Personal Branding
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This session on Personal Branding was presented to the MAC (Milwaukee Athletic Club) Business Roundtable on February 13, 2007.
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Personal Branding
- 1. Personal Branding MAC Business Roundtable Presentation Tuesday, February 13, 2007 Kevin A. Barnes
- 2. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Personal Branding ! First appeared in the mainstream in August 1997 ! “The Brand Called You” by Tom Peters in Fast Company
- 3. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Personal Branding Definition: ! “The image / impression that comes to mind when others think of you” Personal Branding normally is associated with a professional context
- 4. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Why it’s an imperative If you don’t make the effort to control your Personal Brand …
- 5. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Why it’s an imperative … your Personal Brand will become whatever everyone else thinks it should be
- 6. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Advantages ! Establish yourself as an expert in your chosen field ! Build a solid reputation within your industry ! Increase your notoriety and improve your perceived value in the marketplace
- 7. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com How do you do it?
- 8. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Do what works
- 9. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com Do what works 1. Identify Target Audience(s) 2. List Major Goals 3. Assess Yourself 4. Define Brand You 5. Implement Brand You
- 10. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com 1. Identify Target Audience ! Who are the people you serve? ! Who are the people that you may serve someday? ! Who are your competitors?
- 11. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com 2. List Major Goals ! Where are you today in terms of your career, professional development, etc.? ! Where do you want to take your career? You don’t need to know how to get from Point A to Point B at this time.
- 12. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com 3. Assess Yourself ! Assess your strengths and weaknesses ! What is unique about you? ! What differentiates you from your competitors? ! What strengths are necessary for you to reach your defined goals?
- 13. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com 4. Define Brand You ! What messages do you want to project about yourself? ! What is your Elevator Pitch? ! Think beyond Job Titles
- 14. February 13, 2007 www.kevinabarnes.com 5. Implement Brand You ! Live your Personal Brand in everything you already do ! Take additional actions that showcase your Personal Brand to your target audience
Editor's Notes
- Good morning: I’ve Kevin Barnes and here a quick 30-second bio: Born and raised locally Spent 16 years with the global marketing group at Accenture/Andersen Consulting: Annual Report Arbitration (with Arthur Andersen) PR and internal communications Rebranding (from AC to Accenture) in 2.5 months IPO communications Having those diverse experiences with a major corporate brand got me interested in how branding techniques might be applied to individuals, with the goal of supercharging career development.
- The concept of Personal Branding is only about a decade old.
- In those 10 years, a number of definitions have been proposed for Personal Branding. Those definitions have evolved as the concept itself matured. Here is a definition that currently in fairly wide use -- I especially like it because it mirrors many of the definitions used for Branding in the business world
- At this point you might be thinking: “Personal Branding -- nice idea, but I don’t have time at add another list of To Dos to my career development efforts.” Well … if you don’t take the effort to control your Personal Brand …
- Another way to think of this is as actively managing your professional reputation … If you don’t take an active role, your reputation will be whatever others shape it into.
- And of course all of these can lead to: Professional advancement and all that come with it (Fame! Fortune! Etc.!)
- Okay. So if you agree it’s a good idea for you … How do you create a successful Brand for yourself?
- Take a lesson from the Big Brands and learn what it takes to make you stand out and prosper. Personal branding takes those practices that been established and proven in traditional product/service/organizational branding … and applies those same practices to shaping and managing the image of an individual. So you go from the way Harley-Davidson successfully manages it’s corporate Brand … … to how someone like Dennis Hopper or Peter Fonda manage their public Brand … … to how you manage your Personal Brand.
- There are five basic steps
- Think broadly about the people that you “serve”. By “serve” we mean work for, provide things to, interact with or influence in some way: Your current boss Key individuals in your industry (inside and outside your current company) Friends, coworkers, business associates, family Individuals who may fill those roles at some future time Who are your “competitors”: Individuals directly competing for your job, for your promotion, for your sphere of influence Even though you may work for a formal organization, think of yourself as a Free Agent, competing with other Free Agents --> How can you surpass your competition and have the best season in your field? Another way to think of this is in terms of email: We’re all aware of how much email everyone receives today. --> Your target audience are those people whom you want to read any email from you before they read anything else. (Your Personal Brand should put you an the top of the heap with the right people.)
- What are your strengths: What makes you unique and/or stand out from your competitors? What have you done lately that makes you distinctive? What do others say is your greatest and clearest strength? Do you consistently deliver work before deadline? Do you possess and apply industry knowledge beyond others? Do you have a reputation for saving clients money? What have you accomplished that you can brag about? And don’t forget to take a look at those negative traits or negative reputation that might be (justly or unjustly) associated with you --> you’ll want to excise those weaknesses from your Personal Brand as much as is possible. Finally, look at the goals you previously defined: Which of your strengths are vital achieving your goals? Are there any strengths you still need to acquire to reach those goals?
- Next, take those strengths (and weaknesses) you’ve identified and develop your “pitch” and “key messages” What are the messages about you that you want to communicate to your target audience? One good place to start is with what is known in Branding as an “Elevator Pitch” --> how would you describe yourself to someone else in the time an elevator ride takes (30 secs). The Elevator Pitch represents the most distilled version of your Personal Brand.
- Everything you do, everything you say, all should illustrate your personal brand. But beyond just living your brand in what you already do everyday, you can also choose/pursue additional actions that increase the visibility and strength of your brand: Take on a project that showcases those strengths or attributes that you want associated with your brand Teach a course or facilitate training in an area where you want to showcase your expertise Write articles, columns, etc. for an industry publication. (One thing the web has done is greatly expand locations where you can show off your strengths, from industry-specific discussion boards to your own personal blog.) Increase your visibility; network with members of your target audience, attend events/gatherings where they will be, etc. Whenever possible, share your knowledge with someone --> the effort always will come back to you in some fashion