Get ready to be inspired by today’s guest blogger, Joshua Liberman! Joshua is a true jack-of-all-trades, with a background in mountaineering, martial arts, and photography. He’s written all about using your personal brand to stand out.
He is the President of Net Sciences, a proud member of MSP501, and an ASCII board member. With a passion for writing and public speaking, Joshua shares his knowledge and experiences with others in the tech industry.
He’s also a proud husky owner, and his wife Heidi affectionately calls him the Most Interesting Geek in the World.
You won’t want to miss out on the insights and perspectives he has to share.
Richard Tubb.
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Your Personal Brand
We all know that using the same fonts, colours, logo(s), styles, and telling the same story across a range of media over time will build your company’s brand.
We know everything we do, from issuing quotes, to answering the phone, defines our brand. But how do we build our own personal brand and become the interesting character that draws business to us?
The first step is to define what makes you unique. This is analogous to defining your USP (unique selling proposition). It still thrills me to hear “you don’t seem like an IT guy” and indeed, that is not my life. I’ve been a mechanic, worked in oil fields and on pipelines, played guitar, done journalism, and much more.
I am not my job, and you are not yours.
I always include a picture of myself (and our logo) in personal communications and posts. In our marketing I also try to include photos of our facility, staff, and logo, prominently displayed. And we always try to “sign” anything we do to identify it as our work, we do it, such as leaving logo stickers on all equipment. This is great company branding, but let’s get more personal yet.
Getting More Personal
Every MSP or other IT service provider sells just one thing first, and that is trust. While it is true that small business owners do business with folks they like, when it comes to critical choices for professional services, including accounting and legal services, and IT support, trust is the coin of the realm. Without trust, you cannot build a relationship.
The first step to building that trust is to find a way to build a bond with someone, often over a shared interest. One of the hardest things about the pandemic was the loss of personal contact and the challenges of trying to build initial trust in its absence. For example, how will you know a prospect loves soccer if you cannot see his wall of photos? Finding common ground is everything.
Getting naked (in the Pat Lencioni sense) and presenting our own UPIs (unique personalities and interests) is key here. For me, it’s languages, photography, dogs, and travel. Figure out what your own UPIs are and use them to bridge that initial “trust gulf.” You will not connect with everyone, but you will with those who’ll trust you, which is who we want as clients.
Climb Different Rock
When I started out climbing rock in my twenties, I realised that even an expert crack climber would suffer on granite faces, or delicate slabs. That is without considering how different the same rock is around the world, as anyone that has climbed granite on four continents can tell you. The answer was to climb different rock around the world.
Fight in Different Styles
Similarly, when I first studied judo, and later Shotokan and Tae Kwan Do, I realised that neither were necessarily going to help me defeat Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners, Muay Thai fighters, or even good boxers. Once again, the only answer was to fight a variety of fighters across assorted styles and learn from them all. But carefully.
Take on New Challenges
How does this relate to running and MSP and branding yourself? To excel at climbing, fighting, or building a personal brand, the first step is to take on new challenges. Are you nervous about public speaking? Then speak in public often and watch others speak in public, and study them. Climb different rock, study different fighters.
Learn From Peers
One of the great shortcuts to achieving proficiency in any craft is to learn from others. To that end, I have chosen to participate in three types of groups. Membership groups such as The ASCII Group, Karl Palachuk’s Small Business Thoughts, and The Tech Tribe are top of the list. Next come peer groups for sharing of challenges, ideas, and commiseration.
Joining partner advisory councils is a way to learn, share, and even direct their decision-making as well, if you get lucky. I have also chosen to embrace writing in the industry, for vendors, peer groups and ChannelPro magazine, primarily. There is a bonus in of this. I get to travel more, makes friends worldwide and “climb different rock” as well.
Become That Interesting Person
In the end, building your personal brand is about growing not your business, but yourself. You will learn to share and communicate better. You will also learn to identify and run with your own personal strengths.
Are you a good orator? Do you tell stories well? Do you use analogies effectively? Are you funny? Find your strengths and challenge your weaknesses. And unlike traditional business branding, where consistency is critical, personal branding is about growth and change. What could be more fun than this?
Join the Discussion and Share Your Personal Branding Tips
Question: What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to building a personal brand, and how do you plan to overcome it? We’d love to hear your thoughts and strategies in the comments below.
Leave a comment below or get in touch with Richard or me, Joshua Liberman!
About Joshua Liberman
Joshua Liberman
is President and founder of Net Sciences, Inc. Founded in 1995, NSI has built managed, and secured hundreds of networks in New Mexico and beyond.
NSI is an MSP 501 winner, and the most security-focused MSP in New Mexico.
A former mountaineer, martial artist, and a lifelong photographer, Joshua has travelled worldwide and speaks several languages. Joshua is an ASCII board member, writes and speaks publicly.
Joshua’s diverse interests range from geopolitics to drinking fine wines. He also raises Siberian Huskies with his wife Heidi.
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