Personal Branding Salad Bar

Posted at June 15, 2009

Personal Branding Series


In today’s post, you will be able to fill your personal branding plate from a salad bar. Please feel free to take as many ideas and tips as possible. Working on your personal brand helps create brand equity that can help you foster relationships, advance your career and put cold hard cash in your bank account. I hope you enjoy the salad bar choices, from A to Z.

A – Action

Choose action over inaction. You cannot wish your way to a powerful personal brand. Your actions are the seeds of your personal brand. What you do determines people’s perceptions of you.
B – Blog

Blogging is a powerful way of building a personal brand. It enables you to connect with your audience. It enables you to communicate your personal brand 24/7 even when you are sleeping. Blogging helps you engage others and get feedback for your personal brand.
C – Communication

Communication means shedding light on your personal brand. It means letting others know through your words or actions about what your personal brand entails. You can communicate about your personal brand verbally or none verbally through what you wear, where you hang out, who you hang out with etc.
D – Diversity

Do not put all your personal branding eggs in one basket. Spread your risks in a few areas of your life. Do not only be known as the blogger, or the hockey player. Expand your interests and friendship networks. There is more to life than what you are currently engaged in. Embrace diversity of ideas.
E – Emotions

Master your emotions. Learn how to manage emotions such as fear, jealousy, pride and anger. Do not be controlled by your emotions. Exercise self control. How you deal with your emotions affect your personal brand.
F – First Impressions

First impressions matter. It takes only about 3 seconds for people to decide how to classify you. Be careful how you present yourself to strangers. It may take years to change initial perceptions.
G – Goals

Set SMART goals for your personal branding efforts. Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time bound.
H – Handicap

Do not let your handicaps ruin your personal brand. Analyze your perceived weaknesses and work around them. Find an angle that matches your character, personality, ability, experience and resources.
I – Identity

Do not be a mini version of someone else. Be your own person. Do not try to copy others. Embrace your uniqueness and nurture what is good about you. Believe in yourself and celebrate your individual qualities, experiences and quirks.
J – Job

When you embark on a job, do your best. The quality of your work determines your personal brand. Give your best on your job and word will get out. What you give out comes back to you tenfold.
K – Knowledge

Seek knowledge. Be thirsty for specialized knowledge that will enhance your value proposition. If you do not know something, ask or go read about it. Ignorance is not a defense for personal branding disasters.
L – Language

The words that come out of your mouth say a lot about you. Be careful about how you speak to others. Be polite and use the appropriate language for the kind of personal brand that you want to create.
M – Marathon

Personal branding takes time. It is like running a marathon. Do not sprint and wear yourself out with spikes of effort. Maintain consistency in your personal branding efforts. It is not what you do today but what you do day in day out that will count over the long haul.
N – Networking

Have good contacts building strategies. You will need other people in order to reach the apex of your success. Call it standing on the shoulders of giants or what you may. Contacts building strategies are vital for personal branding. A winning contacts building strategy focuses on quality & sustainability not just numbers for the sake of numbers.
O – Occupation

As much as you may want to shake it off, you will be tagged by many based on what you do for a living. Are you a doctor or cleaner? Are you a teacher or financial planner? People will inevitably stereotype you based on your occupation. Do you do what you love? Is your occupation doing justice to the kind of personal brand you want to develop?
P – Positive Attitude

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. Winston Churchill

The mind is very powerful. You become whatever you think about or envision. Positive thinking means changing the predominant thoughts in your mind to pleasant and empowering thoughts.

Q – Questions

The kind of questions you ask yourself determine the kind your destiny. Ask yourself the right kind of questions today and experience a shift in your mindset and fortunes.
R – Reputation

Let your reputation precede you. Your reputation is shaped by what you do on and off the job. A good reputation is worth more than diamonds. Reputation takes years to build but can be destroyed overnight. A good reputation will open doors for you and allow you to command higher compensation.
S – Scandal

You may spend years building your personal brand and end up making a mistake that may cost you your good name. What do you do when faced with adversity? You may spend years building your personal brand but see it evaporate overnight. What do you do in the morning? Do you pick up the pieces and start again or do you run for the mountains?

T – Talent

Talent is a good place to start in building a personal brand. If you are talented in an area of life, develop it. Use your talents. Spend time discovering your talent. However, talent alone is not enough. You still need to put in hours of practice to improve and perfect your game.
U – Umbilical Cord

To build a personal brand you need to let your individuality shine. You may need to break ties with some friends, business, occupation, circumstances etc to build your personal brand.
V – Victory

Win with humility and lose with dignity. Victory is the sum result of your experience, effort and a bit of luck. Victory can be a bad teacher. Do not dwell on past victories as that can hinder your progress. Focus on your next win and do everything required to prepare for it.
W – Wardrobe

Be careful about your dressing. Your choice of attire determines what people think about you, especially in during initial meetings (first impressions).
X – X-Ray

Who are you on the inside? What can others not see about you with their naked eyes? Hint: Character

When a man loses every single earthly possession all he has to fall back on is his character. The strength of character consists of virtues such as integrity, courage, fortitude, honesty, and loyalty, good behaviors or habits. Character is what determines a person’s ultimate personal brand and destiny.
Y – Yesterday

Do not dwell on past mistakes or past victories too much. I like this quote by Nelson Mandela about how we should approach the past.

I have walked the long road to freedom. I have tried not to falter; I have made missteps along the way. But I have discovered the secret that after climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb. I have taken a moment here to rest, to look back on the distance I have come. But I can rest only for a moment, for with freedom come responsibilities, and I dare not linger, for my long walk is not yet ended.
Z – Zombie state

You may have stagnated in your life. You may have stopped making progress in life. Perhaps you have been caught up with life. Things just seem to happen instead of you making them happen. Wake up the giant within, get off zombie state

Summary

There you go my friend – a full salad bar for you to pick ideas for your personal brand. Personal branding is a lifelong process but can be enhanced by equipping yourself with the right ideas.

Please post your ideas on what else we can add to the personal brand salad bar. Your comments are most welcome.

Series Navigation«Bouncing Back From Adversity10 Steps to Personal Branding Success»

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