Personal Branding Guide Part 2: How to Develop Your Personal Brand

On the first part of this Personal Branding Guide, I defined what branding means and why you you should brand around you. Now that you already know and understand the concept, we will discuss how to develop your own personal brand.

But first, let's talk about the factors that make a brand good:
a. Delivers your message clearly
b. Emotionally connects with your audience
c. Proves your credibility
d. Encourages loyalty
e. Reflects the value you provide

Three Steps to Building YOUR Brand
1. Know who you really are.
It's often difficult to tackle a problem when you don't really know what the problem is, right? This is the same with personal branding. You can't really build your own personal brand if you don't fully know yourself. You'd be like a salesman who doesn't know the product he's selling.

The first and foremost step to personal branding is discovering who you are. This may sound a little psychological to you and seemingly unimportant but believe it or not, the most common mistakes that small business owners commit is copying others. Why? Because they don't really know who they are.

If you are thinking of starting a business, then this is the perfect time to evaluate yourself! Most small business owners had to pay the cost of re-branding because they had not taken the time to evaluate themselves, discover who they are, and build their brand around them.

Don't let this self-discovery process scare you. You don't have to go through a whole psychological process with a psychologist to try and figure out who you are. Sometimes, just answering some defining questions like the ones below will help you!

a. What is my personality like?
b. What are the things that I'm most drawn to?
c. What type of people do I like hanging out with?
d. What are my likes and dislikes?
e. What do my peers and friends say about me?
f. What are the colors that I like?

These questions may seem irrelevant while you're answering them but as you go deeper into building your brand you will realize where they come into play.

If you already have a business and your brand is successful, I really wouldn't suggest doing a whole re-brand around you unless you feel that you absolutely must do it because you want to brand around you.

2. Know what your passion is.
I (and many other successful entrepreneurs) can't stress enough the importance of building a business around your passion. Your passion, your brand, your business. There should be no draw line amongst the three. They must be one and the same. What are you passionate about? What do you see yourself doing in the next 5, 10, 15 years from now? What is your dream and ambition?

The whole idea is to get paid or to make money off of what you're passionate about and at the same time very good at that people don't mind taking out their wallets and giving you their hard-earned money in exchange for the value you provide.

3. Research the market for your passion.
Notice that above I mentioned that you must be good at what you're passionate about. You can be passionate about something and not good at it to begin with (hope y'all still love me!). For example, I am passionate about food. I love to eat! Do I know how to cook? Not even an egg! (OK I know this is embarassing but risking it to make a point. *Smiles!*) It does not mean to say though that you cannot develop your skills in what you're passionate about. But that's really beside the point. The point is, if you want to build a business around your passion, make sure that it's already at a level where other people can benefit from and they would be willing to pay you for what they are getting.

In addition to that, you must also find out if there is a market for your passion if your goal is to make money off of it. See if there is a need or a problem and that your passion provides solution for it. The quick way to do it is to ask around. Ask your friends, colleagues, and peers. Check eBay to find out if your idea exists and if people are buying it. If it does not yet exist, ask around and see what people think about it.

4. Create your brand presentation.
On the first part of this Personal Branding Guide, I mentioned the elements of a brand which are:
a. Name
b. Logo
c. Slogan/Tagline

The first element obviously will be your name. For example, Alexandra Smith Designs (if you're a designer, a scrapbooker, a stationer, and later on want to expand to fashion, this will still apply).

The second element is a logo. How do you go about creating a logo? If you're a creative/graphic designer, this aspect is definitely going to be a piece of cake for you. But what if you're not? How do you go about creating one? My piece of advice is, if you're not a designer and creativity is not in your genes (Hey it happens! Sometimes, individuals are more left brainers than right brainers and it's OK!), find someone that can do it for you and get you represented in a professional manner. After all, it's you, your brand, your business, your name that's going to be out there. Invest on a good and professional logo.

The biggest mistake that you can ever commit at the early stages of building your brand is using a clipart. Do not use template logos or clipart for whatever reason. Not only it is unprofessional but who knows where the clipart has been used and how many others are using it!

Below are a couple of places where you can find good designers:
1. 99Designs
2. Designquote

Above, I mentioned the factors that make a good brand. Make sure that you apply that in your logo. For example, is your target audience younger sassy women? Make sure that your logo resembles femininity and fashion. Use light and bright colors. If your market is not necessarily gender specific, use neutral colors but not dull. Talk to your designer and clearly define to him/her what you are offering in your brand.

The last element is your tagline or slogan. What is a slogan? It simply is a short statement of the value you provide. This is also your statement of difference. What are you offering and what makes you different from your competitors? A good slogan clearly states your difference the moment your audience sees it.

A really great example is Zappos.com. Zappos has clearly set their brand apart from other online shoe store through phenomenal customer service and it is evident in their slogan which is "Powered by Service". When you hear about Zappos, you know they are all about customer service. When you order from them, you will experience nothing but excellent customer service. Theirs is an epitome of a powerful brand.

Once you have your brand set in place, it's time to present it. BE CONSISTENT with it in your marketing materials. Consistency is key to getting your brand established and recognized.

Until then!

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Comments (2)

SweetJeanette says:

August 4, 2010 at 12:41 PM

Great post – Very clear and plain english which I do desparately appreciate! lol BTW, I stumbled this post!

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Dineen Miller says:

August 4, 2010 at 5:41 PM

Another great post, Lynne. Thanks for sharing your expertise. Consistency is key is what I tell my clients too. Great stuff! Hope you don’t mind if I share your articles (the links to here) on my blog Kittens Come From Eggs, http://dineenmiller.blogspot.com.

Oh, btw, the link for Designquote dind’t work for me.

Take care!

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