Day in and day out we hear how important your brand is, steps to creating the “perfect” personal brand, how to be a brand “guru” and a ton of other noise. Which takes us to the following question. How do I make my personal brand work? To carry out this feat, we must first take a trip into understanding the importance of your personal brand.
Your personal brand comes from the characteristics that make you unique in what you do. Take a look at the items that when compared to someone else in your field makes you stand out. If you’re a designer, do you also develop? If so let that be known, if you’re a photographer, do you also offer custom ways in which your client can display their photos? If so, the same holds true. Let it be known.
In our increasingly competitive marketplace, where average is no longer good enough, we all are charged with doing more. Going the extra mile in helping someone else meet their goals. This is the area in which your personal brand can shine. Instead of setting out with a mindset of what is in it for me, go out there with a passion and determination to offer a solution to a problem or need, by allowing your work to do the speaking.
It Makes You Resilient
Often we forget the journey to the point at which we are. To forgot how one gets somewhere, is to forget ones self. Take a moment whether it be once a day or once a week, to look back at how you’ve handled situations in the past, what path you tend to choose and how you can use that experience in making better choices today.
“Someone was hurt before you, wronged before you, hungry before you, frightened before you, beaten before you, humiliated before you, raped before you…yet, someone survived…You can do anything you choose to do.” – Maya Angelou
We fail to realize that we’ve been through these things before and most importantly survived. With this in mind however our personal brands shouldn’t just be reflections of times long ago, but should be shared with others as a living example of believing and working towards social change.
Not one field will carry the save all solution, but if banded together who knows what could happen. So think on how you can band together with someone of another field or even within your own to carry out an idea that will benefit not only just the both of you, but those around you. Once you’ve come up with 5 of these, be sure to write them down. Then just do it.
At the end of the day reading the latest articles gets you just so far. Apply what you’ve learned and share it with others. This is the only way one can understand and execute on the power of importance within your personal brand.
The takeaway:
- Your personal brand is made up of who you are as an individual.
- No amount of self-help books will magically make your brand just appear in front of millions. Determination and hard work does.
- Being a hoarder of information will do you more harm than good. Share what you know. Or who will ever know what you can do?
- Working together with positive minded person will yield positive results. It’s always told that there’s strength in numbers.
- Stop procrastinating, find what’s important to you and do it with everything you’ve got.
What are some ways in which you’ve realized the importance of a personal brand?
