BRAND YOU: Top 10 Secrets of Personal Branding

“Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of what business we’re in, we all need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head of marketing for the brand called You”. tom peters

Average is no longer enough!

We live in what Peter Drucker called the age of the three Cs: rapid change, overwhelming complexity, and tremendous competition.

Too many entrepreneurs, small business owners, and consultants constantly struggle to earn what they’re worth; limited by market value; working longer hours each day just to survive, all the while constantly needing more clients, more money, and more time in their life, because they rarely stop to figure out what it will take to rise from the majority to the top of their niche, market, or industry.

Branding isn’t just for businesses anymore – creating your personal brand will help you stand out from the crowd. As an entrepreneur, you already have a personal brand, whether or not you accept this thought: your reputation, credibility, business, career, professionalism. and opportunities are all wrapped up within your personal brand.

“A brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room” Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon

Personal branding is more than just marketing and promotion; empowers people; your personal brand is the perception you have in the mind of another person; it’s the emotional response you want people to have when they hear your name, see you online, or meet you. in real life.

So how do you take control, determine and shape what you want people to think and say about you?

Ask yourself, “What makes me different? What do I want to be known for? What’s the first thing I want people to think of when they hear my name? What can I do that no one else, or not a lot of people can do?”

Without a personal brand, you are similar to everyone else. Here are my top keys to help you build a powerful personal brand:

01: Start with why!

What is your ultimate purpose, belief, or cause that inspires and drives you to do what you do?

When you look at any successful person, what you see is the bottom line: We forget how they started with a burning desire that filled them with drive, passion, determination, self-discipline, and an obsession to work hard for endless hours with devotion. to their craft and expertise, before they received any form of recognition.

Your ‘big reason why’ is a prerequisite for your success, as Napoleon Hill put it in Think and Grow Rich, his inspirational 1937 classic, “Without developing an all-consuming obsession, a defined purpose, and a burning desire, you will not find the motivation to succeed.”

What is your big reason why? Do you want to create a legacy? Achieve great things? Maybe you’ve finally had enough of your current situation. Or you want to provide the best possible life for your family.

Creating your personal brand and knowing exactly what drives you will help you distinguish yourself as an exceptional professional.

02: Be authentic

“Create the highest and greatest possible vision for your life because you become what you believe… Hold the highest possible vision for your life and it may come true… Seek your highest and greatest vision for your life and align your purpose with the flow of your life… Follow your passion… Sooner or later, your passion will win and no one can stop you” Oprah Winfrey

Having an authentic personal brand is a valuable asset in today’s online, virtual, individual era, where “me too” abounds on the web.

Your personal brand is the key to your success and is the positioning strategy behind the most successful people in the world.

Your personal brand should be based on your passion, dreams, purpose, uniqueness, values, characteristics, experience, and ambition: who you really are and what you really want. Your personal brand should always reflect your true character

By aligning your personal brand with your authentic self, you’ll quickly build trust and credibility.

03: Commit to constant and endless self-improvement

“Formal education will earn you a living; self-education will earn you a fortune.” jim rohn

The word for constant and never-ending improvement in Japan is kaizen. It is the ancient philosophy of warriors, which is now becoming the personal mantra of the most successful people in the world.

“You don’t get in life what you want, you get in life what you are” – transform your way of thinking, continuously improving your skill set; develop your level of mastery of your major, trade, or field by surrounding yourself with a wide range of the best literature that inspires you to think independently.

Immerse yourself in the best specialized books and information on your subject (do this for at least 1 hour every day) and you will gain a huge competitive advantage over those who “do it”. When you commit to endless self-improvement, you’ll soon enjoy the inevitable success that follows.

04: Position yourself as the reference expert, authority or celebrity in your market

“When you’re small you need to look big.” The art of war, Sun Tzu

Whenever we need specialized help or assistance, we all look to a recognized expert or leading authority we can trust. And, the hard truth is that if you are not perceived as the best option, expert, authority or celebrity in your market, niche or industry, then you will be seen as just another product.

Let’s face it, the best experts and influencers get the best jobs, the best businesses, the most respect, and the most wealth Period: When you build your personal brand and rise above the monotony, you’ll see how quickly you’ll achieve a great advance. from struggling to prosperous, average to excellent, excellent to number one in its market.

No one will declare you to be the expert or the authority, this is something you must choose to do for yourself. By changing the way you think, building your personal brand, and becoming your next version, you will discover that your ultimate competitive advantage is YOU!

05: Dare to be remarkable

“Average is for losers.” Seth Godin

In today’s attention economy, you are remarkable or you are invisible: hard work is no longer an advantage, because everyone works hard, so where do you go to create certainty in times of uncertainty?

You take responsibility for your own success by breaking free from the mold of average and making a clear decision to overcome the culture of mediocrity: stand out, be noticed, make a difference and have a chance to succeed.

Do not wait for the perfect moment. Start now, stand out, play a bigger game, as the trusted voice, the go-to expert, the authority or the celebrity, in terms of your brand positioning, reputation and influence in the market.

06: Develop your speech and get noticed

The purpose of the pitch is not to close the sale… it is to start the conversation, sell the appointment…

The best presentation is a small part of your true story, surprising and brief, something real, so convincing that it leaves your listener eager to hear the rest of your presentation, not hyper-compressed polished prose.

When developing a compelling speech, it’s important to remember that the people listening to your speech will be tuning in to WIFM (What’s in it for me?). So make sure you focus your message on their needs, so they want to hear more.

07: Build credibility by writing a book

Writing a book gives you a high level of credibility and helps you build your personal brand, like almost nothing else.

Imagine if you wrote a popular book that resulted in you being asked to speak to audiences of potential customers, who want to talk to you and buy your products or services. What would that do for your business?

Imagine that your professional colleagues and peers see you as the expert in your field: becoming an author can make a huge difference to your business and personal brand: credibility, notoriety, recognition, client referrals, professional offers are benefits lucrative earnings that come from writing a book.

08: Engage, Persuade, and Influence

Have you ever felt really inspired watching a good movie? Movies are essentially stories, and the art of storytelling is one of the most effective ways to influence and stimulate the imagination and emotions of your audience. It is vitally important that you master how to tell your personal brand story well, to gain interest, engage, persuade and influence effectively.

The art of storytelling is absolutely essential, because it sparks feelings of loyalty and deepens emotional connections with your prospects and customers: The big mistake many entrepreneurs, business owners, consultants, and coaches make is creating and communicating with boring PowerPoint presentations, without sense. boring brochures and websites, which are filled with boring facts about them, trite jargon and clichéd buzzwords, in an attempt to impress.

Take the time to master the art of creating compelling stories that connect, engage, and inspire people on a deep subconscious level, and you’ll see your success skyrocket.

09: Turn your knowledge into a fortune

No matter what market, niche, or industry you’re in, you can accelerate your personal brand and fortune by creating useful and relevant information products that are specifically designed to attract your perfect dream customers.

By promoting and selling your experience, skills and knowledge, through your own expert or authority information products, you will naturally attract inquiries and incoming traffic to your website, which you can then convert, close and delight.

The benefits of creating and marketing your own information products and online courses are huge… but I think the biggest benefit is that you do the job once and then get paid over and over again, month after month, year after year. . after the year.

10: Only quality people!

“If you are the smartest in your group, you have to get a new group.” Stay surrounded by positive relationships that will bring out the best in you.” Dr. Dennis Kimbro

A powerful strategy that will help you accelerate your personal branding and personal success is to discover who already has a strong relationship with the same prospects or businesses you are targeting.

Take advantage of collaborative relationships, where your new ally will enthusiastically endorse you and introduce you to their clients and contacts. This will give you instant credibility, instant access to new leads, and a powerful shortcut to building your brand.

Associate only with quality people who are positive, creative, and focused achievers that you learn from, and the mix of relationships you develop will propel you to the next milestone in your journey.

I hope you enjoyed this article and found it useful…

I want you to consider this question in all seriousness…

What would your business and your life look like if you gained more and more credibility and respect as an expert, authority, or celebrity in your market? As a result, it consistently attracted excellent, high-quality clients; you were able to charge higher fees; Do you have more money and more time in your life?

How would that be? Think about it for a moment.

I’ve given you the blueprint in my book. If you follow the steps, implement, and act on the strategies, ideas, and tactics in this book (none of this is difficult), you will be successful.