Recently, I came across a discussion on branding. Rory Sutherland, a vice chairman of advertising at Ogilvy and Mathers, talked about how branding is actually a shortcut companies use to signal consistency.
When you buy a McDonald’s, you know that you will get a consistent buying experience, a consistent meal, and a reasonable price. No matter where you are in the world, you always have a pre-conceived notion about McDonald’s
This preconceived view of McDonald’s is branding.
Whether you like it or not, you have a certain brand. That is, how other people think of you when they hear your name or see you in person.
It may not always be what you like it to be. You need to put some effort into your brand to change how other people think of you.
Let’s break it down.
You Can Become More Successful By Changing Your Brand
Successful people have developed positive and easy-to-remember brands. They spend years cultivating a persona and linking it to particular values and experiences. When others think of these people, they immediately think of the associated value or experience.
For example, Richard Branson has associated the values of positivity and exploration. When you think of Tony Robbins, you may think about self-esteem and achievement. When you think of Oprah, you may think of success and media savvy.
The question you want to answer is: What do others think of you when they hear your name?
Here’s how you can build a personal brand and become even more successful:
- Establish your persona
- Define the most important quality
- Market yourself like a commercial brand
Let’s break down each of these steps
Establish Your Persona
To establish your persona and build your brand, you must answer this question: Who do you want to be? This question is one of the most difficult questions to answer. There are many methods to do this. Here’s one that has worked for me.
Here are the steps:
- Answer this question: “Who are you?”
- Review you the people you follow and watch on YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.
- Find the one you pay attention to the most
- Write out the qualities of this person that you appreciate the most
- Write out the qualities that you see in yourself right now
- Combine both lists
- Write Answer the question of who you want to be.
This will be your persona. The qualities and values around which you will build your brand.
Define The Most Important Quality
A brand sends one message. McDonald’s sends a “consistency at a fair price” message. Masseratti sends a “luxury for high-status individuals” message. German train system sends an “always on time” message.
Branding is about sending just one message. The one quality you want others to associate your name with.
- Go through the list of qualities of the person you admire.
- Go through the list of your qualities
- Decide on the one quality that you want others to associate you with
Once you have it, move on to the next step.
Market Yourself Like a Commercial Brand
The reality of life is that in order to be successful, you have to get lucky, and to get lucky, you have to become famous. When you are famous, opportunities come to you.
To start marketing yourself, follow these steps:
- Define an answer to a what do you do question
- Update your LinkedIn page to reflect what you do
- Create content on your favourite topic and publish it on a blog or social media
- Reach out to podcast hosts and ask to be interviewed
- Go to conferences and meet new people
Throughout these experiences, try to exhibit the one quality you decided to be known for.
Example
If you picked consistency, then publish content consistently. If you picked reliability, deliver work that is reliable and trustworthy.
Today’s Action Steps
Here’s how you can act on this advice today:
- Review your LinkedIn page.
- Look for others who are in similar industries and examine their LinkedIn Pages.
- Update your LinkedIn page to reflect your quality and imitate more successful profiles.
Outro
Personal branding is today’s most important activity to increase your reach and become more successful in your field.
Start today. If you don’t, in 10 years, you will have wished you started 10 years ago.
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And that’s all for this week. See you next Monday.
P.S. I’d love to hear what challenges you are facing in your business. What can I write about to help you personally?
Reply back to this email to let me know.