As the old adage goes, you do not know what you do not know. When I first got involved in the consulting space in 2019, heading into 2020, I didn't realize just how big the overall profession was. There are so many different kinds of consulting verticals, from business management to sales, branding, marketing—even going to your doctor's office is a form of consulting. Our world operates off of information and professional opinions. When I was deciding what my main vehicle would be, I knew for a fact that I did not want to be involved in done-for-you services. I hated it; it always felt tedious, and I had to force myself to get the work done.
Something started to click, though, when I became the go-to person in my friend group for advice on social media, how they could get their companies improved and in front of more people, as well as their own personal names. Understanding that I wasn't trying to be some social media marketer or work with businesses, I began to realize there was a blue ocean opportunity for working with business owners and actual people on their personal brands.
If you have been following me for any amount of time, you are probably aware of my philosophy of personal branding. Your personal brand is you! It is every single thing in your makeup, personally and professionally, from your character traits to your career. It is so much larger than a singular social media page, your website, or one press article. Those are all extensions of your personal brand. With these common misconceptions in mind, I have created my own master strategy and approach to personal branding. One that is much more intensive and macroscopic.
In July of 2024, I launched Mashman Consulting Group out of Little Rock, Arkansas, which is the continuation of the work I completed in Mashman Ventures, which I dissolved earlier in the year. The idea behind MCG is to become the number one leading personal brand consulting firm in the world. I have publicly stated that I want to have 500 consultants working for us by the year 2035. The only way I can achieve this is by scaling. But is this business scalable? Let’s discuss some common reasons why someone would go out of their way to hire a personal brand consultant and why I believe this industry is a growing field.
To Save Money and Optimize Spending
It's funny to think that you would pay a third party extra money to help you save money. The purpose of consultants is to solve problems, right? Imagine starting out trying to grow your personal brand online and being hit with hundreds, if not thousands, of calls to action on a daily basis. You can pay this person to launch a podcast, hire a publishing house for your book, pay a speaking coach to help you with public speaking, or hire someone to help manage your Instagram account. There is so much information out there; it is challenging to know where you should best spend your hard-earned dollar.
On top of that, if you factor in the number of investments you might make trying and failing, you could end up digging yourself a hole without even realizing it. By hiring a personal brand consultant, you are eliminating the questions and doubts about the direction you should be going. For example, I have a recent client of mine who is launching a podcast and was recently approached by a TikTok live streaming company. He asked for my opinion, and I have been working with him every step of the way, ensuring that he is not getting locked into any exclusivity contracts, aggressive profit shares, and is actually getting what he needs. He was able to contact me and get that professional counsel because he had a consultant.
To Save and Optimize Time
The time you spend with a personal branding consultant will pale in comparison to the amount of time you would spend trying and failing at different strategies. This isn't some pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey kind of game, but understanding the most effective strategies to grow your LinkedIn account, how you can land press placements organically, or what you can do to improve the likelihood that your video goes viral are all subjects a high-quality personal brand consultant can address with you. The proper consultants have already spent all of the time in education, experience, and professional study. If I need to figure out what is going wrong with my health, I'm not going to stay up all night searching WebMD; I would go to the doctor.
Agency leader and video expert Adrian Boysel from BrandButler.ai had this to say: “A [personal] brand consultant gives you objectivity and clarity you can't get yourself. They will give you a proven plan for building your authority as a thought leader or industry expert, in the age of AI good personal branding is the difference between being invisible vs iconic.”
One of my recent clients is a public speaker, and he recently asked me the question one early morning, "What is a one sheet?" I was able to take two minutes of my time to send him a thorough voice note telling him what it is, what people look for, and its purpose, which ultimately saved him 30 minutes or more in research. This is a small example, but another would be someone who is launching a podcast. An aspect of having a successful podcast is ensuring it is properly distributed across media channels. A personal brand consultant is able to tell them and come up with an entire list of places that their new show should be listed on, which improves their chances of visibility, distribution, and promotion. This is getting the most out of their time and saving them from having to go find those places themselves.
To Save Face
The third reason you should hire a personal brand consultant that I will discuss in this article is to save face. Now, when you start out, you probably won't look great. Your socials will be out of whack, your posts might not be super high quality—when I did my first podcast, I recorded it on an iPhone 6. We all have to start somewhere, and that's perfectly fine. However, once you get somewhat established, hiring a personal brand consultant will allow you to level up your game and your image so you can properly portray yourself as the authority and public figure you desire to be perceived as.
If your marketing message says that you are some big-shot lawyer, yet your page looks like it's from 2006, do you really expect people to line up outside your law firm's door to work with you? Of course not.
How To Hire A Personal Brand Consultant
There are four main things you want to look for when hiring a personal brand consultant: a moral backbone, results, pricing, and a future.
Make sure your consultant is not someone who leverages unethical strategies like fake followers, fake press, and sets outlandish expectations like becoming famous overnight.
Your personal brand consultant doesn't necessarily have to have more followers than you or be extremely popular, but they should have either personal results or client results that validate their promises. Don't trust someone who says they can help you publish your book if they've never done that before, and the same can be said about building an omnipresent social media presence. You need to look for people who have a big vision and offer tactical advice.
Depending on the stage you're at, pricing is also important. For example, to hire me for a consultation, you're looking at a minimum of $1,000. I am not the cheapest, but my personal and client results are testimonials that validate my asking price. I would run from anybody who charges less than a couple hundred dollars for a session. I would also be skeptical of someone who might charge $5,000 for one. They should be selling you outcomes more than they’re selling you features.
Dennis Yu, an expert in personal branding says that “If you have evidence of success that will help others like you, then hire a personal brand consultant to help magnify what you’ve already done. But if you don’t have these ingredients, then even the best personal brand consultant in the world can’t grow your brand effectively.” In terms of finding the right hire he went on to say “The right personal brand consultant keenly understands who you are and what differentiates you from the ever noisier social media and digital space.”
Your personal brand consultant should also be actively building out their own personal brand. Find someone who is continuously looking for new strategies and is improving their own processes so you can grow together. Our landscape is constantly changing and evolving, and being on the cusp of breakthroughs is a remarkable advantage. In my own business, with the recent introduction of artificial intelligence, we have seamlessly implemented this into our strategies and are able to point our clients in the directions of the most effective tools and resources.
Final Thoughts
A personal brand consultant helps you optimize and scale your personal brand, filling in the gaps that you don't even know exist and offering strategies and advice that can yield incalculable returns. This isn't a hire where you will be able to directly measure financial results immediately, but you will begin receiving more compliments, more traction, more traffic, and more results as you gradually apply everything you and your consultant talk about. Remember, it is up to you to execute on every bit of advice that you are given. Otherwise, just like your fitness coach tells you not to eat that McDonald's Big Mac, you won't lose any weight.
If you are serious about scaling your personal brand in 2024 and beyond I invite you to watch this exclusive overview presentation I recorded for Mashman Consulting Group. There’s no cost to you and you will find a quick survey in the description.
Share this with someone who you believe would benefit from a guide on hiring a personal brand consultant!
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