By: Sophia White
Founder, Brand Design Agency
Business as usual is no longer usual the market has shifted and leadership now focuses more on “who leaders are” rather than “what they do” and so managing your Personal Brand needs to be a part of your marketing strategy to turn your click into an audience, community, tribe, followers, friends, favourites, likes and ratings so business just got personal…
What can people come to expect from a conversation, a blog post, a client or a co-worker as they learn what you’re all about?
Is your message congruent with you to inspire, convince, persuade and explain?
Your personal brand has many layers, each with a voice, style and ideas and so uncovering these layers will help you to identify those aspects of you (or at least the ones you’re willing to put out there).
What are your core values and personality traits? (A hint about the difference: A core value might be “trust” while a personality trait might be “quirky.”)
By identifying aspects of your very own personality, allows you to share them in context but knowing which ones you have is the question and it’s okay if some of these personalities are aspirational. (The person you aim to become).
Find the common threads in your stories, and how they remain the same even as other aspects of your personality change and evolve, BUT what doesn’t change for you? (There maybe overlaps).
Find a distinct pattern: one or two of your personalities may inspire and attract dream customers and maybe one or two reassure and delivers once the dream customer is interacting with you, or maybe one of your personalities is just about you – the reason you do the work that you do?
Which are the outward-facing aspects that would attract friends, readers, significant others, and potentially customers to you?
It’s time to let your personalities have their say. Every time you share content (That’s your blog posts, newsletters, reports, photos, tweets, and videos), think about which part of your personality you are highlighting – and what you want that content to do (attract / inspire or reassure / deliver).
Your personal brand is not set in stone, so it should flex and evolve with you. You will see how it all unfolds and connects over time, and if anything, just feel confident in the fact that what these personalities have in common is that they’re all at your table!! There is only one you and we are all complex so embrace who you are.
A personal brand is how you express yourself, it’s your internal self, your voice, perspective, ideas the way you express yourself through fashion, speech, art, and work – it’s really about connecting to your higher purpose and connecting to other people. Fashion and style is just the accessories that add to the outer packaging that further reinforces your authentic self.
