3 Mindset Shifts That Will Help You Attract Amazing Opportunities

Your personal brand, simply defined, is your reputation. It's how others perceive you. And if you want to future-proof your employability , remember that perception matters.

With a powerful personal brand, you can attract relevant and amazing opportunities, including:

• Job opportunities?- job interviews, job offers
• Learning opportunities?- learning from other people’s expertise and experiences, getting a mentor
• Media opportunities?- free PR, such as getting interviewed in a podcast, getting featured?in credible media publications, speaking opportunities
• Business opportunities?- expanding your market, steady stream of qualified prospects to fill your pipeline, referrals from people in your network
• Relationship opportunities?- building relationships, attracting like-minded people
• Collaboration opportunities - partnership with local or international organizations, partnership with industry leaders and experts
• Influencer campaign opportunities - getting paid to be an influencer or ambassador for corporate brands

We reached out to Jeff Manhilot to ask him how being one of the Top 100 Filipinos on LinkedIn for four consecutive years has helped him grow his career.

Here's how amazing opportunities found Jeff through the 'Top 100' initiative and how building his LinkedIn presence has helped him with his 3C's: Confidence. Credibility. Connections. ??

There is no question that a powerful personal brand helps attract opportunities. But how do you get started in building your personal brand?

Getting Clarity: The Start of Building Your Personal Brand

Personal branding starts with having clarity on who you are, what you do and why you do what you do. And what I’ve learned early on in my own journey and in helping others build their personal brands is this:?

Our journey to creating a strong personal brand requires a shift in our mindset. Unless we take that shift, we can't build an authentic and powerful personal brand.

So here are the three mindset shifts you need to take to get started in your personal branding journey:

1. Don’t let your job define you?

To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You... You’re not defined by your job title and you’re not confined by your job description. Starting today you are a brand." — Tom Peters, Author of The Brand Called You, 1997

Whatever it is that you’re doing now for a living — it doesn’t define you. You are so much more than that.?

The thing is, when you're in the corporate world or when you're working in your business rather than on your business, it's easy to fall trap on a treadmill lifestyle.

I was guilty of this lifestyle, too. I taught college students for more than 11 years. I definitely loved teaching and I loved my students! (Below are a few photos with my AB Communication students.)

But at some point, when I looked at myself and how far I've gone in terms of career growth, I realized that I wasn't where I really wanted to be. I became so focused on "doing my job as a teacher" that I forgot to grow my own career.

And so it hit me — I realized I let my job define me. I worked long hours, but I failed to do things that mattered to me, or things that I truly loved.?

So, I left in 2010 to find myself outside the academia. I jumped in to being a full-time freelance writer and editor. Freelancing gave me a lot of opportunities to learn, explore, grow and work with people from around the world.

Most importantly, freelancing gave me an opportunity to do the work that matters to me. It eventually led me to founding VB Consulting .

Building a strong personal brand means investing in yourself

Again, your title or position is not who you are. Please don’t say you’re too busy at work to build your personal brand. Remember that when you work for others, you are helping them build their dreams. And that's totally fine. But don't do it at the expense of your own dreams.?

Embrace who you are and invest in yourself. No one will do that for you.?

2. Know your worth

During discovery calls, I ask people what they do. And they usually tell me their job descriptions and roles, e.g., I recruit people to join the company, I set an appointment for my boss, I design web pages, etc.

So I have to reframe the question to get the answers I was looking for. I wanted them to let me know what value they bring to their clients or customers or to the company they work for. It turned out, many haven’t really thought about it.

Building a strong personal brand means articulating your true value

Clearly defining and communicating your value are keys to getting paid your worth. On her TED Talk , Pricing Consultant Casey Brown said:

"No one will ever pay you what you're worth. They will only pay you what they think you're worth... and you control their thinking."

Casey Brown shares how knowing your worth and communicating your value can help in building your self-confidence:

Here are a few ways to think through the value you bring to the table:

• If you find it hard to look at the value you offer from your point of view, go ask your clients or your manager.?
• If you're a recruiter, how has bringing the right people to the organization helped the company achieve its goals??
• If you're a lead generation specialist, how much revenue did the company obtain from the qualified leads you generated??
• If you design landing pages or sales pages, what is the conversion rate of the page you created, and how much revenue does your client get from that?
• If you’re a teacher, ask your students. What difference did you make in their lives??

It's also good to remember that your true value is not always measured in dollars. When you make an impact on other people's lives —? that's priceless!

3. Do what scares and excites you

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. —Bernard Baruch

Many of those I've talked to are serious about getting themselves out there and build a name for themselves. But there's a roadblock. They're "afraid" that the people who "know them" would judge them.

One of them said, "Nakakahiya. Baka kung anong sabihin nila sa kin."

But what I've learned is that people are not thinking about you because they're busy thinking about themselves. Jack Canfield mentioned this in his book, The Success Principles: How to Get from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be .

Building a strong personal brand means being authentically YOU

Building your personal brand is a journey.?A journey of understanding who you are, what you stand for, who you want to help, and what impact you want to have on others.

And as you gain clarity on how you can use your gift to help others, you become more attuned to your authentic self.

That authenticity helps you attract amazing opportunities , which then help build the brand called YOU.

Ask yourself these questions and pay attention to the emotions these bring to you:

• Are you afraid that people will judge you once you start building your personal brand?
• Are you scared of showing some vulnerability when you tell your story?
• But are you excited at the thought that the right people will find you for your expertise, will remember you for who you are and recognize you for what you stand for?
• Are you excited at the thought that opportunities will come to you, and you don’t have to chase opportunities when you build your personal brand?

If you’re scared of what you need to do to make it happen but excited about the thought of being recognized for what you stand for and getting paid for your expertise, then, it’s worth a try.?

But yes, you've got to weigh in between fear and courage. You decide.

Take the shift and see the difference

A simple shift in your mindset can make a huge difference in your life. Your beliefs are anchored on your current mindset. Your action is based on your beliefs. Unless you change your mindset or beliefs, you can’t do anything differently.

And if you continue doing what you’re doing, you will get the same results. So if you want different results, you’ve got to do things differently.

Wrapping Up

I hope this edition helps you recalibrate the way you look at the value of getting yourself out there and building your own path to success.

Start with a shift in your mindset and you'll be on your way to building a powerful personal brand that can take your career or business to much greater heights! ??