AP 0362: What Role Does Appearance Make in Building a Personal Brand?

AskPat 362 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: What's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here, and welcome to Episode 362 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week. We have another question today from Aaron. Thank you everybody who has submitted questions over at AskPat.com.

All right, here's today's question from Aaron.

Aaron: Pat, thanks so much for having me on the show. My name is Aaron Billings. My website is FreeCustomMusic.com. Pat, I'm really grateful for what you shared recently in your emails about standing out from the crowd, doing things that are a little crazy, things that don't make sense so much to us personally, but that get people's attention. Like having crazy hair, or wearing a red and white shirt. Doing things, just to get people's attention so that we can offer value, so that we can make a connection with them. But Pat, what about the more older style, typical way of addressing people, the more professional vibe? People wearing a business suit, and wearing more of a nice, comely, styled hairstyle. What happened to that? Is that still something that has a place? Thanks so much, Pat. Bye.

Pat Flynn: Hey Aaron, what's up? Thank you so much for the question. I love this question, because it's really important to stand out. I'll get more about the hairstyles, and those types of things in a second. But let's talk about standing out really quick. It's important to think about how you can differentiate yourself beyond everybody else out there that's doing exactly what you're doing, or attempting to provide value to the same audience that you're targeting as well. It's important to understand what your unique selling proposition is, your USP for short. That's really important, because that's how you are able to provide value in a different way than other people are. Understanding what your, as they say, your, “unfair advantage,” is. And making sure you milk that, knowing that that's what helps you stand out. That when people talk about you with other people, that's what they're going to say.

I think it was Chris Ducker, or some other people, it's a great way to describe what a brand is. A brand is what everybody else says about you or your company, when you're not there. You want them to … I mean, they're going to tell you, their friends what's different, that's how we talk about things with our friends: “Oh, you know that one guy? He does this.” Or, “That one website, it allows you to do this.” Or, “I like it because of this.” Those are typically things that are different from all the other services, or tools, or people, or brands out there that are doing essentially the same thing. That USP, how you provide value differently than others, is very important.

There are other things that you can do to help yourself stand out as well. I mentioned this is an email that is in an auto responder that I send out. This is the email that you were mentioning, and it's called, “Here's how to get noticed in any niche.” If you are a part of my email list already, you can go back into time and find that. Just type in, “Here's how to get noticed in any niche,” in your search folder, or search field in your email service provider. Or you can sign up to my email list. You can actually go to EbookstheSmartWay.com and sign up. You'll get my free ebook as well, along with that. Or you can just go to the homepage and sign up from there on the bottom. This email, one section of it, I talk about rule number two, which is to be different. The point is, you want to stand out. The best way to do that is to be different, that's why we can find Waldo with his candy cane striped shirt and red cap amongst a sea of people on a page. Just like my son and my daughter, they're looking at Waldo books, and it's very easy to find him, because that's what's unique to him. It's not just the value, it's kind of the appearance, and that's kind of where your question is coming from.

Now, the old school, prim and proper, suit and tie type of person, that could stand out if everybody else was not that. The idea isn't to pick a style and see if that works; the idea is to see what everybody else is doing, and do something different. The idea is to, if you were to get everybody in the same niche together, including you, how can people find you? How can you be a Waldo? What can you do to be a Waldo? Now, that doesn't mean that you shouldn't be yourself, but you can do things that enhance your personality, that show more about you based on appearance. Not just appearance in terms of what you wear, or what you look like. That honestly doesn't matter too much. What matters is how you are seen, or that also involves your website, for example, as well, or the pictures, or the personality that comes through in your blog content, or in your voice in your podcast. Those are all types of things that help you stand out, and be different.

The biggest thing is just to remember to be you. You're going to see other people out there that are doing things in a very successful way. It's very, very easy to want to do what they do also, because it's proven that they are doing things that work. The only thing is when you do something that somebody else is already doing, you will never be the first, you will never be the best at it. You're always going to be second at least, or you're always going to be somebody behind somebody else who had done it already. It might take some deep thinking in terms of discovering what it is about you that makes you different. Again, your value has to be different, obviously, but what it is about you that people can connect with, is going to be really important for you to discover.

It might actually take you some conversations with people in your audience, or people around you to have them actually tell you what it is about you that they like. I've actually had a few friends of mine ask me that very question on Skype. It almost seems like a weird question to get asked, or even ask others. “Hey, what is it about me that you like?” If you tell them, “Well, I'm trying to figure out what it is I have to offer, how I can stand out? I would love for you to answer this question for me. What is it about me that you enjoy, that you like?” I've actually asked this to people who I've met at conferences before, and a lot of times people say, well, it's because I put my personality into my blog, into my content, into my podcast. I talk about my family, and what I do. Its not just about business, and I also talk about my failures—something that a lot of people in the space I'm in don't do very much. I'm not afraid to share my failures. What do I do now? I talk about my failures all the time. I just wrote a guest post on Fizzle.co, which was all about my failures in the software space before moving on to a successful software, which was the Smart Podcast Player at SmartPodcastPlayer.com. Again, that's what my site's all about, is not just sharing the wins, but the failures, so that they're all a lesson for everybody following along.

That's, honestly, that took me so long to figure out, that those were my unique abilities. It did come through conversations with others as well, but also others that I trusted, and colleagues, and friends who are in this industry as well, who also have their own unique way of positioning themselves in the market that we're serving. Getting in a room with them, and talking about, “Okay, well what is it that you think makes me stand out?” Those conversations were really hard to have, and really tough to figure out. With the help of others, I was able to figure out, and then kind of go full force with it. Again, the important thing is you want to be yourself. There's a great site out in there in the financial space called Budgets Are Sexy; that's by a guy named J. Money. I met him in person; he's great. He's awesome, but he's also kind of cool and crazy, and he sports this mohawk. You can find him on his site at BudgetsAreSexy.com, on his about page. You can see just his mohawk right there. That fits his personality perfectly. It's not like he's pretending to be somebody different just to stand out. He's amplifying what makes him unique through sharing those things, and milking what it is about himself that people see. Putting his personality into his site that way has been really helpful, and I recommend you do the same as well. Again, it's not about the suit and ties, and the pro-looking type stuff. It's about if that can help you stand out, then that's what you should be doing. Again, if it reflects who you are. That's the most important thing.

Aaron, I hope that answers your question. Thank you so much for the question today. We're going to send you an AskPat T-shirt for having your question featured here on the show. Thank you so much. For those of you listening, if you have a question you'd like potentially featured here on the show, just head on over to AskPat.com; you can ask right there on that page.

Thanks again for listening, and I appreciate it. As always I like to end with a quote, and today's quote is from Bernard Meltzer. He said, “Blessed are those who can give without remembering, and take without forgetting.” Cheers, take care. I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat.