Brand Yourself in 10 Steps

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[link] via Personal Development with The Positivity Blog on 10/31/08

I’ve written about personal branding before. It is the process whereby people and their careers are marked as brands. It has been noted that while previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging.

The term is thought to have been first used and discussed in an 1997 article by Tom Peters.

The above article has some great tips that can specifically help you to actually be the brand you want in life. It’s definitely worth working through the following points and thinking deeply about their implication along with the additional tips, tricks and strategies given in the embedded videos.

Work Branding

… you only work about 17% of your waking hours in a lifetime

So, BRAND YOUR LIFE

1. Know Your Own Brand

What are the things that are important to you?

What would you want to leave as a lasting impression on others when you meet them, know them well and part ways from them?

Exploring this and really understanding yourself is important here to start this process off.

What is your purpose in life and do you want others to know that purpose about you?

What are the things you are living for now?  Are they different than the things you want them to be?

Examine yourself to know your own brand that you want to live.  The items you want in your brand should be long term and stand the test of time.

2. Eliminate Any Ego Based Perception

Ignore those temporary things in life and focus on the areas that have real lasting impact:

• Relationships
• Faith
• Spirituality
• Service
• Values and Morals
• Health
• Legacy
• Happiness

Show the importance for areas in the list above and work to overcome any bad habits you have where you currently present a selfish or egocentric attitude.

3. Hold True Your Background

Your background is often a large part of who you are.  This could be where you grew up, what kind of schooling or childhood you had, your family, your heritage, your religious beliefs, whatever the things are that have been a big part of your life, don’t abandon them.

Take the things from your background that makes you who you are and who you want to be and hold true to those learned things. Continue to value them and don’t hide from your past.  Embrace it and take life lessons from it. You can’t change your past so you might as well gain by it and be honest about it with yourself and others.  Your background can often be an important part of branding who you are today and who you want to be.

4. Live and Reinforce Your Morals

Do you have and know your morals?

Do you live by them and make decisions by them?

Everyone does, it’s just that the decisions and choices in life are not always in line with the morals we think we have!  If you want to be the brand you want in life, you need to live your life according to your morals and have the integrity to stick to them.  Don’t shift towards and away from them depending on who you are with, or what situation you are in. Knowing your morals and living by them are an important part of knowing yourself and your brand.

5. Make Your Core Values Known

Core values are also an important area of life to use, to learn about yourself and to understand your brand in life. There are many advantages of truly understanding your core values and sharing them and when it comes to branding, they are a strong part of a person’s makeup and living by them should help you align yourself with the brand you want.

Of course, your core values need to align with the brand you want as well so taking the time to examine your core values is a great way to create and understand your brand. Validating that to ensure it’s in line with what you want it to be is then the next step. Sharing those values with others is a way to describe yourself and a powerful set of attributes to stick to.  This can really help to build your brand let alone live by it.

6. Practice What You Preach

If you want to have a brand that others can believe, you have to make it believable.  You do this by demonstrating and showing that you are true to the brand you portray and that you actually do practice what you preach.  If you say one thing about yourself, yet go and do the opposite, that brand is nothing but words and will likely never hold true.

A brand must be connected to the actions, descriptions and message it delivers and the proof of that is in your actions. You have to keep the things you do within the confines of your brand and the more you do this, the more accurate your brand will be to others. Practicing what you preach delivers a powerful message to others about who you are and it makes you and your brand seem genuine and authentic!

7. Strengthen Your Unique Attributes

Identify all the things about yourself that make you unique.  Is it your attitude, style, humor, work ethic, learning, motivation, energy, empathy, helpfulness, ability to focus, kindness, honesty, responsibility, cooperation, acceptance/tolerance or your perseverance! Of course there are more attributes then that but those tend to fit into the category of liked attributes in the workplace and relationships.

Identify those attributes you match and look to work to strengthen them. Make them obvious, demonstrate them, practice them and master them in your life so that you would always be describes as having them if others asked to describe you.  You want these attributes to match the brand you are building and showing them often so that they stand out above other attributes will reinforce them in your brand.

Not only are your character attributes a great way to build your brand but also your life activities, beliefs, hobbies and experiences.  All those things can be part of your brand attributes and the unique ones are easier to talk about and certainly easier for other people to remember you by and to remember your brand associated with it.

8. Demonstrate Your Most Wanted Traits

For similar reasons you should show the attributes you have that are your most wanted traits.  Perhaps the most wanted by you or perhaps that of others.  If you want your brand to demonstrate that, you need to work on them, and practice them so they are visible in many areas of your life.  Spending time on mastering your skills for something you want to show will definitely improve it and often just focusing on the one or two attributes you want will allow you to develop it quickly and make it stronger than other attributes.

Look for resources here that can help you as well. Ask others who have it how they developed it and how they demonstrate it. Read about it and do research to ensure you understand all the related bits of knowledge for that attribute. Study builds interest in things which can also give motivation and momentum to master particular areas. Using examples, stories, articles and others’ experiences is an easy way to learn to demonstrate it yourself.

9. Write About and Share With Others

Writing is unfortunately seen by most people as a waste of time, however, there is HUGE value in it. If you want to show and learn more yourself about any content or subject, then writing about it is an excellent way to do that.

Sharing your brand, the image you want and how you are doing it is very valuable as well.  Not only for building it and reinforcing it, but to also work with others to get help. Whether it’s through learning from them or building connections that help you get involved where you are most effective, sharing things with others will help you stay encouraged, continually get new ideas and be challenged. This helps you see progress with your branding and that is vital to keeping yourself motivated to keep on working towards being the brand you want to be.

10. Be Consistent With Your Brand

… be congruent with a consistent brand for yourself. Be consistant with our online profiles or brand wherever it is displayed.

You can’t be a separate brand in your home life and another one in your work life. It doesn’t work and even if you manage to fake them, you will never make it last or reach your full potential having two separate brands.

… Your brand is something you should be happy to share with anyone, friends, colleagues, family or even strangers online.

Conclusion

So, I encourage you to take some time and follow this plan to build and be your own brand.  Put your ideas down on paper and decide how and what you want in each of these steps.  Look at applying them in your home life, relationships and work environment.

It will drastically improve your confidence in yourself and can really give you the boost you need to become happier, more effective and much more consistent in your life.  Don’t settle and be complacent with your current brand unless you can honestly be described in your life as the way you want to be and the best person you can possibly be.

What’s your tip? Leave a comment below.

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Originally posted 2009-04-11 08:25:42.

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