Kelly Lundberg is one of the most diverse business entrepreneurs to have emerged out of the Middle East. A woman on a mission, Kelly aims to inspire a minimum of 5 people a day to take action; whether that is to follow their dreams or just show up as the best version of themselves.
Tell us about your background and what you do
I am a personal brand expert that helps entrepreneurs, employees, and CEO’s to elevate their personal brand presence both on and offline. Just what personal brand means will vary from one individual to another what I believe in is the personal brand is truly the transformation of accomplished individuals from the unknown to unforgettable.
Personal brand doesn’t just determine what is said about you when you leave a room, it’s what Google says about you in every room there’s a device that’s connected to the internet – and I help clients to create the narrative for them.
In society today, no matter who we are and what we do, we all need a trustworthy credible brand. I’ve worn a lot of hats throughout the years, but no matter what I was forging ahead with, exploring and building, all roads brought me back to my love of business and communication – the genesis of my personal brand.
I launched the Middle East personal shopping and styling business back in 2005, helping clients elevate their public image. Over the last 17 years not only has personal presentation and first impressions been a huge part of what I offer, I have also significantly invested in coaches for myself in order to grow and develop my skills as a business owner.
I sold my styling business back in 2019 and for the past three years I have been running Brand YOU workshops, classes, mentoring sessions and consultancy all under my personal brand – Kelly Lundberg. I’ve seen businesses launch, sales figures triple, and media presence that we all want to be a part of – all from the Brand YOU alumni. That’s when I realised that Brand YOU is bigger than ‘Kelly Lundberg’ and it is time it has its own space. So, this year I launched Brand YOU Creators.com where you will find the turnkey solution for creating a personal brand with an online presence, that positions you in the right lane to take you where you want to go next.
Why is personal branding so important?
A personal brand develops trust and credibility.
A lot of people do think that developing a personal brand is a self-indulgent exercise or a popularity contest, but this is far from the knub of its origins.
It allows you to establish your name as a thought-leader or expert in your field, demonstrates who you are authentically and showcases what you stand for, adding value to others.
In my masterclasses I often compare the experience of googling yourself to going on a first date. If you were meeting someone for the first time you would most likely have a look as to what is ‘out there’ about them. If there was nothing, what would you think?
I know the answer to this, I’ve asked the question a lot and the answer is the same every time. The same is for your personal brand and if you choose not to consciously develop your personal brand, other people will do it for you based on whatever information they can find out about you from social media (or the lack of it) and internet searches.
What are the key elements of a personal brand?
Using the highly successful Brand You strategy, we simplify the personal branding process to for whatever stage clients my clients are it. This can be finding their uniqueness and extrapolating that into a product, to establishing the correct market positioning that drives traffic, cultivates authority and garners trust, so they may become the type of person that everyone must do business with.
The key elements to a successful personal brand are;
– Strategy
– Stationary
– Social
– Spotlight
– Speaking
– Style
– Stand Out
What are your three top tips for getting started with personal branding?
First and foremost; work out where you are to start with. Audit your personal brand, what’s coming up online, are you happy with it? Do you think you can do better?
Put a plan in place for what you want to achieve, looking at the key elements above, what are you comfortable at working on, what comes easiest to you.
Seek out an expert that can help you fill in the blanks. What do other people see when they look at your personal brand and how can you get their more effortlessly. Join one of my masterclasses to help you to unlock the door to your next success.
Don’t think just because you have spent a few weeks working on your personal brand, that it’s enough. A personal brand is always evolving.
When building a company, is personal branding or the branding of the company most important?
Great question. In my opinion and in this day in age I do believe having both is just as important. People buy from people, not a business with no personality behind it. Consumer demand for transparency has become more demanding and in that lies the people and or person behind the business.
When building a company, should employees also build their personal brand in line with the company?
Absolutely, here are just a few short reasons why;
1. People want to work with people:
Real life behind the scenes stories, human connection, and relationships build a much longer lasting bond with consumers. The chances that you are in a completely unique business niche is rare these days which means you have competition. Sure, you can try and beat your competitors on price but without a brand and personal connection, you become a commodity that competes only on price. You can be sure of one thing only competitors can beat your price but if you have a strong brand that will set you apart.
2. Increased employee retention:
Encouraging your employees to develop their personal brand helps them grow within their own careers and become more accountable. A strong personal brand will grow the business. By supporting personal development and growth among employees this ultimately leads to a happier, more productive workforce. Who doesn’t want that?
3. Improved visual & voice connection:
Your employees are your voice, by encouraging employees to post on social media channels helps to create and enhance engagement with their brand and yours. Taking the connection, a step further with the use of video content offers a deeper medium that is perfect to showcase your employees’ knowledge (and personality), along with evidencing your company’s expertise. Connecting your employee to your company by investing in their personal brand will allow your company to stand out in a crowd.
What is next for you?
Brand you Creators is so new, I really want to focus on growing that and build on the amazing team we have already to have more of an impact.
I have a third book is in the pipeline and we have just aligned ourselves with The Sparkle Foundation and look forward to growing this relationship and making a difference.
Where can readers find out more about you?
I am super active on Instagram, come and drop me a DM and say hi www.instagram.com/kellylundbergofficial
or visit www.brandyoucreators.com
www.kellylundbergofficial.com.
I host monthly a personal brand audit masterclass in Dubai. Drop me a DM to find out more details on the next one and to reserve your spot, they book out early.
