Building Your Personal Brand as a YouTube Creator with Erin May Henry: The YouTube Power Hour Podcast 159
“Find that thing about you that is going to make you stand out, and there always is going to be something.”
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How do you build a personal brand that truly fits who you are? In this episode, YouTuber, Podcast Host and Personal Branding Mentor Erin May Henry stops by to give you all the juicy details on connecting with your true, unique selves and making you shine!
Erin is an Australian Personal Brand Building Rockstar! She started her YouTube channel in 2014 while she was studying Public Relations and Business in college. She dived in when she discovered that becoming an influencer would be huge in the future. And that has paid huge dividends because she now has over 73k subscribers and a combined 4 million video views! Since starting, her channel has undergone many iterations. She was into lifestyle and fitness, then mindset and motivation, but she’s really found her home with personal branding after exploring a lot of things you’re going to learn on this episode.
“Maybe you can go so far into your mastery that you stand out from everyone else because you are the thought leader.”
She is really big on personal development, and her videos on teaching about that have been huge contributors to her channel’s growth. She fell into it as she was building her social media marketing business after she left college in 2016. All her friends were hunting for internships and jobs, but she was drawn more to entrepreneurship. That journey was not easy. Her own fears and self-doubt plagued her, but through consuming content from gurus like Tony Robbins and Marie Forleo, she was able to push through the fear. Now, inspired by those two, she’s built her business coaching practice and is teaching the things that helped her get through her rut.
“It’s not about overcoming fear entirely, it’s about understanding how to work through and work with that fear when it does arise.”
Erin is a big believer in taking action. Dive in as soon as possible and don’t wait until all your stars are aligned. Risk analysis is overrated and you can learn a lot more from experience so don’t let the unknown keep you from doing. Because of her working as a bartender and later working for a wine company while studying at college, she’s developed a thorough passion for wine and has even made it a big part of her personal brand, with her YouTube series “The Business Bar”. You’re going to get a ton of value from this episode as she shares her expertise with us!
“When you really step in that genius zone, people will notice and your authenticity shines.”
6 Key Interview Takeaways
- Defeat fear with consciousness. When you’re about to do something great or bigger than what you’ve normally done, fear will come. You’ll begin to backtrack and make excuses, and if you let that go on, you’ll end up not doing the thing that could change your life. How you fight that is by turning on your consciousness. Being aware that those are just excuses, and this is just fear, not a signal to stop moving forward. Meditate, practice affirmations or just talk yourself through the problem.
- Hone in on what makes you different. One thing we keep coming back to is the idea that your perspective of the world and your experiences are very important because there are people who will be drawn to that. That is a core pillar upon which your channel can grow. It’s not often easy to figure out what qualities and attributes make you different when building your personal brand so Erin suggests you ask your 5 friends. Take the feedback and find the similarities and find out what is common with how you identify yourself.
- Narrow down your speciality. What are people going to know you for? Everyone on earth is multi-passionate, and that’s not something to be ashamed of. But to stand out, you’re going to need that one thing that people can say “I know someone who does this thing really well, this is where you find her”. If you’re putting out multiple things that you do, people are going to have a hard time picking you out from the crowd.
- Don’t wait to have your ducks in a row. Dive in as soon as possible! You can still build a huge personal brand while figuring out your differentiation, your speciality and your strategy for your content. Every day the market is getting more saturated and the longer you take to start the further behind you set yourself. If you’re reading this, get up and start building your personal brand NOW!
- Once you’ve found something you love, immerse yourself. Now that you’ve identified your differentiation and your speciality, you’ve identified the thing you’d love to talk about and content you’d love to create, dive into the market. Soak up all the content, all the inspiration you can and absorb all the ideas. Your content will be so much better when you understand the ins and outs of the subject matter, the questions your audience might have, topics that work and don’t work, and so much more.
- What’s in it for them? If you’re a smaller channel and you want to collaborate with a big channel, or you’re pitching to media or trying to be a guest on a podcast, you need to answer the question “What is in it for them?”. What is the value that you’re bringing to the table? A lot of times people go in without doing the research on the people they’re trying to work with and they ultimately fall flat. Don’t make that mistake. Understand your target, get to know their needs and how best you can fulfil them. Then approach them with an offer that blows them out of the water.
Resources
My favorite free SEO tool for YouTube: TubeBuddy
(Discount code ErikasBuddy for 20% off the paid version)
PR Guide: How to Get onto PR Lists and Get Lots of Free Product
Getting Started on YouTube: The #1 Downloaded Free Niche Discovery Workbook
Connect with Erin
Facebook Group:
Podcast Music Credit: Boop by x50 @x50music
Music provided by Free Music for Vlogs youtu.be/o52xQkQWzyU
