Whether you are job searching, hoping for a promotion, or trying to build your client base, having a powerful personal brand is essential. Unfortunately, many professionals struggle with creating and maintaining a personal brand. How can you build a powerful personal brand and what elements should you include in your personal brand?
What is a Personal Brand?
Your personal brand is essentially presenting to others what you stand for. This includes what motivates you as well as your values. Think of your personal brand as personal marketing.
What Elements Should You Include in Your Personal Brand?
Your personal brand should include any items that are visible to others. Here are some basic elements of a personal brand:
- LinkedIn profile
- Portfolio
- Email signature
- Resume/Cover letter
- Elevator speech
- Branding statement
- Business cards
All of these elements are visible to the public and help others to get a sense of who you are and what you represent professionally. All of these elements should complement each other.
How to Build a Powerful Personal Brand
The first step to building your brand is to clearly define your values, your strengths, and your professional goals. You will not be able to build your brand if you are unsure of what you stand for professionally. This is the foundation block of our Ideal Career Model and is what we help our clients with as a first step, no matter what their career aspirations are. To help you get started, you can use the self-reflective questions in our free resource.
The next step is to build the elements of your personal brand around your values, strengths, and goals. Does your LinkedIn profile clearly demonstrate your strengths and values to a new networking connection or a hiring manager? Does your resume have a branded banner? Can you clearly express your strengths in your elevator speech? It can be helpful to work with a mentor or a career coach on the elements of your personal brand to ensure that they represent you effectively.
The third step is to regularly evaluate your personal brand. Our values can change over time, so our personal brand also needs to change. We recommend using a strategic career plan to help you with this. This is a great way to check in with your short-term and long-term goals and make sure they are still fulfilling and represent who you are professionally.
A powerful personal brand is built over time, but it well worth the effort. This will help others easily identify who you are. It will also help you to align your professional choices with your goals and network more effectively.
Need more help with your professional goals? Set up a free consult today.
