10 Reasons To Love Your Personal Brand

Do you care about your personal brand? Are you someone who thinks personal branding is not for you because it’s all about self-promotion, and you never liked tooting your own horn . . . or people who do?

“Besides”, you say to yourself, “branding is for products. I’m not a brand, I’m a person”.

That’s true. You’re not a brand. But you do HAVE a brand . . . whether or not you choose to take control of it.

Instead of dismissing personal branding as merely ego-stroking, think of it as educating people about who you are and what you have to offer.

With so much misinformation about personal branding bombarding us across social media, you may have read otherwise, but the concept of personal branding in executive job search is really quite simple.

It’s about defining and knowing what makes you unique, valuable to, and needed by the employers you’re targeting.

And it’s about clearly communicating those things in your job search materials (resume, LinkedIn profile, etc.), and when you network and interview for jobs.

First, you have to do the initial personal branding work.

10 Things To Love About Your Personal Brand

1. Helps you reconnect with your vision for the world, personal purpose, values and passions so that you can move toward true career fulfillment.

2. Empowers you to gain clarity about your authentic self and the talents, skills, strengths, and areas of expertise that make you unique and valuable in the marketplace.

3. Forces you to be introspective and reflective, and to examine (and improve, when possible) the weaknesses that may be holding you back.

4. Helps you identify good-fit target employers and your competition in the marketplace . . . and to create personal marketing materials (resume, biography, LinkedIn profile, website, online portfolio, etc.) designed to resonate with those employers and differentiate you from competitors.

5. Helps you assess the personal attributes and qualities that make you a good culture-fit for your target employers.

6. Propels you to solicit feedback from those who know your value best (peers, management, staff, employees, clients, mentors, etc.), helping you understand the true measure of your brand — how you’re perceived by the external world.

7. Generates chemistry and excitement about you as a candidate through written and verbal brand messaging that has personality . . . and gives a feel for the kind of person you are and how you make things happen.

8. Leads you to create a personal marketing communications plan that clearly presents the authentic “you” and consistently reinforces your value-add message.

9. Helps you establish yourself as the “go-to” person for your industry thought leadership and subject matter expertise.

10. Helps you clearly communicate your value proposition and good-fit for your target employers when you network and interview for jobs, boosting your chances of landing the job you want or advancing your career.