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Personal Branding Is Not About You

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When I deliver a personal branding keynote, the audience often expects me to reveal the secret formula for self-promotion and help them master chest-pounding techniques. True, Donald Trump’s “me, me, me” communication style has made him a contender for the Republican presidential nomination, but his approach only exacerbates  misconceptions about personal branding.

At the end of my keynotes, audience members tell me the most surprising thing they learned about personal branding is that it’s not about them at all – it’s about delivering value to others.

Sure, personal branding requires being visible to decision makers and influencers. Strong brands don’t go into hiding. But being visible is only part of the personal branding equation, and it’s not the biggest part. Demonstrating your value is the key.

Obviously, you don’t want to be the world’s best kept secret – you need to make sure others know who you are and what you have to offer. But the emphasis needs to be on their needs, not yours. Do they continually experience the value you provide? Do they associate that value with you?

People with the most successful personal brands know what make them great, and they use those superpowers to increase the success of their team, their projects, their clients, and the companies they work for – making themselves visible and indispensible in the process.

Of course, before you start communicating your brand to others, you need to be clear about your unique promise of value – what’s authentic to you, differentiating you from your peers and making you relevant and compelling to your target audience (key decision makers and influencers). If you start expressing or demonstrating your brand before you have crystal clarity, your efforts may be a waste of time. To learn more about the personal branding process (especially the first phase where you uncover your unique promise of value), check out the step-by-step process I share in this previous post.

So if personal branding is more show than tell, are you showcasing your value? One way to measure the value you are delivering is to ask yourself these questions at the end of every work day or week:

Did I:

  • leave my mark on every meeting (in person and via teleconference) I attended – making contributions to the discussion to add value?
  • do something to make my manager more successful?
  • acknowledge the great work of employees, teammates or colleagues – reaching out to thank them in person or virtually?
  • create and publish content (a blog, video, article, whitepaper, infographic, etc.), disseminating information that will be useful to people who share my expertise?
  • publicly praise others for their contributions (especially in front of their managers)?
  • integrate my superpowers – the things I do better than anyone else – into everything I did?
  • share content created by others (articles, Blogs, YouTube videos, etc.) that is valuable to members of my network (adding my point-of-view to the content I shared)?
  • reach out to at least three members of my network with the goal of nurturing those relationships?
  • deliver on my brand promise consistently?
  • make a list of my accomplishments and plans for the coming day or week?

Asking yourself these questions will get you in habit of contributing. Those contributions – not bragging and shouting – are the foundation for building a strong, enduring personal brand.

If you enjoy asking yourself questions, Download my complete list of 50 eye-opening questions to ask yourself when unearthing your brand here.

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