Two Steps to Creating a Powerful Personal Brand

Because I’m a career mentor, I often participate in career success related projects.  This month, I am participating in the 30 Day Personal Brand Career Challenge. You should check it out. This is the post that I contributed…

If you want to create a successful life and career you need to brand yourself. Your personal brand differentiates you from everyone else in the world. My brand is “The Common Sense Guy.” Because of my brand, people know that they can rely on me to provide them with common sense advice that will help them reach their life and career success goals. They also know that they will get this advice in a straightforward, easy to understand and apply manner, because after all, I’m just a guy.

You need to spend time crafting your brand. Your brand is the two or three words you want people to associate with you. Decide what you want these words to be, and then go about making sure that all of the people with whom you come into contact think of you that way.

When my name comes up, I want people to think of two things – “common sense,” and “guy.” I do everything I can to get people to think of me this way. My writing is simple, straightforward and to the point. The career advice I give my career success coach clients is always based on ideas they can put to use immediately – never filled with a lot of theory, even though it is based on the latest life and career success literature.

This is important, because nature abhors a vacuum. If you don’t brand yourself, others will. It’s better to be in control of your personal brand by creating it yourself, than it is to let others create it for you.

Creating a strong personal brand is actually quite simple. But you have to work at it. Ask yourself and answer two simple questions:

  • How do I want people to think of me?
  • What words do I want to people to use to describe me?”

Think about these questions. Take your time. Don’t settle for the first answer. Work to come up with the one that truly describes how you want to brand yourself. Then – and this is very important – do whatever it takes to make sure that other people think of you that way. In other words, act in a manner that consistently and constantly promotes the brand you’ve chosen for yourself.

For example, if you decide that “hard-working” is a term which you would like others to associate with you, then work hard. Do your assignments well and on time. When you finish one task, ask for another. Come early, stay late. Ask questions to help you understand the business. Pretty soon, people will begin thinking of you as a hard worker – “someone who does everything we ask, and then asks for more.” Once this happens, you’ll know that you’re on your way to creating your own special and unique personal brand as a hard worker.

The important thing is to choose your brand, then consistently and constantly do the things that will build the brand that is uniquely you. That’s why I blog. That’s why I’m participating in the 30 Day Personal Brand Career Challenge. That’s why I write books. My books are short. They are not filled with a lot of fluff – in my opinion, fluff and common sense don’t work together. That’s why my most popular book, Success Tweets, is written as a series of tweets – common sense information, presented in a down-to-earth, easily readable manner.

The common sense point here is simple. Successful people create positive personal impact. Developing and nurturing your unique personal brand is the first step in creating positive personal impact. Follow the career advice in Tweet 61 in Success Tweets. “Create and nurture your unique personal brand. Stand and be known for something. Make sure that everything you do is on brand.” There are two steps to building your personal brand: 1) Figure out how you want others to think of you; 2) Consistently and constantly act in a manner that will get them to think this way.

You can download a free copy of Success Tweets and its companion piece Success Tweets Explained at www.SuccessTweets.com.

 

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