Farnoosh Brock worked in corporate for Cisco for twelve years, brining in a good income that sustained herself and her family. In 2009, Farnoosh started to become unhappy with her job and began feeling like something was wrong. Coming from a technical and logical background, she could not figure out why she was becoming unhappy at work. To help with how she was feeling, Farnoosh started to blog. She always enjoyed writing and being creative and expressing herself; blogging for her became an outlet.
Blogging: A Change of Pace
After a while, Farnoosh’s blog started to grow and more and more people started reading and learning about Farnoosh. Not long after starting to blog, Farnoosh became consumed by the world of social media. A few years later, while on a new project for work, Farnoosh became more unhappy with her career and life. Farnoosh decided to quit her job to find what she wanted to do that would make her happy.
Farnoosh set out to start her own business to show people a healthier lifestyle based on experiences she had had. Exploring personal happiness was what Farnoosh focused on when she started building up her own brand.
Exploring Her Passions
Farnoosh has been interested in juicing and the benefits of a healthy life. Like most people who are always working and have families and a million other things to do, with little desire to go to the gym, Farnoosh struggled to remain healthy. She decided to focus on a more organic and holistic lifestyle. 
Farnoosh does not recommend anything she has not tried to her fans. To help spread her business, Farnoosh created a Facebook page to reach out to people and joined Twitter and mastered the art of the hashtags. It is important for Farnoosh to understand the different forms of social media and what she is using them for.
“An author needs a good read,” Farnoosh says, talking about making that personal connection with her fans. “As long as you can please and connect with a few people, word of your business will spread and more people will come looking for you.”
Connecting With Fans Online
For Farnoosh, she likes to know the people she adds or follows. She likes to connect to her fans and make a an effort to engage with them. She starts out having conversations with her fans and commenting on their posts or tweets to show them that she cares about them and is not just another business wanting high numbers on social media sites.
Farnoosh believes that in social media it is ok to talk about a product or promote it. “As long as you feel comfortable and confident with your product, why would you feel bad about it? Be happy with what you have done and share your experience and information with others.” Farnoosh spends about an hour a day on Twitter taking quick scans of interesting tweets, commenting to her fans, or sharing a new tip to try.
Branding Online is About Relationships, Not Numbers
When it comes to social media, Farnoosh thinks in terms of valuable relationships, not numbers. “After forming a relationship online, and letting people see the real you and wanting to know about you, they will feel more comfortable giving you their email, which will help build up your clientele.” Through generating her traffic in social media, Farnoosh gained more followers linking pictures to her webpage, linking helpful tips to her webpage, and gaining students to take her classes.
Farnoosh did not have a step by step plan to building her personal brand, “I did what I liked and tried new things.” Farnoosh caught on quickly to the adjustment and change from being an employee to self-employment. One of Farnoosh’s first products was a 10-minute program. She wanted to share what she learned to help others invigorate their bodies with movement and breathing techniques. She used methods she uses everyday and that she feels happy and comfortable with. One of her goals was to bring people at large to the healthy lifestyle, especially for those who do not like to work out or feel like they do not have the time to.
Farnoosh Today
Farnoosh is now working with her husband and they are running the brand together. Her words of advice to people are: “It does not matter what your profession is, as long as you are staying true to yourself.” Farnoosh says she enjoys the attention and loves that she has an opportunity to do something she believes in for first time in life. She does not feel the need to meet expectations for anyone else beside herself. Her next product is to help people become happy with who they are in their work place or to find a healthy exit from it.
“In corporate, you loose your sense of your creative genius. People forget they have the choice – they have the choice to leave and start something new that is true to who they are.” By focusing on staying true to herself and taking the time to make connections to fans, Farnoosh has grown her personal brand into more than she thought it would ever be and is now happier doing what she enjoys than she ever was working for corporate.
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