Your Personal Brand

Have you ever thought of yourself as a personal brand? My guess is not completely. You have probably thought about your skills, your resume and maybe your LinkedIn profile. But your personal brand is a sum of all these things plus so much more. Just like any brand, there is valuable equity in your personal brand – and what goes into your brand extends beyond your skills and daily responsibilities.

So let’s take a look…what falls into a personal brand?

• You as a whole…the brand
• Your industry
• Your company…this is where you work
• Your network…colleagues, former colleagues, collegiate friends, neighborhood friends and so on.

Do you see the puzzle starting to come together? Each and every one of these aspects plays a huge part in forming your brand. These key touch points are essentially the foundation of your brand – and give you the basis to show off your skills, share knowledge, obtain knowledge, brainstorm and so on. You get the idea.

All of these different interactions help to guide and mold your brand, giving you a chance to show the world who you are and the value you bring. 

Are you ready to embrace your personal brand? Put a stake in the ground and get started today.

Keep it simple. I believe in starting small – take baby steps so it is manageable. If you start too big, it will be overwhelming and you will be over it about as quickly as you started.

Here goes. How to get started while maintaining a little sanity.

• Update your LinkedIn profile. If you don’t have one, create one. 
• Make sure your current company and most recent role are updated.
• Request recommendations from former colleagues and give recommendations to rock star colleagues. It is very important to be true to your brand…give recommendations where they are truly deserved.
• See a contact change jobs or get a promotion – give them a little shout out.
• Start expanding your connections. Connect with your personal network, clients, partners, vendors and so on.
• Identify industry subject matter experts that you can learn from and begin following them. Engage by commenting on their posts, like, share, etc.
• Start following companies that are leaders in the industry, competitors and so on in order to stay on top of any shifts in the market.

Make sure that as you begin to expand your network that you connect with people you know or with people relevant to your goals. And take note that over time you will probably want to go back through all contacts and clean house. It is about that time for me. 

These are the simple steps to get you started. Many times we get hung up in the time commitment. If you spend 10 minutes a day perusing your social channels and stay focused on what is important, you will begin to see your personal brand expand.

Remember…start simple. Tackle one tiny thing a day and over time you can begin to expand on them. Who knows…6 months in you might start blogging. I didn’t want to go there, but since I did I might as well wrap it up here. LinkedIn has a great feature where you can post simple blogs – hopefully thought provoking. They don’t have to be a thesis or an essay. Pull together a few hundred words to share something compelling. Start a conversation.

On this note…keep in mind the value of your personal brand to your company. It is so valuable. We need to remember that it is the skills, knowledge and drive of employees that make up the bigger company.  Happy branding!