Build your brand and let more of it show to the world!
A brand represents reputation and the impression you make. Products use branding to set themselves apart from those of competitors. Some brands are instantly recognizable by their logo – think Coca Cola and Starbucks. Others stand out based on reputation and appeal, both good (Mercedes Benz, Harley Davidson) and bad (Earl Scheib auto painting, the DMV).
Individuals have brands too. Some are given them based on performance (she’s a go-getter or he’s a butt kisser). Others though can be created. If you want to have a successful personal brand, you need to create it. Here are some steps you can use to build it. They are analogous to an iceberg. What is above the waterline is your brand, what’s below it is what builds the brand. Your confidence is what causes the iceberg, or your brand, to be visible to others. We’ll start at the lowest level and work our way up to the surface.
Values: These are the tenets you hold onto the tightest. They represent your core standards that you operate from. Examples could be integrity, timeliness, honesty, etc. They develop over time and rarely change.
Beliefs: These are fed by the values and can be positive or negative (“people are inherently lazy” or “people want to do a good job”). The develop from upbringing and experiences and shape how we operate.
Experiences: Experiences, primarily large, life-changing ones have a profound effect on our brand. My experience nearly taking a swing at my boss in the Navy shaped my brand as an organizational repair specialist, focusing on management development.
Power: The base that I push others to do what I want.
Influence: My ability to draw others towards me in order to get what I want.
Added up, these comprise my brand. The key of course is to define it and get comfortable communicating it in word and deed. This begins with reducing it one statement:
“I’m Mack Munro and I’m an organizational repair expert that helps companies fix both unique and chronic problems with managers, employees, processes, and strategies.”
…and then of course living it out.
All of us are branded. Would you rather get somebody else’s brand on you without having control of how you’re branded or proactively create it? I’d suggest the latter. Hopefully these steps help!