People ask me all the time, “How important is it to develop personal branding as they go about finding their new career?” Here’s my observation. Volvo’s advertising campaigns demonstrate they want you to invest in their cars because they are safe for you and your family, not because it is a high performance sports car. That’s their branding.
Your personal brand is your promise of value. It’s the way you differentiate yourself from your peers, your colleagues, and your competitors. It’s understanding, then projecting your unique combination of skills, talent, values and passions. It’s your niche. You just have to do a little investigative work to help bring that niche – your personal branding to light ... and life. Everything you've ever done--and just as importantly, what you have chosen not to do--over your lifetime reads like a blueprint for your success. Ultimately, how you have made a difference.
The first step on this journey is looking deeply and honestly at yourself. What are your unique skills? What are your unique abilities? I want you to think about and answer this question: Do you believe that you are unique? What is it that distinguishes you from the other six billion people on the planet. How do you make a difference? Give yourself a few minutes to really think about it. Write it down if you like.
Let’s look at your responses. Did you say something like, “I’m very personable,” or “I'm honest,” or “I work hard,” or “I enjoy working with people”? This is where many people searching for their futures go wrong.
“Wrong? That's not wrong,” you might say to me, with your feathers ruffled a bit, “I am all of those things. What do you mean … wrong?”
What I mean is, when you wrote those words, were you saying that these things are uniquely yours? Were you saying that you are the only person on the planet who is honest, that you, and only you, work hard? And, lucky you, you’re the only one who gets to enjoy working with other people. Hey, I’ve heard about you; you’re that person, the one and only person, who is personable. I think you’re beginning to understand what I'm getting at. Now, imagine someone hearing you say something like this in an interview. I can assure you, they’ve heard it before. It doesn’t stand out.
I don’t doubt that you have all of the characteristics in your response, but that’s not what I'm asking you for here. I want you to change your vision of yourself, to begin to think about the collection of things that make you truly unique, distinctly different from anyone else.
I want you to understand you have uniqueness, a greatness that only YOU possess. Like a rare, valuable jewel, it’s critical to identify the facets that uniquely set you apart from everyone else on the planet. By understanding your track record of how you have made a difference, you begin to define your personal branding.
Some like to craft a clever statement that helps represent them. To help you get a better understanding, here is an introduction (some might call it an elevator speech) one of my clients who is in banking and lending developed.
Hi my name is James Gottemoller. To help you remember my name Gottemoller rhythms with “got a dollar” and of course … I’m in banking. This is how I can make a difference for you and your company. It’s important to me that I help lenders clearly understand the customer information presented, to dig deep to avoid unnecessary risks, and prepare for a solid credit presentation. My intent is management has confidence in our abilities.
See how this reflects his values, even his passion, as well as his track record for his contribution to the overall success of the company. Jim told me that when he used this at a recent job fair put on by a company he would like to work for, “The hiring manager did a double take and it opened the door for more conversations.”
Branding, it’s important to get your message out there.
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