4 steps to building a personal brand in the professional services sector - BOSS to BOSS
4 steps to building a personal brand as a professional
A marketer for most of his career, Elliot Moss is credited with turning law firm Mishcon de Reya into one of the fastest growing law firms in the UK, up 152% since 2010. As Head of Business Development, Elliot has non only helped his firm win multiple awards for communications and marketing, but in 2012 he became the first non-solicitor to be included in the FT’s 10 most innovative individuals in the legal sector, an astonishing achievement for someone who had only entered the profession three years earlier!
We met with Elliot to learn how professionals can go about building great personal brands, particularly in those industries that are viewed as traditional and slow to embrace change.
1. “Be clear on what you stand for, make sure it’s something you truly believe in and communicate that message consistently.”
This is something you always find with successful people; they know what they stand for. They might word it differently. Some talk about knowing what they want to be famous for or having a personal vision, but the bottom line is that you’ve got to represent something that goes beyond the mere exchange of money for goods and services.
2. “Make it happen. Don’t sit back and assume that because you’ve got a vision the rest will take care of itself. It won’t. Treat every hour as if it’s the most important.”
This is another common trait of highly successful people. They are always busy. When he’s not shopping for larger award cabinets, Elliot chairs the marketing group for the Managing Partners forum, serves as the deputy chairman for the London London Chamber of Commerce, and every Saturday morning he can be heard presenting the popular Jazz FM show, Jazz Shapers, where he interviews big name entrepreneurs. All this while achieving 100% growth for his firm!
3. “People need to find the intersection of their expertise and passion, as this can allow them to communicate their expertise with conviction.”
For Elliot this intersection rests with law and communications, two subjects that he is truly passionate about. For me it’s marketing and business. Finding this bridge is everything. If you focus purely on your technical expertise, your audience will be incredibly niche (or bored) and probably represent your peers and competitors rather than your target audience.
4. “Content first, communication second. Once you have honed your content, choosing the right platforms will be easy.”
There is no point worrying about the platform (Twitter, Linkedin, radio, whatever it might be) until you have something to say. This is so true for Twitter. People jump on it for fear of missing out, but without first knowing what it is that they’re going to say. For the hyper gregarious, that’s okay. But for anyone remotely introverted, this makes it an impossible task. So they spend 20 minutes agonising over each tweet and soon give up altogether. Sound familiar?
Be clear on your content and the communications will take care of itself.
This article was originally published on our sister site, the professional.org.
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