WELCOME TO THIS WEEKS EXPLORER
This is NOT about fake personas, self-promotion and selfies; or Instagram, YouTube and TikTok Influencers going viral! They hijacked personal branding and gave it a bad name. It is about you - being authentic and saying hello world!
We must take it back because in a digital hybrid working world you need this more now than ever before. You may still use all these social platforms but you will be coming at it from a different place. It is not about spending all your time on social media but rather managing the important narrative to support your career.
A great Personal Brand allows you to build trust , showcase expertise, build credibility and put yourself out there. It relies on you to tell the story well and showcase what makes you unique.
In this weeks edition in our OWNER month we are focusing on building a personal brand that crafts the message you want to send and enhances your reputation. We will explore this asset that you need to invest in if you want to get noticed more:
ONE - Your Personal Brand
TWO - Why it is Important
THREE - Your Personal Brand Story
FOUR - 12 ideas to help you build a better Personal Brand
FIVE - My Weekly Finds - a smorgasbord of resources
ONE - YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
Your personal brand is your reputation. And your reputation in perpetuity is the foundation of your career. Gary Vee
Your reputation (how others see you and what they say when you are not in the room) is an asset and your digital/ personal brand is a key component in how you are perceived. It matters.
‘We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, whole others judge us by what we have already done’ A Longfellow.
Your reputation is about your past accomplishments, but your personal brand tells an aspirational story too – focused on the career you want – not the job you have. It is your chance to tell the story and make the connections necessary to help others see your potential.
This is especially important for older generations as others tend to focus more on your experience than your aspirations. You have to tell the story your way, if you want to get heard.
Your Personal Brand is your bridge from the past to your future because you can influence the discussion and craft the narrative, on what you can contribute in your world. It is about being the brand ambassador for yourself on the value you provide to others.
Our Hikmaty Personal Brand Grid includes:
Brand You - This is about building the home for your brand - one system - a story - an identity - your approach - your content - a place to curate, synthesise and sense make. To get to the essence of and store: who you are, who you want to be and what you want to be known for. By pulling it all together you will tell a different, connected and more consistent story.
TASKED Story and POV - this is your Personal Brand story.
TASKED is Talents, Attitude, Skills, KnowHow, KnowWho, Experience and Deliverables.
POV is your Point of View. It is about having opinions, contributions and something to say that is valuable to others. It could include a Book, a TED Talk, a Webinar, your Resume, your Portfolio, your Profile, an Elevator Pitch, a Movie Trailer or Highlight Reel, a Motto and 20+ great keywords.
Identity, Image and Style - not Influencer style but ‘SELF’ styled. Over 80% of communication is non verbal so it has a part to play in your personal brand. It shows confidence in who you are, what you stand for and how you want to display that to the world. It may be about what you wear, or do or say. This may mean everything to you or nothing to you at all. It is not the total YOU - it should give you a confidence boost and enhance not detract from the message you want to give.
Projects and Testimonials - this is about what you deliver and what others have to say about your good and great work. Work gets done in projects. You get to showcase your talents through projects. Find projects to work on. Volunteer for projects. When these projects conclude or you move jobs/ roles ask people to give you testimonials. Show how to do this well by giving others testimonials and recommendations. This builds reputations.
Resume and Portfolio and Profile. Your career story. These can come in two’s. Write your Resume/ CV firstly in a simple word format for a recruiter automated tracking system/ algorithm. Then, if you want to, create a better designed modern template version to showcase your brand for a human - that reflects your style and is easier to read. Keep them both short and focused on a role.
Write your Profile to explain ‘This is me!’ tailored to your audience/ the role as the introduction on your CV and then craft the 200 word UVP (Unique Value Proposition) ‘This is Me Profile’ to showcase your brand story for everywhere else.
Your Portfolio is different - it is your creative space to say ‘Hello World’ and showcase who you are. Have this as a physical document or file, website, on social media, a video or a mix of all of these or any other way that works for you; because it is not about the algorithm - it is about bringing more of YOU into the world! You can share it online, take it to interviews or give it to people as an introduction to YOU! You can be creative.
LinkedIn and Network If you are working in the Corporate or Government Sectors; or working within the Business to Business world - become a Pro in how you use LinkedIn.
If you are not in these sectors, start your digital presence where your customers are or where you want to show up online. However understand that whilst working in your business you may use other social platforms more; but in working on, and representing your Business - a professional LinkedIn profile as a Founder or Leader adds credibility.
This is about crafting an active digital presence to create and build relationships. You use it to grow a social following to get noticed, to secure a better job, to sell more products, to find better/ wider opportunities and, most importantly, to be seen by customers and recruiters.
Update your LinkedIn profile and build your brand consistently, not just when you think about changing jobs. Get active - create a system, collect information, build your story, find your LinkedIn voice to tell your story, demonstrate your upskilling with credentials and courses, get proof from others. It is good to include recommendations and accolades for projects, awards, articles and accomplishments. Also support and help others by giving them feedback and endorsing their LinkedIn profiles.
Your personal network and their connections are one of your biggest career assets. This is about who you know and who they know. Including your family, inner circle, work team, personal team, friends, colleagues, neighbours, acquaintances, social media connections and followers. You are not seeking vanity metrics but more meaningful connections and engaged followers. Over the years the more you invest in quality relationships the more you will gain.
Social Story Dialogue If you search for yourself on Google what comes up in the first 3 pages? If you read your social media profiles and feeds does it tell a coherent story, and give a message that matches how you want to showup? People you meet, potential customers, potential partners and recruiters will all Google you; and then probably go to LinkedIn. You cannot control the Google feed but you can influence it significantly by managing your personal brand narrative online.
This is your ‘living’ digital presence. How you use your social media voices to tell your ongoing story is what will show up. Each channel has a different approach so you need to find your voice that matches the tone of the conversations there.
This is not a one size fits all cut and paste activity - you have to tailor your message. It is best to find a couple of channels that match your brand and master them. You can use posts, articles, books, webinars, talks, newsletters, feeds, comments, likes and connections. You can use the new LinkedIn Creator Space to promote the content you want people to see.
Love Life There is a phrase that says ‘If you love life, it will love you back!’. This is not about a digital presence - it represents YOU as a human and your unique physical presence. It is about how you choose to show up in the world. It is not so much about the words but more about your energy, your outlook, your character, your charisma, your gravitas and your overall presence - what you give out to the world!
That is the Hikmaty Personal Brand Grid.
The Grid provides an outline - one way to look at your personal brand. You can build on this to match your work, preferences and experience. You can just focus on your digital presence or build a valuable network or add in what it means to be a key person of influence in your sector or even become a YouTube sensation. You create your own recipe!
Make a choice - Do you choose to be a beacon of energy and hope that attracts people or someone who hides away or watches others from the sidelines? It is not about being an extrovert or introvert - it is about being confident in being YOU and showing that you love life!
You have a personal brand. Just recognise whether you actively promote your personal brand or don’t - you have one. It might not be well fed but it exists. It is about ownership, responsibility and a decision to drive your own bus!
TWO - WHY IT MATTERS
Why a strong Personal Brand is important in a hybrid world
Good is not enough - whilst post pandemic world of work seeks to be a little more human, recognise the impact of change in our lives and embrace hybrid working practices - if you want to progress, it is still a very competitive space. A strong work ethic and good results may not be enough to keep your career moving in the right direction – you need to be known, recognised, valued and noticed. You have to make this happen.
It is valuable - A great Personal Brand gives you visibility, broadens your connections, gives credibility and shows your commitment. It takes effort and lots of small steps consistently taken over time to create a distinctive personal brand. It is the asset to invest in because it moves around with you as your career progresses.
Be Smart - Being invisible is getting easier whereas being noticed in a world of message overload and overwhelm is getting harder. Everyone is vying for our ‘eyeballs and ears’ in this attention driven economy. You have to work smarter to get seen and heard.
Set yourself up to win - Whether you want to win a promotion, land a new job or change careers – your personal brand and reputation will make that easy or hard.
Best of both worlds - In a virtual world if you are out of sight, you may be out of mind. Whilst many are voting not to be in an office environment all the time - a downside of this, is it is harder to remain top of mind with Leaders. Many Managers and Leaders are opting for office rather than hybrid work over the concerns they have on how it is impacting their careers. You need to be able to stay remote; and be able to demonstrate your value consistently and visibly. It is possible but you have to actively pursue and manage this - it will not just happen.
Keeping up and staying relevant -With more regular career changes, the introduction of new hybrid roles and the emergence of new industries with completely new jobs - you need to regularly refresh your skills and rebrand. Nothing remains static you are moving with the flow or getting left behind. You have to position yourself to be able to transition between different careers to get the right opportunities.
First impressions count - these will probably be delivered online. In business LinkedIn is important and not just when you are changing jobs. People will constantly check you out in a professional and social capacity.
You are being searched - Employers and recruiters screen people online and look at Profiles first. If yours is incomplete or poorly put together it suggests you are not taking your career seriously.
THREE - YOUR PERSONAL BRAND STORY
Who you are + what you do + what you stand for – why YOU (UVP)
It is about your impact and how you deliver value to the world that builds upon your reputation - it is not just your history. That is the engaging story you need to tell to get noticed more - in a world where it is easy to be invisible.
This is about creating a compelling story to explain your evolution - that shows how your past and previous skills explicitly connect with and add value to what you are doing now or planning to do.
You are making the connection explicit to reduce assumptions by others. You need to layout the path and provide the context to convey the story of a strong personal brand. You are making it easy for other people to experience and see you as credible, likeable and trustworthy.
It can also be about being professional, authentic, familiar, connected and differentiated. Plus any other character traits you want to be known for.
This isn’t a made up persona or aspirational distant shore - people are getting much wiser to fake. They want the real and authentic you to show up and say ‘Hello World this is me!’.
Establishing your Brand Story
Articulating your brand helps others understand who you really are, what you stand for, build more authentic relationships and realise your goals. You need to start by understanding your current personal brand story.
Do a Personal Brand Review
Looking inwards – your story so far (history) and your changing needs, motivations, habits, skills and talents (inspirations and aspirations).
Looking outwards – how the role you do and the niche/ market/ sectors you work in are changing. Who do you need to be to thrive in this marketplace? What is valued? How do you fit into this? What are your audience needs?
Looking to others – getting feedback from your network to uncover the impact of spending less time with others (especially in person) and interacting in new/ different ways with them. Who do they think you are? What are you known for? How would they describe you to someone else? What do they think you are good at? What makes you different? What, if anything, is missing from your story?
Looking online – reviewing your existing digital profile – start by googling yourself, looking at your social media and other collateral online. What is the story? How well does it showcase: your personal brand, how are you adding value, giving your point of view and who you are?
At Hikmaty we use our TASKED framework to help you discover and build your story. Start with your TASKED = Talents, Attitude, Skills, Knowhow, Experience and Deliverables.
For looking inwards and to get clear on your story so far we have a great Career Story Guide using our TASKED framework to help gather the information you need. If you subscribe to the newsletter using the link below you will also get a copy of thus 50 page Guide for FREE.
You now have the outline content and plenty of key words to begin telling your new personal brand story. The challenges will be - keeping it concise, making it compelling and writing it for your audience not you.
Your Personal Brand Story
1) Hello YOU
Who are you and what you want to accomplish? What is your expertise? What drives/ fuels you? What most proud of? Where exceptional? Where do you excel? What settings do you work best in? What tasks/ projects energize you? What legacy/ impact and value are you seeking? What makes you relevant?
Then + …
2) Your DIFFERENCE
UVP means Unique Value Proposition - the recipe ingredients that differentiate you. The unique recipe from your TASKED that makes you who you are and showcases your aspirations.
What made you a success so far?
How has your uniqueness helped you do this?
How has your traits/ character impacted on this?
What makes you special?
Then + …
3) FEEDBACK from others
Your reputation is based upon what other people say about you. If you do not know your differentiators or Unique Value Proposition (UVP) or struggle to see the good in yourself - ask someone who knows you well or regularly works with you. They know because your reputation and the personal brand you already display tells them. You need their honest feedback. To set yourself up to win - it needs to be steeped in reality and delivered with positive intent and kindness. This is what good feedback is about. So ask people who will provide this.
Then + …
4) Your ASPIRATIONS
Now add a bit of inspiration by considering what you want to be known for.
Who do you aspire to be?
In the next 10 years what want to contribute to the world or what do you want your legacy to be?
Success leaves clues so let’s look at people who have achieved what you want to or that you admire.
Think of some People that you admire - You know of them or work with them or they are famous or from history or ….
Who has done what you want to do in the world?
Who do you admire in your working world or wider?
Who is successful in your business or niche?
Then think through what you admire about them.
What behaviours and traits do they consistently exhibit?
What are their valued strengths?
How does this help them be successful/ or help the business move forward?
What values, beliefs and goals do you have in common with them?
Then back to YOU
What can you learn from them?
What is missing in your recipe?
Then + …
5) Your Strategic ‘HELLO WORLD’
With the information above you now need to decide:
How do you choose to say ‘Hello World’
How do you present the best version of yourself.
How you want to be perceived.
This is not a tactic or a quick fix - it is something you will craft and build on over time - so think big picture and longer term. Just start …
As with any good communication - seek to align with your customer, audience, or organisation needs first and then what makes you unique/ different.
THINK ABOUT: What qualities, skills, values and impact does your role, organisation or market demand, value and reward?
ASK YOURSELF: What are your aspirations, what are you passionate about and core values? What are your important descriptive words from this?
ALIGN - Find the alignment and use this to drive your personal growth and build your brand including the language you use to describe yourself. I am reminded of Ikigai below - there is no point being someone that does not match with a market need or have value.
PERSONAL SEO - What are the key words that emerge from this? You need 10 to 20 key words or phrases that you consistently use in your digital presence.
Then + …
Create a Personal Brand Statement
Reflect and think through what you want to be known for, how you want to be seen online (your digital brand) and who you want to be in person.
How it is now and the story you are already telling.
How you want people to see/ experience you - this includes the visibility you want and the values you outwardly want to represent.
You will then rewrite your story, make decisions and build new behaviours to seek to influence other people’s perceptions on the authentic YOU.
This aspirational YOU needs to be authentic and real not a fake creation. It will not add up and it will have the opposite impact than you are seeking. You just want to bring more of the best version of you into the world.
The Assessment below comes from Tom Peters 1999 ‘The Brand You 50’ book. He originally coined the phrase ‘Personal Brand’ in a 1997 Fast Company Article. A lot of people criticise this thinking as outdated. The article maybe but not the book - other than removing ‘Rolodex’ and ‘Yellow Pages’ :) - it stands the test of time and will be useful. The book has a distinctive ‘Tweet like’ style that people seem to love or hate - I love it’s energy. Many more recent guides whilst well written seem a bit blander.
If you do the four exercises below you will have your initial copy for your personal brand story. The challenge will be to find the essence of who you are and tell that story in 200 words or less!
FOUR - 12 IDEAS TO HELP YOU BUILD A BETTER BRAND
Just in case you are not sure what to do - here are some ideas to get you started:
This is a subtle art to get noticed not about blatant self-promotion. You will earn recognition through performing, serving others and giving value – not boasting. See this as a long term investment and a way to work not a stepping stone to advance your career right now.
Make sure it is easy to find the information on you that you want to be found. With a clear, consistent, compelling and constant message. People have not got time to figure you out so make it easy for them.
Build your personal brand around something – not lots of different things – the aim is to get recognised and remembered. You need to understand what you stand for - in relation to how that adds value.
To manage how you show up online and those first impressions optimize your digital presence. Start by owning your name domain, have a personal website and create your social accounts (LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and Facebook) Even if you do not want to use use them initially - grab your name on each of these sites.
Keep it real by finding authentic ways to show your personality, embrace your quirks and have the confidence to be an original.
Keep it live by consistently moulding and curating your narrative rather than letting it take on a life of its own
Create fresh content – LinkedIn posts and comments, a personal blog, guest blog, write for trade publications, publish on Medium, launch a Substack Newsletter, record a Podcast, create videos for YouTube, answer questions on Quora, write and publish an ebook, develop an online course, showcase on SlideShare, run Webinars, build a community on Facebook or LinkedIn, organise local meetups or build a membership site.
Share your ideas publicly - Have a POV as an expert in your field. It has to matter to you and be insightful/ engaging/ helpful for others. The test to ask yourself is ‘Would this help me and is it actionable?’
Raise your Expertise profile in your sector - Associate yourself with leading organisations, professional bodies and trending causes; talk at conferences; take a leadership role in your trade association; get quoted in publications; comment on online forums, write in trade journals or get quoted on TV/ in the Media as an expert. (Qwoted.com helps journalists connect with experts).
If you work for someone else find ways to be an Ambassador - post on the internal intranet, develop content to be usd externally to promote their services, share company posts, work on a company newsletter, publish an ebook and share internally through lunch and learns
Treat building your network as an ongoing project - Connect one person at a time. Make it a weekly habit to meet new people for in person or virtual coffee breaks. Ask other people to make introductions, find ways to help others and constantly strengthen your connections by giving more than you get.
Identify the stakeholders/ influencers within and outside the organisation that can help you. Find the people you want to know and people who can help you progress. Before you reach out to them get clear on your ‘why’ and think through how you could help/ add value for them – that is your starting point, Find ways to introduce others and get known for connecting people and ideas.
So many options, ideas and different ways to build or refresh your personal brand. Just pick a couple of them and take some action.
Hopefully you now get why it is important, how to tell a better story and where you can start.
FIVE - MY WEEKLY SMORGASBORD
Some Personal Brand Books and Writers:
Tom Peters - Brand You 50. Older but still wise and definitely not vanilla!
Dorie Clark - The Long Game and Reinventing You. She is also very active on LinkedIn. Ex White House Communicator. Very credible, professional and with a corporate style. Much more vanilla :).
William Arruda - Digital You: real personal branding in the virtual age. Also active on LinkedIn, writes for Forbes and runs corporate training on Personal Branding.
Daniel Priestley - Key Person of Influence. A step by step process to get known for your expertise.
Vickers, Bavister and Smith - Personal Impact: What it takes to make a difference. Useful guide from 2009 on your communication style and that physical presence rather than digital.
Beth Collier - A great example of someone putting out a brand message in a different way. Beth Collier Hello World Statement on her blog. She shared the story around it on social media.
Hikmaty Career Story and personal brand guide For looking inwards and to get clear on your story so far we have a great Career Story Guide using our TASKED framework to gather the information you need. If you subscribe to the newsletter using the link below you will also get a copy of that 50 page Guide for FREE.