It’s one of the ironies of life that most of us spend our childhoods trying to fit in only the spend our adult years trying to remember to stand out. Similarly, most startups and solopreneurs start off by trying to do same thing and copying the herd.

When it comes to building a killer presence online as a solopreneur, it pays to get personal.

personal branding solopreneursIt might be tempting to think that people will jump at the opportunity to work with you because you’re the best at what you do. The warm, fuzzy truth of the matter, however, is that people seek out the type of businesses they want to associate with just as much as the actual skills and value that a company has to offer.

For larger businesses, clients get an idea of what type of business they’re looking at by the company’s overall brand. When it comes to working solo, however, you’re wearing your brand right on your face, whether you know it or not.

When people are considering which professional service provider to hire, they usually place a lot of weight on what a particular person is like to work with. If you’ve done a good job communicating your personal brand in your marketing efforts, they’ll have no doubt that you’re the kind of dynamite team player they’ll be glad to add to their rolodex.

The trick to mastering your personal brand is getting in touch with the qualities that other people find noteworthy, inspiring and irresistible. The chances are that these are the same qualities that your ideal potential clients just happen to be looking for.

It’s true that not everyone is going to fall in love with your personal brand once you start putting more of yourself out there. That’s okay. Trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for a perfectly mediocre business. Being everything you can be to the clients you were born to partner with? That’s a success story just waiting to happen.