Nick Nelson is the founder of BRANDPRENUER, an agency that specializes in helping diverse entrepreneurs and corporate professionals define, develop, and ultimately deliver their brands online. Nelson calls himself a brandprenuer and is c0mmitted to developing themselves to their fullest potential.
Nelson attended the Men’s Leadership Summit hosted by the Atlanta chapter of the National Black MBA Association and spoke with rolling out about tips Black men should know to brand themselves.
How can Black men better understand what being a brand is?
The first thing that they have to understand is that they are one. There is confusion about what a brand is. Brothers have heard about brands such as Mercedes and Steph Curry, but we don’t think of ourselves as a brand. A brand is what you want to be known for, how you want to make people feel, being known for something, and making people feel a certain way.
Professionally, you can be known for something if you focus on being known, at least for that one thing. We have so many different things that we’re challenged with daily, people don’t have time to know you for more than one thing, and if you talk about more than one thing, you just get confused.
Ultimately, people are unable to sell you. How you can advance in your career or business is through the referrals of others. One of my mentors told me, “Nick, it’s not what you say about you, but it’s what other people say about you.” Other people saying something about you is them understanding what it is you do, the value you provide, who you serve, and what makes you special, and then ultimately conveying that and communicating that to other people helping spread that word about you.
What are some tips Black men can use to become a brand?
Understand that it does take all that because brothers are always like, It doesn’t take all that, you don’t need to do all that. Understand that being a brand is not a woman thing, it’s more than just taking pretty pictures. Matter of fact, that’s just one single portion of it. It’s all of the work needed in terms of consistency.
Next, it’s opening up. As Black men, we tend not to let people in, and we’re very closed. We don’t want people to understand what it is we’re doing and how we’re doing it. We like to make moves in silence. Don’t necessarily tell everything but tell people enough. The last thing is to find your voice and find which platform you want to be consistent on. I’m not saying you have to post every day but find a rhythm that can allow people to get an understanding of what it is you do because people will see you first online before they meet you in person.
