In this article you will get some powerful tips on how to build your personal band.
Personal Brand seems to be one of the current buzzwords popping up across all channels of social media. It also comes up a lot when I discuss workshop content and learning goals with my clients. But like all things that hit the popularity scales, people can get bored or annoyed with recurring topics so I do get the occasional eye roll too.
So is Personal Brand just a Fad? Or is it important for our Future?
I am definitely a big believer that Personal Brand is helpful and important for every individual, not matter if you work in an organisation, run your own business or are active in a club or committee. In fact, we have been working on our personal brands for a very long time, it’s just the term that has defined it in the last few years.
Personal Brand is our Reputation. It’s what people say about us when we leave the room. We have influence on our Personal Brand. We can’t change people’s reactions per se, but we can determine how we show up, what we share of ourselves, what we are good at and how we can add value to and help others.
So yes, if you want to get recognized, take the next step in your career or find your perfect client, it’s important to get really clear on your Personal Brand.
Start by increasing your awareness on who you are as a person. People want to connect with you as a human being, your stories and experiences, your traits and strengths. We don’t actually think about this often as we are too busy watching other peoples’ lives on flat screens. Or we naturally lean towards looking for our imperfections and challenges. Journaling really helps to open up our stories. If you write down your life stories, your experiences, successes, challenges you have overcome in your life, starting from when you remember, you will be surprised what comes up for you and how much you have actually achieved. It’s not just about degrees, positions and money.
Then list all of your strengths, your character strengths as well as talents and more technical strengths. Circle a few that really stand out for you and write down your 2 superpowers. The two strengths that you think make the most difference to other peoples’ lives.
Thirdly, brainstorm on how you add value to other people, at work, in your life, in your community, all depending on who you want to influence with our personal brand. This will shine a light on the good work you do and boost your confidence.
Now look at everything you have written, your stories, your strengths and the value you add and come up with 2 words that would describe you the best. Or how you think others would describe you. Get some help and feedback if you struggle. You are looking for terms like ‘creatively insightful’ or ‘powerfully influencing’. You can write a whole sentence of course, but getting it down to 2 words makes it powerful and focussed. Mine are ‘warmly energetic’ by the way.
Now that you are aware of how you want to be seen, figure out who you want to influence. Who is your market, your ideal client, your most important stakeholder? Don’t be everything to everyone. You have already narrowed down who you are and what’s important to you, now it’s time to get super focussed on your market. It helped me to actually come up with clients I don’t want to work with, to eliminate them. I had spread myself too thin in the first couple of years of my business. Now I narrowed it down and I know I want to work with people who work in an organisation or run their own business and lead teams or departments and need help with managing power dynamics, organisational challenges, communication and influencing.
Now write your brand message. Take all you have written and put it in a few sentences, who you are, what is important to you, what your superpowers are, how help solve peoples’ problems and who you want work with.
Personal Brand is not a fad at all. It’s the foundation for a leader to know who they are in order to influence the people they want to influence to achieve the goals or aspirations they have.
Tips for building your Personal Brand:
Journal your stories – everything from when you can remember. This can be 1 page or a whole book, up to you.
Brainstorm your strengths and values. Get insight on how you add value to peoples’ lives and what superpowers you use.
Get clear on who you want to influence. Who is your ideal client or stakeholder you want to influence? Make sure you know who you don’t want to work with.
Write your Brand Message
For more info and workshops on Personal Brand email us on
info@intactteams.com
