How would you define your personal brand? Do you know your secret power(s)? Personal branding is not about what you are telling people; it is about what people are telling about you when you are not in the room. Are you sending the right message? Discover more about personal branding and polish your reputation as a successful woman thanks to our personal branding checklist.
You already have a personal brand
Like it or not, you already have a personal brand; your brand is your reputation. Your reputation is what you are known for; it is linked to your image, your behaviours, and what people think of you. Your personal branding includes all the factors that contribute to how you are perceived by others. A positive and powerful brand will generate more personal and professional opportunities than a negative or invisible one.
Personal branding is about using and adapting to a person, professional methods and technics usually dedicated to promote a company’s brand. Maintaining a personal brand is your chance to show yourself, your passions, your interests, and your skills off.
Personal branding benefits
In your professional life, your personal brand will:
Give you clarity
Personal Branding is about increased self-awareness: know your strengths and improve what can be improved.
Assist your self-confidence
From looking at your strengths and knowing that you have competencies and qualities to share.
Help build credibility
Your actions, which align with your brand, validate that you can be trusted and show that you are credible.
Showcase your speciality
You have a unique combination of work experience, life experience, and personal characteristics that create the foundation for determining your niche.
Improve your job satisfaction
Having clarity of your strengths and values gives you a roadmap of how to behave and build relationships at work and personally. You can ask yourself the right questions regarding your current career.
Expand your notoriety
At least in your network and in your area of expertise. That way you will receive job proposal or pitching requests instead of seeking for it.
Distinguish you from the competition
Differentiation is crucial to your personal branding success.
Excel your advancement
You build respect and trust that leads to promotions and high profile projects.
Your personal brand is your story
Your personal branding is an essential tool for your career as it helps you establish credibility to inspire trust. By working on your brand, you are developing your self-awareness. This self-awareness becomes an excellent decision-making tool.
As your brand is your unique identity, it sets you apart from the competition; this is your living and evolving resume.
More than a skills checklist, your personal brand is a value checklist. Don’t just tell us what you can do; show us what you’re passionate about. Personal branding showcases your story: what you’re passionate about, what you bring to a team, your talents, and skills.
You can’t have a positive personal brand with negative behaviours.
4 easy steps to polish your personal branding
Branding yourself means taking control over your public reputation, so that you are in charge of how people perceive you.
Step 1: Develop your self-awareness
Develop your self-awareness: think of the skills and abilities that set you apart and make you different. This will become the basis of your brand. Be sure to find evidence to back up your strengths: tell us how and where.
Step 2: Assess your personal brand
Using our checklist below, assess your personal brand: gain awareness of your personal brand strengths, weaknesses and blind spots.
Personal branding checklist
Step 3: Live your brand
To ensure credibility and integrity, you need to reflect your brand in everything you do and share. You have to adapt your communication, behaviours, and personal appearance accordingly. Your brand will be highlighted and reinforced through your online presence, your visual identity, your resume, your passions and interests and even through your relationships.
Step 4: Grow
Developing a strong brand that nobody knows about will not assist your development. For your personal brand to be a real asset, you need to grow your reputation, your network, your knowledge, your relationships, your goals, and your values.
You need to grow your visibility: speak, write, and share. Be and stay authentic.
Your network is who you know, your reputation is who knows you.