Personal branding is the art of attracting and keeping more opportunities by actively shaping public perception. You can control how you are perceived by the community you serve. Oprah, Tiger, Madonna – they soon realized that talent alone would not get them to the top of their fields. That is why they created and promoted unique Personal Brands. And now you can too.
Personal branding works for businesses, professionals, and entrepreneurs alike
You don’t have to be a celebrity to reap the rewards of personal branding. Whether you are a professional ready to catapult to the next level in your career or an entrepreneur embarking on your first business venture, we will work together to focus on your goals. We’ll start by looking at your unique strengths and differentiations, your competitive landscape, and your target audience. We will then develop a game plan to achieve your goals.
The key to personal branding success:
Define yourself instead of letting others define you
You can shape your clients’ perception of you simply by defining your strengths, values, goals and personality and presenting yourself in a compelling and persuasive way. Express yourself and what you stand for to everyone you meet: clients, colleagues, friends, neighbors and strangers. Do this steadily and consistently, and you’ll create an effective and lucrative personal brand.
The eight laws of personal branding
1. The Law of Specialization: A great Personal Brand must be precise, focused on a single strength, talent or achievement. You can specialize in one of many ways: skill, behavior, lifestyle, mission, product, profession, or service.
2. The Law of Leadership: Endowing an Online Personal Brand with authority and credibility requires that the source be perceived as a leader by people in its domain or sphere of influence. Leadership stems from excellence, position, or recognition.
3. The Law of Personality: A great personal brand should be built on the foundation of the source’s true personality, flaws and all. It’s a law that removes some of the pressure from the Law of Leadership: you have to be good, but you don’t have to be perfect.
4. The Law of Distinction: An effective Personal Brand needs to express itself in a different way than the competition. Many marketers build intermediate brands so as not to offend anyone. This is a route to failure because your brands will remain anonymous among the crowds.
5. The Law of Visibility: To be successful, a Personal Brand must be seen again and again, until it imprints itself on the consciousness of its domain or sphere of influence. Visibility creates the presumption of quality. People assume that because they see one person all the time, they must be superior to others offering the same product or service.
6. The Law of Unity: The person behind a Personal Brand must adhere to the moral and behavioral code established by that brand. Private conduct should reflect the public brand.
7. The Law of Persistence: Any personal brand takes time to grow, and while you can speed up the process, you can’t replace it with advertising or PR. Stay with your Personal Brand, without changing it; be unwavering and be patient.
The Law of Good Will: A Personal Brand will produce better results and last longer if the person behind it is perceived in a positive way. It must be associated with a value or idea that is universally recognized as positive and valuable.