A Brand Called ‘Me’-Developing Your Personal Brand
Developing a personal brand is just what it states, it is personal! It is a journey of self-reflection. it engages many of the concepts we’ve discussed including understanding your strengths, being authentic, and being willing to take risk and be vulnerable. So, if you have been reading along each post then you are already well on your way. If not no worries, there is no better time to start than today.
When I retired after 32 years at the same fortune 500 company, I set out to create my own company. I struggled, however, with defining my brand. I had an opportunity to start consulting with a former colleague the week after my ‘retirement’ and I jumped right in! I was flattered that someone saw value in my work and excited that my dream of consulting was being realized. I had the shell of an LLC created, but no brand identity, no list of services, just me and my eagerness to get to work. The work was great, as were the outcomes achieved! This is all good news with the exception that I ended the engagement no further along with defining my brand or how I wanted to proceed with my business.
The first step to defining my brand was creating a vision board. I projected forward and asked what success would look like in my business, family, faith and community life. I captured pictures, quotes, headlines, and stickers that represented my ideal future state. My vision board hangs to this day in my bedroom as a reminder.
Next, I revisited my strengths. I spent time evaluating at what I naturally excel, I asked myself how these strengths would support my vision of success. In doing so I spent focused time on defining my purpose. What value could my strengths, when harnessed effectively, offer others. I came up with - Helping individuals and organizations achieve their full potential. Then, I looked deeper into my strengths to define what services I could offer to fulfill my purpose. I came up with the following list: Facilitation, Strategic Planning, Change Management, Diversity & Inclusion, and Leadership Development Services.
After having an initial list of services, I stepped back to think about the values that would support my brand. What will help me achieve my vision of success. Here are a few of the core values that frame my brand:
Authenticity - keeping who I am at the core of what I do. Being a woman-owned business, I wanted my brand to reflect this, and the unique perspective I bring to my customers.
Balance - determining how to balance business and personal commitments. For me this turned into setting a limit to the number of hours I work per week and the primary days I focus on client work. I established a guardrail of no more than 25 hours a week dedicated to my business, with the majority of meetings scheduled for Tues-Thursday leaving Monday and Friday flexible for travel with family or other community work.
Respect - considering the talents, culture, and experience of the clients with whom I work. I am proud to design a custom approach for each client I tailor my services to achieve the best outcomes for what the client needs and where they are in their transformation.
Fun - working hard, finding joy and happiness in the work I do is important. The organizational transformations I engage with can be challenging for the teams involved. My role is to help the teams through the change, celebrate the successes, and keep an element of fun in the most challenging efforts.
Are we done yet? Not yet, time to pull this all together into a Logo. The logo is a visual representation of my brand. I wanted a logo that was simple, feminine, inclusive, and represented the line of services I would soon be offering. This is what my daughter and I created - my logo.
The last step for me in creating my brand, was being vulnerable and taking the risk of launching my brand on social media and through a website. I put my learner cap on and learned how to create the social media sites I needed, how to build a website, and finally to have the confidence to share my brand broadly. With every new client I ensure I am in alignment with my brand, my purpose, and my values.
Have you defined your personal brand? Share with me below your brand and how it has helped you achieve success.
To learn more about personal branding click on the resources below:
10 Golden Rules Of Personal Branding (forbes.com)
The Brand Called You: Tom Peters (fastcompany.com)
How Women Can Develop — and Promote — Their Personal Brand (hbr.org)
