Saturday 23 March 2013

Personal Branding


Speaking to some good friends at a friends birthday last night I realized that, many people have a misconception about what Personal Branding actually is.

Lets start with the purpose of personal branding. The main purpose is to become influential in an area of influence so that you have a larger network of people who trust you and you can effectively leverage that network to increase your earnings.

It is not about becoming a celebrity or elevating yourself as an old style manager so that you have more power, quite the contrary actually it is about leadership - true leadership where you put others above yourself and you serve them. Only by you serving others will you ever gain the respect of your followers and those followers are the people who are ultimately going to make you influential.

Somewhat different from the celebrity scene ... Where it is all about the celebrity and it has very little to do with the fans, the fans are just expected to stand aside as the celebrity goes about his day to day life. I am sure by now you can see the old style of management in this type of celebrity analogy.

In essence the more important you think you are the less important you actually are, in this new economy of the personal brand influencer. Where the value of each and every relationship you have built becomes your true value.

Personal branding is about investing in yourself, and once you have invested in yourself you can start making a difference in the lives of others, as you strengthen the relationships you have built and you continue to sustain and grow more relationships.

You will notice that I have used the word YOU in this article, and you may even think I have over used it, well to be honest I have not used the word YOU enough in this article.

The truth is that only YOU can build your brand, because only you can have the relationship with the person you are intending to connect with and who will ultimately add to your influence. Don't let anyone else build your brand for you, because only you are you'er than you, as Dr. Seuss says.

The final excuse that we often hear around personal branding is where will I get the time? It is a good question indeed but not a question that can be used as an excuse - no the question is the catalyst and the question is 'how can I possibly build my brand if I don't commit time to the process?'

If you don't personally build your brand, who is going to build your brand? Start thinking today about the small steps you can make towards launching your personal brand.

When you require more assistance with tools and ideas that will enable you to build your personal brand, drop me a line and we can arrange a meeting.

Email: richard@gratitude.co.za or Call: +27 82 413 1604

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