4. What is Personal Branding?
Take ownership of the brand called YOU.
How we market ourselves to others.
5. Why Care?
Judgment.
Perception vs. reality
Everyone sells.
Your personal brand is at stake wherever your name
is mentioned, whether it’s by you or someone else.
6. “But I Hate Talking About Myself”
As women, especially women of color, we MUST get
over our issues with
taking credit and compliments
negotiating the compensation we deserve
Personal branding is not all about self-promotion.
Stating the Facts
Knowing Your Value
No one can advocate for you, only you can sell YOU.
8. Benefits
People will LISTEN to you
INTRODUCE you
TRUST you
BELIEVE in you
ENCOURAGE you
HELP when you struggle
RECOMMEND you
ENDORSE you and your efforts
PROMOTE your accomplishments
WORK with, and even for you
INVEST in you and your ideas
9. Technology Can Help
Before the web, personal branding was harder.
The web has now made it easier to position yourself
as the expert you are, connect with others, and be
visible.
80% of success is showing up. – Woody Allen
10. 1. Discover, Define, Extract
Who are you? What’s your story?
What do you do better than anyone? What are you
an expert at?
How do you do it?
Where are you now? SWOT
What do you want? Where do you want to be?
Make a development plan to match your goals.
Make a personal marketing plan.
11. 2. Create Your Tools & Platform
Create your personal brand using a ‘tool box’
including traditional tools:
Business Card
Professional Portfolio
Resume
Cover Letter
References Document
12. 2. Create Your Tools & Platform
… And new tools, being consistent across all
mediums:
Success Stories
Testimonials
LinkedIn Profile
Blog
Twitter
Video resume
13. 2. Create Your Tools & Platform
Your tools also include:
Your work
Your etiquette
Your appearance
How you treat others
The way you represent yourself online
Your associates
Your track record & results
14. 3. Connect
Who is your target audience?
Tweak your materials to fit your target audience.
Practice your pitch.
Share!
Network
Blog, comment, share value
Contribute articles, letters to the editor
Pitch to the media
Speak
15. A Note About Networking
Not transaction-based. Not forced.
Build before you need.
Relationship-based. Take a genuine interest.
Offer value.
Stay in touch.
Don’t keep score.
Never eat alone.
Long-term investment.
16. 4. Nurture & Sustain
Building your brand takes time; it’s work.
Keep track of your brand.
It’s ever evolving.
Update your tools to reflect every:
New job
Award
Press article
Victory
17. Your 30-Second Elevator Pitch
Your name
What you do
For who?
What result?
What makes you different?
Your last professional experience?
A key accomplishment
Your what-what
18. Closing Thoughts
People can’t hire you or recommend you if they
don’t know who you are.
They can’t know you if you can’t tell them.
You can’t tell them until you know who you are.
19. Thank You!
To your success!
Ashley Cisneros, M.S.
Ashley Cisneros, Inc.
www.AshleyCisneros.com
Ashley@AshleyCisneros.com
3 laws of personal branding Authenticity: You need to be yourself because everyone else is taken and replicas don’t sell for as much. Furthermore, you need to define your brand before someone else does for you! Transparency: It’s better to be straightforward and honest, then lie, and have your actions work against you. Visibility: The notion that if you aren’t known, you don’t exist.
Start thinking like a company. You are tasked with recruiting people, marketing yourself, handling your own finances and for learning the technical skills required to survive in this ever changing world of uncertainty. Judged 24/7 We have to constantly sell our ideas and convince others to take action. Your personal brand is at stake wherever your name is mentioned, whether it’s by you or someone else. It’s not what you know, it’s not even who you know; it’s about who knows YOU. Define yourself, before others define you
What makes you special? Unique? Skills, passions, values? Your vision and purpose Your unique strengths and differentiation What others think about you Your values and passions The competitive landscape Your target audience Meyers Briggs test Listen to how others introduce you Ask peers, bosses about what they think are your greatest strengths. If you need experience, get it. What I really want to suggest to everyone is to try your best to take advantage of and create professional opportunities to get real-life work experience. Yes, that may mean working for free or for beans. But you have to gain professional application of all the good stuff you're learning in lecture. You can have all the knowledge you want, but employers want to know how you can apply that knowledge to create value for their bottom line. Get internships, volunteer for "meaty" positions on the organizational boards you serve in, shadow professionals in your hometown, do an apprenticeship, use your spring break to do a mini-internship. What will distinguish you from the next all-A-super-student is work experience. And these kinda things are not always advertised. Be innovative. Find your professional idol through newspaper articles, professors, LTA networking, etc. Study her bio to figure out what your action plan should be for getting where she's at. Try contacting her, tell her you admire her success and would like to meet with her to discuss her experiences. Then ask for the opportunity to work for her for a week, for a summer, etc. It's not about who you know anymore; it's about who knows YOU. Get several mentors.
After you’ve created your brand, it is only natural (and human instinct) that you want people to see what you’ve done. Depending on your audience (hiring manager, teacher, clients), you may want to tweak your materials accordingly. To properly communicate your brand, through self-promotion, you need to have your story down pat and find the right sources that would be interested in what you have to say. I would recommend promoting others before you promote yourself as well. Communication consists of guest posting on blogs, writing articles for magazines, becoming your own personal PR person (pitch to the media), attending networking events and speaking.
Read a lot to offer value. Develop a thick skin. Create your own way. Ask questions. Listen.