In the words of the late African American poet Maya Angelou, ‘If you are always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be.” The business world is increasingly becoming competitive. In order to achieve visibility, one needs to stand out from the rest. One of the most effective ways of achieving this is through Personal Branding.

What is Personal Branding? During a  Women Lifting Women Series, the response to this question was addressed by Charles Mslinga the CEO of Personal & Corporate Development Company. During his presentation, he shared 3 Steps towards achieving Personal Branding.

The 3 Steps Towards Achieving Personal Branding

1.   Understanding Your Personal Branding

Personal Branding is a conscious and intentional effort to  to influence public perception of your life journey, mission and purpose. Your personal brand is the communication of your life mission and purpose. Your personal brand is your reputation.

2.   Strategies to Grow your Brand

In order to achieve brand growth, there is need for:

• Definiteness of Purpose: 

  All business suffer challenges from time to time. What is important is to be able to rises up to the occasion and overcome the crises. This earns you a reputation of reliability. Reliability is an important aspect when people are seeking for services. They want to know and believe that you will turn up and deliver no matter the circumstances. No excuse.

• Promptness in Decision Making

  All businesses suffer challenges from time to time. What is important is to be able to rise up to the occasion and overcome the crises. This earns you a reputation for reliability. This is an important aspect when people are seeking and considering the various service providers. They want to know and believe that you will turn up and deliver no matter the circumstances. No excuses. Ensure that when your brand name pops up, it prompts any easy decision for your prospects.

• An Unending Thirst for Knowledge:

  The world is ever-evolving. Nothing remains the same. You must align your brand with the market need by continuously learning and growing. By so doing, you will continuously enhance the quality of your good or services hence the visibility of your brand.

• Maintain or Surpassing the Brand :

  There may be a temptation to relax the attention that you give your brand once you have attained reasonable visibility. Resist this temptation by any means necessary as it may be the beginning of losing your placement in your industry. Be sure to maintain the standards that you have set for yourself. Better still surprise your clientele by surpassing the same. By so doing, you will earn a firm grip on your market share.

Many people buy things they don’t like with money that they don’t have to impress people that they don’t like. This applies to careers and things that people want to do with their lives. It is important to stick with doing that thing that you have passion for as it most likely you will do this well and effortlessly. The absence of passion means the absence of motivation and ultimately an invisible brand. Be clear about your message. The why remains constant even as how may change.

3.   The Importance of Personal Branding

• Standing out from the crowd: Personal Branding is about creating an image that is unique and rare. One that is outstanding. Purpose to create a brand that will resonate well with your intended clientele and stand the test of time.
• Leads to opportunities: When seeking visibility, be the person that is on the minds of people when looking at the services you have to offer. Taking on speaking engagements, presenting yourself at Networking opportunities, carrying out promotions, and partnering with others will propel you towards attaining increased opportunities.
• Growth in your credibility: It is best to be a master of one trade rather than a jack of all. By so doing, you perfect your brand and the services therein. Be the specialist in your industry.
• Associations: As the saying goes, birds of a feather flock together. Eagles fly with eagles and not with pigeons. Your Brand determines your association and your association Once you determine your brand, It will determine your direction in life and your direction will determine your elevations

Always build a brand that can determine you association.

Each one of us was created with a gift. This gift enables you to thrive whenever you get to use it. It is a gift you would be happy to share with others even for free. The visibility of an ingrown gift is visible for some right from a young age. For others, this is revealed later in life and sometime by sheer chance. If you have not yet discovered your gift, some soul searching and query from those close to us will help us discover the same. Once you identify your gift, put a price on it. Only you can determine that price. It should be guided by the going market rate and the demands. Ensure that your price tag is in line with the value of the brand. The bigger your brand, the bigger your value, the bigger the price. Make it count.