When it comes to personal branding, there are many different directions that you can take. Knowing why you want to create a personal brand will bring clarity to your efforts and help you maintain focus. The first step in building a powerful personal brand is to step back and define your brand. Here are tips to finding your why in your personal brand.
Developing Your Objectives
When you have a clear idea of your objectives and the type of opportunities you want to attract, you increase the likelihood that your personal brand will, indeed, attract them.
Why are you creating a personal brand? What do you want it to achieve for you?
This could be an easy or more challenging question for you to answer for yourself, depending on where you are in your career.
What do you want for yourself and your career over the next 2-5 years?
- More clients?
- Better opportunities?
- A larger network?
- A promotion?
- New job opportunities?
- To grow sales?
- To build your public reputation?
- To be seen as an expert?
- To start a business?
- To promote a product?
What about in 10 years?
Thinking about your short- and long-term goals will help you uncover why you are creating a brand for yourself.
What are some things that you want to get from your personal brand?
In addition to your general or broad career goals, there may be specific opportunities that you would like to get from your brand. A well-crafted brand will attract the opportunities you want – so consider some specific things you want for yourself in the future.
This could include:
- Book deals
- Speaking
- Clients
- Sales
- Job offers
- Become a coach
- Expert opportunities
- Press opportunities
- A promotion at work
- Improved perception at work
- Career change
- Start a business
- Become industry leader
- Become an influencer
- Earn Board positions
- Get a teaching position
- Become a consultant
- Sell a product
- Share your knowledge
- Promote/advocate for your company
- Run for political office
- Share your passions
- Build a business
- Get published in industry publications
- Get funding for a startup
- Manage your reputation in a public position
- Achieve recognition at work
Big Idea:
The more you know about what you want, the more likely you are to get it. Knowing what you want will help you craft a brand that attracts the results you want.
Take time to develop your objectives and think through your why so that you are prepared when you start putting action in your branding.
The biggest mistake people and businesses make when it comes to creating an online presence is that they start with the tools without a clear vision of the “what” and “why.” Investing upfront in defining your personal brand will make it easier to bring it to life online in a meaningful and impactful way.
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.
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