Building Your Personal Brand: Part 3

Welcome to the 3rd, and final article of the "Building Your Personal Brand" series! Hopefully you're well on your way to refining your Personal Brand Statement and preparing to activate it as outlined in Part 2 (in case you missed it - Building Your Personal Brand: Part 2)

In this final edition, we will be discussing your Personal Brand Story, or your "Movie Trailer". When I first stepped into the business world after college, this was called your "Elevator Pitch". I am not a fan of that phrase as I'm an introvert and not a big talker on elevators! In any case, I decided that referring to your Personal Brand Story as a "Movie Trailer" was more relatable and painted a better picture of what we are trying to accomplish with it.

Let's look at the definition of a Movie Trailer:

Note the items I bolded in the definition above. We want our Movie Trailer to:

1. Attract our audience
2. Highlight the most exciting, funny or otherwise noteworthy parts of us
3. Offer an abbreviated version of why we are amazing (though for us, it won't be 2 minutes, 30 seconds - that's a bit much!)

So, what is the best way to start to put together the "pieces" you need to create your Movie Trailer? One of my favorite approaches simply requires finding a friend or family member to interview you.

With the following strategic set of questions, you'll be able to reflect on who you are and what you have to offer. Make sure you ask your interviewer to take conscientious notes because this will be the information you use to build your Movie Trailer afterwards!

Now that you have this treasure trove of information about YOU, you can begin putting together your Personal Brand Story. Below are some things to keep in mind as you're building it out followed by "Next Steps" to help you keep your momentum!

Let's review what we've learned about in this 3-part series:

1. Personal Brand and why it's so important
2. Personal Brand Statement and how to create and activate it
3. Personal Brand Story (or "Movie Trailer") and how to create and activate it

This series included Level I fundamentals of Personal Brand which are so critical to have in place as you launch a professional career. There is so much more to learn, however these basics will ensure you are set up to succeed!

Keep an eye out in the next few months for the Level II Personal Branding series where we will dive deeper into the "5 A's of Personal Branding" and optimizing your LinkedIn profile.

Until then, I encourage you to share these articles with your networks if you think they may benefit and go do BIG things my friends!

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