It started to rain as I drove to the first event in which I was going to speak to an audience about brand photography. I had been promoting this event for weeks online and I was so excited that I was able to sign up over 20 people to come.
When I got there, I carefully set out the wine, cheese and fruit. Setup chairs all facing in the same direction. And then, I waited…
Guess what? Only 2 people showed up.
I felt crushed.
I spent so much time and effort promoting the event on social media, biting and scraping my way to get those 20 signups. It felt like, no one cared enough about what I wanted to share with them to drive in a little bit of rain.
But then it hit me like a ton of bricks! People didn’t feel like coming out in the rain to see a speaker with whom they didn’t really feel connected.
I hadn’t yet developed my personal brand ONLINE so how would someone who didn’t know me personally, or had already seen me speak before, think my message was important enough for them to get off the couch, brave the rain and come hear me speak?
How To Build And Grow Your Audience
For many of you reading this, you may already have experienced some success in your speaking career but you crave an audience that really LOVES your message, an audience that you can really HELP with your words and your story. An audience that will come out on a rainy night just to hear you speak! 
So, what can you do to build and grow an ONLINE audience full of people who are exactly who needs to hear your message and who you can help the most? Well, for one thing, you cannot hide behind your business brand and think that’s enough. Not if you REALLY want to make a big difference in the world.
You gotta put yourself out there ONLINE in a way that positions YOU (not your company) as the expert in your space.
This means:
• You need to be approachable
• You need to be visible
• You need to be real (authentic), AND…
• You need images that support who you are and what you stand for
3 Things To Get Started
If you are still with me, I’ll share with you here; the 3 things you can do to get started on to build a personal brand that will get you on bigger stages and help you target the right audience… so that you can impact millions!
Here are the 3 elements:
1. You need to know the ONE, over-arching problem you solve. Brainstorm all the problems you have the ability and experience to solve for your clients. Then just pick ONE – the biggest problem. The problem that is the deepest one or the one that encompasses the main reason you started your business.
2. You need to get super clear on who you solve that problem for. This means the factual, descriptive information about them AND the emotional and habitual info about them. Write down everything you can think 
of about this person. Create a story about them that includes the pain points they have, their dreams and aspirations, anything that will allow you to feel like you really know them.
3. You need to know what makes you different than others in your space offering the same service. Often called “unique selling proposition” or USP, it may help to uncover this for yourself by answering questions like these:
• Is it the way in which you provide your service?
• Is it that the service itself is unique (no one else does what you do)?
• When people think of you, what is the one MAIN thing you want them to think about?
BONUS!
Once you have your 3 elements in place, you’ll be able to start generating ideas for images to pair with all your content! I’ll be walking through ways you can do this in a future blog post so stay tuned for that!
Get More Clarity
Once you KNOW the foundational aspects for your personal brand, it’s so much easier to make decisions for your business. This personal brand foundation makes it so much easier to hone in on messaging, images, offers, pricing, what stages you need to land and so much more!
Listen, it can be really hard to do this on your own. I KNOW this first hand as I struggled with being able to see the label on the outside of my own bottle. But I’ve helped others get more clarity so that they could move FORWARD to start showing up as the expert in their space!
If you are feeling a little stuck and could use some help figuring out HOW to show up as that expert, jump on a quick call with me!
About Melissa
Hey there…I’m Melissa Henry, CEO of Melissa Demple Photography. I help speakers and entrepreneurs become KNOWN. Walk away feeling like a rock star with powerful clarity on your personal brand, including unique images that wow your target audience.
I provide an extraordinary, custom experience for purpose-driven business owners who are ready to sell out their programs and build a six or seven figure business. With expertise in consulting a Fortune-500 company and over a decade building my own brand, I understand the challenge of standing out in the crowded marketplace and I’ll make sure you and your business do! This won’t be your average photoshoot!
Ready to take things to the next level and stand out as the face of your business?
Get on a call with me and let’s talk through some ideas together!
