When talking to people about their careers, there are countless themes I’ve heard over the years, including a lack of clarity about what motivates them, what their strengths are, how to network, and how to build a career road map. But there’s one theme that consistently sticks out: professional branding.
Imagine this: You’re driving down the highway and you and notice a billboard with one of your favorite brands. Automatically you know exactly what that brand represents, what identifies them from their competitors, what you can expect from their product(s), and how it resonates with you.
This is the same with people and their brand as a professional, but unfortunately few people know how to develop and leverage it.
This isn’t surprising. How can it be? We aren’t taught this kind of stuff. If we’re lucky, we have a great boss or mentor early in our career to teach us the ropes, but the reality is, this isn’t always the case. And on top of that, we’re taught to be humble and to not talk about ourselves.
There is good news though! You can be humble while also developing – with laser precision – your professional brand and leverage it to achieve more.
So why is a professional brand so important?
First things first: You’ve got to know who you are and what your best at to understand how to leverage yourself.
An effective personal brand will help you build authenticity, trust, and credibility as a professional. It will also expose you to a bigger network, help you build more connections and, maybe most importantly, help you land your dream job by clearly articulating how you’re aligned and why you’re the best match.
The best part, though, is that it forces you to reflect and explore who you are as a professional and determine what’s most important to you.
Working with my clients, I use a formula approach that includes outlining core essences, top values, key drivers and motivations, and biggest strengths. We then summarize each of these categories into narratives that tell a short, compelling and authentic story that packs a punch.