Five ways to say “This is me!” by @amabaie

If you run a business, and especially if that business has your name on it, people want to know who you are. Whether you are a consultant or run a team of plumbers, a photographer or a restaurant owner, you need to find a way to say “This is me!”

Fortunately, there are many ways to tell people who you are. Here are five really good ones.

Spiff up your website bio

In the age of the Internet, the most obvious way to tell people who you are is in your website bio. You do have a website bio, don’t you? If not, you should. At very least the bio should scrape out a few highlights of your career or training.

At very least.

But if you are an entrepreneur, you know that the very least is never good enough. A few facts don’t tell people who you are. There is a lot more to you than facts. People like to do business with people they can relate to, people they can trust.

Business promoter Lisa Sicard describes the process: know your business, know your audience, know your market and then tell your story.

One website bio I really like is Joseph Carrabis’ bio. As a writer he is an artist and he knows his business – which is as a storyteller. His audience is avid readers and his market is the fiction marketplace. The story he tells is one of a quirky character. He might not like me describing it that way, but I think it works perfectly for a creative of almost any type.

He does manage to slip in links to his social media profiles in a gentle nod to reality.

Write a book

If you have a really good story, your website bio will be just enough to whet a reader’s appetite. Fiction might be fun to read, but your real-life story can be made just as exciting. Nothing shows off your expertise and shows off your human and approachable side like a book.

You might not want to write a book if you sell low-ticket items. But if you sell big-ticket items, like real estate or consulting services, a book helps make the sale.

Yesterday, people handed out little pieces of paper called “business cards”. Today, you hand out a book or go home.

If you don’t have time to write a book, or you don’t have the skill to write it really well, you can always hire a book writer. You still have to provide the information, perhaps in bullet points or ramblings. But you don’t have to find the right words and put it all together so that it flows. You get to delegate that part.

 Get a professional portrait done

This is something you absolutely want to delegate. Anybody can snap a photo, and far too many people take far too many photos. But a professional photographer can take the right photo

For far too long, I was using a poor-quality head shot that was actually cut from a family portrait taken one Christmas many years ago. Finally, I updated it. But not with another cut-away head shot. This time, I got a pro who could take good pictures with good equipment and – here’s the good part – edit them!

The before and after is stunning.

I know, I must have been kissed by a princess.

The professionally produced photo tells people that you are a professional, too. Higher end clients are more likely to want to do business with you, because they can more easily envisage their projects being treated professionally.

Put your name and face on quote graphics

Once you have a professional photo, put it to use to build ultimate authority.

A quote graphic is a great way to associate yourself with an easy-to-digest bit of wisdom. The image and quote combined tell people something of who you are.

Even better, this approach makes you look like an authority. Why? Because image quotes are usually associate with world leaders and great thinkers. You are probably not a world leader, but with a quote graphic you are see as an authority in your field.

Here are a couple really good examples. 

You’ll see that Kevin Ocasio uses quote boxes that match his branding look elsewhere. By incorporating the same image as on his social media profiles, he elevates his whole image. Here is an example from his post on how to start a blog.

Kevin created his own image with his own look and feel. But you can get quote boxes through other people on other websites. That’s what happened to Ann Smarty for being a guest at Digital Marketing Radio. They ran her interview, they pulled a quote from it and they created a quote box. Very astute marketing of theirs and a great way to show off Ann’s authority on the subject.

Note to self: next time I guest post, why not suggest a quote box as an image? And you can, too.

Talk about yourself

Nobody wants to hear people go on and on about themselves. Or do they? I know several bloggers who do just that. In fact, I know some whose entire reputation is built on the stories they tell about themselves and how they intertwine those stories with their expertise.

Perhaps the most well known of these is Ryan Biddulph of Blogging from Paradise. He literally shares photos of his life travelling from one tropical location to another. Often, they are selfies. And he talks about his experience as a blogger, as an online marketer and as an infopreneur.

And people love it. They read his exploits and imagine being in his shoes. And they walk away with good solid advice, because this is the real deal. His post about Amazon versus Selz and Gumroad is classic quality over quantity advice. And check out the pic.

This is you!

Of course, there are plenty of other ways to shout out “This is me!” But not everyone wants to buy a bus wrap with their face on it.

These are five ways to tell the world who you are that will work for almost everybody. Why not start working on them today?

About the Author

David Leonhardt is a creative entrepreneur who has used all five methods in his own marketing. But he thought readers would also like to see examples from other people. You can follow him on Twitter and LinkedIn.