malvernmugadzikwa
Leslie Mupeti
All the way from Mhondoro-Ngezi, about 170km from Zimbabwe’s capital − Harare, Terrence Maphosa has cemented his name as one of the most successful young farmers in the country. He has been featured on numerous local, regional and international media platforms such as The United Nations, Al Jazeera, Xinhua news, ZBC news, In conversation with Trevor and ZiFM stereo.
He has been given a piece of land by the government, has amassed a following of over a 100 000 on Twitter and he is arguably the single youth farmer who has made rural life and agriculture Instagramable.
“The reason why our generation doesn’t see farming as something lucrative is because of our background. When growing up we were taught to go to school to be doctors, nurses, lawyers and engineers, nobody pushed us to be farmers. A lot of youngsters are now appreciating farming and slowly we are getting there,” he says.
He has inspired a whole generation to take up farming. His story is a typical rags to riches story in which he states in one interview, “my salary couldn’t pay my rentals. I’d sometimes go for months without getting a salary.”
How did a political science graduate end up as a successful farmer? How did a village boy stand out from the crowd to become a youth champion? Enter personal branding.
Let’s start by defining a personal brand. Personal branding is the process of creating a brand identity for a person or a company. Personal branding is about standing for yourself and your business to command respect and confidence from your peers and customers. Personal branding helps one stand out from the crowd and according to Jeff Bezos your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. In a world where everyone has a degree, a personal brand goes a long way when it comes to separating you from everyone else.
Terrence Maphosa has leveraged on his strong personal brand to create endless opportunities for himself and his village. We live in a competitive world where everyone vies for the same jobs, clients and opportunities.
Terry, as he is affectionately known, started out doing road runner chickens. He carefully curated his social media accounts, especially his Twitter, which he would use to promote and advertise his chicken business.
His social media accounts eventually caught the attention of many young people who became interested in his road runner business. The fact that another young person was posting about his farming ventures online without feeling embarrassed about it motivated other youths to follow suit and venture into the road runner business. In no time, Terry started supplying these youths with road runners and he even made losses doing last mile deliveries.
“I made losses the whole year. I accepted it because I wanted to make sure that everyone now knows that it’s Terry,” he said in one interview.
Most people are against the idea of self-promotion or they think that personal branding is a fad which will eventually go out of style. They tend to forget that we now live in a modern world where some of the biggest companies in the world are basically social media sites.
Building your personal brand online does not mean bombarding your timeline with random selfies or random motivational quotes. It is about presenting yourself as an expert in your niche. Pick a topic you want to be known for and deep dive, try to know everything there is to know about the subject and as you keep learning and discovering new things, post your progress online.
That is exactly what Maphosa did. He didn’t start out as the Alpha and Omega of the chicken business, in fact he ordered the wrong breed of chickens for his first batch. When Terry got serious with his personal brand you never saw him flooding his timeline with cheap political rhetoric or witty social media jokes. He picked his lane, which was agriculture and he made sure to stick to Agriculture content only.
Personal branding leads to opportunities and Terry is a living testimony to that. He managed to get the piece of land where he carries out some of his operations just from posting and sharing his farming journey on Twitter.
How many people can do that? That can only be possible if you have managed to build a thriving personal brand.
People in Government knew Terry as a young farmer, not just a young farmer but an expert young farmer. Some of you cry daily for such opportunities but if someone is to go through your social media timeline they would find no posts about your work. Terry developed his personal brand and gave himself a competitive edge.
People remembered him and his brand especially when they were looking for someone with his skills and expertise in the field. When people see that you’re an expert in your field, they will be more likely to give you opportunities to collaborate or work on new projects.
Personal branding is also a very useful PR tool which can help you control the narrative about yourself and introduce yourself in the best light possible. Long ago, prospective employers used to depend on a CV or word of mouth to know about your character and line of work but nowadays with just a few clicks, people can find out who you are. This is why many recruiters are always asking for your social media links during the hiring process. What will they find on your socials?
Terry attributes consistently posting on his socials as one thing which enabled him to grow his personal brand. You have to post regularly if you want to be visible online. There is no use making 20 posts in one day going away for a year then coming again with another 20 posts. The name of the game is consistency.
Authenticity played a big role too in his success. If he was building a fowl run, he would post it as it is. No spicing up of things like what most youths of today do. They live a fake social media life just for the likes.
Building a solid personal brand creates trust with the audience and target market. When people feel like they know who you are and what you stand for they’re more likely to trust you.
For example, if I want to buy a road runner chicken from Terry I wouldn’t think twice about it because I already know he produces quality chickens.
This is different from someone whose personal brand is all over the place.
One day they are posting chickens and the next day they are posting cheap jokes on their timeline your target market will find it difficult to trust you and your ability to deliver the final product.
Personal branding also has no geographical boundaries. When Terry posted on Twitter about his chick delivery venture he received about 5000 inbox messages from interested people.
Some coming from as far as North Africa. He was actually invited to a summit in North Africa from people who thought he was from there. This is the kind of impact he made and the opportunities he built for himself through personal branding.
Bongani Ndlovu