A personal brand is a way of standing out from the crowd; to distinguish your identity and to differentiate yourself from the other candidates, colleagues or the competition. You will need a personal brand for instance, as a business owner or entrepreneur; when selling products and services; in the interview or performance review; when being groomed or promoted to another position or level, creating a website and writing the resume or professional profile. Interestingly, it is actually the same basic procedure that large corporations, small companies, sportspeople, actors, politicians, celebrities and high-flying individuals alike all go through to create their brand.
There are many who are blissfully unaware of the importance of individual branding. Those who underestimate the power of personal branding are missing out on a wide range of benefits. Thanks to this guide, you will be able to build your personal image from scratch and enjoy all of the advantages that this process has to offer.
What Is Personal Branding?
Before embarking on any process, it is important to learn more about the steps involved. Does it mean that you have to resemble a celebrity from a television show? Absolutely not. You do not have to tell your life story, either. Instead, personal branding is about answering a simple question: Why you? And providing the necessary information in the most engaging way possible to capture your audience’s true points of interest.
Let’s say that you are looking to establish yourself as a photographer. Sharing photos and content of your work is a great way to build credibility and showcase yourself. Smart personal branding is similar because as a professional person you have to know your own attributes. But, in the case of a personal brand we are the pictures, the showcase and the content. We are the canvas and the soul of our own brand.
Your target audience wants to hear about your background and experience, and they are also very interested in the difference you make. They want to know what your brand brings to the table that no other brand can match. Do you have any evidence to support the claims that you are making? What is your specific skill set? To embark on the process, start by brainstorming past accomplishments, results and outcomes. From here, most people want to follow basic, doable actions and tangible steps that need to be taken to achieve a high-quality personal brand.
Step 1: Creating the Brand’s Platform
Before the story is told to the general public, it is time to figure out what the brand’s framework and guide posts are going to be.
Your Values
The first step is all about your background, experience, skills, talents and informal contribution. What is it that you wish to be known for? How are you going to stand out from the competition? The deeper your understanding of your personal brand personality and accomplishments, the easier it becomes to establish the necessary framework.
Studies have found that people who stand out from the crowd have several attributes in common. These could also be worthwhile goals to work on as building blocks for a personal brand.
- Radiate confidence and poise
- Exhibit credibility and humility
- Demonstrate a high degree of self-awareness and authenticity
- Build on strengths, work on flaws
- Have influence; command does not demand attention
- Walk the talk, get things done
Today’s brands are value-driven, so you will need to know 1. What you stand for, 2. What tangible results and outcomes you have accomplished, 3. What skills and talents you naturally contribute.
A little exercise to start you off is to share with a friend, colleague or coach, any occasion, encounter, outcome, result, or problem solved which made you proud. How did you contribute and what was important to you in the situation? Your committed partner might detect values that you were not aware of. Next, write out what aspects of your personality and character you think or know are admired or valued at work and in other parts of your life. From the total list compiled, select the top four and turn personal adjectives into nouns. These are your core values. For example, if you are a sympathetic, feeling and intuitive person you might value Compassion. If you have an attention to detail and are results-oriented, you might value Excellence.
Other values that may resonate with you:
Knowledge, Generosity, Integrity, Accomplishment, Guidance and Leadership, Growing and developing others, Consideration, Respect.
These personal values lead the way to your overall purpose. How do you differ from your competitors or colleagues? What benefits does your brand offer? By taking the time to answer these questions, it is easier to understand your purpose.
Your Target Market or Audience
The second critical step to facilitate the personal branding process is to learn about your target audience or the audience you inspire on a daily basis. Only when you know their profile, needs and desires, can you provide the information, knowledge, goods, services that cater to them specifically. Find out how people benefit from working with you. Have they flourished, grown, developed themselves in any way? Have people around you gained confidence, insights, motivation? From there, you can change, clarify or solidify your values.
Who is this target market, exactly? A simple guideline is to answer a few questions and arrive at specific answers. You might find at the end of this inquiry that you have several target markets which could dilute your singular distinction. Are you trying to be all things to all people? Hone down the needs of the people you know will benefit from your experience, knowledge, contribution, products or services.
Are they men and/or women? Married, or single?
What is the typical age range?
What do they do in life?
What is their socio-economic level?
Do they have disposable income?
What is important to them? Do they value individual attention?
What problems do they complain about that they can’t solve themselves?
What are your simple, doable solutions?
Are they willing to spend time and money on solving their challenges?
Are you a “one and done” service or do your clients want ongoing help?
What other services do they buy?
Anything else you want to know
Step 2: Creating Your Identity
No matter what line of business you are in, the best personal brand is one which raises awareness about the person herself, sometimes referred to as the steward of the brand. To build trust and loyalty, you have to keep stressing why you are different, telling the same story in many different ways, or letting others tell it for you. If you toot your own horn, however modestly, it is vital to provide quantifiable outcomes or results to substantiate your claims. Those could be in the form of case studies or success stories with stellar results, giving the glory to your clients while basking in the proud understanding that you helped somewhere along the line!
In professions such as image consulting, cosmetic surgery, landscaping, interior design, real estate sales and house renovation the Makeover is visually appealing and delightfully surprising. People love before and after stories! Some other ways to build a client’s trust are tip sheets, testimonials, references, blogs, online tutorials, videos of you at work, Q&A sessions and free seminars about specific topics. The more they hear from you, the more interest you will generate.
You also need sections on your website showcasing your personal profile; your services, the benefits you offer that are distinct to you alone and testimonials of satisfied clients. It is in your best interests to invest in professional headshots, one elegant such as an updated formal look, one a professionally casual version. Make sure that these photos are properly named so that they are optimized for search engines.
Eventually, you personally gain brand recognition and hopefully your name, or goods and services will sell themselves. Sometimes, a personal brand will be so strong that just the person’s reputation or a recommendation will be enough to sign up!
It’s now the time to create and design the visual elements or the canvas of your personal brand. Your logo, the colors and fonts that are used, and the name of the company if you are an entrepreneur, are all immediate expressions of your vision, values, skills and talents. The website and social media presence are the end result of all the groundwork you have done, not the first step! If those areas such as graphics and technology are not your areas of expertise it would be wise to reach out to website designers and graphic artists who will become your partners to create an engaging and tech-savvy website. To build a personal brand, it takes a village.
Step 3: Your Performance. The Micro-Messages of Personal Branding
When redefining yourself as a personal brand, we have established that the groundwork must be done. Let’s assume that you know your singular distinction, the framework or platform to work from and your brand values. A few years ago, an interesting study was done by an image consultant and personal branding specialist, Sarah Brummitt AICI CIP. The questionnaire was completed by professionals in four countries from various industries, to assess what people notice about their colleagues. In order of importance the following results were compiled.
- How you are perceived visually
- How you connect emotionally and engage
- How you act and behave
- How you overcome challenges: personal and external
- How you speak
- How you grow and succeed at your life’s purpose
Later, an article by Stephen Martin, Visiting Professor of Behavioral Science , Columbia University Graduate School of Business, & CEO, Influence at Work, and Joseph Marks, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Experimental Psychology, UCL, pointed out the value of the messages people project at any given moment.
‘…It is not just the content of the message that matters, who is communicating also has an effect on how positively people respond to information. In other words, when it comes to messages designed to influence attitudes and change behaviors, the entity delivering those messages—a.k.a. the messenger—can be as important, sometimes more so, than the substance of the message itself.
At this point you, the “chief messenger” needs to concentrate on your Performance which boils down to effective visual, verbal and nonverbal tools and skills to enhance how you look, speak, act and present in public and on social media. This takes learning, practice and feedback
The role of image consultants and presentation coaches can be a huge help. They will coach clients to take control of the messages they want to project, improve their impact and help them manage the perception of their audience. The concepts can be translated into simple actions, words and practices.
As professionals who need to appeal to a public, we must project two overarching messages: are we credible and are we approachable? Do people believe what we say and do people warm to us?
A few simple but effective changes are often all that is needed. The trick of course is to combine both authoritative and approachable elements to come across as both credible and friendly. There are countless books on these topics but below are a few general guidelines.
Color: Deeper and brighter colors with light and dark contrasts are more energetic and authoritative; lighter and softer colors are gentler and calming.
Style: Tailored garments, smooth fabrics and straight lines add credibility; soft silhouettes, draped fabrics and construction with curved lines are approachable.
Posture: A balanced, upright posture and stance will project authority. Rocking pacing and slumping project nervousness and uncertainly.
Body Language: Wide, direct arm movements and gestures with straight fingers often project certainty and authority. Curved, slightly flexible and open arm movements with uplifted hands can denote a welcoming demeanor and non-threatening point of view.
Eye contact: Looking at specific individuals in the meeting is a credible practice. Adding a smile and resting your gaze on different people in the audience for at least two seconds makes you seem more personable.
Speech and Style: When the delivery of each word is well annunciated and flows between sentences, the general opinion is that you are practiced and know what you are talking about. If each topic is divided into a few separate points the audience can follow you easily, your credibility is enhanced. Rambling, long sentences, hopping from point to point and using jargon or difficult vocabulary will not win you friends and minds will wander. On the other hand, short stories, anecdotes, portraying yourself as an amusing bad example are all ways to show you are human, open-minded and friendly.
Step 4: An Honest Assessment
Knowing where the brand stands today is of the utmost importance. It all starts with Googling oneself. The results will tell an important tale. Take a look at the search results and the image tab. Are these results and photos what you would want a prospective client to see? Do you even come up at all or are the results dominated by others who have your name?
If the picture Google paints is not the one that you would like to see, it is time to get to work. From there, review your social media profiles from the perspective of a potential customer. Your LinkedIn and Facebook profiles should be fully up-to-date and representative of the work you are doing. No whiny posts, political ranting, or drunken selfies.
Lastly, how are you coming across offline? Speak with friends, loved ones, former colleagues, and current business associates. Would they recommend you or your services? Be yourself at all times and be sure to consider your personal appearance as well. Looks matter and it is imperative that we make a good first impression.
Step 5: Your Personal Profile
Start with a compelling personal statement that gains attention and distinguishes you from others.
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- The elevator pitch is a 20 second statement saying succinctly who you are and what you do.
- Your full name and title, (organization name)
- What you provide
- At least one major benefit of working with you, (If time allows)
- An effective last step is to quote a client. The colorful spoken details and words that come spontaneously out of the mouths of clients are rich and engaging. Capture them when you can. “And what my clients really say is that this service was life-changing!”
Once you are ready to share your brand with the world. LinkedIn is a wonderful platform for this purpose, The manner in which we tell the story is just as pivotal as the story itself. Create an appealing piece that translates across all platforms and just select the relevant highlights of your experience not a detailed, dated list. The words that you choose and the actions that accompany them will convey your personality.
This lets the profile reader know who you are and what you do. After you have come up with a credible title, lending you status, you will also want to have a compelling summary. A call to action that includes an e-mail address, or a phone number makes it easier for them to get in contact with you.
There are a few other areas that you are going to want to elaborate on as well. Don’t just list your past jobs, elaborate on the quantifiable results you produced in each position which illustrates your brand skills and values.
Use power words and action phrases, (quoted in career articles published in syndicated column, Monster.com.)
- Communicate….Persuade, Address, Influence
- Organize…. Orchestrate, Execute, Operate, Consolidate
- Looking after client records….Managing client records or accounts
- Caring for…..Oversee
- Choose ….Appoint, Delegate
If you have recommendations from past employers and any key skills that need to be highlighted, don’t be afraid to do just that. Choose the right social media platform for the field you are in. A quality online presence is one that is constantly evolving with the changing times, so be sure to beat this in mind.
December 2022.
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Do you want to learn more about becoming an image consultant? Contact London Image Institute today to learn more about beginning your training as an image consultant. When it comes to personal branding, there is no substitute for the professional assistance that London Image Institute has to offer.
London Image Institute is one of the oldest and most respected image consulting training companies worldwide. We specialize not only in the Foundation modules, but also in Advanced training modules, equally relevant for a professional image consulting business and to be able to work with individuals and all types of groups. These are Professional Etiquette, Business development and Professional Practices, Body Language, Presentation, Communication and Personal Branding.
