Unlocking Success: The Unseen Formula Behind the World's Most Influential Personalities
Is there a formula for success? Short answer - yes(ish).
After researching 50 successful people, from Gary Vaynerchuk and Marie Forleo to Bill Nye and Walt Disney, to see what helped catapult them to their massive successes, I found two interesting things.
First, there was always a healthy dose of “right place at the right time.” While a few might chalk it up to luck, most worked very hard to make sure they were in the right place, at the right time, so they could leverage their breakthrough opportunity when it came along.
Second, I found a lot of similarities among all 50 around their personal brands. More specifically, they had so many elements dialed in. From understanding their personal brand to showcasing it to practicing activities to improve their output and impact, they all had their breakthrough successes after they had these brand elements in place.
Does this mean I really have a formula for success? Not quite. Sorry to break it to you, but there’s no formula to follow that will guarantee success.
But I did find a strong correlation between brand elements and success, so while I don’t have a formula for success, I do have one showcasing all the elements these people had in place before they had their breakouts.
PERSONAL BRAND FORMULA
Let’s break the Personal Brand Formula down:
Authenticity: This is a foundation of personal branding. Being genuine and true to oneself helps in connecting with the audience on a deeper level. Plus, it’s much easier to maintain being genuine than keeping up with a fake persona. If you’re skeptical, take a look at how quickly most influencers burn out from that lifestyle.
Value: Demonstrating knowledge or unique skills in a specific area establishes your authority and sets you apart in your field. This showcases a huge element of your value.
Consistency: Being consistent puts people at ease and increases their tendency to trust you. Maintaining a coherent message, visual identity, and tone across all platforms reinforces your brand.
Strategic Networking: Having a network is important, but having the right people in your network is critical. Building relationships with key individuals and groups can provide personal brand exposure, but more importantly, it provides a network that can be leveraged for growth.
Innovation: Being innovative and embracing innovative thinking pushes you to grow beyond your current limitations.
Adaptability: Things change. Fast. Flexibility to respond to changes in audience preferences, the market, technology, and other elements quickly is crucial. If you’re adaptable, you’re always learning. If you’re always learning, you’re continuously increasing your value.
Focused Niche: Specializing in a specific area and tailoring your personal brand to appeal to that niche audience helps in becoming memorable and authoritative. Some niches are much larger than others, but having some element that narrows your value can make it easier for others to find and remember you.
Engaging Content: Producing content that resonates with your audience is crucial for keeping them interested and engaged with your brand.
Learning from Failure: We all fail - a lot. No one wakes up in the morning trying to fail, but innovation happens in new territory and you’re never going to be perfect out of the box. Learning to fail the right way - viewing setbacks as learning opportunities and using them to refine strategies and approaches - will contribute to resilience and growth.
Positive Impact: Aiming to make a positive impact is important. It keeps your mind focused on delivering value and making things better than they were before. This usually requires innovation and adaptability, and will add immense value to your brand, but the successful ones are authentic in their approach to make a positive impact.
How can you follow the Personal Brand Formula
Authenticity + Value + Consistency + Strategic Networking + Innovation + Adaptability + Focused Niche + Engaging Content + Learning from Failure + Positive Impact
Reflect on your personal brand and approach to your work
Look through the list above and note ones that you feel describe you vs those that don’t
For those elements that describe you, develop a plan to maintain and grow them
For those elements that don’t describe you, create a method to learn and apply them to your life
Disclaimers
THIS IS NOT EASY! Reading a blog post with a Personal Brand Formula and steps to follow can make this seem as if it is easy. Or worse, that it’s something that you should already know how to do (and do well). This stuff is very hard. Everyone messes it up along the way. Everyone messes it up when they get there. All 50 of the people I researched have made blunders along the way and after they’ve reached the big leagues. In summary, this is all super important and you should work on it, but don’t expect it to be easy.
You’ll notice that this formula does equal anything. This is important to know for two reasons:
First, there’s no guaranteed success in anything in life. There are too many variables, internally and externally, that can derail the best of plans. This personal branding formula shows the elements that should be in place to support reaching high levels of success, but they alone won’t guarantee you get there.
Second, the inputs for this formula will constantly change. Over time, you should have more experience with and examples of how you exemplify each element of the formula. This will deepen your personal brand, and continue to support your path towards success.
Lastly, keep in mind that every person’s journey to success is so different. We all have our own unique personalities, histories, and paths. Using this Personal Brand Formula as a guide to help get your ducks in a row is healthy. Obsessing every second about whether you did everything right is not. Keep an open mind on your path and instead of comparing it to someone else’s path, try to use elements of structure, like this formula, to give you useful guidance without overwhelming you through comparison fatigue.
