The 6 Ways Most Agents Are Doing Personal Branding All Wrong- with BrandFace- EP 128

During this episode of the Lab Coat Agents Podcast, host Jeff Pfitzer talks with Tonya Eberhart and Michael Carr, partners in the company called BrandFace. They are the wizards and the experts of branding! Jeff knows there are a lot of self-proclaimed experts, but Tonya and Michael are the real deal. Tune in now! Episode Highlights:  Tonya is the founder of Brandface; She shares how her corporate journey began many years ago. At first, she sold vacuum cleaners door to door, during college. Later, when she learned about radios, she noticed personal branding and how it can make such an impact on a business.  Tonya dragged her clients into the studio one by one, teaching them how to cut their commercials and be the voice of their business. Later, she got into other forms of media like television and newspaper; This was even before the Internet. Gradually, she learned how to help people become the face of their business. People don’t do business with a logo; They do business with a person. Michael was a real estate auctioneer since 1991. He opened a brokerage in his hometown and hired her niece, Tonya, because she owned a full-service marketing company at the time out of Columbus, Ohio. Real-estate agents often forget to inject the personal end of their brand. Some might think that putting a photo is personal enough, but that’s not enough for people, especially in the age that we live in now, says Michael.  Tik Tok has taught many real-estate agents how to express their personal brand and their story through social platforms. Michael points out that we all have a background and the things that helped develop us into the path in life that we have taken. Tonya shares that they have an agent who got her brand identifier as Empowerment Agent. She is a cancer survivor. They have quite a few of those in the program who have learned to embrace that because there are so many people who identify with that. Some real-estate agents who have a photo, a logo, and a clever tagline, think that their branding is complete. Those are branding elements, but they do not constitute a full brand. How do you touch on all elements of branding? As a real-estate agent, it is important to figure out why someone should you over everyone else, recommends Michael. Brandface comes up with brand identifiers for a living. Your marketing cannot stop with your photo or with a catchy tagline, people need to know why it matters to them. As a real-estate agent, your story is exactly what is going to get you to develop that out.  Full brand development is not just the thing that gets people to stop for a second on their social media scroll or something. It’s so much more than that.  Many real-estate agents settle for “Ditto” instead of different.  The reason people don’t always know what to say and they’re gun shy is because they haven’t defined who they are, says Tonya. If you don’t put a little risk in the game, you probably aren’t going to be successful because you are not committed. The greatest brokers are the brokers that want what is best for you.  Facebook and social media platforms are essentially billboards but 10X more powerful than a billboard because you can be in front of them forever. It doesn’t matter what roads they’re driving, as long as they go to the app. If you’re playing the game correctly, they always see you, and that is the name of the game.   3 Key Points: Storytelling is illuminating how you can help your people, your clients, and why that is important to them. Great branding isn’t about being known for your profession, it is about being known for being different in your profession.  A lot of people post their results and facts but they don’t infuse their brand and tell behind the scenes or what obstacles they might have overcome to get there. That’s part of their story. People want to be more personal! Resources Mentioned:  Lab Coat Agents  | Website | Facebook | Facebook Group | Twitter | Instagram  Jeff Pfitzer   | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter BrandFace   | Website  | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook Brandfacescore.com Tonya Eberhart  | LinkedIn | Michael Carr  | LinkedIn |