“Why don’t you tell us something about your brand?” – This could easily be a question you may get asked during a job interview and you don’t necessarily have to be a fashion designer or a business man to be able to answer. Actually, everyone should work to develop their own personal brand.
What is a personal brand? It is who you are work-wise. It is what you can bring to the table. It is what you want to be known and remembered for. It is what sets you apart from the competition. It is your unique selling point; your competitive advantage; your secret weapon. And sometimes what gives you the place it is not just the uniqueness of your brand, but also how well you can sell it.
How to develop your personal brand? There are a few steps you may want to take.
1. Understand who you are
You need to know your product if you want to be successful at selling it. How to do that? You want to know every aspect of it, the positive and the negative. And you also what to know how your product would do on the market. If you refer all this to a person, you want to know what you are good at; what you are not so good at; what is the demand of a profile like yours on the job market and what external factors could prevent you from obtaining what you want. A simple tool you can use is the personal SWOT analysis.
In the table below, assess your strengths and weaknesses. Think about qualities that set you apart and reference them about some of your achievements. For example, one of your qualities may be that you are very efficient. Think about a situation when you demonstrated your quality. This way you will not just make a list but you will be able to tell a story about yourself. If your brand is aimed to present the best side of you, you want to be very conscious about those aspects where you need some more development. It will help you tremendously position yourself as someone who has a good self-assessment capacity and will help you anticipate some of the questions that may touch on your weaknesses. You also want to assess how your profile could do on the market. In the sections opportunities and threats list what external factors may help or be detrimental to you in the job market.
| STRENGTHS | WEAKNESSES |
| | |
| OPPORTUNITIES | THREATS |
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2. Know your audience
You should always know who you are going to talk to. Why? Because you want to adapt your presentation accordingly. As for a product, every market has they own communication strategy. What does the person you are talking to want to hear? What would win them over?
3. Prepare your elevator pitch
You may never know when the right opportunity presents itself, so be ready. Prepare a short pitch about yourself and practice, practice, practice until it sounds natural. Use it to introduce yourself; use it during networking events; use it every time you want to make an impactful first impression.
4. Live your brand
And finally, stay true to your brand, live your brand, be your brand.