“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.” –Bruce Lee

Every successful company and organization has its own brand. Apple’s brand is one of imagination, innovation, and design. Disney’s brand is family entertainment and magic, and Nike’s is athleticism, excellence in sports, and victory. Your business has its own brand, as well.

Although these large groups have their own overarching brands, what you may not know is that you carry with yourself a personal brand, what makes you who you are.  This is what describes you to the rest of the world, including your personality, your values, your uniqueness and your skill. Even if you don’t think you own your own personal brand, you do, because it’s how the rest of the world sees you. The question is: how do you define and leverage your personal brand towards success in your business and your life?

The great thing about a personal brand is that it is malleable and yours to take complete control of. As soon as you know where you are and where you want to be, it’s a simple matter of taking the following steps towards defining and leveraging your personal brand:

1)     Ask yourself the important questions. What do you do better than anybody else? What are your values? What do people observe and comment about you and give you praise for? Why do clients come to you? How do people describe you when they introduce you to others? What makes your methods unique? What excites you more than anything? What is unique about your personality and how can it become an asset to your growth and success? Having concrete answers to questions such as these will go a long way towards giving your personal brand a jumping-off point.

2)     Remember, the key to a personal brand is authenticity. You don’t want to come off as insincere or as if you’re trying to pull a fast one over on your clients and coworkers. A personal brand is all about your individuality and self-awareness, so embrace your own qualities and personality. I’m confident that you have heard many times of the “best” way to do things, the “best” business practices, et cetera. However, at the end of the day, following these “bests” isn’t going to differentiate you from the crowd. You need to carve out your own path to set yourself apart from the pack. It may be intimidating, but it will pay off.

3)     Set and prioritize your values. These are the concepts that drive your personal life and business practices. Make sure that you pick out the ones that are most important to you and the ones that you’ll often refer back to when making day-to-day decisions. Once you have compiled this list, it’s just a matter of putting them in order of priority. Not all of your values are created equal, after all! There will come times when two or more of them end of conflicting with each other, and you’ll have to know where to go at that point. Remember, the goal of a personal brand isn’t to do better at work, make money, or grow your business: it’s all about what makes you happy.

4)     Defining your personal brand in everything that you do. This isn’t something that is going to reach maximum potential by just letting it sit; you have to constantly hone it, tweak it, and live by it. You need to use external platforms such as social media to carefully define and expand the reach of your personal brand/ Think about the previous examples of Apple and Disney: everything they do exhibits their brands. You must do the same, but rest assured, this will be easier if your brand is true to who you are and how you wish to portray yourself.

What is your own personal brand? Are you even aware of it yet? If you are aware of it, are you managing it properly? Are you leveraging it towards maximum effectiveness? If you are, excellent! If not, it is never too late to get started.

I work with clients every day. Before we tackle any large business or organizational issue, we begin with this question of personal brand. It is by far the best way to understand and tackle any issue.

Image credit: http://blog.contactually.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/Personal-Branding-MarketingThink.com-@GerryMoran.jpg