The three steps to having a kick ass personal brand:
- Be self aware: know who you are.
- Be honest: tell the truth about who you are.
- Be at ease: be comfortable with who you are.
That’s it. It doesn’t matter if you’re the King of Sweden or the janitor at the local elementary school; do these three things and you will have a kickin’ personal brand.
Also, here are three common mistakes people make when developing a personal brand that you should avoid:
- Mistaking “personal brand” with “expertise.”
- Forcing yourself to define/articulate your personal brand.
- Looking for your personal brand.
Mistaking personal brand with expertise: I’m not sure when “having a personal brand” became confused with “being an expert.” These are two totally different things. Expertise is expertise. It takes years to develop. A personal brand is simply who you are. You can know who you are long before you master a skill!
Forcing yourself to define/articulate your personal brand: A personal brand doesn’t need to be articulated. Sometimes, it’s better if it isn’t. Think of the brand Nike, which is summed up best in the phrase, “Just do it.” If you articulate the list adjectives behind that phrase—for instance, action oriented, fast, tough, moving, dedicated, performing, driven—then the brand loses its punch. It’s the emotion behind the the phrase “Just do it” that gives the brand its power, and the emotion suggested by that short phrase is far more powerful than any definition or list of words would be. Your brand is what it is with or without a definition. Let it be.
Looking for your personal brand: Don’t go looking for your personal brand. it’s nothing you can find by looking. You develop it by accepting what is already true. You are already you! Remember who the cool kids were in high school? They were the ones who knew who they were and liked themselves. Being comfortable in their own skin allowed them to be good at what they did. Same rules apply today as grown ups: accept who you are and your brand will come to you.
And let me repeat: don’t get so hung up on defining who you are in words. Do that, and two things will happen: first, you’ll end up with a list of words that leave you underwhelmed. Second, being underwhelmed, you’ll start looking for superlatives (words that end in -est) to spice up your list… putting yourself on a path to describe an expertise as opposed to a brand.
Stop sweating it. Remember who you are. Accept it. Be honest about it. Congratulations: you now have a personal brand.
It doesn’t matter how “average” or “ordinary” you may think you are, if you have the maturity to have a personal brand, you are valuable to an organization.
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