How to Identify, Develop, and Communicate Your Unique Personal Brand

In today's fast-paced and interconnected world, having a strong personal brand is not just a luxury—it's a necessity. Your personal brand is the unique combination of skills, experiences, and personality that you want the world to see. It’s the careful packaging of what people get when they work with you, what you’re like to deal with, how you communicate or how you deal with challenges. Your personal brand is often what will get you the interview, the promotion, the media coverage; but it’s also what leaves a lasting impression of you and what goes towards building a legacy you can be proud of.

But how do you go about identifying, developing, and communicating your unique personal brand? In this article we’ll look at the first stage – How do you go about identifying your unique personal brand…Let’s dive in!

Identifying Your Unique Personal Brand

The first step in building a personal brand is understanding deeply who you are, how you do things, what you value personally, what value you bring to the table. I always advise clients to think five years ahead, look at what you’d be proud to have said about you at that stage in your journey and work back from there…

Self-Reflection: Take some time to think about yourself – understand yourself deeply – not simply the surface questions I always hear; what you’re good at, weak at, what you enjoy doing? But rather understand honestly what type of person you are, how do you react under pressure, how do you deal with people, how do you deal with your own vulnerabilities, how quick are you to laugh (and laugh at yourself), where do your innate competencies lie. What would you like to be proud of? What legacy would you like to leave? What would thrill you to hear people say about you? What terrifies you? And my absolute favourite (as anyone who has worked with me knows) What makes you truly remarkable?? Keep in mind that this self-reflection should be uncomfortable, it needs to be difficult and it has to be deep. This self-understanding, self-realisation and self-pride is where the true core of your personal brand comes from.

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Create a Vision & Make a Decision: Without a detailed vision for your unique personal brand, it’s almost impossible to develop it strategically. Like building a multi-floored scaffold with no plans – it’s simply not robust, it can’t withstand a storm. Each element of your personal brand is an intricate pillar, fully interconnected with what you aim to achieve in your career.? Look at people whom you admire, people who shape your industry, people who lead, people who invent, people who care. Choose the relevant pieces that inspire you and build those into a clear vision for your own personal brand. Once you have a clear vision for your brand you need to make a decision – Yes, this is me, this is my brand. Then stick with that and develop that brand. Consistency is key to building long lasting trust. Give your audiences an opportunity to get to know you and your brand voice. If everything goes to “hell in a hand basket” yes, of course you can alter your brand BUT if you’ve done the work in the previous step the chances of that are slim.

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Do a Complete 360: Often we are unable see the full picture ourselves.? We sometimes think we’re stronger than we are, better, smoother, more competent - however, in my experience we very often don’t give ourselves enough credit and are surprised by feedback saying we excel in certain things, we lead in areas we’d never considered, we motivate people, include people – things we never thought were valued by our audiences until we asked the questions. So, I always suggest to clients that they ask around. Ask people who report into you and those to whom you report. Ask your connectors and influencers, decision makers and potential clients. Never be afraid of their feedback. It’s up to you whether you take it or leave it. But be open minded. Great things can come from feedback.

What Feels Right: I’m a huge fan of “what makes you feel like you” I don’t like the word “Authentic” as it’s so over-used but deep down who are you? And quite honestly, THIS is the pivotal piece. This is what makes you remarkable, this is your story, your value, your legacy. We can all pretend - talk fast, put on heels, add gloss; but it takes enormous courage just to be you. Focus on this, this is what people want…

RECOMMENDATIONS:

• Take the first step as outlined here for your own brand. Any problems just send me a DM here.
• Check out our recently launched "Leadership Accelerator" for women at any stage in their leadership journey - An opportunity to work 1:1 with me for four months. https://bit.ly/redstorm-leadership-accelerator
• Contact me directly here on LinkedIn if you are interested in a fast paced, highly engaging in-house Mastermind for your leadership team or network with your organisation.
• Follow me over on Insta @CarolOKellyPersonalBranding for lots of pop up training and tips on how to build an impactful personal brand.

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