Why does your personal brand matter? Being intentional about how you present yourself helps you gain control over how others perceive you and what you are known for. This can significantly impact your personal and professional journey and taking charge of your brand means you get to define and tell your own story.

What is Personal Branding

Personal branding involves strategically and thoughtfully defining your personal values and showcasing your unique attributes.

Why is Personal Brand Important

• Differentiates you from others by showcasing your unique assets, strengths, skills, and lived experiences.
• Creates and enhances your credibility and trustworthiness, making others more likely to choose you for opportunities and partnerships.  
• Increases your visibility and recognition within your community, school, or industry, potentially leading to more connections.
• It can open doors leading to job offers or career advancement, entrepreneur ventures or other opportunities.
• It shows consistency between your online and offline presence and alignment with your goals and values, ultimately reinforcing a positive reputation.

Steps in Owning Your Brand

1. Define Your Purpose:Identify your values, goals, and purpose.
   • What are your core values? What energizes and drives you? What do you want people to know about you? What makes you unique? How can you provide value to others?
   • Create a Value Proposition Statement to showcase your unique benefits and value
2. Audit Your Current Brand
   • Assess your accomplishments, lived experiences, and connections; not quantity of quality.
   • Assess your emotional intelligence and areas of expertise. Do you have areas that you want to improve on?
   • Is your offline brand match your online brand?
3. Construct Your Brand Narrative
   • Identify what you want your narrative to be
   • Create your Elevator Speech
   • Determine your top skills and behaviors
4. Embody Your Brand
   • Ensure you have a consistent brand across all public platforms.
   • Live through your defined values and having a consistent tone and manner in your communications and actions.
   • Continue to learn and be open to new ideas and ways to continue to grow your own knowledge and skills.
5. Socialize Your Brand
   • You are your biggest advocate, but you need others to help share your story.
   • Create a LinkedIn profile.
   • Join groups, communities, associations, or boards that have similar interests
   • Network and build relationships which may lead to word-of-mouth referrals or other opportunities.
6. Reevaluate & Adjust – Personal branding is not a one-time action and as you progress through your career or gain more life experiences, you will need to refresh your brand.

As you work through these steps, take time to pause and reflect, understanding personal branding is an ongoing process. It’s normal for it to take time. I also recommend reassessing your brand annually or after significant life events such as a job change, relocating, educational achievement, marriage or family changes. These experiences shape your identity and brand, and, you have the power to shape your own narrative.

Recommended Books to Read:

• On Brand by Aliza Licht
• Designing Your Life by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans