.

Step 2.

Unique identity. What's your special sauce?

The thing that Faisal has done well here is that his visual identity matches his product. Its a reflection of his culture and background and a Londoner. Now, the observant among you may have noticed some peculiar notes I’ve annotated... If I may offer a slight piece of criticism, I feel like back in the day Freshly Grounded used more coffee/cafe symbolism in its branding, like the extra shot screen with the coffee beans for example. It’s not completely gone, but I think the only remaining aspect of the coffee/cafe aspect of the brand is the coffee mug on the shelf. I think this is a bit of a shame because the brand name, "Freshly Grounded" is still very much so synonymous with ground coffee. Older viewers of the show will remember the old intro he had with the sound of coffee pouring into a cup and someone going tssssp ahhh.

I don’t think that it would take much to bring this aspect back and make the branding a bit more coherent. For example, at the start of each episode, Faisal could have a cup of coffee with him and just mention what he's drinking. Alternatively, he could start off the episode by pouring a cup of tea/coffee for himself and his guest, keeping it simple and organic to avoid making it feel like a gimmick. This could also open up sponsorship opportunities with coffee companies, it's such low-hanging fruit but would really tie everything back together.

People are quick to assume that brand identity is only visual. Wrong. A brand should also have an audible identity through the use of wordplay. Take Twitter (X) as an example, Twitter was able to take the word "tweet" and inextricably link it to their brand to the point that it just became common language to "tweet". Twitter's branding was thematic, bird sounds and a bird logo.

An example of how Faisal has started to create a theme around his brand is through the more frequent use of theatre-like words and images. For example, the set background uses an "on air" sign, his Ted X talk was focused around the idea of "showmanship", and in an older brand promotion he uses a projector to present his visuals. I believe that the theme of theatre has a lot more potential to be strengthened in his brand identity. For example, Faisal has created a course named "The Lazy Influencer". A name that he could have used to strengthen his theatre-like theme could have been "The Influencer’s Script". The word "script" complies with his theatre-like theme and subtly hints at the content inside of his course which focuses on processes of automation for content creation.

Create thematic consistency.

Step 3.

Share the journey.

People connect with People. Sharing both the highs and lows in your journey creates authenticity, relatability, and trust with your audience. When you open up about your struggles as well as your triumphs, you show your audience that you’re human. Faisal presents himself as himself, as a real person, not a sanitised persona of himself that he's created in order to amass clicks and views.

Vulnerability plays a huge role here. When you’re willing to be open about your struggles, you create an emotional connection with your audience. Not to veer too far off-topic, but loneliness is a big contemporary issue, people use para-social relationships as a form of escape. People build relationships with other people, not with corporate entities. A method to present the more human side of you is to share your challenges. This emotional honesty often translates into loyalty, as your audience sees you not just as a brand but as a person.

Episode 100 was a milestone for Freshly Grounded. To celebrate, Faisal wanted to host a live event. To make life easier for himself he could have just prepared for the show, turned up on stage, and then called it a day. Instead, he decided to produce a small documentary that captured all of the struggles and challenges that he endured to make his vision a reality.

Am I telling you to start a vlog where you expose all of your flaws and faults which will lead you to lose your self-respect? No. I'm telling you to be human.

And that concludes the personal brand equation. Remember. Mission + Identity + Journey = <3

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.السلام عليكم