PERSONAL BRANDING: MARKET YOURSELF

Personal branding is necessary for defining yourself as a career expert and a leader in your industry. It also extends to your personal life.

A lack of proper personal branding can throw your social life into disarray. The way you package yourself determines how other people perceive and interact with you. Of course, the way you dress plays a little role but so are your levels of confidence and the way you carry yourself.

The way you carry yourself shows people the level of seriousness with which they should take you. It is in this respect that you should then package yourself in a manner that aligns with your personal beliefs and principles and in a way that promotes your ambitions and aspirations.

Represent your values

Knowing what you stand for is important in building your personal brand. You are expected to have values which are non-negotiable. You should stand for something. People respect people who stand for something. People ought to know you as a person of principles, which you should never veer off from.

Other people learn to respect you when you live and act in a manner congruent with your principles. Values like honesty are usually highly rated in a world where few walk the talk. Duplicity is bad for your image and should be avoided at all times. People will learn to respect you as a leader when your word means something, and they know they can put their faith and trust in you.
Values are what makes leaders.

Know your value

Personal branding isn’t about buying t-shirt printing machines from maxcnash.com and having your name plastered on the back. It is knowing what distinctive qualities do you have. What skills do you possess? Personal awareness is an essential skill for leadership. You need to be aware of your strengths and weakness. You should also know what your skills are.

Have a piece of paper and on one side write a list of all the things you are good at, on the other side write a list of all the things you aren’t the best at. Now, have a candid conversation with yourself of how of the things you are good at - have you actually demonstrated them in the course of your career? On the side of the things you are not-so-good at, ask yourself if you can change that if you worked on any of them. After that, you should be able to honestly gauge your skill level and know what value you offer.

Offer your value

What can you do? This question is sometimes rephrased as ‘why should we hire you?’

You can only offer what you are aware you possess. Offering your value doesn’t mean you become cocky or arrogant. It means you apply your skillset for the benefit of yourself and other people. Put what you have into practice. If you have leadership qualities, then give demonstrable examples in which you have exhibited such qualities. Personal branding is also answering the question ‘why should we do business with you?’ and that is why it also important to entrepreneurs.

Importance of personal branding

Personal branding is how other people see you, not how you see yourself. The way people see you determines if they’ll do business with you or give you a job. Personal branding plays a big role in determining your career growth and development which is why you need to take time to build your personal brand.