The purpose of personal branding is to ATTRACT what you want from others, without the stress of selling, sending out dozens of ignored resumes or begging investors to fund your venture.
In other words, the only reason to create a personal brand is to help people who HAVE the things you want, enjoy the privilege and pleasure of giving those things to you.
Of course, the transaction must be good for them, and you must be qualified to deliver what they need.
What you have for your audience
That “thing” you want could be a job in a new industry, a promotion in the company you’re currently in, a consulting gig, new clients who pay their bills on time, orders for your products, or investors who are enthusiastic but not overbearing. Your personal brand might be geared to your getting media coverage, a reality show, a steady flow of referrals, or recommendations from people in high places: whatever it is you want to attract and leverage.
But most important, the goal of your personal brand is to IGNITE THE FEELING in your audience that they are LUCKY to connect with you. For people to feel DELIGHTED that they got you on board. To feel that by supporting you, promoting you, investing in you, hiring you, or buying from you, that they are truly making the best possible use of their resources.
Those resources might be their money, time, a prime position in their company, and MOST OF ALL the TRUST that you and what you produce or provide will be a tremendous asset to their endeavor or life. It must be true that you would truly contribute to these people achieving their goals and aspirations. And, how great for them that they found you!
As a former marketing executive with the number one most recognized brand in the world: The Coca-Cola Company. I speak to audiences all around the world on personal branding and why people buy. Among my proudest affiliation is that I teach at UCLA Extension, where I enjoy sharing what I find most personally and intellectually challenging as well as what I believe is the greatest service to people who want to transform their careers and business. This is what I do for students at UCLA Extension in my Personal Branding Bootcamp, coming up this November 17-18, daily with my clients at ShoutBrand, and what I did on CNBC – where I was named America’s Job Coach.
I am sharing my bonifides with you because I came from nowhere, the daughter of a milkman and a homemaker, living on $400 a month. If the art of personal branding did NOT really work, I would not enjoy an amazing career that includes the opportunity for me to talk with you today.
By the time you have finished our post today, you will learn the purpose of personal branding and the three most important questions to get you started on creating – or revising – your goals for your personal brand.
Consider these three questions right now:
- How many people who have what you want, KNOW you right now?
- How many of those people FEEL LUCKY they know you? and
- How many people know HOW THEY can help you achieve YOUR goals?
These three questions are the foundation of setting realistic and attainable outcomes, as they relate to your success with an audience. Audience? Are you thinking: what on earth is an audience when it comes to you and your business or career goals?
Your audience
Well, I use the term audience to mean those people who have what you want. If you were a movie star, you’d need an audience to pay for movie tickets and the DVDs or digital downloads that pay your salary.
YOUR audience might be recruiters who are the gatekeepers to the job you want, or people who can refer you to hiring managers. Your audience might be potential clients, or people who might be referral sources to those clients. Perhaps you have a venture, and so your audience is investors and other types of funders. Your audience might include a whole host of people who need to see you, hear from you, learn from you, get good advice from you and to whom you show your stuff on social networks and social media. Your audience might be the broadcast media, online media sites or bloggers.
And, your audience is any one person or thousands of people with whom you come into contact in your daily life, at networking events, even at family gatherings like weddings, reunions, and holiday dinners.
Yes, you may have figured it out by now. You have an audience everywhere you appear – even when these other people don’t think they’re your audience. That is a fundamental principle of successful personal branding. You must think of everyone and anyone as an audience, and you’ve got to think of yourself as the star of your own life, business and career.
Now you know WHY you need to appear on – and represent yourself – to the one billion plus people who are on Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google Plus, Twitter, blogs, your YouTube channel, Foursquare, AND any other social networking site or physical event where your audience is.
You’ve got to present a crisp, clear and compelling – as well as authentic – image about who you are , which is what we now call your personal brand.
And so, I promised when we started you would know the purpose of creating a personal brand, and the three most fundamental questions to help you set goals for it.
Now take a piece of paper and write down the answer to these three questions.
- How many people who have what you want, KNOW you right now?
- How many of those people FEEL LUCKY they know you?
- How many people know HOW they can help you achieve your goals?
Take your time with these three key questions, and see if they help you develop a winning personal brand. And, if you want to fly in, drive in or otherwise join us at the UCLA Personal Branding Bootcamp, sign up by Nov 15 and get a special bonus branding kit from me! See you there!
