In today’s personal brand example, we take a look at James Smiley, a Digital Marketing Consultant and Entrepreneur.
Example: Personal Brand Logo
The personal brand logo used by Smiley is simple, elegant, and straightforward. It includes his initials, JS, in a bolded gold font that is very easy to read, with a black background behind it. He also has a gold vine design circling around his initials, which adds an extra image other than his name that is pleasing to the eye. The gold and black color scheme is very chic, is pleasant to look at, and is memorable.
Personal Branding Tip: Using your first and last name can be good for personal branding. If you want something simple, consider using your initials for your logo.
Example: Personal Brand Statement
From James Smiley’s website:
“James has been recognized as one of the most innovative and in-demand entrepreneurs under 40. He has led $0 to $20M growth for two different companies, been a part of a Silicon Valley SaaS IPO, and consulted for 3 of the Fortune 10.”
The personal brand statement used by Smiley on his website explains who he is, as well as highlights his main accomplishments. By giving exact numbers for growth, his success at such a young age, as well as listing great achievements involving Silicon Valley and the Fortune 10, he gives himself extreme credibility with what he does as an entrepreneur. This leads to a big advantage over his competitors and proves why he is unique with his successes. This allows his audience to realize why they should choose to work with him and listen to his coaching and mentoring so they can be successful, just like he is.
Example: Personal Brand Story
Smiley’s personal brand story is included on the home page of his website, which is listed below. In his personal brand story, he includes information about his childhood, explaining where he grew up, and about how he became successful at 13 years old with an innovative paper route.
He then goes on to explain the adversity he faced as he was growing up, and all of the hardships he went through to get where he is today. After he discusses his childhood, he goes into how he made his first six figures, the successes that he worked for prior to hitting that goal, and what he does with his career now from what he built for himself.
Smiley’s personal brand story is very personal. He explains all aspects of his life, from when he was a child up until now. He describes his successes, as well as his failures, which makes him appear very relatable and approachable. By knowing many details about his personal and professional life, people are more willing to reach out to him and take his advice. And since he found great success despite having to struggle, his audience can surely relate to him and his story.
https://jamessmiley.org/jshome8096571
Example: Personal Branding Website
Smiley uses https://jamessmiley.org as his personally branded website. On his website, he includes information about himself and his many successes, testimonies of people he has coached and mentored, training videos, coaching options, as well as access to his Mentor Lab. All of these factors allow people to read about what he does and how he could be of benefit to them.
Personal Branding Tip: To be successful with your personal branding, it is important to establish a proposition for your value. This lets your audience know what makes you unique, and why they should choose you to work with.
Example: Personal Branding for Social Media
Next, let’s take a look at how Smiley has personally branded his social media profiles.
Smiley’s Facebook profile includes straight-to-the-point information about what he does and how he could help his audience.
His profile picture is not your average headshot, because he is doing a more casual pose, and not looking directly at the camera. He does look professional in the picture, as he is wearing a suit jacket and a watch. You can see exactly who he is, and you can gain a little glimpse into his personality.
The left side of his header picture includes various shots with himself and people he has worked with, smiling at the camera and looking happy. These pictures are arranged in a design and are all put together, making them appear organized and simple to look at.
On the right side of the header picture, he has an image of himself from the waist up, in a suit jacket staring off into the distance. He includes a bit of text on top of his shot, explaining his credibility with achieving revenue growth for high-income entrepreneurs.
Smiley’s Twitter profile is unfortunately not very active or updated, as he does not utilize Twitter as a main form of connecting with his audience. His profile picture is a headshot, allowing people to be sure that it is his account, but he does not have a header picture. His bio includes a brief summary of how he struggled in the past, but has worked hard to be successful. He only has one post and has not posted anything since.
It’s interesting to consider that Twitter is not a major venue for the James Smiley brand, and it may suggest that other entrepreneurs may think twice about using it as a major platform for products or services.
YouTube
Smiley’s YouTube profile advertises himself and what he does very well. His profile picture is a professional headshot, which easily puts a face to the name. His header picture includes a link to his Entrepreneur Coaching program, and explains that he posts free videos weekly.
He also incorporates the link to his Top 30 Speeches; those are also free. Having links on his YouTube profile makes it easy and accessible for his audience to explore various things he has to offer, and to try out more videos than the ones on his YouTube profile.
Smiley’s Instagram profile provides an easy way to understand what he does and how successful he is with just a quick glance. His profile picture is a professional headshot but is a different picture than his other social media platform profile pictures. This adds a bit of diversity to his various pages while keeping the consistency of his image as a part of his personal branding.
His bio lists his top 3 successes: Top-40 Under-40 Entrepreneur, his number of sales from Silicon Valley IPO, as well as the fact that he consults with 3 of the Fortune 10 companies. He also has a link to his Mentor Lab incorporated in his bio, so that his audience has easy access to it.
Personal Branding with Books
James Smiley published a book called Influence and Income Online: Three Millennial Millionaires Share Their Secret. This book includes information about multiple millionaires and their passive income freedom, where they go into depth about how they succeed. The book also includes a link to one of Smiley’s Home Study Courses, which have mentoring lessons from himself, as well as other millionaires.
Personal Branding Tip: Books can be a great way to introduce potential clients to your thought leadership and courses.
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