Michelle Griffin shares the 5C's of personal branding, and only one of them is content.

Who wants to be a personal brand? In truth not many people do but in practice we all have to now think about the impact of remote working and a portfolio career on how we position ourselves to continue getting employed. All the way from Pensacola Florida, the founder of
BRANDthority.com and Michelle Griffin Media joins me on the show..wearing her trademark sunshine yellow earrings!

Personal Brand Marketing/PR Strategist • B2B LinkedIn Branding & Content Marketing • StoryBrand Guide • Speaker/Trainer • 🎙️ Host of "Business of You" Podcast (launching soon) and mother of 3,  Michelle Griffin,  shares the 5 C's of personal branding. What's great is that these don't cost any money and are both a process and a cycle; meaning that one can learn them and that they are self sustaining. 

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Transcript

Michelle Griffin: 0:00

We can't just be a one and done thing. We have to be in it for the long haul. We can't operate alone. We are here to solve for people to serve them and building a community around your brand. So whatever is best for you and for them the content will be your fuel for your brand and your business.

Jim James: 0:15

So welcome to this episode of the unnoticed. I'm delighted to have Michelle Griffin joining us all the way from Pensacola, Florida, Michelle. Welcome.

Michelle Griffin: 0:23

Thank you so much. It's great to be here. How are you today?

Jim James: 0:27

I'm really well. And also really excited to hear about what you've got because you've been helping individuals and entrepreneurs to brand themselves. So can you share with us. Your methodology for helping the unnoticed to get noticed.

Michelle Griffin: 0:42

Exactly. Yes. Well, it's an subject near and dear to my heart because I'm like many of your listeners, I. Jumped into entrepreneurship in January, 2020. And even though marketing branding are my my thing and my skillset when I help people do it's super hard. It's super hard to know. How do you stand out? How do you get noticed? when you're an entrepreneur, a small business owner or just anyone, it can be anyone, right? Well, I was a little unsure myself until I put together these five steps, five easy steps, and I'm going to break those down today. So let me know when you want me to dive in.

Jim James: 1:17

I think now. Yeah, I think Michelle now, because as we only have a 20 minute show, so let's get all five of those into the 20. The clock is starting.

Michelle Griffin: 1:27

going to give an overview then, because, I want to give just an overview and like you said, people can come back and learn more. Okay. So the first thing, and this is huge, you'll probably agree. And you've noticed that with your clients and your collaborators is confidence, right? And that to me is mindset because so many of us don't step out because we're uncertain. One. Sure. We think what experience do I have? What don't, who will listen to me? What am I going to say? There's so many things. And the minute you realize, if I don't step out to help others, no one will ever know me. So you can't be helped. You can't help people unless they know you. So you got to rub them mindset and that's what stalled so many people. I call it. And these are all five start with letter C. So they're five C. So number one is confidence and that's almost a daily battle, but when you really dive deep and that's what I helped my clients, we devote a whole section on confidence and why this is so important. So number two is clarity, right? Okay. That's the name of the game? This may be the most important. If you're not clear on who you are, your values, your missions, your release, your perspectives, all that, and how you do business and help people. That's huge. So you have to get clarity on you internally first, and then we do the external clarity and like who you serve your audience and demographics. What are their challenges, desires, all that stuff. Super important in branding marketing, And also, how do you want to be known? What are you going to be showing up and being known for all that matters? The power of one, getting clear and all that. And even so much as it's like where my clients are, my ideal clients and what platform are going to start showing up on. That's huge because you know what I tell my clients, you don't need to do all the things and all the places to start getting traction, I'd rather them start small and very fast and then build out from there. So we have to get really clear on all the things. Now you're wondering what could be number three, Well, okay. It's called content. Kind of what we're doing here now, making content and conversation, you can't be known well, yeah, you can be known, right? You can be known I guess, but the fastest way to track, attract more people and let them know who you are, how you help them is with content. Okay. So we dive deep and you realize based on the who yeah, you are. What am I best at? What do I enjoy more? And what am I audience enjoying more? So you made your writer. Maybe you like to do podcasts like you do, maybe you like to do blogging or just get up on LinkedIn and write stuff. There's so many ways to get your thought leadership and your brand noticed. Notice that's what we're here for is by content. That's the fuel, right? That's the fuel of our brands, our identity online people come to learn from you to solve problems, all that super important. And that never goes away. By the way, once you realize the content, one of the things I help my clients do we get what we call pillars or topics or themes because I go through the confidence and the clarity you want to be known for one thing. And so when you stay in the lane of these areas in your three to five topics, it helps you with clarity and competence and all that. So that's number three, right? And I'll give you a little thing. I was in stepping out consistently with content. I was where I was really struggling. And so when I really dialed in number three it's kinda in the middle because I realized it's the heart of it. I was able to really stand out and help my clients do so as well. Now you wonder so far, I'm confident, right? It's a daily thing. I have absolutely clarity on who I am, who I serve and what I'm supposed to be known for. And now I know where I'm going to preach my leadership and excellence is with my content. But how do I do that? Well, here's the simple answer to that. It's as simple as being consistent in entrepreneurship and business in general. So many people fail because they give up too soon. They're not consistent. Consistency wins the game. It wins the game for content, for personal brand building for business. No, you gotta keep going for the long haul. It's a marathon, right? It's not just a one and done So consistency and little known thing for me earlier this year, I started something called a three 65 challenge on LinkedIn. And there's probably like several hundred of us now that we're posting daily because consistency wins a game consistently taking action. So that's one of the things that really propels people is when they start showing up that way. And then number five is the most important thing to me because it's all about people it's community. All right. When you start looking at your audience, like they're your community, It could be your clients, your collaborators, your friend, your partners, they're all in this community together that you're helping support one another. It's just going to be a ripple effect, a snowball effect. The more you grow and connect and help people, it's just going to just grow. So those five quick overviews are how I am learning and how I teach my clients to step out and stand out for success.

Jim James: 6:05

So Michelle just summarize those five for us, for those of us that struggled to keep up because there are five and they're all great ones are completely agree.

Michelle Griffin: 6:11

Yeah. Yeah. And we're going to put those in the show notes. Confidence it's all about the mindset. You are, you have a message and a mission to share and expertise. So you need to be out there. People need your help. Number two is clarity. If you don't have clarity, On who you are, who you serve, what do you want to be known for your why? All those important things, it's going to be a struggle to get yourself out there and to make sense of it all and others to make sense of you. number three is content. Your content is your way of helping your people, right? So whatever is best for you and for them the content will be what you do, your fuel for your brand and your business. Number four is consistency. We can't just be a one and done thing. We have to be in it for the long haul. And by doing all these things that actually, they just coincide, but consistency will, will win the game. And number five is community. We can't operate alone. We are here to solve for people to serve them and building a community around your brand. Your business will be one of the best ways to attract more opportunities. So does that all make sense? Did you get that? We can put them in the show notes

Jim James: 7:15

I will do Michelle. And this idea that you have confidence, clarity, content, and consistency and community really makes sense because. It's a virtuous circle as well. Isn't it? If you have confidence and then you are clear about what you're saying, and you're saying that with quality content, then it's consistently shared your community. Then we'll feed back to you positive reinforcement, right? About what you're saying. Presumably.

Michelle Griffin: 7:41

Exactly. I guess you could call the five CS circle. It's a big circle. It all works around. It never ends. And that's how I view helping your customers is it's not a one and done it should be an endless thing of just constantly evolving and growing a bigger circle is really what you want to do, but that's what it is, keeping them with you.

Jim James: 7:59

Michelle. That is wonderful now.. From a obstacles point of view of those five that you got there, let's just go through and one at a time, just pick one obstacle for each of those and how you help people to overcome those. So with confidence, what would be the number one problem that people have with confidence and how do you help them get past that?

Michelle Griffin: 8:21

Yeah. Okay. So they're a couple of ways. they don't think they have, they don't, they think their works speaks for themselves. People just find them. So they're like, I don't need to get out there. or who am I to put myself out there? Why would people listen to me? What do I have to say? I help them, I have these questions and we just give a real, just importance when I spin things around about. It's not about you. None of this bird brand-building is about you. Yes. It's of you, but it's putting you as the product in service to others, authentically you to help others. So when you flip it around and it's you're going to step out, but it's not a no one's going to care about you, honestly. It's about them. And when you come with the mindset, The stat of I'm here to help others. Then it takes that burden off and you realize I can do this. I'm here to help others. So that's how I flip it with my clients. Then that seems to be the magic way when it's about others, because I seem to attract these type of clients anyway, they're in it to help others and, make a profit too. But That's what they lead with.

Jim James: 9:22

Okay. That's wonderful. So confidence, let's see that we're helping others. And then it's not about us. It's about them. And what about clarity? Because so many people deciding what to deliver or what will be a value to others is sometimes an issue. How do you solve that problem?

Michelle Griffin: 9:37

Well, Yeah. because I see so many things, especially as being a StoryBrand guide, Donald Miller and the whole, if you confuse you lose thing, It's huge, right? Not just for personal brands, for everyone, for businesses, for entrepreneurs, small business owners. so many people just jump into social media, jump into writing their website and all the things and not really taking the important deep dive work into the clarity of this is in the context of personal brands. Who am I? What am I best at? What do I want to do? Because some people just jump in things and realize that is not aligned with who I am and people can sense that. So I dive a huge part of my friend group is diving deep into the internal stuff. and then the external, so you're completely confident with how you want to show up and then we're completely deep dived into your person you help. it sounds like I actually think it's the best part. And I see the most transformation with my clients when they finally say, Oh my goodness, I've been doing this all wrong or thinking about it the wrong way. I now can understand. They give, it, gives them that confidence to really clarity gives you confidence. And then we go from there because when you jump ahead and don't realize that it stalls the whole process, so clarity and so many things, and even the social media, how many of us does show up on all the platforms? Because people say we should, right? So we get clarity and Hey, is this even makes sense for you? Is your audience, even there I've had clients I'm like, please, you don't need to be an Instagram your audiences on LinkedIn and vice versa. So I help them get client. And that saves so much time and money. I cannot tell you. that's a benefit of clarity It all see these, all of this go in one hand in hand, they're not super clear on how they want to stand out. And so they're doing they're just piece mealing content. They don't have a strategy at the end of the day. Content is a strategic thing to build your business. And so I work with them to get sure, strategy based on their goals, what they want to achieve, and then getting dialed into these pillar topics, content topics, either three to five, based on who they are, what they do and what their audience is, problems are all about. Problem-solving. And then we rotate it. We keep it fresh. So we're not boring. We don't want to bore people. But we also are professional. We want our content to attract, ideal customers. So there's a fine mix. I have a whole like format and sequence of things that I work with clients with and help them organize it. Another thing is they're not organized and they need to think it out. So when you organize it and you know exactly what you're going to say, but here's another thing. Content, a lot of people just throw out content with schedulers, but content is also like on LinkedIn. For instance, example is commenting is getting to know people in the comments and engaging. You have to have content that engages. So you're always wanting to get a pulse of what people like and what they resonate with. So it's also tracking it right. And testing it to making sure it's still relevant. And so there's a lot to break down and content, And it's like the engine I said the fuel, but that's, those are some overviews of where I see content speeding or not.

Jim James: 12:34

Challenges. I think a lot of people have is being creative when it comes to content. A lot of people say, well, I'm not good at writing, or I'm not good with art work. Yeah. How do you help them get over the actual process of just creating infographics or text

Michelle Griffin: 12:51

Yeah, it is. And you want to have a mixture of, sometimes video, if you can, or live video or graphic or something that mixes it up. I say, just head to canva.com. It's the best thing ever to give you some advice, if they're solo, preneurs, if they have a team, even their team, there's so many people use Canva. but you want to see what's relevant for your industry, for you. again, shiny objects and what the other people are doing gets everyone to RealD They see this person over here, just killing it with memes. And it's I want to do that. Well, That's maybe not you or your avatar or whatever. So we work really hard, to stay in the lane we're supposed to. that's my advice for that.

Jim James: 13:29

That's a really good point about staying in your lane. That just because other people create content, that looks appealing. May not be right for your particular audience. So you have to do that. And I think the other thing is that there are lots of tools now like Canberra, but also there's one called We use lumen five, which just can take a blog post and make a video. Or you, for example, there's AI writer, which you put a sentence in, it'll create an 800 word article, or you. There's a lot of technology now as well. Isn't there that can help the person that feels about hamstrung a loss, of course, all the freelances that are out there. So that really shouldn't be an obstacle anymore.

Michelle Griffin: 14:06

Exactly. Well, I'll give you a few more. You priority. No, these, I use, I have a Grammarly hooked up to everything, even my social media stuff. you and I have discussed repurpose.io is fantastic. you're right. There's like copies. There's so many AI generated copy software. Now it's just even going to be more of a thing in the next couple of years, it doesn't take away you, but it does help. It helps some of the monotony of all this. and like something like the Hemingway app, it really tracks to say, Hey, you're talking at a 12th grade level here and we need to be down at fifth grade. So there's so much out there. So there's no need to be scared because there's tech on our side

Jim James: 14:42

I think it's a really great point, Michelle, that, that tech really enables the solopreneur entrepreneur to create content that's really compelling and consistent over time. So let's just look at that issue. Consistency. What would you say is the number one problem that entrepreneurs face when it comes to creating content consistently?

Michelle Griffin: 15:02

They give up too soon or they're enamored by the likes when it's not, I always tell my clients you want likes or do you want leads? Because I know for instance, there are people. Amazing on an like Instagram or LinkedIn. They're just getting all these likes followers comments, but then they're not getting a clients. So sometimes your posts might be really popular because you're appealing to a lot of people, but then you want your content to appeal to your target audience and they see how you can solve their problems. I also know people who don't have a lot of followers, but they're killing it and revenue and clients coming to them inbound. so that's important. Don't give up and don't be enamored by likes because if you're talking to your audience, they're going to see you're the problem solver. And then don't give up because sometimes this is a long game content. Usually doesn't happen overnight. The strategy around it, the output by it. And you got to keep giving it some days. You're not going to hit it big. And some days you are okay. But here's the thing. And also you're thinking, no, one's seen you LinkedIn. They say anywhere now between one to 3% of the people actually post comment. So that's 97 to 99% of the people there. Lurk. So don't give up, they're seeing you, I've talked to a lot of clients and they're like, Oh, got in touch with me. And they said, they've been following my content for weeks and months. I never knew that's not been happened to me too. So don't give up, people are seeing you and you're making a difference for

Jim James: 16:29

Yeah, that's a wonderful encouragement as well. Michelle, what about community? What's the number one issue that you find your clients face when it, when building or participating in a community? Cause they don't have to build their own, right. They could participate in existing communities.

Michelle Griffin: 16:44

Yeah. that's a perfect way to put it. That's a twofold way. start small it's basically showing up and show people you care. One of the best ways to do LinkedIn is you give what you get. So go and just start commenting on other people's stuff. Being a helpful person. They're going to start recognizing you very fast. So it's a give give. When you start showing up to serve and help others, you are going to expedite your community. People are going to have known you and then consistently do that. So you're building your community, but also start collaborating. Connecting and collaborating with others and do some, work together, whatever that's going to be, the ripple effect I was talking about. And that's happened to me when I got consistent on LinkedIn, I started getting, connected with people and we collaborate here and there and clubhouses and zoom and live events and whatever, but it's just, when you start putting yourself out, that's the magic word. Just putting yourself out there and staying out there. And it just happens consistently.

Jim James: 17:40

So I guess a bit like if you are actually, working in. Company, you would need to keep showing up every day and you'd need to continue to contribute to your team or contribute to the company in some way proactively. Just now we have to show that in a more public way than we might've been seen to be doing inside of a traditional workplace.

Michelle Griffin: 18:00

Exactly. And for instance, on LinkedIn, you can do it by commenting and reaching out, connecting people, but you can always reach out to people like when you connect with them or just following up and just say, Hey, I just want to say you're doing a great job in your content, or, if you ever need my help, obviously we're not going to be. Or salesy, but just a genuine reach out. And to say, I like your stuff. If you ever want to, I'm not a fan of the, Hey let's connect and jump on a zoom call. I don't like that because to me that feels like you're selling. And I know some people do that genuinely, but if you just kinda, Give people a little Pat on the back, either externally, internally, and just build that relationship. It's all about networking and building relationships. Cause we're all people here and we want to know, and like the like-minded people and I'm a people person. So community is huge to me. I call my clients and all my people, community, not an audience or list. so when you treated that way, I think it makes a huge difference.

Jim James: 18:52

Michelle, you've made a huge difference with your five CS today. If you want to reach out to you and join your community, how can they get hold of you?

Michelle Griffin: 18:59

Wonderful. Yeah. It's two ways. Well, every single day I'm putting daily content on LinkedIn. So I'd love for you to have your listeners. I'm very open, approachable and LinkedIn. I'm Michelle Griffin. You'll see my branding's yellow and everything. So Michelle Griffin also be launching my podcast at the end of the month called business of view podcast and LinkedIn live show. And my website is Michelle Griffin. media.com.

Jim James: 19:24

Michelle Griffin. Thank you so much for sharing with us today. All the way from sunny Pensacola, all about personal branding. Appreciate it.

Michelle Griffin: 19:31

Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure to talk to you. I appreciate your time.

Jim James: 19:35

Thank you for listening to this episode of the unnoticed show, we've had Michelle Griffin joining us to talk about personal branding and the five CS confidence, clarity and content insistency and building a community. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the unnoticed show.