Personal Brand

As Tom Peters from FAST Company puts it:

We are CEOs of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be chief marketer for the brand called "You".

So what is your brand slogan?

Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that make you distinctive from your competitors.

What have you done lately to make yourself stand out?

What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength?

Your most noteworthy (as in, worthy of note) personal trait?

So what is the "feature-benefit model" that the brand called You offers?

What do I do that I am most proud of?

What have I accomplished that I can unabashedly brag about?

If you're going to be a brand, you've got to become relentlessly focused on what you do that adds value, that you're proud of, and most important, that you can shamelessly take credit for.

The key to any personal branding campaign is "word-of-mouth marketing."

Your network of friends, colleagues, clients, and customers is the most important marketing vehicle you've got;

You need to think, how can I leave an impression at every point of contact.

It's influence power.

The way I like to illustrate it is as Personal Stocks.

Stock of personal brand increases/decreases depending on the following:

Thinking outside the box: Exhibiting creativity and solution focus to challenging problems.

Organisational Skills: Functional skills, preparing effectively – for example for a meeting: who are attendees? what is their lens? How do I avoid calendar conflicts? Use To Do lists. Organization notes.

Communication: Using power phrases, using examples, painting analogies, utilising similes, using personification , using control phrases - Right. OK? You See? Exactly Right? Correct!

Knowledge: Demonstrate that you are well-read and knowledgeable on topics;