Everything is branded and branding is everything. Trite – maybe, but it’s never been more true. Chances are, you’re already branded yourself. Not just in the obvious way, with clothes, sports, cars, hobbies etc., but by colleagues at work, friends and family at home, maybe even your audience on the web. Everything you do and everything you associate with perpetuates this. Are you intelligent, resourceful, trustworthy, successful. Perhaps you are devious, crafty and uncaring!
The good news is that you can influence this, it just takes a little effort and a little know-how.
Your brand is your promise to the World. It tells everyone what they can expect from you and differentiates you from others. It must be derived from who you are, who you want to be and the way other people see you. In a word, it must be authentic.
Creating an authentic brand that gives you confidence in yourself will give other people confidence in your ability to help them achieve their goals. This is vital to having the career/life that you want to have.
Wherever you start from, we can rebuild you – and all the technology we need for now is a piece of paper and your preferred writing implement.
Let’s assume that you don’t know what you want to do with your life. If you already have ideas, use them as a starting point and feed them into the process. Get your paper and pen and go crazy!
To begin with, you are probably looking for that spark of inspiration, so here goes.
1. Create a brainstorm file, take a clean sheet of paper and start to write down all of the areas of your life that you are really passionate about. What is your mission?
If your desire for branding isn’t linked to your job, perhaps you have a hobby. Are you interested in a cause or subject (poverty, local politics, conservation etc.). It has to be something that really drives you, because you are going to have to apply a lot of focus to it over the next few weeks AND it will come to define you.
2. How are you perceived currently? If you don’t know, find out. Be authentic in your communication with friends and family – ask them for their thoughts.
3. How do you want to be perceived? Write it down, go mad – there are no wrong ideas.
4. What are you good at? Not the passion that we defined in section 1, but basic life skills. Perhaps you’re good at writing, or public speaking, or you’re strong in a particular technology. If nothing jumps out, what’s your background? Is there an area that you could explore?
5. Finally, once you are happy with this, start building it into a structured diagram – a spider diagram or mind map would serve you well.
If you want a great free tool to help you do this, check out Freemind (review here). (More about mind maps on Wikipedia here and another free mindmap tutorial here).
6. As you build your diagram or mind map, you will find that your head is ringing with additional ideas. Don’t panic! That’s the whole purpose of mind mapping. Your lists were just a starting point – now you are really cooking! Just add them in and carry on.
In The Authentic You #2 you will begin to turn your raw ideas into a plan to drive your personal brand. In the meantime, get your brain in gear and get storming!
Michael Packman is the author of The Productive Seller, a blog dedicated to helping salespeople and entrepreneurs maximise their potential. Michael is also an expert on sales productivity and the early-stage sales cycle and has consulted on these subjects for some of the World’s leading organisations. Find Michael here on Twitter.
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Thanks for the excellent article, Michael! Authenticity is one of the keys for living a great life, but often people confuse “branding” with “putting up a front.” I appreciate how you’ve made being real a part of it.
I’m looking forward to #2!