Everyday the internet is filled with people with big dreams, goals, and plans to grow their brands. To become influencers, leaders in their niche, key people in their industry. The excitement doesn’t often last for long once the reality hits that building a brand is actually, a pretty big job. I believe having awareness of the key reasons people fail before you start can be hugely beneficial, it enables you to set yourself up for success. I’ve worked in the area of personal branding since I was 19 with it being my full-time focus for just over a year. During this time I have researched, read, followed, watched and spent time with a mix of brands, some big, some small.

The following three things are the three reasons I believe most fail in their quest to grow their brand. Don’t let these be your reasons.

Lack of Clarity

If you don’t have clarity on what you’re doing, on why you’re doing it, on who you’re doing it for, on what your message is or on what content you’re going to create… you’re either going to get bored or no-one’s really going to engage with you. Possibly both.

“A confused mind always says no”

If you haven’t got clarity on what your brand is about and what you’re trying to do, then, simply put, neither will anybody else. A big part of what I do with my programme is to help people to get clarity on every single aspect of their brand. What’s their big picture; what’s their small picture? What will their daily tasks be and what content will they be creating over the next 90 days? What are their goals for one year, and for 10 years? You really do need to get clarity on every single thing.

Who is your audience? What are their pain points? What is your niche? What is your message? Can you say what you do in one sentence?

You need to have answers to all of these questions, if you don’t, keep working until you do. If you don’t, how will the people who follow you?

Lack of vision

The second reason many people fail with their personal brands is that they don’t have a big view of the big picture – they don’t have a vision and a direction they’re heading towards.

When you start doing something new and something really big, you have to break it down into really small bite-sized chunks: if I looked at where I wanted to be before I’m 30 (three years away), it would totally overwhelm me, because I don’t know how I’m going to get there. I know I am going to get there, but now I’m going to get there might vary.

What I do know is that every single day it’s about taking one step forward.

Really have clarity on that big picture, and that will give you the motivation for every small step it takes to get there. And there are going to be a lot of small steps to get there; lots of failures, lots of annoying jobs, lots of new things you need to learn, lots of tiny tasks, lots of things that aren’t going to work. But, as long as you’re holding that big picture in your mind, as long as you have that vision – you won’t fail.

To really invest and become a leader, you need to concentrate on the end game just as much as you concentrate on the now.

Lack of commitment

One of the reasons for not starting your personal brand is excuses.

If you aren’t ready to commit, then there’s no point starting

In the vast majority of cases, the main reason people fail here is that they just do not commit. Maybe they’ll really put in that effort for about three weeks but they’ll go too hard at it, taking time during their weekends or evenings to work on their brand. That’s just never going to work well because they’re so tired during those times. It’s extremely hard-going.

They don’t make a daily habit or commitment

In my experience, 30 minutes to one hour every single day over one month is pretty much the ideal amount to really level yourself up and have that impact over 90 days, which then leads into that year, to really become a leader in your space.

If you don’t make those small commitments every single day and, instead, try to do five hours a day for the first few weeks…you’ll get bored and you’ll give up. It’s a struggle! This isn’t an overnight thing and this isn’t easy. There’s a lot of noise online, there’s a lot to learn and, to really have that impact, you need to have commitment. You need a no-excuses policy – you’re not tired, you’re not busy, you don’t have to do X, X, and X for work – everyone has those things they need to do, everyone needs to go to the gym, everyone has family and everyone has friends. Break it up into small, manageable chunks. Then set yourself the goal of doing a little bit everyday. Success compounds once you commit to it.