People may want to create a public perception of themselves in their industries for different reasons.
For some, this may be a way to gain more professional visibility, which could unlock job offers, collaborations, and mouth-watering opportunities. Other people may want to connect with like-minded professionals, which could foster valuable relationships.
Whatever the reason for creating a public perception of yourself, being great at what you do helps crystallize your efforts. In this article, you will learn how to build a personal brand while doing excellent work that will make you stand out.
Definition of Personal Brand
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, once said, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
A personal brand is a robust combination of your uniqueness, skills, qualities, experiences, and values that defines your professional reputation and identity. It reflects how people identify with and interact with an individual online and offline.
A personal brand can be likened to a person’s alter ego in some ways. First, your personal brand may highlight values and traits that may not be fully present in your everyday life.
Also, a personal brand may embody aspirational elements, which create an image of how they want to be perceived or seen by the public. An alter ego and a personal brand can look like an ongoing performance or roleplay that needs consistent and intentional actions and behaviours.
Elements of a Personal Brand
Building a personal brand is not easy. It requires a great deal of work and intentionality. If you want to stand out in your industry or you desire to stay ahead of the competition, there are some crucial elements you should look out for.
1. Authenticity
When building a personal brand, you need to come as you are and be ready to highlight your genuine side. Your audience can connect with you when they realize that they can relate to your personal values.
One way to create an authentic connection with your audience is to include personal experiences backed up with self-awareness. Another way is to create and share content without requesting anything in return. Doing this makes you look genuine and authentic.
2. Consistency
Consistency in building a personal brand is a big deal because it refers to how you communicate and maintain a consistent personality over time. Being consistent with your personal brand makes it easy for people to remember you.
Ensure that the messages about yourself, your expertise, skills, and values are consistent across all your communication channels. Also, be consistent with your visual branding elements, such as your logo, typography, and colour scheme.
These visual branding elements should be consistent across your social media accounts, website, email signatures, and other branding materials. Other factors you should consider include content consistency, frequency, timing, etc.
3. Clarity
When building your personal brand, be sure to clearly define and communicate your values, identity, and positioning to your target audience. Being clear about personal branding helps you stand out in a crowded industry, build solid connections, and attract the right opportunities.
Clearly communicate your values, principles, personal and professional goals. Don’t forget to define and communicate your unique selling proposition that sets you apart from other people in your industry.
4. Storytelling
Knowing how to incorporate storytelling into personal branding will make you stand out from others. Storytelling helps you create an emotional connection with your audience. A well-curated story helps to clearly communicate your life trajectory, achievements, and challenges.
With this framework, you can effectively share your personal brand message. Storytelling helps you highlight what makes you different from the rest. By telling stories, you can showcase your individuality and value proposition.
5. Connections
When building a personal brand, connections are essential in fostering support, opportunities, and growth. Be intentional about forming and nurturing connections with people. They can be your peers, clients, mentors, and industry colleagues.
Building connections or networking helps to boost your credibility and visibility. Personal branding thrives on mutual support. By establishing meaningful connections, you can create relationships based on mutual benefit, respect and trust, where you contribute to other people’s growth and vice-versa.
Importance of Personal Branding- Why Does It Matter
In the past, before online presence became a mainstream feature, people were judged only by their experiences and qualifications. These days, a person’s online presence and reputation are added to the mix.
Here are a few reasons why personal branding matters
1. It Makes You Stand Out
If your industry is highly competitive, personal branding can help you stand out from the crowd. It highlights your skills, strengths, qualities, and experiences that make you different from other people in your field.
2. It Gives You Visibility
If you’re looking for more exposure and visibility in your industry, personal branding is the way to go. Personal branding helps to establish a strong online presence which leads to people becoming more aware of their expertise and worthy contributions.
3. It Can Advance Your Career
Personal branding has a role to play for people who want to grow their careers. Due to the competitive nature of many industries, building a personal brand helps professionals become the choice candidates. As more people know more about what you do and what you stand for, you become top-of-mind when opportunities arise.
4. It Amplifies Your Influence
Personal branding gives people the chance to engage with and reach a wider audience, making them authorities in their fields. You can build a presence on platforms like websites, social media, and speaking events. By leveraging these platforms, you can share your expertise and connect with people who are interested in what you do.
How To Do Excellent Work While Building A Personal Brand
If you want to build a personal brand, doing excellent work will help you stand out. By being superb at what you do, you’re showcasing your qualities and commitment to workplace excellence and overall organizational success.
1. Create a Culture of Continuous Improvement
By creating a culture of continuous improvement, you’re demonstrating your dedication to innovation, excellence, and growth. You can create this culture by setting clear goals and standards for yourself.
Set benchmarks that will help you channel your efforts effectively and monitor your progress. Look for opportunities to upskill and remain relevant in your industry.
Stay attuned to industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices in your field. Always create time for reflection and evaluation. This way, you can get more insights into what worked fine for you and areas where you can improve.
2. Focus More on Solutions Than Problems
People with a solution-oriented mindset are often more valued than others who focus on problems. By focusing more on solutions than problems, you gradually become a proactive problem-solver people trust to offer solutions.
You can achieve this by training yourself to see challenges as a chance to grow instead of seeing them as obstacles. When you face a problem, ensure you understand its root cause instead of dwelling on its symptoms.
Doing this enables you to produce effective solutions instead of relying on quick fixes that prevent you from understanding why the problem exists in the first place.
3. Prioritize Quality Work
If you want to have a reputation for excellence, focus on doing more quality work while building a personal brand. Consider aiming for perfection in every work you undertake. Instead of cutting corners or settling for mediocrity, go through the long and stressful route to ensure you exceed the highest benchmark.
An important way to prioritize quality work is to put the needs of your audience and clients first. Listen to their feedback and work on areas that address their specific needs. Always check your output or work for inconsistencies and errors.
4. Be Accountable
Being accountable when building a personal brand is one of the ways to do excellent work. When you are accountable, it means you’re ready to own up to your actions, decisions and the results.
It also means you’re holding yourself responsible for outcomes that may align or not align with your personal brand objectives and values. You can stay accountable by communicating transparently.
Ensure you keep the lines of communication open with the relevant stakeholders throughout the period of each project. When you’re transparent, it helps to build a culture of trust and accountability.
Conclusion- Importance of doing Excellent Work in Personal Branding
Doing excellent work while building a personal brand will always be a game-changer. People worldwide are looking to align themselves with people whose credibility and reputation can be vouched for.
Therefore, by regularly delivering top-quality work, you can differentiate yourself from the crowd, build credibility, and position yourself as a thought leader in your field. Excellent work in personal branding is beyond the individual success that comes with it. It’s about causing a positive impact and driving positive change.
