Personal Branding Tips with Diya Asrani

Teaser:

Monique Idemudia: You as a person already have a brand, you are a personal brand, you have a personal brand. And since you already have a personal brand, you might as well also be strategic about it and build your personal brand intentionally. So you're in control and you know how you want to be perceived and you want to be seen by other people and you can make sure that that is how you actually want to be seen and perceived. And that will make you so much more successful if you stand for something.

A personal brand gives everything this personal touch and this human touch that we need, and especially for the big brands, they look for human touch points too. And they look for identification and they use celebrities to embody their brand and their campaigns, right, to have this human that people can relate to and connect with and think like, okay that resonates with me.

Diya Asrani: One of the main takeaways would be, that you know, you should make sure that you follow the journey, okay, listen to your heart, okay, because sometimes they say, it's your mind to see what happens, but listen to your heart and do what you really love doing. And if you really are passionate and you really have a certain skill that you want to share with the world, then just take the leap, because that's all I can see. If you don't take the leap, you're missing the bus.

Intro:

This is the Dragon Digital Marketing Podcast. Get ready for the digital marketing strategies and tactics that attract great customer relationships to your business. Here is your host, Monique Idemudia.

Monique Idemudia: Hi, and welcome everybody to the dragon digital marketing podcast. I'm your host, Monique, and you're listening to episode number 19. Today, I have a special guest on my podcast for you. It's Diya Asrani. Diya is a branding expert. She's worked with some big and well-known brands out there like IKEA and Tommy Hilfiger and Sephora. You all know those brands. So I'm really happy and excited to have her on my podcast today to talk about personal branding.

Interview:

Monique Idemudia: Welcome Diya, how are you doing?

Diya Asrani: I'm doing absolutely awesome. Thank you so much for having me here. It's really really good, I'm really, you know, I'm excited to actually talk more about branding and how things can move forward with that. Thank you so much.

Monique Idemudia: You're so welcome. I'm excited to have you and it's my pleasure. Actually about two to three weeks ago, I was on your podcast and we talked about how small businesses can build their brand without having a huge budget. So check that one out too if you haven't already. Diya would you like to introduce yourself real quick for the audience?

Diya Asrani: Of course, of course. Thank you so much. So I am a personal branding coach. I have been in this for close to a decade now, and I also have a brand called "Design Your Presence", wherein I actually help entrepreneurs, knowledge givers like coaches, trainers, and speakers to build their presence online. Because I strongly believe that, you know, we all have the ability to really showcase what we are good at, it's just that, you know, there are certain ways, there are certain strategies, certain systems, that do not let us get there, because you know we have the fear that, okay, we don't know certain things. So I have kind of simplified my strategy and I've made it like a six step strategy, which would actually help people go the simplified way of building their brand. So they don't really focus on, you know, the backend, they focus more on what they are good at. So that's what I do through design your presence. And I call it the start strategy that is simplified to amplify reputation. And that, that would actually get people more confident in doing what they want to do in terms of building their personal brand. Yeah. So that's what I do.

Monique Idemudia: That's absolutely amazing. And how would you say branding and marketing are related?

Diya Asrani: So see it, actually, if you look at personal branding, it is a tool in marketing. Okay, it's something that would actually get somebody to put their point across in a certain way. It's just that see marketing is like a really lost topic, that we all talk about. But what makes us different in terms of the words we use, the kind of concept that we show, what are the ideas that we give out to people, what is the story that we did, and that's what personal branding really does. It's basically got your corner, the marketing strategy that you have. So if you want to build like something that's very related to when something that is very hard. Yeah. I think I didn't have a good product and service for people.

But you don't know how to put it across in, you know, in the right way. And what person ran planning really does is it actually brings out that true story, which you can tell people, and that would convince people to come to you and, you know, about what could you dumb up the business and all that? So the whole persuasion aspect, is what is really very similar in terms of marketing and in terms of, you know, personal branding, because in the end you are connecting with people, That's what you have to do. So, you know, that's why I see that, you know, that the kind of common energy that comes in when it comes to branding in mind.

Monique Idemudia: So you're really a people person and you love to work with people. Is that why you decided to specialize in personal branding versus commercial branding?

Diya Asrani: Yes. I really wanted to, you know, I always saw the connectwith people when I trained, when I was training in all these companies. And, you know, when I work with brands as well, they were more like, you know, I was meeting the team who handles the brand, but what really connected with me the most was their vision, you know, the fact that, okay, this is what they think about. The brand is what they want the brand to look like. You know, whether it's a catalog show, whether it's, you know, the way you put your words across, it's the way, you know, you market that brand. On, you know, on the website. So it was so, you know, it was, it's something that it was not about just being corporate brand or something that, you know, there's a company here and, you know, you do that, but it was the people who mattered the most, and when you train people, I'm sure you would also be, you know, very familiar with that when you actually connect and train with people, you understand that what is their vision? And what's the, and that's the strongest point that people are looking for. So, you know, that got me to choose personal branding because I really loved working with the presence of people because, you know, presence of mind, presence of thought, presence of connection.

So I really enjoyed doing that. And that's what got me to, you know, really connect and become a personal dining coach. Yes.

Monique Idemudia: That's great. That's also what I teach, so I focus a little bit more on commercial brands and small business owners, who want to build a commercial brand for their business. I also do personal branding, but that's why we complement each other so nicely. And it's just such an elaboration to talk to you and also hear your standpoint and your point of view about things.

So that's really great. Yes. It's all about presence, marketing is Omni channel nowadays. We want to be omnipresent, and just have an online presence and allow for our audience, our target customers to be able to find us everywhere, right. So that's the goal. So in your words, why would you say having a brand and building a brand is important and who needs a brand?

Diya Asrani: Okay, So firstly, I will talk about the importance. The importance is basically that people, I tell this to a lot of people, Okay, so you are in an industry, which is not only yours, it belongs to a lot of people. So there are a lot of personal branding coaches, there are a lot of marketing coaches, there are a lot of leadership coaches, but what is the difference between you and the others?

It's the positioning, Right, and I look at it from this perspective. I see that, you have one group of people, who are winners, who are the robots, okay, And you have another group of people, who are the winners, who are the stars. So what's the difference? The robots are the people who move with the journey, follow everything that works and still get successful in their own ways, But the stock stands out. They go out, they do things different. They start positioning themselves differently in the industry and what happens. They become winners, but they stand out for who they are. You know so, I believe that, you know, when you stand up out that's, what is your personal brand? Because your personal brand is something that nobody can compete with.

Like nobody can and copy yours and my story. Right? Like you cannot copy my story. I cannot copy your story. So that's what makes it really different in terms of that. And that's why it's so important to have personal branding as a part of your two week. In terms of bringing out your entire positioning, your confidence, your reputation, in what are we industry that you are?

You're not a little bored. You have to be the start. That's the one thing that, you know, me, that, that I strongly believe in and who needs personal branding, I would say anybody at any level, you know, literally, even if people who are just beginning, like they're just starting out as entrepreneurs, or even if they want to get into a company and work under somebody, Right, They have to have something that they stand for. They have to have something that is strong enough to tell people that, look, this is how I am at what I do. So that's why, you know, I feel that it's important for anyone at any level. It's even important for people who have already been there, done that.

So, you know, the C suites though, C or is all those people, the leaders they needed also, because see, I would so believe in this one thing that there has to be a continuous improvement in what you do. So when you reach a peak in your career, you are aging in your field, and you feel that you've achieved everything, but what happened? What's the peak? The peak is just as a tip. Eventually you're going to drop down. If you don't follow the trends and you don't go with what you are planning to continuously learn and continuously be good at, in what you're doing. So I would say it's like four, the water or everyone.

Monique Idemudia: Totally. I totally agree with you on that, even if you're not an entrepreneur or you're an aspiring entrepreneur, or you don't want to be like, you love your corporate job, it's still important because you matter, you bring value to your organization and what you do has value and it matters. It makes a difference.

It makes an impact and you deserve to get credit for that and to build your personal brand and get your name out there and not allow the company or the corporation to get all the credit, for what the people actually achieve. So, if you never build your personal brand, you've achieved so many things and worked on so many exciting projects, but you have like nothing to show.

You would start out from scratch. Nobody knows your name. You don't have an audience yet. You don't, you maybe don't have a portfolio that you can show. So it's always super super important to, you know, not be shy or think there's something wrong with that, or you're going to come off as entitled, or I don't know to really introduce yourself, what your name, put your best foot forward and put yourself out there and promote yourself.

I think that's super super important, because at the end of the day, it's your leg. You're doing this for you and you deserve the reward and you want to advance in life and continuously improve, you need to network, you need to, you know, just step up your game and you reach higher levels by doing that. That will enrich your life so much, if you build a personal brand and a brand is a perception that other people have a view. How you put yourself out there, your personality, your image, how you position yourself, what you stand for, what your values are. So as humans, we already have that, right? Naturally every human being has that. That means you as a person already have a brand, you are a personal brand, you have a personal brand.

And since you already have a personal. Brian, you might as well also be strategic about it and strategically build it and approach it. What is strategy and build your personal brand intentionally. So you're in control and you know how you want to be perceived and you want to be seen by other people and you can make sure that that is how you actually want to be seen and perceived. And that will make you so much more successful if you stand for something right.

Diya Asrani: Yeah, I wish they were aware of the fact that, you know, this is what it is because when you pick them up, when you become somebody that you want to become, like you become a credo. Come up, you know, you've got a passionate entrepreneur, whatever it is, you have to also realize that you can't underestimate your presence, your presence matters, It's not only about the skills. It's not only about the courses, the programs, the coaching, the training, it's about you. It's about, you know, the people really like to connect with people. It's not just that. Okay. You know, my background is what it is. So. It has to be that right. It's, you're, you're talking to me.

So that's, that's the whole thing, which we really need to understand in terms of connecting. Cause a lot of people have this misconception that if I have a company, if I have a brand or, you know, if I have like this big name, which is a company and you know, I give what was services, one of our products.

They don't realize that people talk to them first to actually get convinced that, you know, they can buy the product or service. They've been, you know, I mean, we have all these big IT companies. We have CapGemini, we have IBM, we have the retails. We have, you know, all the different other brands we have, you know, things like sports brands like Nike, Adidas and all that, but then see that all speakers say, building awareness, keeping the corporate branding in mind, the whole company branding in mind, Right. But here in this case, when people, if you want people to really buy from you. You want them to actually communicate with What is your message? What exactly is your message? Then they have to look at you and talk to you instead of, you know, talking to your brand or your company, or, you know, you're Indian, whatever, your, whatever you're open, right. So that's the thing. So that's, that's what is very important in personal branding, especially she loves storytelling, like how you said that, you know, all it is, it's like, you know, it's a game changer. If you know how to tell a story that's persuasive, then you know, you're your one, your job, you know, you're doing good, and so that's, I would think of, you know, branding yourself. Yes.

Monique Idemudia: Absolutely. Brand storytelling is big. It's really not just the buzz word. It's at the end of the day, the natural way of human communication. We've told each other stories for centuries and that's how information will be passed on. And it gives everything this personal touch and this human touch that we need. And especially like for the big brands that you just mentioned, they look for human, touch points too. And they look for identification and they use celebrities to embody their brand and their campaigns, right, to have this human that people can relate to and connect with and think like, okay, that resonates with me, I want to be like that. I want to be seen like that. I want to be like them and belong to that group.

I have a free course called brand story, where I teach you how you can build your brand and stand out from your competitors. After taking my course, you'll be able to position yourself in the market, know exactly how to create brand value, charge more and turn your small business into a successful brain. You can check it out on dragon-digital-marketing.com. I'll also put the link down below in the description. It's a free course, and it also comes with a lot of resources and course materials that you can download for free. You'll get a summary, you'll get a course workbook. We'll do a lot of exercises together. You don't even have to sign up or anything. Just check it out. If you're interested in building your brand and expanding your online presence and taking your small business to the next level.

It's absolutely beginner friendly. It's like a branding one on one, and you'll be able to articulate and tell your brand story really well and attract people and articulate what you and your business are all about and really get crystal clear about what you stand for.

I promise you that you're going to get a lot out of this, and I hope to see you in the course.

Diya Asrani:If you actually look at Apple, Apple as the company did it today, people are talking about Steve Jobs. You know, they're not really talking about the product, but they talk about what Steve Jobs did and he's no more. So it's, you know, that's, that's the connection that people are looking for, even if, or if you look at Oprah Winfrey, When you look at Oprah Winfrey as well, it's hard and not what she's doing. It's what she has, you know, done. Even if you look at say, you know, Obama, or if you look at any of these, Bill Gates or any of these big guys, Elon Musk, you look at any of them, they have created what they have created, but they are the ones who people connect with. So if you go on Instagram, you will not actually look at a company, you will look at the boss. And that's how you connect with, you know, with, with the places. Yes.

Monique Idemudia: Your business needs a face. It's super important. You can't just either background and hide. It will make a huge difference. Your business really has a face and a person to relate to. And even if you have a commercial brand, you can still build your personal brand and be the face of your company in that sense.

So I know a lot of small business owners and I hear this all the time. I hear it so much. People struggle to position themselves and their brands. So people struggle with finding out what's unique about them and do you know, truly dig deep, Into what their values are, what they want to stand for, what they want to be known for long term, because obviously you build a brand over time and it takes many, many years, until you really have found your tribe and, really attracted your core fans that just get your message and get your vision and stick with you and love you. Right, what tips can you give small business owners to know how to articulate and really write down, what their passions are, what their uniqueness is, and to write out a bomb brand positioning statement and unique value proposition and unique selling proposition and all of those basic things, that you need when you want to build a brand and that you need to be crystal clear about.

Diya Asrani: Okay. So one thing which I usually do when I do till today, is I take, I call it my Heidi eating art. Okay. So it's basically, an art of ideation. So I just, I just closed my eyes for like a few minutes and I just think of what is going to be my end goal. What about my end goal is do you know whether it's the income, whether it's the influence, right, I want to launch something in the coming months, whatever it is. And then I work backwards. So when I work backwards, I think of, okay. So before that, what happened then before that, what happened? You know, so then I keep looking at the different steps and then I think, okay, now what is my next step? And then I just opened my eyes and I just, I didn't know.

So I do this like for anart. Okay. So I, well, when you put one word in front of you, like suppose, you know, you're very passionate about, know painting, for example, right. You know, like art or something. And, what is it that really makes you different from the rest in terms of your artwork? Like, what is it? Is it the medium? Is it the kind of technique that you use? Is it the colors that you use? Is I do some textures. I'm giving you an example in terms of art, in that case. So, what would it be that, you know, you would do next? Like, would you work on a scale? Would you, you know, make it look different? Would you, you know, would you change a few things that we don't like in terms of the approach that will get you that goal, which you were thinking of.

Right, so it's like that even when it comes to say, you know, writing a book, so you write this whole goal that they want to launch this book in the next few months. All right. And you know, you already have it with you it's in your hand and you know, you, you just want to kind of figure it out. How did you even create this journey?

So you work backwards and you see what part of the journey that got you to actually launch that book. So again, it's like, you know, you're visualizing and you're understanding that aspect. Now when it comes to articulating these certain aspects of it, it's also a lot to do with what is your intention?

What is your intention? What is your next step? So every, every part of your journey in entrepreneurship has to be, or whatever you're doing has to be that you have a set plan. Okay, at least, if you know, I'm not talking about a plan that is like maybe one month or two months away, one year away. I'm talking about a plan that's today in the evening, like now, if you're watching this during the day, what are you going to do in the evening? That is going to get you to the next step. It could be something as small as you know, okay. Today I want to leave this much of a certain book to understand this concept, you know, so it's like literally continuous learning as well.

So continuous learning, meaning that, you know, invest in the best of the best coaches in the industry who are good at what they do. And that would actually give you a perspective on how they see the topic that you're focusing on that will help you bring out the words and help you articulate what you want to do. You don't show, show people. And what do you want to do in those of the why? Because then that would actually lead, you know, it would make people understand that, okay. You know, this early make sense, and I can be a part of it. So what step leads to another to another? Because a lot of entrepreneurs have this misconception that they need to focus on the end hole, which is the macro mode. And I focus on the mini moons. When you achieve many goals, that's what actually helps you move in that direction. If you don't focus on the journey, you'll not be able to articulate what, what you want to do next. That's, that's as simple as that in terms of, you know, taking things forward in the journey.

Monique Idemudia: That's true. So, let me sum this up again. So you start with your goal in mind, you start with your end goal in mind, and then you work backwards step by step and break it down into little increments, and then you execute step-by-step, and that's going to give you the answers and really dig deep. And also don't be afraid to hire a coach and hire a professional, like Diya or myself to help you out with that.

You know, so many people shy away from hiring coaches or consultants to help them out with whatever it is that they want to achieve. We can't, it seems so unusual to do for small businesses, but if you really think about it, it doesn't even make sense in so many areas of life. It's so natural to hire a coach, right?

In sports there's coaches, everywhere you hire a coach, is that natural. It's a normal thing to do. You don't have to know everything and be able to do everything yourself. It's okay to get help. And you want to be sure. To get things right. And you really build something that's meaningful, and that lasts long because if you're interested that in branding, you want to build a brand for yourself, it means that you're in it for the long run, right? So you want to do it right? And you really want to build an amazing brand. So Diya, How can people find you? How can people contact you?

Diya Asrani: I'm available on YouTube, Instagram, and I have a podcast channel also. So,you know, you can go and follow me in all the three. I'm quite active on YouTube mainly. I, you know, keep putting videos and of course I have an active channel on Instagram as well. so you can follow me there, and I also have my website, which is www.diya.com. It's, you know, I can share it below this video if you want. And I'm also doing my master classes. So I have master classes happening every month, which are, you know, these five being WhatsApp master classes, which is basically I help people launch their brand or launch their presence online within five minutes, is you know, like there's a simplified way that I follow.

So, you know, if you want, you can check that out as well. So, yes. And that's, that's, you know, that's where you can find me. I'm pretty much everywhere all around the internet because, you know, in the end we have to focus on digital. So that's the whole thing about, you know, there's, it's building, so yes.

Monique Idemudia: Great. So definitely check her out, check out her master class. She doesn't mean using word that's for sure. I've had a great time talking to you. I hope it help you guys out there. I was in building your friend and getting more clear about your positioning and how to start building your brand. And you got some actionable takeaways.

Diya Asrani: So, one of the main takeaways would be that, you know, you should make sure that you follow the journey. Okay. Listen to your heart. Okay. Because sometimes they say, listen to your mind, see what happens, but listen to your heart, and do what you really love doing. And if you really are passionate and you really have a certain skill that you want to share with the world, then just take the leap because that's all I can see if you don't take the leap, you're missing the bus.

That's as simple as that.

Monique Idemudia: I totally agree with your heart. Don't be scared. You need to take chances. You need to take risks in life. If you want to win and achieve something big, you just have to take the leap, as you said.

Monique Idemudia: Alright. So let's wrap things up. That was a nice statement at the end. I really liked this so much.

Bye guys, and I'll see you in the next episode.

Outro:

Thank you for joining us for this episode of the Dragon Digital Marketing Podcast. You can visit us at dragon-digital-marketing.com for more resources and more episodes. Let us know how you like the show and write us a review. We are grateful when you like, share, and subscribe. We appreciate you.