Discovering the Personal in Personal Branding

One of the things that can be most challenging about personal branding is that it is so, well, personal. This means that you need to dig deep inside yourself and hold up a mirror to understand who you are and your strengths. Here are two ways you can discover the personal in personal branding.

Assess Your Current Brand

The first step is an assessment. What is your current personal brand? What elements work in your favor and which ones work against you?

Even if you haven’t proactively thought about your personal brand yet, people already have perceptions about you. You’re also likely already building a presence online, even if it is shared with only those you choose.

Most of the best insights I’ve gained into my personal brand (positive ideas and opportunities) came from other people. Ask for opinions and be open to think about and incorporate what you hear.

Start by taking some time to learn more about how others perceive you. Ask yourself and, ideally, others, the following questions:

• What are the top words that people use to describe me, personally?
• What are the top words people use to describe me professionally?
• What are the top words my boss (or a former boss) would use to describe me?
• How do I benefit the people I work with?
• How do I make people feel?
• When I meet a new person, what do they remember about me?

Try to be as honest as possible as you answer these questions. It will give you an idea of your current brand, but also some of your strengths that you can use and build on as you start determining how to position yourself.

Action Item:
Ask your close coworkers, friends, and clients to write a short five sentence bio about you, as though they were introducing you as a professional speaker, or as a winner of an award. Take note of what they say and how they position you. What do you like? What would you change?

Explore Yourself

After evaluating your current personal brand, it can be helpful to explore yourself. The above step focused on how other people perceive you, but it is also important to think about yourself – your passions, values, strengths, personality traits, and personal aspects that you want to incorporate into your brand.

Think about:

• What are your top professional skills?
• What are your biggest strengths?
• What are your top personal attributes?
• What is your personality type?
• What role do you typically enjoy being in on a team?
• What do you love to do?
• What are your values?

Tools: It can be helpful to use some guided tools to learn more about yourself. Check out the Strengths Finder and the Myers Briggs personality test.

The is taken from an excerpt of “Launch Yourself”, by Krista Neher. For your free action planner and bonus resources, visit www.LaunchYourself.com/book.