There is a branding craze out there. Ever since Tom Peters launched the personal branding awareness in the early ‘90s through his writings and books there has been a steady drumbeat of focus on branding by career professionals. Nearly half of my clients who come to me start their sessions with some reference for their need to build their brand. Some expect to build their brand from a zero to a hero in a matter of weeks, simply by working harder and taking some shortcuts!
Similar to losing your weight, keeping it off, and staying fit and healthy a good brand building is life’s work. It requires a plan, focus, diligent efforts, and avoiding temptations that can destroy your brand overnight; no matter how hard and long you have worked building it in the first place.
A brand is defined for a commercially offered product or service by a name, term, design, or any other feature that identifies one offering as distinct from those of its competitors’. The term literally means, “burning,” which was derived from the unique marks burn by the cattle owners to identify their livestock when it strayed away from their land onto others’. So, for a person the term has now come to mean their reputation more than anything else. For a product or service the brand elements can comprise its name, logo, tagline, graphics, shapes, colors, sounds, tastes, or movements (Lamborghini has trademarked the upward motion of its car doors!).
Yet despite this specific meaning and denotation of the word, “brand” tends to convey a deeper connotation when it comes to a person in their profession. So, rather than dispute its appropriateness let us just look at what it takes to create and build your brand and how to communicate that to make you stand out above the noise. Let us also briefly discuss the allied terms, image, identity, and reputation, when it comes to a professional’s personal attributes.
Your image is a carefully crafted message that you convey to the outside world somewhat regardless of how real that message is. Identity, on the other hand, is the substance behind that image. Often, image is gloss and identity is reputation. When it comes to a personal brand, on the other hand, it is a carefully cultivated reality of your value as seen by those who can benefit from it. For your brand to be true, your image, identity, and reputation must be coincident!
So, for others to see your value and benefit from it you must first define your brand’s audience. Because, it is this audience that defines what you need to do and say to create repeated impressions of your message that allow them to form a certain fixed view of your value over time. This aspect of personal brand building is life’s work. So, here are my suggestions for your brand-building pursuits:
- First discover what you stand for and articulate that verbally so that you can own that statement. This may seem simple, but it is one of the hardest things for anyone to do because this IS your essence. See if you can Tweet your verbal brand in 140 characters. Mine has been: I am a career & life coach, who shows his clients how to transform their everyday existence and achieve their dreams through simple changes!
- Identify your audience and then decide what message is appropriate for that audience. Your language, the way you communicate what you want to say, and the medium through which you communicate this message are all driven by your desire to reach this audience.
- Start developing your verbal message and launch that on a platform that allows your audience to access it. Make sure that you have a coherent strategy for building and conveying this message so that it is laser-focused in all its manifestations. Avoid creating noise.
- Develop your own voice through careful mastery of your message. Learn what to say in a language that fits your style and stay true to that authentic voice.
- Remember, a strong brand attracts AND repels. Make sure whom to repel with your branding message and whom to attract, so that you continue to build the right audience that appreciates what you stand for.
- Maintain a certain rhythm in your communication flow. I write this blog every week and post it on my website. Sometimes I am a bit late (late Sundays instead of Saturdays. When this happens, sometimes I get a few emails from my readers asking me if I forgot to post my weekly blog.)
- See feedback from your readers and respond to that feedback to further hone your message.
- Make sure that your overall behaviors are consistent with your verbal message. Do not be tempted to please a certain local audience if it entails straying away from your core message, if that audience demands it.
- Ask your followers to periodically articulate how they see you and what you do. If they are not able to articulate that in a way that you have intended then there is need for a course correction.
10. Always stay true to your brand regardless of the price you have to pay for it.
Good luck!