The ultimate guide to building an irresistible personal brand

Sophie Wilson is the founder and CEO of Liverpool-based PR and marketing agency Tuesday Media, which helps positive changemakers telling their stories and building an irresistible personal brand. 

She has a long career in media and broadcasting, having cut her teeth in international broadcasting before holding senior management roles client-side. She worked at a multi-award-winning London PR agency, for the former editor of the world’s bestselling newspaper editor and alongside Fleet Street journalists. 

Sophie has personally led and coordinated two very high-profile media cases. She was also a crucial part of a group of individuals that raised awareness of Long COVID, writing about her own experiences and making a film for Huffington Post, a radio documentary for the BBC and featured in many media outlets. 

Sophie founded Tuesday in 2018. Since then, the agency has been helping startups, SMEs, FTSEs, and individuals understand their unique stories. She helps them tell them through PR, media relations, digital PR, content marketing, social media and SEO. 

She has worked with several founders, entrepreneurs, a politician, and a local mayor to craft their brands. 

If you were to define a personal brand, how would you do it in one sentence?

Your personal brand is the expression of your unique skills, experience, values and personality. 

Who should develop one and why?

We all have a personal brand – whether or not- because it comes down to how people experience us as individuals. Anyone in any profession can cultivate their brand – it’s not just limited to people in the public eye or politicians. 

Bakers, vicars, teachers, and entrepreneurs can work on their brand and live by their brand values. 

Why do you think some people are reluctant to start the process?

Some people might be reluctant to shout about themselves and their experiences because they are shy or worried about how they might be perceived, but it’s not about that. It’s about shining a light on the qualities that make you a unique human being. 

Often I have engaged with clients, especially business founders, who tell me that they don’t want to be “all about me, me, me”. However, when we start to work together to understand and articulate their own stories, they realise that personal brand building is about what opinions, values, beliefs and stories they have that other people find value in and want to hear about. 

How can we use our brand to help our marketing strategy?

Many business owners have a powerful story about their journey and what drove them to create change/innovate/develop a product or solution. When I work with clients to build their overall business brand story, we always examine the origin story. In fact, it is often something that you can leverage in the press.

By having a powerful and present personal brand, founders are more likely to be called upon for media comment, speaking opportunities, or thought leadership.

The internal marketing department should harness it as a critical tactic for pushing the business. 

What creative ways can we create content based on our personal brand?

Build your personal brand in the press or through content such as blogs, opinion pieces, social media, and podcast appearances. You can and should ‘live’ your brand, too, by the company you keep and the organisations that you align yourself with. 

You can also have fun with it – for example, my brand is definitely the colour pink. I mostly wear pink, and I drive a Pink Nissan Figaro. This chimes with my personal brand to help others stand out.  

What are some of the places people can start building a personal brand?

If you haven’t already, you should undertake a personal branding exercise to build your brand story, narrative and key messages to ensure that you’ve made a solid and authentic brand from the get-go. You can translate it into a visual brief, working with a designer to create brand guidelines. 

You can then reflect that across your ‘owned’ media channels – your social media, website and blog. It is the best place to start building before looking outward at media outlets and other platforms.

Top tip – Substack is becoming an increasingly popular outlet for prominent thinkers and innovators to publish directly to their audiences. 

Do you have some examples of professionals building an irresistible personal brand?

Some of the clients that I’ve worked with:

• Em Stroud, the ‘Corporate Clown Coach’, works with a roster of CEOs of SMEs and global businesses. Using an array of tools from the personal development world and business improvement techniques, which includes those mastered from the art of clowning, Em encourages businesses and employees to “work well, play harder”. 
• Liverpool-based ‘Startographer’ Jonny Clark. He is the co-founder of GDPR compliance tech startup GDPR Defender and an angel investor who invests in and advises early-stage tech companies.  
• Dr Yusra, ‘The Glow Dr’, is a skin and aesthetics wellness expert whose philosophy is rooted in empowering transformations’, providing treatments that deliver both radiance on the outside and wellness on the inside.
• Liam Quirkis is the managing director of Liverpool SEO agency Quirky Digital. Liam is the ‘Recession Proof entrepreneur’, and he is creating opportunities for others to thrive. 

How can people balance talking about their personal journey and business?

The two brands are separate, although linked. Most personal brands should align with their company’s overall vision and values. Otherwise, there would be a disconnect.

Generally, building your personal brand will benefit the business brand, but be sure to understand your goals, as they will not always be the same. 

Be mindful that it can be seen as an extension of your business and, therefore, always act accordingly in a way that matches your company’s values. 

To find out more about Sophie can help you to craft your personal band or business brand, go here.

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