When it comes to your own life, you are marketing your personal brand every single day, whether you realise it or not.
Marketing boils down to how you serve yourself up to those around you and what you consistently offer to them. The work you do and the friendships you provide are an experience you enable others to consume. When marketing yourself, it’s about consciously building that experience so that you can effectively get what you want in return from your life. That’s what marketing truly is all about: creating a consistent experience for your “customers,” whether you are a big brand or just managing your life toward your own personal goals. The key here is to take control. You are your own brand manager, and you must set the course for your own brand experience. It’s your show, love your brand.
From a marketing perspective, positioning is the space you want to occupy in your customers’ minds when they think about your brand. In personal branding, it’s how you want others to feel about you, whether it’s a boss, co-worker, job interviewer, friend or partner. Positioning is not a statement about you, it’s a statement that captures who you are. It’s not a factual claim; but rather, an emotional reason for people to want to be around you. It should capture the essence of who you are and how you have defined your personal brand.
You can use personal attributes you outline as part of your brand definition to craft a positioning statement that captures how you want people to feel about you. Knowing who you are entails you have your stance and position. This means you have a position statement that best describes who you are and your services. A positioning statement is so much more effective than droning on and on about every career move you’ve made. It captures your essence and lets people instantly know what you are all about. While my positioning statement is fact-based, it also has a sense of emotion to it. This positioning statement becomes an effective way to describe who you are to others.
No matter what services you offer, let your voice, tone and overall image reflect your personality and work style. This will allow anyone - even strangers - feel like they know you, and will make you stand out among the competition.
Ask yourself: “What about me makes me unique, professionally and personally?”
Do you have a unique sense of style? Flaunt it.
Are you a perfectionist? Then make everything perfect.
Are you funny? Use witty humour throughout your messaging.
Are you incredibly easy to work with? Prove it with quotes from past clients.
Most of my colleagues says I am a complete lunatic, funny and MAD. MAD means “Make A Difference.” They believe in how I approach things and the solution I bring to the table. They accept my unusual style of dealing with things because it brings the kind of result the organisation seeks.
The perfect place to start defining your style is with the photo you use in your profile, website or portfolio. Your photo is the first thing potential clients are going to see and the first thing that’s going to impact their opinion of you. It needs to portray you as a professional they’d want to work with. That doesn’t mean they need to be formal, but they do need to be high-quality and well executed.
In 2007, during one to one with my line manager who was a Senior Director, he specifically told me there were three things about me that made me stand out from the rest of the team and he insists I shouldn’t lose these three qualities: my communication skill, my empathy and compassion to both clients and colleagues. This was the first time I took absolute notice of these qualities and I became conscious and started developing them further. Over the years, these qualities have become part of my position. These qualities separate my work from that of my colleagues. These qualities bring the kind of results that makes any management to respect and value me. Although your personal brand should be uniquely you, it should also be one that your ideal clients relate to.
Without a proper definition of your personal brand, you can’t possibly market yourself. Part of that process is also identifying how your brand can be unique from others in the same space, and how to build an experience, unlike all others around you. Identify your personal skills and ownable attributes (the ones you have now or the ones you want to acquire over time).
Make sure you can excel at each of those skills and attributes. Determine whether you can use them to differentiate yourself from others. Start by outlining all the areas of your life where you want to achieve success and happiness. This would certainly include your career, but also your social life, relationships, children and places you would want to live. It’s never too early to start a bucket list, and it should be directly linked to your brand and ultimately, your plan.
Next time you are in a job interview and the interviewer says, “Tell me about yourself,” you can lead in with a short, descriptive, and powerful positioning statement. Imagine how convincing and confident you will sound. A positioning statement is so much more effective than droning on and on about every career move you’ve made. It captures your essence and lets people instantly know what you are all about.
Remember that your personal brand definition should be operational: an indication of what you want out of life, not necessarily where you are right now. Don’t let others define you. What you think of yourself is what really matters most. Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking. How you make others feel about themselves says a lot about you. Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. You need to believe in yourself. Nobody can make you happy until you’re happy with yourself first.
The five keys to personal branding success are:
1. Make all assets undeniably you.
2. Be as consistent as possible.
3. Be authentic. Be yourself, rather than trying to be someone else.
4. Get to the point. Make your offering and personal brand clear from the start. Keep your bio short and to the point.
5. Don’t underestimate a tagline. This is your unique selling proposition in ten or less words. Spend some time with it and make sure it conveys the value you add.
It is a good start to love yourself and spread happiness. The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they make the best of everything. You can never be happy if you’re trapped in the past and fearful of the future. Living in the present is the only way to be happy. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to live a life you are excited about. The secret of being happy is accepting where you are in life and making the most out of every day.
Branding Yourself for a Happy Life. Featured
Written by Jefferson O Imgbi
16995 comments
-
Comment Link
Wednesday, 27 April 2022 10:03
posted by golden goose outlet
I really wanted to send a brief message to express gratitude to you for some of the nice ways you are posting at this site. My time consuming internet research has at the end been paid with wonderful insight to talk about with my family. I would express that most of us visitors are unquestionably lucky to live in a decent site with so many special professionals with great basics. I feel truly blessed to have used your entire web page and look forward to really more amazing moments reading here. Thanks once again for a lot of things.
-
Comment Link
Wednesday, 27 April 2022 10:03
posted by kyrie irving shoes
I'm just commenting to make you understand what a beneficial encounter my friend's child gained reading your webblog. She learned a wide variety of things, which included what it is like to have a marvelous coaching style to make other individuals easily thoroughly grasp specified advanced subject areas. You undoubtedly did more than our desires. I appreciate you for providing the precious, dependable, informative as well as fun guidance on that topic to Lizeth.
-
Comment Link
Wednesday, 27 April 2022 04:02
posted by hermes handbags
I wish to show my love for your kind-heartedness in support of those people that have the need for help with this particular situation. Your real commitment to passing the message across appears to be extremely interesting and has regularly enabled others like me to arrive at their aims. This insightful guide indicates a lot a person like me and extremely more to my office workers. Thank you; from all of us.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 21:33
posted by yeezy 350 v2
Thank you for your own effort on this website. My mom really loves participating in investigations and it's simple to grasp why. Many of us know all concerning the powerful mode you create worthwhile things on this website and as well as increase participation from other people about this subject matter then our simple princess is without a doubt being taught so much. Enjoy the remaining portion of the new year. You are carrying out a very good job.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 19:05
posted by yeezy
I enjoy you because of your own work on this site. My mother take interest in going through investigations and it's really easy to understand why. Most of us hear all relating to the lively way you render rewarding thoughts through your blog and as well as attract contribution from people about this point while our own simple princess has always been understanding a lot. Take pleasure in the remaining portion of the year. You're doing a very good job.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 15:45
posted by supreme clothing
Thank you a lot for giving everyone an extraordinarily memorable opportunity to check tips from here. It is usually so pleasant and also stuffed with a lot of fun for me and my office friends to visit your site at minimum 3 times in 7 days to find out the new things you have got. Of course, we are at all times pleased for the breathtaking pointers served by you. Certain 4 ideas on this page are definitely the best we have all had.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 13:48
posted by lebron james shoes
I intended to compose you a little bit of observation so as to thank you the moment again for those splendid techniques you have featured here. It's really pretty generous of you to provide without restraint all that a few individuals could possibly have supplied for an e book in order to make some dough on their own, primarily now that you could have tried it if you ever considered necessary. The tactics also worked like the easy way to comprehend the rest have similar keenness just like my very own to grasp more and more concerning this condition. I'm certain there are many more pleasurable situations in the future for those who take a look at your blog post.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 11:08
posted by jordan retro
I would like to convey my gratitude for your generosity for those who need guidance on this one situation. Your personal dedication to passing the message all-around appeared to be especially helpful and has specifically permitted folks like me to reach their objectives. Your amazing informative guidelines means a lot a person like me and still more to my mates. Regards; from everyone of us.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 08:36
posted by off white outlet
I wish to show thanks to you just for bailing me out of such a problem. Right after browsing through the online world and coming across advice which were not beneficial, I believed my entire life was over. Existing without the solutions to the problems you've resolved by means of your entire website is a crucial case, as well as those that could have negatively damaged my career if I had not come across your web site. Your actual expertise and kindness in maneuvering a lot of stuff was very useful. I don't know what I would've done if I had not come upon such a stuff like this. I am able to at this time look forward to my future. Thanks a lot very much for the impressive and effective guide. I will not hesitate to recommend your web sites to any individual who should receive guidance about this matter.
-
Comment Link
Tuesday, 26 April 2022 08:12
posted by air jordan
I in addition to my guys were found to be studying the good guidelines located on your web site while immediately I got a horrible suspicion I had not expressed respect to the blog owner for those tips. All the men became for this reason joyful to read them and have now definitely been taking advantage of them. Many thanks for simply being indeed considerate and then for choosing this sort of incredibly good subject matter millions of individuals are really eager to be aware of. My very own sincere regret for not saying thanks to you sooner.
Leave a comment
Make sure you enter all the required information, indicated by an asterisk (*). HTML code is not allowed.