Benefits: Learn how to develop your personal brand.
So That You Can: Use it to create the opportunities that will unlock your dream life.
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Unlock Your Dream Life: Focus on Your Personal Brand
Branding is something only businesses need to be concerned about. Right? Because branding is all about eye-catching logos, viral taglines, and those earworm jingles that we find ourselves singing involuntarily. Isn’t it?
No! All of those things are a part of branding, but that’s not where branding ends. In fact, you have a personal brand, whether you realize it or not. And, developing your personal brand could be the key to unlocking your dream life.
Yes, I know that last statement may sound a bit sensational, but I’ve come to this realization after Deliberately Thinking about it quite a bit. I’ve been absorbing branding-related content and noodling branding ideas around in my head because I’m working on stepping The Expectation Gaps’ branding game up a notch.
And, after all of this absorbing and noodling, I still haven’t figured out what direction I want to go with The Expectation Gaps’ branding. ? But — I did figure out how to focus on developing a personal brand. And, I figured out that doing so will unlock opportunities that will help you create your dream life.
That’s what I want to share with you today! Because you deserve to Stop Settling for good enough and Start Living the fulfilling life you were meant to live. And the more tools you have to tackle this feat, the better. So, let’s get into it by discussing:
- What branding is and, specifically, what personal branding is.
- Why branding is important; the role that it plays in our everyday lives.
- And, last but not least, how you can develop your personal brand.
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But First . . . Let’s Define “Dream Life”
What do I mean when I say “your dream life”? That’s kind of an important thing for me to explain so that we can develop our personal brands with intention. After all, it’s our Why for going through this branding exercise to begin with.
To learn a bit more about what a Why is, click here.
I’m not talking about days filled with sailing on your yacht to your private island, while being served the finest wines by cabana boys (or girls). Although, I guess that does sound pretty good ?. However, this hedonic happiness isn’t going to lead you to the fulfilling life you were meant to live, as we discussed in this post: The Secret to Happiness: Let Go of the Desire to Be Happy.
No, the dream life you want to unlock will look something like this:
- You will intentionally work toward a meaningful goal every day.
- You will surround yourself with green flag people who make you a better person just by being around them.
- You will not only have the respect of your peers, you will have the self-respect it takes to push through The Expectation Gap and realize self-actualization, i.e. your full potential.
- And, above all, you will have attained eudaimonic happiness — the kind of happiness you realize when you live up to, rather than shy away from, your full potential.
Now that sounds like a dream life to me! How about you? Yes!? Then let’s keep going.
What is a Personal Brand?
In a nutshell, your personal brand is who people think you are. Ideally, you want your personal brand and your true self to be in balance. That balance will create a stable foundation for your dream life.
Take a moment to picture a seesaw with your personal brand sitting on one side and your true self sitting on the other. If the two sides are out of balance, in either direction, that will create an unstable base for your life. You will attract the wrong people, miss opportunities, and struggle to find meaning. But, we’ll talk more about the importance of personal branding later.
First, I want to share Rob Brown’s definition of a personal brand, or reputation, with you because it’s such an interesting way to think about it. (Brown is a networking expert and best selling author.)
. . .[your reputation is] the piece of real estate in people’s minds that they occupy thinking of you.
Brown goes on to say that your reputation, or personal brand, is what people see, feel, think, do, or say when they come in contact with you or your name.
I also like this definition from Dave Carroll, a singer-songwriter:
Your [personal] brand is nothing more than the sum of the conversations being had about it [you].
Now that we have a shared definition, let’s look at some ways your personal brand influences your everyday life.
(Personal) Brand Touchpoints
In the marketing world, brand touchpoints are all the ways your brand interacts with your audience. Brand touchpoints for a business could be email, social media, websites, marketing campaigns, content, e-commerce, etc. Companies who want to stand out from the crowd, and ensure their continued success, utilize consistent branding across all brand touchpoints.
But what are personal brand touchpoints? They are all the ways you interact with people on a daily basis. A touchpoint could be a face-to-face interaction; an email; a social media post; a text message; a project proposal; a completed project; and the list could go on and on.
The important thing to keep in mind is that these touchpoints will overlap between your personal life, social life, and professional life. And, you want your personal branding to be consistent across all these touchpoints, just as a successful business would.
Of course, the way you interact with people in your personal life will be different from the way you interact with people in your social and professional lives. But, you still want to send a consistent message about who you are no matter which “life” you are participating in at the moment. That’s how you balance your seesaw.
Why Is Your Personal Brand Important?
Besides balancing your seesaw, a personal brand will help you meet your needs — specifically, your Love/Belonging and Esteem Needs, from Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.** And, you have to meet your Needs to become self-actualized, i.e. unlock your dream life.
One way that you meet your needs is by developing strong relationships with people, or your audience, if you will. And how do you attract the right target audience? You guessed it — by developing a personal brand.
Your target audience should:
- Genuinely want the best for you and accept you for who you truly are.
- Challenge you to grow and live into your full potential.
- Respect you and recognize the value that you add to their lives.
A well-developed personal brand will set you apart from the crowd in your target audience’s eyes, and, in the process, you will position yourself to unlock opportunities you never could have envisioned. You will become the go-to person. The one who is asked to participate in worthwhile experiences. The one who has people knocking on his/her door, not the other way around.
Does that sound like a dream life or what? Absolutely! But we still need to discuss how you’ll build your personal brand.
**If you’re not familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, there’s a link to a great article that explains it at the end of this post.
How to Develop Your Personal Brand
Here’s what you’ve been waiting for. The nitty-gritty. The nuts and bolts. The meat and potatoes. Okay, okay, get on with it already, Amanda! ?
Through watching the videos that I used as inspiration for this post, I found these common threads — the pieces of advice that all marketing gurus and personal branding proponents seem to believe in unanimously.
#1 – Figure out what’s unique about you. Think about your character traits, skills, experiences, physical attributes, and the struggles you have faced. What surprises people about you? What are your passions? What worries keep you up at night? What accomplishments are you most proud of?
Somewhere in those answers, you’ll figure out what’s unique about you. But, to really figure out what’s unique about you, you should challenge yourself to be vulnerable and ask the people who know you best. Not necessarily your family, but the people who chose to make you a part of their lives. Ask them what it was about you that made them say, “Hey, I want this person in my circle.”
I actually went through this exercise in the very early stages of creating The Expectation Gaps, and I can assure you that it will be a very valuable experience. I still reflect on the answers I received when I start to lose focus of my personal brand.
#2 – Clarify what’s important to you. What are your core values? (Click here to find out.) What are your goals and dreams? How do you want to add value? What kind of attention do you want to attract? What traits do you admire in others?
Answering these questions will help you clarify what’s important to you so you can define your priorities. And, of course, you want your personal brand to reflect your priorities.
#3 – Be authentic. Now it’s time to personify your originality and priorities.
We tend to hide the parts of ourselves that make us unique because we want to fit in. And, we tend to downplay our priorities for the same reason. We create a persona that isn’t a true reflection of who we are, and the chances that you’ll attract your ideal target audience with this persona are slim to none.
Why? Because your ideal target audience will be attracted to your sincerity and wholeheartedness. You need to show up with a mindset that embraces these qualities. As you build your personal brand, be honest with yourself about your personality, character, and traits. And, above all, accept yourself for who you are. (This post could help you do that “3 Reasons You’ll Never Find Your True Self“.)
Time to Bring It Home
As I said at the beginning of this post, you have a personal brand whether you realize it or not. If you don’t focus on developing it, someone else will. And while you can’t control other people’s opinions of you, you can influence what people feel, think, or say when they think of you.
The people who are positively influenced by your uniqueness, priorities, and sincerity will become your ideal target audience. You will form strong relationships with your audience, and these relationships will help you meet your needs. Once your needs are met, you can unlock your dream life.
But beyond that, with a well-developed personal brand, you’ll be better equipped to stand up for your values and beliefs. You’ll be confident, yet humble, because you’ll know who you truly are. You’ll find internal validation because you will be living authentically. And, at that point, living your dream life will be a given.
If you’re ready to start focusing on your personal brand, be sure to check out the worksheet I put together for you that will help you take action on the ideas introduced in this post.
Click here for more posts with an “intentional living” theme.
If you’re ready to Stop Settling & Start Living! check out our home page to learn more about what The Expectation Gaps has to offer.
And until next time . . . STAY CURIOUS!
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Sources & Inspiration
Maslow article:
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Saul McLeod, Simply Psychology, updated 2018
9 Brand Design Elements Your Brand MUST Have for Designers and Entrepreneurs, posted to YouTube by Philip VanDusen on 12.11.17
Designing a purposeful personal brand from zero to infinity | Tai Tran | TEDxBerkeley, posted to YouTube by TEDx Talks on 5.05.17
The Personal Brand of You | Rob Brown | TEDxUoN, posted to YouTube by TEDx Talks on 1.03.14
3 Minutes Of Pure Branding Gold By Brian Collins, posted to YouTube by The Futur on 8.14.18
A Beginner’s Guide to Branding Your Business, posted to YouTube by GoDaddy on 5.21.19
Personal Branding in the Age of Social Media: Dave Carroll at TEDxHoboken, posted to YouTube by TEDx Talks on 9.07.13
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