Hello and welcome to Sniffing Out the Bullshit, a podcast for ambitious entrepreneurs who want help wading their way through the bullshit jungle of entrepreneurship and the tools, skills, and mindsets that are actually required for success.

I’m your host, Sabrina Chevannes, the No Bullsh*t Entrepreneur.

So if you’ve decided to put this episode on, it’s probably because you want to know more about how to build your personal brand.

Or maybe you don’t, but you’re constantly hearing how important it is to have a personal brand, and you want to find out, I guess, how much of it is bullshit?

Well, I’m going to answer that one straight off the bat and say most of it’s bullshit.

And I mean seriously, I reckon that around 99% or 99.9%, even more, of the stuff out there about personal branding is now absolute nonsense.

The problem is having a personal brand and what it is about having a personal brand.

It’s not bullshit.

Like, the actual thing itself isn’t bullshit.

It’s actually incredibly important and integral to running a business.

But the content surrounding it, and the whole ecosystem, and all the people who are claiming to be gurus and experts and running courses, all of that is bullshit.

So let me talk you through what’s happening in the world of personal branding that makes it almost all bullshit and help you wade your way through it so you can spend your time wisely building yours.

Because I think the problem is now so many people are coming to ask me for advice on personal branding, and they’ve heard all this conflicting information, and they have no idea what to do or how to spend their time.

So let me guide you through this because I have been so fed up with it for a long time.

And if you follow me on LinkedIn, you will have seen a lot of my ranty posts about it, and I’ve spent a lot of time exposing the bullshit on there.

And if you don’t follow me on LinkedIn, then you may want to hit that follow button and find me because I do talk about this a lot.

But first up, maybe we should cover what personal branding actually is.

What is a personal brand?

I mean, it sounds kind of ridiculous that I have to explain it, as the name should really be a hint.

It’s your personal brand.

The brand of you.

It’s not a company brand, but you as a brand.

But I guess the problem is people don’t quite get what a company brand is either.

Like, I’ve been running a creative agency for over a decade now, and I’ve done countless branding exercises with clients, and many genuinely have no clue what branding really is.

They assume it’s a logo or their colours or their fonts and stuff like that.

And so, since people don’t have these attributes, like, you know, what makes up a personal brand?

Because the thing is, branding is not about the visual elements, even though that’s the first thing people kind of think about.

Or if it was, then as people, we would all be judged by how we all look.

I mean, I guess we are to some extent.

But that’s not what a personal brand is.

They’re not saying, “Well, you know, this person’s blonde and that’s her branding.”

It’s not the same as saying, “Oh, they use blue in their colour scheme.”

So no, it’s not like that.

A brand is actually all about emotion.

It’s how it makes the customer or audience feel.

So do you trust that brand?

Do they represent quality?

Like, what do you feel when you see their content?

And personal branding is the same thing.

How do people feel about you?

Do they respect you?

Do they see you as a person of authority?

Do you come across as humble, maybe?

Are you someone who believes in the greater good, like purpose over profit and all that sort of stuff?

Like, all of those bits are elements of your personal brand.

So your personal brand is essentially like your reputation.

The problem is that people see them as very different.

They see your reputation as something others perceive you to be, but your personal brand is what you portray to others.

And I have a little bit of an issue with this because then your personal brand becomes fake if your personal brand is like this persona that you’re essentially putting on to come across in a way that you’re maybe not.

And this is so disingenuous.

And it’s truly ironic because most people, like most of those personal branding coaches, claim that the key to building your personal brand is authenticity.

And by definition, crafting an image or persona that you’re not is downright inauthentic, in my opinion.

So your personal brand and your reputation should essentially be the same thing.

Okay, so you might portray yourself badly and then, you know, you could get misconstrued, and then your reputation suffers a little bit.

But if you have a consistent personal brand, then your reputation should be able to bounce back.

So I can kind of get that.

And, you know, I say “should” here because I’m sort of praying at the moment.

I recently had scammers make a website claiming to be our agency and pretending to be me while scamming a bunch of people.

And I ended up receiving this long series of one-star reviews on our company page.

They’re still coming in.

This is literally still happening.

And they’re all claiming that I’m a scammer, and it’s so painful.

And so I wrote to each of these victims because they are victims.

I wrote to them personally to apologise for what they’re going through and explain who I really was, and offered to talk to them all personally to assure them that it wasn’t me and that I would do what I could to help.

And thanks to my personal brand, they looked me up online and could see that I was legit, believed me, and then felt a bit relieved.

And they really realised that, okay, it was a nasty scammer rather than our company.

Someone was even so nice that they took the time to write a five-star review about the experience he had with me to let others know that it wasn’t actually me doing the scamming, which I loved and was super grateful for.

So even though my reputation is getting a bit of a hit at the moment, my personal brand is sort of coming to the rescue, which is why I think they’re very much intertwined.

And I guess your reputation could go up and down, but your personal brand should stay consistent.

And that’s the key word they all use: consistency, right?

But the problem is there are so many supposed experts out there that don’t really understand what personal branding is.

But they’re jumping on this train because it’s an easy way to make money at the moment.

I mean, even Wikipedia has an entry about personal branding.

At the top of it is this massive disclaimer that says, “This article contradicts itself.”

And then there’s a link to one of its talk pages where it’s been voted for the article to actually be deleted.

And so if something is so badly defined, and even the self-proclaimed world experts at this are getting it wrong, isn’t this by definition just a bullshit topic?

And I guess this is what the problem is that’s happening, and the reason why I’m recording this episode.

Because I do think it’s actually super-duper important to craft your personal brand, but I also think it is filled with bullshit, and listening to these supposed experts could actually land you in some serious trouble.

Now, I’m definitely not a self-proclaimed personal branding expert.

But I have been in the branding industry for over 15 years now, and have built a decent personal brand for myself, which pays absolute dividends at the moment, I’m thankful to say.

And since that’s the reason why most people want to build their own personal brand—to make more money—I feel like I’m in a decent enough position to explain what’s worked for me and the clients I’ve helped, and what to stay well away from.

So let’s talk about that because we’ll talk about, you know, I guess, how to find the legit people from the fakes, as I call them—the fake experts.

It’s people who actually bring their experience to the table.

And I’m not just going to say and repeat and regurgitate what other people say online.

I’m going to talk about it from my experience.

So let’s talk about how to build your own personal brand.

So I guess, first of all, when most people reference their personal brand, they’re almost always talking about how they show up online because I guess most people spend most of their time online these days, and that’s where they get most of their business.

So they’re talking about the content they put on social media, their email marketing, their website, etc.

Perhaps even pieces they’ve landed in high-profile publications like Forbes or Business Insider.

Now, obviously it depends on your industry, but I’ve just picked those because most people who are entrepreneurs or running a business would probably quite like to be featured in those publications.

And, you know, this is what is considered to be personal branding these days—just online content.

But of course, it does go much further than that, right?

And naturally, if you’re building your online brand, it’s probably because you want it to lead to in-person work or perhaps a keynote spot at a conference.

And then you 100% have to learn how to show up in person for those, right?

But let’s discuss how to show up online for this because obviously that’s where most of it is concentrated.

And I think that’s one of the biggest bullshit areas.

And I think one of the most common questions people ask me is, “Which marketing channels should I be concentrating on?”

Marketing isn’t actually the first thing this episode I’ve mentioned the word marketing, and I’m going to address that because I want to establish the difference between personal branding and marketing.

We’ve discussed what personal branding is a lot already, and in a way, it’s a form of marketing.

But marketing itself should have different goals.

Like, marketing should all be about promotion, like a way to sell your services or product.

Personal branding shouldn’t necessarily be about that.

You are essentially selling yourself, but not directly, right?

You’re showcasing your skills and your expertise by providing thought leadership, opinion pieces, and advice on specialist subjects.

So therefore, your marketing content will be a lot more salesy and should be serving a direct purpose, whether that’s to sell a product, get people to buy tickets for an event, or sign them up as clients for a service that you offer.

But your personal branding content should be different, right?

It should be showcasing your knowledge on your specialist subject, providing value for your audience, and showing them why you’re someone people should know, like, and trust.

And what platform you do this on really depends on your business.

Now, many people choose their platforms and their marketing services and other bits of their businesses based on personal preferences.

And, you know, I get this a lot again in branding.

They pick colours they like, and they pick different styles because of what they personally think.

But actually, this is most of the time wrong.

The correct decision isn’t about what you like personally.

It’s based on what your customers want.

And great brands actually do stuff that they don’t like themselves, but they know that their audience are going to love.

So to find out which platform you should be concentrating on, you need to ask yourself a few questions first.

It’s like, “Which platform are my customers using?”

You know, where are they showing up?

The answer to that should be where you concentrate your efforts.

I guess people also ask if they should be putting content across all the platforms, right?

Because there’s so much attention now on repurposing content.

And I think what this creates is that it is great.

It is great to repurpose content.

And I think it’s definitely a valuable skill to have.

And, you know, we’re doing it because you get more bang for your buck with the content you create.

However, it can be so overwhelming if you try to create a strategy for five different channels before you’ve even nailed one.

Like, we’re doing it at the moment only because we’ve got a little bit of a following.

But it’s not easy.

So my advice is to focus on one channel first.

And that’s why I spend most of my time on LinkedIn.

It’s where I put all of my thought leadership.

I put a few lifestyle videos on Instagram and I randomly post angry tweets during the football.

So I really only use LinkedIn for business at the moment.

However, now that I’ve grown a decent following, and they’re loyal as well, I think it might be time to branch out.

But I’m finding it overwhelming myself.

And, you know, this is one of the reasons I’m starting a YouTube channel because I want to invest more time in creating video and an overall social media marketing strategy across different platforms.

But yeah, I’m only doing it now after several years of doing it.

And I think, you know, at first, when you’re doing it, it’s a lot.

And so I think something also important to consider is what type of content you like creating.

And, you know, if you don’t really like creating content at all, then this is maybe a little bit harder, and we’ll have to come back to that.

And there’s ideas for that.

But, you know, for example, if you like creating video content like I do, then you probably should be concentrating on YouTube and then looking at repurposing the shorter versions for TikTok and Instagram.

And I know I just said you probably shouldn’t spend lots of time repurposing, but these days, with incredible AI tools out there, like, for example, Opus Clip, it’s insane.

You could have all of this automated at the click of a button.

So you don’t need to think about it.

So I’d say concentrate all your efforts on YouTube, crafting incredible YouTube videos at high quality, and then automate the process for TikTok and Instagram.

And if you’re more into written content, then I’d recommend starting a blog.

Create a mailing list and then get busy on LinkedIn putting that content out there.

And so LinkedIn is the platform that I really want to talk about right now, as this is the one that I use the most.

LinkedIn.

And it’s the one that most people use for business purposes.

And there’s a lot of focus at the moment on how to build your LinkedIn, and so much focus that it’s causing completely unethical practices and fraudsters to come out of the woodwork and take advantage of the buzz.

Just have to sip my coffee before I start ranting about this.

So I think that pretty much every Tom, Dick, and Harry now claims to be a LinkedIn expert, and they’re just dropping into your DMs promising to help boost your profile and guarantee you results.

And let me just tell you something.

Anyone who says the word “guarantee” should not be trusted.

There’s that old phrase, you remember, that goes around and gets repeated, where they say there’s nothing certain in life other than death and taxes.

And, you know, I think back to these scammers, and I think they’re probably not even paying the taxes.

So they definitely aren’t going to guarantee you anything.

And actually, look at their profiles.

They’re not even practising what they preach.

So it’s really ridiculous.

And let me tell you what else nonsense is going on LinkedIn right now because it is complete nonsense, and so many people are getting affected by it.

So I want to address it, and I want to expose the bullshit because so many of the people in my circles are really, really concerned, and I really want to put them at ease.

So I guess you’re probably well aware that people buy Instagram and TikTok followers and stuff like that.

And probably people have bought lots of X followers too.

But did you know that you can also buy LinkedIn followers?

Yep, this is what a lot of these influencers are doing now.

One of the top influencers, who actually runs a personal branding agency, believe it or not, and claims it’s the best in the UK, also bought LinkedIn employees at the beginning.

Like, this is the thing.

So, you know when you go to a company profile and it says how many people work for you?

And those are the people that put it in their job description.

They create fake profiles and put them in the team and make it look like people are working for them.

It’s ludicrous.

And so she had no one working for her at the beginning, and yet would pretend she had a team.

So she’d bought employees, bought thousands of followers, and just pretended.

But you know what?

You know, at least fair play to her.

She posted every single day and she consistently tried out content.

And now she has an actual team.

So I guess I’ll talk about faking it till you make it, right?

Because that’s literally what she did.

And, you know, I think there’s so much of this going on.

And now people go to her and pay tens of thousands of pounds a month, I’m not even joking, to build their personal brand when all she did was fake it.

And it gets worse than this because, as you know, engagement is what it’s all about on any of these social media platforms.

The more you get people liking and commenting on your posts, then this secret algorithm thinks your content is good and it pushes it out to more people.

And this is how you increase your reach.

And that’s why everyone’s talking about engagement.

You probably will have heard about engagement pods on Instagram.

People who are in the same WhatsApp group or Telegram group share their links in there, and then a bunch of people all like and comment on your post to make it look like it’s valuable content and it’s popular.

This is nothing new, and it’s been going on for years.

And it’s totally against the platform’s guidelines, and it could cause your account to get shut down.

But people never think it’s going to happen to them, and so they keep on doing it.

Now, this is absolutely rife on LinkedIn at the moment.

And you’re probably thinking, “Okay, so what’s the big deal if this happens on every other platform?”

The big deal is the fact that this is what all the top creators are actually doing.

The supposed influencers are completely faking all of their engagement.

If you look at any of the top guys, they post something, and in the first 20 minutes, the same 30-plus influencers all post comments basically agreeing with them, no matter what the post is saying.

So, like, imagine that they post, “Oh, did you know that if you put nude pictures online it will increase your B2B sales by 69%?”

And you’ll suddenly get a trickle of all the top influencers going, “Wow, great advice, mate.”

“So insightful.”

“Such good tips.”

“I’m going to do this now, man.”

I’m totally serious about this.

Go have a look.

Okay, I’m not serious about the nude pics bit, but other ludicrous advice or generic bullshit that isn’t insightful in the slightest.

They are all doing it.

And all those top guys are just commenting on it.

This is like the equivalent of, let’s say, on Instagram, Kim Kardashian being in an Instagram engagement pod with Taylor Swift, Cristiano Ronaldo, or Adam Mosseri.

I mean, I’m not saying that the head of LinkedIn is in these pods.

Not at all.

But these are just the people I’m thinking of who have quite a lot of influence on Instagram.

Can you imagine all those guys with the biggest influence actually just manipulating the algorithm and lying to you all day?

And then on top of that, they have the audacity to sell you courses and tell you how to grow your following and increase your engagement using their tried-and-tested techniques.

They’re cheating.

I mean, it’s one thing claiming to be something you’re not.

But I think the bit I hate the most is how it’s making the smaller creators feel.

There are people who spend hours and hours creating content each week, commenting on posts all day in the hope that their content will be seen by their target audience and then they can land some business.

And they are doing everything that these top guys are telling them to do.

Usually their simple system that helps them grow to 100K followers in 90 days.

But they’re barely getting 100 followers in those 90 days.

And so these genuine people, who have invested their hard-earned money and all that time into building their personal brand, now feel deflated, disappointed, and utterly defeated.

So what is the actual point?

Or perhaps they’re feeling like these people can do it so easily and I can’t, and therefore I’m completely worthless.

It’s so sad to see.

And I’ve had to help so many people through this slump now.

Unfortunately, there are always going to be people who game the system.

It’s the same with everything in life.

Some people are cheaters.

That’s just how they are.

Many people are desperate to look popular as some form of self-validation, even if it doesn’t make them any money.

In fact, even if it costs them thousands to create this image because, for some creators, they are actually paying for this luxury.

It’s pretty ludicrous.

And what can us normal folk do about it?

Well, I guess the first thing to do is to concentrate on our own strategy and ignore what the others are doing.

But definitely be more aware of what’s going on before you blindly believe and take advice from these guys.

Actually go and check their credentials.

What actual results have you seen them achieve before?

How many years of experience do they really have?

Do you even know of any clients that they’ve worked with?

And what do others say about them who are not in their inner circle?

Have you spoken to anyone who’s genuinely worked with them?

These are the questions you need to ask yourself because a lot of these people spend so much money to put out polished content and look perfect.

But behind closed doors, it’s a totally different story.

So really take the time to evaluate the value you’re getting from their content.

Is it actually a personal opinion on something, and are they adding their own insight after years of experience?

Or are they just regurgitating something they’ve read online and not actually offering anything else of value?

Because that’s the huge difference between those who are fake experts and those who are legit.

Now, I actually did a previous episode on how to spot fake experts, which is my made-up word for a fake expert.

But someone who’s got legit tonnes of experience and knowledge will always have extra bits to add that will be useful to their audience.

So go back and listen to that episode on how to spot a fake expert if you want to know a bit more about this.

The question is, how do you build your personal brand and not fall for all these gimmicks?

Well, I guess first of all, please try not to get sucked into this whole fake engagement thing because even if you’re not on LinkedIn and you’re building on X or Instagram, these guys are doing the same thing there.

Even on YouTube, I’ve seen one guy buy himself a fake award and buy all his subscribers and views to make it look like he’d achieved it.

I mean, the level of fakeness now is unreal, so you just have to ignore it.

Instead, I’d recommend going back to the old-fashioned ways of creating a content marketing strategy.

So who do you want to target and build personas for?

What type of content do these people consume?

What channels are they spending their time on, and what do they find valuable?

If you answer these questions and build a content marketing strategy around them, you’ll be in a much better position.

Start by building authority by putting yourself out there, showcasing what you’re good at, and constantly engaging with your audience.

If I was building my personal brand from scratch, I’d probably concentrate on YouTube because I really like video, but this is not the same for most people.

Now, if you don’t like getting in front of a camera, I’d use LinkedIn.

It’s actually a really interesting place to grow, and I think it’s probably the least time-consuming place too because of the nature of posts.

So if you have some decent bits of content that you can post on there each day, you have to be more frequent.

But if you have little anecdotes and little bits of content, it’s probably a great place to try.

But LinkedIn has always been the best place for me because it responds to a variety of different types of content.

I can put my podcasts on there.

I can put carousel posts, nice graphics, and just text-based content.

And you can really easily connect with your target audience and know more about them because everything is in their profiles.

And I’ve also found some incredible people to network with who have actually become really good friends.

But the problem is it can just get a bit overwhelming and depressing when you see all these people gaming the system.

But I’d say just remove these posts from your feed and try to curate it as much as possible for your own sake.

I actually started using a new piece of software recently called Aware, and it’s been a great app.

It filters your LinkedIn feed completely so that you can tailor your feed based on your audience.

You can have different lists so you can target your exact clients, maybe influencers you’d like to connect with, potential talent you want to hire, and just filter them all as you wish.

It saves you so much time and energy because then you don’t see all the drivel and the posts that trigger you.

So I’ll link to that piece of software in the show notes so you can have a look at it and let me know what you think.

I guess the main thing is just to, you know, run your own race and do what’s right for you because there’s so much advice out there, and people don’t even follow it themselves.

They just say it to sound smart, right?

And they’re off doing their own thing instead.

So don’t just follow the advice blindly thinking you’re going to get the same results because these guys manipulate the results themselves, and then you’re never going to achieve what they have.

So therefore, if you want to build your personal brand, my final bit of advice is this.

Number one, work hard at your own content in whatever format you feel comfortable with.

Number two, engage with your audience no matter how small they are.

Size is not everything.

And number three, be true to yourself, always.

Now, I’ve been doing a lot on personal branding lately because it’s such a big concern for so many people that I work with.

You can even check out the episode of No Bullsht Talks* with Izzy Prior, which is actually out tomorrow.

So for most of you listening to this, it will already be out.

So just search for the No Bullsht Talks* episode, which is my other podcast.

And Izzy Prior is a LinkedIn Top Voice on personal branding, and she exposes a lot of the bullshit on LinkedIn too.

And she talks about what it’s like being an influencer in this industry, and it’s not easy.

It’s definitely worth a listen if you found this episode valuable.

And if you did, then thank you so much for listening and supporting the show.

I’d really love it if you could submit a review on your podcast platform for me, as it will really, really help.

But that’s it from me for now, and I’ll see you next week for another episode of Sniffing Out the Bullshit.