April 25, 2022
This episode is the last of our three-part series on personal branding.
Two weeks ago, in the first episode in this personal branding series, on personal brand reputation, we talked about how to create your brand reputation in an intentional way. That one was all about being intentional about what kind of brand experience you create when you work with others. Meaning, what it’s like for your colleagues and boss to work with you. This is about the things you do day in and day out which, over time, creates the reputation you develop within your career.
And last week, we talked about how to create your personal brand positioning. A personal brand positioning is all about getting clear on who you are, what you’re great at and what you uniquely offer that is different from your peers in your business or field.
A personal brand positioning is about defining your unique strengths and attributes – the things that set you apart from everyone else – and aligning them with what your employer or clients are looking for from someone in your field or level of career. A personal brand positioning statement is typically one sentence that succinctly and powerfully sums up who you are and what you have to offer.
There are so many ways this comes in handy.
I encourage my clients to use a personal brand positioning statement as the lead headline on their resume.
I teach them how to story tell around that personal brand positioning statement during interviews.
And it’s also a very helpful filter for evaluating all kinds of things – from potential jobs to the types of companies, cultures or bosses that best align with who you are and what you’re looking for. And ultimately, a personal brand positioning helps to direct the things we’re going to talk about today which is your personal brand image.
So, if you haven’t listened to those the first two episodes in this series yet, you might want to go back and give them a listen. Because they’re going to offer you so many practical tips on how to get clear on who you are and what you have to offer.
But today, I want to talk about a third important aspect of personal branding which is, how to cultivate an intentional personal brand image.
Which means, how to define and curate the visual image you project to the world. Not because you’re trying to get anyone else’s approval or conform to anyone’s narrow standard of how you should look.
Just the opposite in fact.
When you cultivate a personal brand image that truly reflects who you are, it means that what you’re projecting to the world is aligned with the self-image you’ve created. This fosters feelings of self-confidence, pride and personal empowerment.
And as we’ve shared before on this podcast, when you feel positive emotions like that, those will inspire you to take positive actions which will then lead to positive results.
When you feel proud of the image you project in the world – when you believe that how you’re presenting yourself is a reflection of who you truly are – everything you feel and do will be about delivering the kinds of results you want in your life. And that kind of alignment makes you unstoppable.
So, before we get into the episode, I want to go a little deeper on what I shared a second ago.
What we’re going to discuss about your personal brand image is NOT about pleasing anyone else or conforming to anyone else’s view of how you should look.
It’s not intended to be any sort of statement about what’s acceptable or what’s not.
And it’s not intended to make any sort of statement about any aspect of what makes each of us unique and special. So, we’re not talking gender identity, race, age, body type, ethnicity, or any other attribute.
But what we ARE going to talk about today is WHY we need to be intentional about how we choose to present ourselves to the world. And then how to go about doing that.
For more, give the episode a listen.
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