Choose Your Words Carefully | BrandYou‏

Dear All,

Last week we discussed on the BrandYou strategy. Today we will discuss the areas briefly.

1. Develop your brand.

2. Package your brand.

3. Communicate your brand.

1.                 Developing your brand

During the development of "BrandYou" you need to ask yourself some basic questions.

For example: What are your values?          What do you love?    What do you hate? What are you insanely great at doing?         What are you most proud of?         What do you want to be?    What is important and valuable to you?       What do you want to be known for?         

Your image is important, of course, but an image is just a reflection of your brand and your core values. Remember: the idea of branding yourself goes far beyond promotion and marketing yourself to others.

Dr. Seamus Phan says in his book, DotZen, "...the core of branding, beyond telling truth, is to be true to yourself."

The three pillars of a good brand are authenticity, consistency, and clarity. This holds true for your personal brand as well. Use these three pillars as your guide when evaluating your brand.

2.         Packaging your brand
Companies spend tons of money on the packaging of their goods and services. Why?

After all, it is the actual product or service that is important; the packaging is superfluous, right? Wrong. Like it or not, superficial or not, people judge products (and people too) based in part on appearances.

First impressions, as we have all been told, are huge. Packaging for a new shampoo or an iPod Mini certainly makes sense. We can understand that. A package for a physical product has to attract, inform, and persuade the customer to buy. So what makes up the package of a person's brand? Here are a few items of your personal brand identity portfolio:

Þ      Your name

Þ      Your title

Þ      Your address

Þ      Your office space

Þ      Your business card

Þ      Your personal style

Þ      Your speaking style

Þ      Your presentations

Þ      Your website

If you are an independent business person (such as a consultant), then you may want to have a logo and a company name. But this is not done lightly. Your company name, and then logo visual attributes, will be based on the results of what you learned in the development process. 

3.         Communicating your brand

"If you're not appearing, you're disappearing,"

said legendary jazz musician, Art Blakey.

Absolutely true. No matter what your "thing" is — engineer, marketing or professor, whatever! — standing on the merits of your great work alone is not (usually) enough.

People have got to know about you and your great work. They have got to meet you, see you. If you want people to talk about the wonderful things you do, then you must give them the opportunity to experience you.

This means attending networking meetings (both social and professional) and getting involved in external organizations in your field. But do not limit your involvement only to organizations in your direct field.

One way to "get out there" and "appear" is to volunteer to make presentations. Organizations and professional associations are always looking for great guest speakers — why don't you volunteer? Even if it is not a paying gig, the contacts you make from one of your presentations might be very valuable. Who knows? When you share what you know, and "give it away,"

It is a fact: people will judge you by the way you present yourself (and your message) to an audience. If you get this skill down, it could make all the difference in your career.

Branding yourself keeps you current in your chosen field, opens doors for you, and creates a lasting impression on clients.

How Are You Branding Yourself?  What are ways to establish a self-brand? Who are good examples of self-branding? Share your thoughts and opinion on this subject in the comments.

Best Regards,