Sustainable Success Is Built on the Foundation of Your Personal Brand

By | May 3, 2023

You will always have Your Brand to Fall Back onThe best security you have to ensure that, despite any challenges or setbacks you may face, you are able to bounce back and continue travelling down the path to success, is a brand, which people can depend upon. Who you are speaks volumes and when you live in alignment with a consistent brand, which adds real value to the people around you. Your brand will stand the test of time, allowing you to triumph over adversity, earn the support and buy in of people who matter, allowing you to build and sustain mutually beneficial relationships with them.Shaping your BrandYour authentic brand must obviously be aligned with your mission and vision for the future. So when designing your brand and crafting your brand statement, it is crucial that you ensure, you craft it to support, both your mission and vision for the future.Developing your Brand StatementExamine your mission and vision for the future. Try to discover an authentic brand, which is in alignment with both, but is a true reflection of who you are. People will very quickly see through you, if you are not authentic and you are trying to reflect an image to the world, which is false and not who you really are inside. Build a crystal clear picture in your mind of what that brand is and find one word which encapsulates that image. This one word will now form the foundation for crafting your brand statement.Who are you, What do you do and Who do you serviceUsing that one word, which encompasses and describes your brand and what you stand for as a starting point, start to craft your brand statement. Your brand statement is effectively a statement which aligns you and what you stand for with your mission and vision. My brand statement is “I share the gift of inspiration with high performance business professionals”Action Idea: Now invest the time to craft your own brand statement. Strive to ensure that it reflects who you really are, what you stand for and that it is aligned with your mission and vision.Packaging your BrandIf you think about any great brands, such as Apple, Starbucks, Harley Davidson or Nike, they all have a story behind their brand, which we can relate to on an emotional level. Their stories allow us to get to know them, connect with them and in many cases even fall in love with the brand. Ask any loyal Harley rider or Apple computer user, if they would consider using any other brand and they will give you a quizzical look and shake their head. Every great brand that exists out there has a fantastic narrative, which is compelling and awe inspiring. One which arouses emotions illustrates what they stand for and illuminates the values they project to the world.Action Idea: Explore your own story, which defines who you are and what values you stand for. This is one of the most difficult parts of the process and requires you to open your mind and to allow it to walk freely into your past. Explore your life and uncover a few stories you remember from your childhood or any stories in your life, which were defining moments for you.This is a very difficult step, if you are struggling to come up with any stories. Interview your family, or friends who you have shared a common history with and try to piece together stories, which could help you to have stories to support your brand.I know it is difficult to talk about yourself, but to build your brand, it is crucial that you have stories to tell. People relate far better to you, if they see that you too have vulnerabilities, can laugh at your own mistakes and that you are real. Your stories will help you to better engage, connect with people and allow you to have a far greater impact on your world.Sharing your BrandAs you move around in your world, share the stories which reflect your brand. These stories must reflect who you really are, where your passion lies, what your values are and must reflect what makes you unique. Social media offers us a wonderful opportunity to tell our stories and to build our brand. What story are you telling the world via your social media platforms, is it the picture you want and need to have in place to realise your mission and vision into the future.Walk your TalkThe final step in the process of telling the world about your brand requires you to live according to it. This means that you must be living your brand 24/7/365, not only in business settings. You are your own giant billboard. Whatever the world sees projected from this billboard is what they use to make decisions about what your brand really stands for. For example my brand stands for “Inspiration”. I work very hard to project an image of inspiration to the world in everything I do. I always try to project an inspired and energised persona, where I try to exceed people’s expectations.Are you living up to your Brand all the time? Are your personal actions reflecting your brand all the time? If not what adjustments are you going to make to bring it into line with what you need to be doing? Once you have invested into building your brand, you will become an unstoppable force, which will succeed, despite any current or future economic conditions.