The Art of Branding

Self-branding means being able to articulate a simple, clear expression of who you are, doing it consistently and delivering on it again and again.

So that when people think of X, they think of you. Or when people think of you, they think of X.

Some people, concerned with authenticity, think branding is fake.

But good branding is always built on authenticity.

Although it’s a simplified you that emphasizes what’s most valuable about your many aptitudes.

All the complexity of who you are is too confusing.

A branding maven once said “there is no ‘and’ in brand.”

Of course, the letters are there, but it means don’t define yourself as an accountant and actress and interior designer as someone once did to me at a networking event recently.

Being a “this and that” person may be interesting on the cocktail party circuit, but it’s a temptation you must be careful with.

You’ll be much more successful with your career identity if you let go of extraneous portions of your identity to focus on a singular brand.

Otherwise, people don’t know what to make of you.

You risk being branded “Jill of All Trades, Master of None.”

That’s why it pays to be familiar with the basics of Branding 101.

Brands stand for something specific.They don’t try to be all things. That way you end up being nothing.

What you want to do is to lead with a style that’s natural to you

Don’t try to be like someone else if that’s not your style.

If you do that you won’t use what’s different and powerful about how you’re wired – your unique advantages and style – your unique abilities and sensibilities – that can give Brand You an edge in the workplace and every place. 

My mantra to my clients is, You Are a Brand!, like the title of my book.

The first thing you need to do is to commit. You must take an active role in defining yourself and your future rather than a passive role in your destiny.

Developing a winning self brand requires some work.

The left brain work involves analyzing facts and trends as well as planning tactics.

For right brain work, you’ll need to tap into your intuition and creativity as you develop a personal brand strategy, a visual identity  (your “packaging”) and a verbal identity (your self brand messages) to reach your goals.

Visit www.selfbrand.com

Looking at yourself as a brand has enormous advantages.

The truth is being good, by itself, doesn’t guarantee success.

We all know talented people who are underemployed or underpaid.

Branding shows you how to look at yourself as a product in a competitive framework. It teaches you how to differentiate that product – you- – from the competition and to take action steps to get where you want to go.

Branding also shows you how to target a market. A market is any group of people that you need to engage to reach your goals. Clients or customers are a target market as are the prospects your are targeting.

If you work at a company, you should look at your colleagues and direct reports as target markets.  Don’t overlook your boss.  In a company, your boss is probably your most important target market. Recruiters, industry leaders, competitors even, are also markets for your self brand.

Branding shows you how to attract a market.  Don’t think in terms of what you want to say and do.

Flip it.

Think in terms of the reaction you want from your target market. (And what you have to do to get the reaction you want.)

www.selfbrand.com

Branding for people is also about “packaging” the brand that is you and using the branding strategies and principles from the commercial world to enhance your identity and communicate your USP:

• Visual identity (image, executive presence, etc.)
• Verbal identity (communication ability, speaking)
• Soft Power (persuasion, influence, likeability)

It also means developing a personal marketing plan to reach your goals, tactics to get from A to B to C (and all through the other letters of the alphabet, depending on your goals).

And it means engaging your target audience without seeming self-promotional and obnoxious.

www.selfbrand.com

You are your most important asset.

In a sense, you are your only asset that no one can take away from you.

And your ability to maximize the asset that is you is the single most important ingredient to success.

That’s why self branding can be so valuable. Branding for people is about achieving greater success, represented by money, fame, self-esteem or whatever measure is important to you.

But I am also talking about becoming who you were meant to become,success in terms of becoming who you truly are.

The trick to doing self branding well is to devise a strategy that works in achieving professional and life goals, but also is true to you – that brings more of you into the equation.

Branding for people is about finding your big idea – your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) what’s different, what’s relevant, and something more – the X factor – your value added, your point of view, your vision, your style or mystique even.

You’re looking for that something special that sets you apart from others and helps you be more successful.

One landmark study followed 5,000 mathematically precocious boys and girls over a thirty-year period.

All were gifted in math, but when it came time to choose a career, a chasm emerged.

The men selected engineering and physical sciences and the women were more likely to choose medicine, biological sciences, humanities and the social sciences.

In short, the men “ prefer to work with inorganic materials; the women, in general, prefer to work with organic or living things.”

www.selfbrand.com

Often women think of math and science as too abstract and systems oriented (a male preference) and not people and content oriented enough (a female preference).

One study showed that people who liked to work with tools or machines were more likely to choose IT careers.

People who liked working with people were a lot less likely to choose IT careers (more women fall in this camp).

The fact is that only 30% of the jobs in technology companies are programming, sit and stare at your screen jobs. And diversity can bring a lot to the mix in product development, marketing, HR, sales and other jobs in technology companies.

Tests show women can do math and science extremely well.

Perhaps science and math aren’t presented in the right way to women and these fields have a male brand image (the computer nerd) that discourages women similar to the guys-only image of top corporate jobs.

The real reason may be the simplest and the most profound.

Many women aren’t interested in math and science as a career because they want to be involved in careers that have more people contact.

They see working in a technology company as sitting behind a computer writing code. But that is just a small fraction of the jobs at technology companies (about 30% according to one study).

We need to rebrand math, science and STEM careers so that they are gender neutral!