6 Steps To Blossom Your Personal Brand

When it comes to personal branding, several people get lost in the process because they’re just simply not sure where to start. Creating a personal brand can feel like such a daunting task.

Having a strong personal brand is crucial to building your reputation, credibility and being successful in your professional life. Whether you're trying to build your business, find a job, or find new clients, a confident, strong and visible brand is the key.

So, I wrote this article in hopes that you would feel a little less overwhelmed with it and instead feel ready to start blossoming a personal brand that you can be proud of. One that is authentic, memorable and strong ?

What Is A Personal Brand?

Your personal brand is the depiction of your strengths, passion, values and your skills.

Your personal brand is WHO you are.

Being intentional about what you want it to stand for will shape the opportunities you want to attract.

Your brand is more than a trademark, it’s how you present yourself online and offline. It is what you create to help build your business.

How Can You Make Sure Your Personal Brand Stays In Full Bloom?

Establishing a personal brand that you’re proud of does not happen overnight. It takes time to create a vision of what you want, and to then execute that vision.

Here are 6 steps to building an authentic and memorable personal brand.

1. Decide What You Want To Be Known For

The first step in creating a strong personal brand, is defining what you want to be known for. When people mention your name, what do you want to be known for when you come to mind? Do want to be known as a video expert, or maybe always having a positive mindset and be an Unwavering Optimist like I am? You want to find the special thing that is YOU and make it all about that. Your personal brand shouldn't be some made up persona, it has to be real and it has to be you. It has to be authentic, otherwise; what are you even creating it for if you can't be yourself?

2. Define Your Unique Value Proposition

You wouldn’t start marketing any business before you’ve defined the product and its value in the marketplace.

Your personal brand works the same way. You’ll want to define the unique value proposition that you have to offer before you get started on building your brand.

You’ll need to define:

• What benefit you offer people
• Who those people are
• How you solve their problems
• What makes you different from others

If you are struggling to answer these questions, it might be useful to clarify your WHY.

Why are you passionate about what you do? Once you answer this question, from there you’ll be able to figure out what audience you’d like to help the most and how you can do that better than anyone else.

3. Create A Signature Look / Have A Brand Anchor

In a world full of unique, diverse and creative individuals, it can be difficult to stand out. Having a “look” or a brand anchor helps you to do just that. And when it comes to your social media, it's important to remember that it's your online identity, so make sure it represents you well.

You want your look to communicate and align very well with your brand. Use the colors, logo, interests, video style or hairdo that speak to your brand and show who you are. According to one academic study, 94% of the time someone’s first impression is based on design, and it only takes 50 milliseconds for that split-second decision to get made.

When Creating A Look For Your Personal Brand, Consider These Tips For Your Social Media And Website:

• Profile consistency: Your profile photo, bio, cover photos and website links should all be similar.
• Overall look: Colors, fonts and style are all similar.

A big part of creating a personal brand is looking the part in the first place, whatever the look you choose may be.

For me, I have a few main signature looks and brand anchors:

• My pink flower
• Optimism, positivity and kindness
• Classic rock (The Doors to be specific)
• A simplistic viewpoint, my #laceyisms

It could be a specific color and creative style or it could be your perspective on life that's your differentiator. But it's important to remember that something that works for one person, might not work for another. It's all about discovering what makes YOU unique, what makes YOU stand out.

Consistency is key. Being consistent with your creative, your personality and your message.

Which brings us to our next step:

4. Be Consistent With Your Message

Consistency makes your brand feel more dependable.

When you’re getting to know someone, you develop opinions and ideas based on your interaction with them. If they’re dressed in a suit one day, and then the next in a pair of pajamas and then the next day in a lion costume; it may be hard to figure out exactly who they are and what they’re all about.

People can feel the same about your brand if you aren’t careful.

If your social media voice is fun and energetic but your product packaging is clean and plain, you’re sending mixed signals that will confuse people and leave them feeling like your brand can’t be trusted.

It sounds silly, but it's true.

5. Give To Receive

There are a few steps to establishing yourself well. Gary Vaynerchuk is constantly saying this, “Give away your best work for free.”

I believe that one of the most important steps in establishing an authoritative personal brand is to give information freely.

I’m a LinkedIn Coach and Personal Branding Strategist, so when I create content, it’s based around LinkedIn and personal branding. I openly share my tips and strategies to help others solve a problem.

My dear friend David Brier once said to me: "Never learn for one, always learn for two."

I’ve never forgotten that statement.

Everything I’ve learned about LinkedIn and all of the thousands of hours I’ve put in to truly understanding it; I’ve never learned for one, always for two. I really do just want to share my knowledge with others and help as best as I can.

And you should, too. When you openly share what you know with your audience, it positions you to be the go-to in that industry.

So, create content that’s informative! Talk with people about what you know. Don’t hesitate to make people around you smarter. This will not only establish you as a credible source but as someone that truly wants to see others win.

6. Understand Your Industry Well

Learning never exhausts the mind, we can NEVER learn enough.

If you want to build trust & authority within a specific industry or niche, then you need to position yourself as a thought leader to attract more of your ideal clients. To do this you need to always be willing to learn as much as you can about your industry and niche. Be an expert.

Think Of A Few People Who You Feel Possess A Strong Personal Brand And Ask Yourself These Questions:

• Why did you choose these people?
• What do you find strong about their personal brand?
• What are you learning from them?

Most likely, you picked these people because they have strongly positioned themselves as an expert or a go-to within their industry.

It’s important that you understand your industry or niche inside and out. This also means staying up to date on breaking news, latest trends and your competition. When you do this, it positions you as a thought leader in your industry, which will help to grow your personal brand to full bloom.

Conclusion

Building and establishing a personal brand that encompasses who you are and that you’re proud of is an ongoing project. It doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to create a vision of what you want, and to then to communicate and exude that vision. But as long as you stay consistent in your efforts to blossoming your brand, it will eventually bloom into the most beautiful flower you've ever laid eyes on ??

And remember, your personal brand is more than just a strategy, it’s who you are!

Who do you think has a memorable personal brand and why does it stand out to you?

?Share with me in the comments below!