9 Must Do’s When Building Your Personal Brand

Maybe you have some basic knowledge about personal branding, like being consistent with your colors, and fonts, and having consistent language, but there are many elements to building your personal brand. Whether it is to build your work persona or for you to simply show up to a party confidently, this article includes a few things you may be forgetting to include.

Personal Branding is a way of establishing and consistently reinforcing who you are and what you stand for in your career and life. So whether you are at work or at play, being reliable is important. You want people to get to know, like, and trust you. But more importantly, you want them to remember you. So what do you want to be remembered for?

To Quote Jeff Bezo’s “You Brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room”. Now that may sound scary, but not if you know how to create a Personal Brand Strategy.

Here are the 9 steps that you need to consider when building your personal brand:

1. Your Purpose or 'Mission' Statement

Before you can position yourself as an expert in your field, you need to have a PURPOSE for your brand.

A PURPOSE statement is defined as an action-based statement that declares the purpose of an organization and how they serve its customers. This sometimes includes a description of the company, what it does, and its objectives.

Examples of purpose statements: Life is Good: To spread the power of optimism. Sweetgreen: To inspire healthier communities by connecting people to real food. Patagonia: We’re in business to save our home planet. Google: Organize the World’s Information. Starbucks: Inspire & Nurture the Human Spirit. Nike: To Bring Inspiration & Innovation to Every Athlete. Puma: To Be the Fastest Sports Brand in the World. Sony: To Be a Company That Inspires & Fulfills Your Curiosity.

A PERSONAL PURPOSE statement defines what you want to accomplish as a professional.Whether you want to become a thought leader or help people reach their dreams, make sure you incorporate your goals into your mission. It’s a 1-2 sentence phrase that accurately sums up what you do and what you stand for.

Here are some examples of personal purpose statements: Ann Handley: create marketing that your customers will love, igniting real results for your business. Neil Patel focuses on bridging the gap in marketing knowledge.Marie Forleo unshakable optimist dedicated to helping you become the person you most want to be. Brene Brown to know and experience love. Simon Sinek The compelling higher purpose that inspires us and acts as the source of all we do. Jim Fortin helps people rewire their brains in order to get what they want out of life. Elon Musk questions reality and the meaning of life. Oprah we all have a purpose—and we are born with it

Basically, your purpose statement articulates why you do what you do, and why your organization exists beyond making money. Mission drives you. Your mission statement is how you accomplish your purpose. Your mission is what drives you every day to fulfill your purpose.

2. Your Vision Statement

A VISION statement is, well, your vision. Where are you going? Where do you SEE yourself (your brand or your company) in 3, 5, and 7 years from now? It’s an organization’s declaration of its mid-term and long-term goals, stating what they want to become in the future. Vision statements act as goals for a company to strive toward.

Let’s look at TOM’S vision statement:

To take the responsibility of providing for the comfort of children in impoverished regions worldwide. Toms recognizes the wish and desire of every child to feel comfortable and accepts this call. The company, therefore, acts as a role model.

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Personal Branding is a way of establishing and consistently reinforcing who you are and what you stand for in your career and life.

3. Your Values

What do you or your brand, business, or your company stand for? What are your core values and philosophies? What are you passionate about? World peace? Ending world hunger? Here you need to create a culture and driving force for what you stand for in the world.

An Example of a VALUE statement: TOM’S core VALUES comprise “a caring heart, kind, honest and consistent. It’s only with these guiding principles that Toms has maintained its course and grown into the global enterprise it is today.

What problem is TOMS trying to solve? Tom’s buy-one-give-one model does not actually solve a social problem. It’s the charitable act of donating a free pair of shoes only serves as a short-term fix in a system in need of long-term, multi-faceted economic development, health, sanitation, and education solutions. By being socially conscious and consistent with its core VALUES (combined with the VISION & MISSION) it helps create a clear and strong brand core.

4. Your Brand's Audience

Your brand’s AUDIENCE is a group of people who are the most likely to make purchases and have an interest in your products or services. Typically, this group of individuals shares a common characteristic or trait, such as demographics or behaviors.

Understanding your brand’s target AUDIENCE is important for any brand strategy. Finding your target audience will help to drive sales, lead convincing marketing campaigns, as well as create brand loyalty from your consumers.

How to start? Start out broad, collect data from your existing customers, check out your social media analytics, and check out your competition. Network and reach out to professionals in your field. Create an email list of important contacts and note who to contact when you have a question or need advice.

5. Your Market

Now that you have identified your brand’s core, you need to identify your target MARKET. In other words, where do you live? Are you luxury and a high-end brand or are you a blue plate special? Establishing where you position your product or service will enable you to set pricing and grow a relationship between your brand and your consumers. Rather than highlighting an individual product or service, brand marketing promotes the entirety of the brand, using the products and services as proof points that support the brand’s promise.

6. Your Goals

People often forget this. I see it all of the time. Your GOALS should bring about awareness of your brand. You need to first identify what is easy to do, what is difficult, and what will make a high or low impact. Are you using organic reach (word of mouth) or are using Pay per click or maybe something else. This will become clearer once you’ve established steps 1-5.

7. Your Personality 'Archetype'

Are you funny, serious, playful, or educational? Carl Jung identified 12 different Brand Archetypes. Once you have identified which 1 or 2 types thats’ aligned with your brand, it will help to define your brand’s PERSONALITY or PERSONA.

8. Your Voice

Your brands VOICE should reflect your brand’s personality; the unique way you present to the world. It must run consistently through all your communications (social media, website, blog posts, emails, advertisements) no matter which teams are handling which channels, and it mustn’t change. Your VOICE will come across in all touch points with your consumer. This includes the words you choose, the length of your sentences, and your tone. Do you use music? Remember consistency is key.

9. Your Tagline

You may or may not choose to have a TAGLINE.

Examples of Taglines that you can identify even without mentioning the brand by name. See how many you can guess without searching online:

Think Differently. Just Do it. Got Milk? The happiest place on earth. A diamond is forever. The ultimate driving machine. What’s in your wallet? That was easy. Snap! Crackle! Pop! Finger Lickin’ Good! Can you hear me now? Good!. America runs on Dunkin. Breakfast of Champions. Betcha can’t eat just one. Double your pleasure, double your fun. Have it your way. Don’t live life without it.

Now that you have the knowledge, you can start creating your own Personal Brand. If you need any help, feel free to reach out to me. Sign up for one of my classes on AMPHY or visit my website and book a free call.