What is your personal Brand?  Do you know what your Brand is?  You do have a brand.  You may not know it but you do!

The word branding began simply as a way to tell one person’s cattle from another by means of a hot iron stamp.  The word brand has continued to evolve to encompass identity — it affects the personality of a product, company or service. It is defined by a perception, good or bad, that your clients  or prospects have about you.

People who have designed great personal  Brands have the ability to cause clients to spend more, return more often, and refer business to you tenfold.  Developing a strong personal Brand could be the most important activity you will ever engage in as a business professional.

You may or may not be able to articulate your Brand.  But regardless of whether you can articulate your Brand or you cannot-your client can!!  When your client leaves your place of business you leave your client with memories of you.  Whatever memories have been left with your client create certain emotions in your client when they think of you.  Those emotions (or how you made your client  feel) are your personal Brand!!

Your Brand is also distinct among your colleagues.  How your colleagues describe you among themselves is a product of your personal Brand.  If I were to call your boss right now and ask them to tell me about what it is like to work with you, they could easily articulate your personal brand.  For instance if I called your boss and asked them the aforementioned question they could respond with something like: “He/or She (you) is great with the clients.  He/or She always gets great praise for their ability to present the product in a clear and understandable manner.  However, He/or She is always late.  In fact personal issues often effect performance to the point that He/or She is often absent, or calling in sick.”  You see we all have a Brand.  The question is:  Is my Brand being designed by accident, or on purpose?

Hopefully you can truthfully answer “By design!”.  If you can you are way ahead of the masses!  However if you cannot….What should you do?

You need to take deliberate steps in designing your personal Brand.  Start by answering these three questions:

1.  What are you known for?

2.  What makes you individual, or unique?

3.  What feelings do you evoke in your customers?

When you have your Brand fully articulated, you will be able to answer these three questions very easily.  When designing your personal Brand you may want to ask yourself:

1.  What do you want to be known for?

2.  What makes you individual, or unique?

3.  What feelings do I want to evoke in my customers?

I cannot stress enough the importance of this exercise!!  If you are struggling to take your career to the next level this could be the missing link!  To help measure your progress you should encourage feedback from your clients.  Pay very close attention to their comments.  When you begin to see your clients comments aligning with your personal Brand design you are well on your way to having a Brand that is being designed on purpose!!

Have a Quality Day!

Mark Gregg