For those who are looking to raise their profile in the community, the plan should be to build your personal brand. What was once reserved for celebrities and CEOs of corporations is now a vital part for anyone trying to expand their reach and profile within their community. That is why one popular method is to build you personal brand speaking at TEDx.
But before you take the first step, it is important to understand what is a personal brand and how TEDx fits into improving your personal profile.
Building a Personal Brand
A personal brand is how the public perceives your persona. You should look at it in the light of when people see you, what do you want them to think? When you think of celebrities and business owners, there personal brand is the perception of being popular, informed on their subject, and a source of authority at least in their specialty.
You can do the same by becoming an authority in your particular field. A personal brand does not mean trying to be all things to all people, but rather a source of reliable information usually on a single topic. This may sound limiting at first, but it may be the most valuable thing you can create for yourself in terms of how the public perceives you.
How to Create a Personal Brand
The first thing to keep in mind is that building your personal brand is a marathon, not a sprint. There are no overnight successes when it comes to creating authority in your field. Instead, you must take the long approach and build up your brand over time.
Create a Plan: The concept of creating a plan is simple enough. Where do you want to be in a year, three years, and five years? Now, write down what you will have to do to get there. Creating a personal brand takes time, so use that time wisely by planning out what needs to be done. This may mean creating your own website, expanding your responsibilities at work, or building relationships with others. But it all starts when you create a plan for success.
Keep It Real: The brand you create should be you. It should not be some idealized version of you or worse, a persona that is fake. People can see right through fakery, so you will need to keep things real in your public interactions.
Take Advantage of Opportunities: This is tricky because becoming an authority on a subject does not necessarily mean that you will be perceived as a leader. You may be seen as the “information person” that leaders rely on to find out more about a subject. To shape your personal brand, you will need to take advantage of opportunities that let you go into different areas.
Look at where you want to be in a few years and use the opportunities in your workplace and community to get there.
Go Public: Building a website, posting blogs or videos is an excellent way to reach outward. But arguably the most important is to speak at public events. This is because people seeing you in person is the best way to establish your personal brand. You can build up to that point by going online and improving yourself within the business that you work, but few things beat public speaking to establish your personal brand with others.
That is where speaking at events such as TEDx comes into play. This represents a substantial opportunity to push your personal brand to new heights.
What is TEDx?
You may have heard of TED, a live speaking event that is broadcast around the world in participating theaters. TEDx is a similar format, but it takes place in your community. This is a live event where a series of speakers just like yourself present valuable information.
TEDx is fully planned and coordinated within your community and therefore will have some unique aspects that are not shared with any other community. The format itself is similar to the larger TED events. This is a program consisting of a series of speakers, performances, and demonstrations that are focused to teach and inspire.
The goal is to create additional conversation on the ideas that are covered in the TEDx event. For building your personal brand, a TEDx event is the perfect format. Keep in mind that there is no selling or raising money.
In fact, the purpose of TEDx is to provide a platform for non-professional speakers to reach an audience. The diverse number of topics means that it is the perfect place to build your personal brand even if you have little to no experience speaking in public.
Build Your Personal Brand Speaking at TEDx
The first step is knowing what area you want to talk about at your local TEDx event. The topic should be one that has value to your audience, even if the subject matter is seemingly limited. You should think about shaping your demonstration along the lines of providing value to your listeners.
Once you know what you want to say, the next step is getting on your local TEDx event. This means finding out when the next TEDx is scheduled, turning in the application, and following all the guidelines of your community TEDx event. There are no guarantees that you will be allowed to speak, but if the topic is relevant, you do stand a good chance.
Remember to build your personal brand at TEDx means connecting with the audience. You will want to practice your speech or demonstration and hone it towards providing value. There is no selling, not fundraising, only information that people will think about and discuss.
To build your personal brand is an ever-changing process. Speaking at TEDx is one way to reach a larger portion of your community in one session. While you can build your personal brand speaking at TEDx, it should be one part of a larger plan to expand your profile and build authority in your community.
