The Six Steps to Personal Branding Success

Over the past few months I have been doing a lot of research regarding Personal Branding. Many people have their own interpretation of what Personal Branding is and how you can obtain success in that area. Well I too have hopped on that bandwagon and have developed what I call “The Six Steps to Personal Branding Success”.

These six steps are a comprehensive approach to developing your personal brand and creating a plan to ensure that it is relevant and successful. Over the next six posts, I will break each step down in depth to help you to achieve Personal Branding success.

Ladies and Gentleman, The Six Steps to Personal Branding Success….

1. Discovery - This is not only the first step but it is the most important step. This creates the foundation for your personal brand and will help you to understand who you are and what you want your brand to say to the world. This includes discovering what drives you, your goals, and what you want to do in life (personally and professionally).

2. Evaluation – This stage is where you take what you’ve learned about yourself and begin to evaluate what you’ve discovered. This will include understanding what you are good at, what you will need to improve in order to be successful, and any areas that might hinder you from reaching your goals. I also encourage you to gain understanding of how you are perceived by your current network. It is a very humbling experience, but once you realize your strengths and weaknesses, you will be able to begin the next phase.

3. Development – Once you have figured out what you want to do and understand what value you can provide, then you can begin to develop your Personal Brand. This is where you determine what you want your brand to say. I help you to develop a Personal Brand Statement (PBS) and create your Personal Branding Kit (PBK). This stage requires a lot of work, but if you can accomplish this stage, the next two stages are a lot of fun!

4. Communication -Once your brand has been developed, now you must begin to communicate it to the world. This is where you become your own publicist and you begin to focus on “self promotion”. It’s about getting people excited about your brand.

5. Visibility – Now that you have built a brand that you are comfortable sharing with the world, it’s time to take it to another level. This is the stage where your main focus is to get your brand to work on your behalf – even when you are not present. This is where your credibility is established and you no longer need to constantly self promote yourself, because now your network is doing it for you. I call this stage the “Google Me” stage.

6. Maintenance – At this point you are a successful, well known brand. However, in order to stay successful you make sure that you continuing to stay relevant to your target market. This will require you to listen to what your market is saying about you and how they perceive you. This is where you will need to assess your goals and determine if your brand is helping or preventing you from reaching your goals. If the answer is preventing, then you must act accordingly to fix the problem.

My six steps are not rocket science nor does it require you to be a brain surgeon to achieve success. However, these steps will require you to put in a lot of hard work, time, and dedication. I created these steps so that you would feel empowered and take ownership of your brand. I don’t want to tell you what your brand should be; I want you to determine that by going through each of the steps.

Next post, I will take you through the first step- The Discovery Stage. I hope you’re excited to start building your personal brand!

Here’s to your personal brand success!

Why Your Personal Brand Is Important

Did you know that there are 6.5 Billion in the world? How about on average there are 200 job applicants per one job posting. One thing that I do know that you know is…there is only one you. So how do you articulate to the world why you are unique and valuable? How do you prove that you are the perfect candidate for the position or the promotion? Your personal brand is a key factor in whether you are hired or picked over. It determines if you are promoted or let go.

Over the past few years, I’ve seen some of the hardest working people be skipped over for a promotion at my company. The main reason was that their personal brand was one dimensional. There was no substance nor was there anything that proved them to be a valuable novelty to the company. Solely focusing on one aspect of yourself, truly limits your personal brand.

When I’m recruiting and interviewing candidates, I look for the full package. Most of the candidates that apply for my positions have the same qualifications – they come from great schools, have a 3.0 GPA or higher, and have solid internship/work experience. The resumes all look the same, but it’s in the interviews I’m looking for candidates who are self aware, who have created a strong personal brand, and are able to communicate that to me effectively. They have aligned their work experiences, academic courses, activities, and even their image to fit the personal brand they are promoting to the world.

Having an understanding of your personal brand and how to communicate that to the world is a key factor towards your professional and personal success. The next few posts will break down what I call “The Six Steps to Personal Branding Success”. I created them in order to help every individual to reach their goals and unlock their full potential to be a successful brand that is able to leave a lasting mark in the world.

What Is Personal Branding??

What is Personal Branding?

I was surprised to find out that approximately 40% of the population who took the Personal Brand Management survey was not familiar with the term “Personal Branding”. The idea of Personal Branding has been around for a while, but it didn’t really become main stream until Tom Peters wrote an article in 1997 titled “A Brand Called You”. To this day, that article has laid the foundation for the movement known as Personal Branding.

I’ve been doing a lot of research and have truly engulfed myself in understanding what Personal Branding really means. Although, there are many definitions out there, I have created my own definition.

Personal Branding – Achieving personal and professional goals by differentiating yourself by articulating your unique value through a consistent message.

I created this definition based off of my research, understanding, and application of Personal Branding. In order for everyone to really understand what this definition means and how to make it work for you, I thought it would be a good idea to break it down.

• Achieving personal and professional goals - Everyone has or should have goals that they set, whether they are personal or professional. There is no benefit of setting goals if you do not reach them. It is important that your Personal Brand gives you the extra step needed to reach those goals.

• Differentiating yourself by articulating your unique value – Your Personal Brand can be the deciding factor on if you are chosen, promoted, hired, or believed. If your Personal Brand is not one that is viewed as valuable and unique, there is no real reason for you to be the chosen one. Therefore, it is important to create a brand that stands out and proves to be valuable and successful.

• Through a consistent message – A successful brand is one that is consistent, because if it is not, you will begin to confuse your target audience. Once confusion sets in your credibility falters and you will not be taken seriously. If you confuse your audience, you lose your audience.

The ultimate goal of Personal Branding is to allow your brand to work for you. It is important that you create a Personal Brand that will speak on your behalf and let your target audience know who you are, what you stand for, and why you are valuable even when you are not present.

Stay tuned for the posting when I discuss…Why is Personal Branding is Important.

(Tom Peters (August 1997). "The brand Called You". Fast Company (Mansueto Ventures LLC.) (10): pp. 83. http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/10/brandyou.html.)

Thank You!

First, I would like to thank all of the people who completed the survey and provided feedback. The results that came in were fantastic! I got a very good idea of what people are looking for and now I have a better idea of knowing how to create this blog for YOU. I am very committed to making this blog a successful resource for you to reach your full potential – whatever it may be.

If you have any comments, concerns, or questions there are two ways to let me know. Apply your comments to the posts or email me at personalbrandmgmt@gmail.com.

In the next coming days I will begin posting to the site and I encourage you to tell your friends, families, colleagues, etc about this site. Based on your feedback, I know that this is something that people need and want, therefore, I plan to give you what you need and want.

I’m also all about sharing the love and once a month I would like to have a featured a contributing writer to the blog. Please let me know if this is something that you would be interested in.

Also, if you have a business that you would like to promote or any information that you think the members of Personal Branding Success would be interested, please contact me as well.

I’m very excited for this blog and the fruits that will be harvested from this.

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Welcome to Personal Branding Success! This is a blog that is designed to allow each individual to tap into developing, building, maintaining, and establishing a legendary brand. This Personal Brand is the key for you to stand out in a crowd, create opportunities for yourself, and will allow you to reach your full personal and professional potential.

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