A successful career relies on personal branding. Around 25 years ago, the idea first surfaced. Since then, it has developed into a comprehensive way of thinking about how to live an authentic life, have a successful profession that helps you reach your objectives, and find your purpose in life.
Lots of soul-searching is necessary for successful personal branding. Reason being, your brand does not come into existence. It has been found. To discover the brand called YOU, focused introspection is necessary. However, self-reflection is just one part of personal branding. Validating your thinking with feedback from others is just as important as examining within. This is due to the fact that the people you aim to persuade and effect view your personal brand favourably.
First, you need to do some soul-searching. Your values, passions, superpowers, differentiators, purpose, and ambitions are the six pillars upon which your personal brand rests. Make sure you fully understand each of these parts. Personal branding success hinges on self-awareness, which employee engagement expert Mark Crowley ranks as the most important leadership quality.
Put these personal brand drivers to work for you, and you’ll be able to shape and perfect your personal brand. You can stand out from the crowd, accomplish your professional goals, and enjoy your work more when your brand is crystal clear and your promise of value is integral to all you do.
Let’s look at the six drivers of your personal brand:
Values:
Your operating principles or non-negotiables are your values. Your values are fundamental to who you are, and they influence how you feel and act.
Passion:
Passions are the things that make you happy. Your interests provide you with energy. You brighten up when you talk about them with others.
Uniqueness:
Uniqueness is something that sets you apart from others with comparable goals. Consider differentiators to be your secret sauce. They assist you in leaving your stamp on all you do.
Your niche
Your specialty is something you do better than others. These distinguishing characteristics enable you to provide extraordinary value to stakeholders.
Goals
Goals are what you desire to accomplish in your work. Short-term, mid-term, and long-term goals are all possible. They assist you in focusing on what is important and ignoring distractions.
Identify your purpose
Your why is your purpose. The core of your personal brand is not what you do or how you do it, but why you do it. Your mission directs your actions and contributes to your sense of fulfilment.
Conversely, a well-tailored suit is the antithesis of a real and approachable personal brand. Feeling and looking your best increases your chances of getting the job of your dreams, going on a first date, or closing a transaction.
To transform your personal brand from an unattended jumper into a well-tailored suit, you must first identify your unique selling points. If you want to establish your own brand, this guide will show you how to do it in five easy steps using the brand extraction technique.
Here are 5 best practices that can help you discover yourself and your personal brand
1. Establish your goals
Improving one’s online reputation begins with setting goals, but those goals should not be vague statements like “I want to look good online” or “I want to generate ROI.” These goals are admirable, but they fail to acknowledge the importance of investing in one’s personal brand.
If you want to boost your online visibility and attract more customers, you need to get busy writing content, expanding your social media following, participating in public relations campaigns, etc.
With all that online pursuit, it’s prudent to hone in on your objectives in greater detail first. Otherwise, you will miss out on a fantastic chance to position your online endeavours to help you reach your goals in the next two, five, or even ten years. Always have your final goal in mind before you begin working on your online appearance; after all, it is only a means to a goal.
2. Define the distinctive value proposition you offer.
No one would ever start advertising a product or service before they knew what it was good for and how much demand there was. You could try, but it’s likely that things would go wrong.
A person’s personal brand functions similarly. Your unique selling proposition should be defined before you launch a blog or even tweet.
That’s a fancy way of saying that you need to determine (A) the value you bring to individuals, (B) who those people are, (C) the problems you address for them, and (D) what sets you apart from others in your field.
Finding out why you love what you do is a good place to start if you’re stuck trying to answer these questions. Then you can determine your ideal target demographic and how to serve them more effectively than your competitors.
3. Develop the plot of your professional narrative
People remember stories. Ask yourself why you hold a certain somebody in high esteem, whether it’s a public figure, a CEO, or a member of your own family.
Someone has an interesting tale to tell about that individual, doesn’t there?
Here are two examples that will help you understand better.
- One of the fan favourite examples is J.K. Rowling. While raising her daughter, Rowling was an impoverished, single mother who struggled to make ends meet. While stranded on a train, she had the idea for Harry Potter and quickly jotted it down on a serviette. Twelve rejections later, she kept at it until a tiny publishing house took a risk on her debut book, and the rest is history. In less than ten years, Rowling went from receiving government assistance as a jobless person to being worth a billion dollars.
- Anik Singal is the author of another inspiring favourite story. Singal, a young man with an itch to “make it” as an entrepreneur, spent 18 months trying out various forms of internet marketing until he hit paydirt. He picked up the ropes fast, built his company from scratch to $10 million, and then saw it all crumble as his health, wealth, and business plummeted. In order to become the devoted CEO of Lurn, one of the largest digital publishing platforms in the world, Singal took stock of his situation, changed his objectives, and worked even harder when given a second opportunity.
Your audience will relate to and remember your brand more if you take the time to figure up your own story arc. By asking yourself, “What challenges have I overcome?” you may ease into crafting your brand’s story. Can you tell me what good things I’ve accomplished or am working towards? What positive changes have I made?
To assist you gain some perspective beyond the story you’re telling yourself, it can be really useful to talk things out with another person. Put yourself in an interviewer’s shoes and imagine them saying, “Give me the whole story — how did you get to where you are today?”
4. Create a persona that will represent your character
An integral component of your unique identity is your personality. J.K. Rowling might still have written Harry Potter if she hadn’t been so driven and determined, but her work would be far less captivating and remembered. Anik Singal’s “fighter” character is an integral part of his entrepreneurial identity.
As you reflect on your own character quirks, keep in mind that how you see yourself is likely to differ from how other people see you. What matters most is how “others” perceive your personal brand online because that’s who will be interacting with it. Anyone can be your audience.
You should not expose an insincere or ineffectual brand. Get the people closest to you—friends, family, and coworkers—to think of adjectives that best describe you. Combine the adjectives and pick the ones that resonate with you the best.
5. Condense it into a brand statement
The next step, after collecting the aforementioned data, is to condense it into a brand statement. You only need a couple of phrases to keep your digital strategy consistent when you start engaging with your audience. You can refer to them internally.
Caution: the same data might produce an excruciatingly dull brand statement as well as an immensely interesting one.
For the sake of argument, let’s use Sherlock Holmes.
Sherlock Holmes is the head of a detective agency in London that is well known for cracking the most difficult cases. His unmatched analytical skills and deductive reasoning have reshaped the landscape of criminal investigations.
In a more captivating way:
The world’s premier consulting detective, Sherlock Holmes, stands as an enigmatic genius. Known for his signature pipe and iconic deerstalker hat, Holmes has revolutionised crime-solving, making even the most intricate mysteries solvable with his keen observations and unparalleled insights.
We bet you can tell which of these brand statements would pique people’s interest and which would put them to sleep if you were to use them as a manual for a digital strategy. Furthermore, you should not be involved in the sleep industry unless your firm is selling mattresses.
Your brand statement will direct your online activities, so it’s important to give it some personality and make it compelling.
By the time you’ve finished asking yourself these questions, you ought to be feeling much better. Having a genuine personal brand is a huge relief. Authentic brand clothing, in contrast to garments that gather dust in a closet, is like a beloved, timeless piece of clothing that you can’t wait to wear again and again since it speaks volumes about your personality, your emotions, and your future goals.
Summary/ Conclusion
Crafting a personal brand is like designing a unique outfit that truly represents you. Just as fashion evolves, so does our understanding of personal branding. Two decades ago, it was a budding concept; now, it’s a vital tool for success. Dive deep into your values, passions, and unique strengths to tailor your brand. Remember, it’s not about wearing the fanciest suit, but about wearing one that fits you perfectly. When your brand feels authentic, it’s like wearing your favourite outfit: comfortable, true to you, and always in style. So, take the time, reflect, and create a brand that speaks your truth.
