Have you ever thought about how others perceive you? What about how you could present yourself to the world in the same way the products and companies do? I am referring to having your own brand values, features, benefits and a big promise of what you will get if you use this company or product, in this case, if others work with you! So what’s your personal brand?
Creating your brand is challenging but worthwhile! And that’s why we would love to share with you how to do that:
1. Draw a triangle
Take a pen or pencil, a piece of paper and draw a big triangle and turn it into 3 layers. The bottom layer is your values (what you stand for), the next layer up is your qualities (i.e. skills and strengths, in other words, your unique selling points) and the top one is your legacy you will leave (this includes purpose).
2. Start with your values
Let’s start at the bottom with your values. You could have as many or as few as you like (in general people typically end up with up to 10 values). To get to your values fast, make sure you ask yourself, ‘what makes you angry or upset or annoyed?’ as quite often the answer is related to your values. For instance, if you find yourself getting emotional and angry when you see people arguing or fighting, that may relate to the value of harmony or peace. If you feel upset when you see injustice, it might be a value of fairness. Try to ask friends and family what they think you stand for or feel strongly about too as that may bring up some new ideas.
3. The difference you make
Your unique selling points or the features of a product might be a good analogy here. Now here is often where people start to differentiate between things they are known for but don’t enjoy doing and the things that they would love to get to do more of the time. So I would include things here that others know and value you for but also things that you looooove to do and you would like to do more of. All the things you love to contribute at work and in life with friends, family, clients and work colleagues. So your unique selling points could look like this: optimism, energy, sharing, evidence, insight, a balanced view and an unshakable belief in.
4. Your legacy
This is what difference all those great qualities you’ve just described are going to make in the world – why anyone should employ you or work with you. The impact you have, the legacy you will leave! It’s similar to the idea of the benefits of a product or service and the promise that is made by the company offering it. So here you’re going to get into wordsmithing – try and get down to as few words as possible, a sentence or two max. Think here along the lines of how you would like to be introduced to a group of people at work, or perhaps at a conference, or to a new team. 10 words or less would be amazing.
5. Take your time
I would take as long as you need to do this, get the help of friends and family and work colleagues to give you insight and ideas. Don’t worry if it doesn’t come easy – it rarely does but is worth it when you’re there. Also bear in mind that the whole thing is dynamic and changes over time, often quite a bit. It can change in direction, you might just feel you need to go through the process again because something has shifted for you or you might just add a word here and there if needed.
So are you now thinking about what to do with your brand? Watch out for our next podcast where we share with you how you can communicate your personal brand and create an action plan for this!
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