How to build a successful personal brand

Working in real estate, you’re living and breathing what you do every day in your community, so your personal brand has to be a genuine reflection of who you are. By the end of this series, you’ll learn why your personal brand is so important, how to go about defining it and ways to bring it to life. 

Why your personal brand matters 

Building a personal brand can help give you an edge over 10,000 other experienced agents who are seeking new property listings in New Zealand every day. Your personal brand differentiates you from your competitor, builds trust and credibility, and will help to create a positive reputation, all of which hopefully sends vendors your way. 

Homeowners are entrusting you with their most valuable asset and they’re also inviting you into their lives during a stressful time, so they need to know they can count on you. 

Play to your strengths 

Even as a new agent, you have something special to offer. Figure out what that is. 

Bayleys Christchurch agent, Julia Ashmore-Smith, was Rookie of the Year when starting out. Her reward for having a good personal brand from the outset is she’s now a Bayleys Top National 5% agent. In her case, she had a negotiating and marketing background, as well as training in conflict management so she has sold herself as an agent who can deal with tricky properties or situations. 

Her personal branding has attracted the kind of business she enjoys, clients come to her with complex scenarios, such as people selling from overseas or marital properties that are tricky. Her current tagline is “redefining real estate.” She wants to convey her professionalism in her personal branding. “We deal with people’s biggest assets, it’s a very responsible job,” she says. 

Like Julia, you may have had a different career before real estate and already be known in your community, in which case you simply need to build on your existing personal brand. 

For Mt Albert mum and Anne Duncan agent, Kerry Glengarry, when she was starting out a few years ago, she was very well known in her neighborhood. Glengarry says what you have done before is important to your personal brand. 

Her personal brand since the beginning has been: “I do a really good job and treat everybody the way I would treat my mother, sister, or brother,” she says. The result is, people trust her, and tell others about her too. 

Glengarry recommends that you show you love your area. Be out walking the dog, she says. “If you show you enjoy your area, it’s a lot easier to sell” she advises. 

Part two in personal branding – defining your own personal brand.