#97: Mike Wolber & Chris Arnold: Personal Branding Strategies Revealed
Mike Wolber | Chief Revenue officer | Rent Dynamics
🎙 Host of Modern Multifamily. Tune in HERE.
why do you think it's important for someone to have a personal brand?
In many ways, how you want to be known or thought of matters more than it ever has. You also have a few seconds to pass someone's sniff test or miss the opportunity. So for me, building a personal brand didn’t start out by design- it was definitely an accident. But I started seeing that the more I amplified my voice personally and the business I represented, it led to warmer introductions, hugs instead of handshakes at conferences, and things like that. That's snowballed into what it is today.
is there a strategy behind how you are building your personal brand online?
There definitely is. As a leader of a fast-growing technology company, recruiting is expensive, and it's time-consuming. Being able to be someone active on social media, celebrating wins, sharing learnings, and very much building in public makes it very repeatable for me to get in front of people that eventually do become team members. Since joining two years ago, I've added over 40 people to Rent Dynamics, and I haven't had to spend a dollar on recruiting. Second, being able to seek wisdom and then eventually share wisdom is also sort of a superpower to me. And being able to slide into the DMs of VPs and CXOs in our industry, meet with people like you, get people's attention, and then use that attention wisely. Those are all things that give me energy, and I am someone who tries to find energy in the daily.
“Building in public makes it very repeatable for me to get in front of people that eventually do become team members. I’ve added over forty people to Rent Dynamics since joining two years ago, and I haven’t had to spend a dollar on recruiting.”
How do you ensure you're delivering Varied content for the week?
As a LinkedIn Creator, you can see hashtags under my profile of the things that I talk about. And that was intentional. I'm very confident, experienced, and comfortable talking about leadership, multifamily, prop tech, and about technology. Those are the things that you'll routinely see me talking about.
I don't really follow engagement metrics personally. It’s great if a post pops as a couple of mine have in the past couple of weeks, but I really try to follow what's actually happening in my life. So right now we're in the middle of performance reviews and comp increases. Some of these can be tough conversations in the business. So a lot of my posts on social right now are about leadership and failing forward as it relates to development. As we get closer to the conference season, you’ll see my content shift a bit. So I try to bring through circumstantial but also authenticity as it relates to the content because that's ultimately what people want to consume.
“At the end of the day, we sell to people, we work with people and people are the proxy for their businesses. So I really think blending the human with the professional hat that we wear day in and day out...is the sweet spot.”
Connect with me on LinkedIn.
Tune in to hear Mike share:
Strategies to post consistently without letting LinkedIn take over your entire day
Two things that are a real turn-off when it comes to personal branding
An honest evaluation of what I (Barbara) can do better with my brand on LinkedIn
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Chris Arnold | Co-Founder | Authentic Form & Function
🎙 Host of Transforming Cities. Listen HERE.
What is Your Strategy For Personal Branding?
I went into it feeling like there weren’t a lot of voices when it came to real estate development and design and lease-up strategy. My style came from: “What do I like to read from other people? What’s the tone of voice I like to consume?” There’s a time and place for the humble brag, but I really appreciate people who take the time to stand for something, educate and inspire through their posts so that, when I’m finished reading it, I got something out of it. That is the key to successful content creation.
“I really appreciate people who take the time to stand for something, educate and inspire through their posts so that, when I’m finished reading it, I got something out of it. That is the key to successful content creation. ”
When you can take a step back and say, I know a thing or two about these four or five things, I think I can reach these two or three audience profiles. I started with a matrix that Justin Welsh put together, who is a content writing guru. One of my first approaches was to do a content matrix. Let’s see what I could talk about, and who could I be speaking to, and start from there. It’s a little messy and ugly at first, but each week that passes that you consistently do it, you learn about yourself and your voice through that creative writing process. You really get to know yourself better, and therefore can communicate with people better.
What have you done To develop YOur Voice and Confidence?
My rule of thumb is: Provide value at least ninety percent of the time and only ask for something ten percent of the time or less. I really gained my voice, partially from my own research, but also from following a handful of people that I admire and appreciate the way they approach writing. It’s a mix of both reflecting within, what can I provide from a value perspective, and gaining confidence through what you see other people doing.
“My rule of thumb is: Provide value at least ninety percent of the time and only ask for something ten percent of the time or less.”
Another rule of thumb is: People aren’t really paying attention to you as much as you think they are. So, even if you put out a post that feels a little silly or nervous about, not that many people are going to see it. That can give you a confidence boost, the more you hit post, you gain confidence that you can do this day in and day out. Take the occasional person or two that sends you a message that isn’t nice. That’s just part of the process and what you have to know going into a writing process like that.
What Should You Share In Your Content?
Along with the good, you should share the lessons you’ve learned through experience. As someone who is creating their own brand and finding their own voice, you need to stand for something and there needs to be a uniqueness to what you’re saying. It doesn’t need to be this new thing that you invented, but the way that you deliver the content needs to be in your own style. One of the ways I like to think about it is the majority of what you’re doing is actually repelling the people that aren’t going to be a good fit as a future friend, colleague, or business partner.
The more you share, the more you curate, educate and provide value through your content, and the more you share your wins and losses, you’re not only repelling all the people that don’t care to follow you, but bringing in people into your circle. The more you keep being yourself, even if you’re only getting five or ten likes, the fact that you’re getting a couple of DMs from people saying, “Hey, I really like what you’re doing,” that to me is a lot more valuable and takes you much further in those connections and business relationships than a post that is just a feel-good post that gets one hundred engagements. You don’t need fifty likes or hundreds of engagements, and if you can think about it that way, it’s really empowering as a creator. You want to qualify your circle with your content.
By the time someone is DMing you or emailing, they already know what you’re all about, and what you stand for, and they already know they want to work with you.
