Personal Branding Weekly – Build Your Relationships First

It’s not often, even though I’m from Texas, that I can say I spent a few days with some cowboys. But, this week I did. Actually, they were once known as the culinary cowboys (lucky for me – people who know and love their food!) Yet, they were cowboys in other ways. To me a cowboy is often a risk taker, forges out to discover something new and is a great adventurer no matter what dangers the adventure brings.

These cowboys (who I’ll introduce in a future post) have forged out with a new and pretty amazing way to network, promote and teach others how to harness the power of word of mouth. What’s their secret sauce? Build relationships first. If you go into any meeting (formal or informal) with someone for the first time and you think you’re going to sell them, garner support, convince them to hire or to invest in you, then you lose immediately. When you build relationships first, you create something lasting that builds trust and opens up far more circles of influence than you will ever reach all by yourself.

Here’s what our Personal Branding “cowboys” covered last week:

One of my cowboy moments was the creation of #brandchat (a weekly chat of Twitter all about branding). Here’s an interview of how I leveraged a Twitter Chat and focus – click here.

Enjoy these seven stand out key points on Personal Branding from the Personal Branding Authors:

1. Working when your career tank is near empty is not good for you, your company or your personal brand. (Author, Marc Miller)
2. Look for people who convey positive thoughts. Optimism is a key component to a quality company that you want a job offer from. (Author, Ken Sundheim)
3. You are the expert in the delivery of your product or service, but you’re not the authority in how your market perceives your brand. (Author, Leslie Truex)
4. Whether you are just starting out your career or whether you are well established in your chosen profession, put in the work. (Author, Jeff Shuey)
5. Being a parent is part of your core but you can successfully brand yourself outside those limitations. (Author, Katie Parsons)
6. Creating and executing your unique career plan can provide you a competitive advantage over 90% of your competition. (Author, Richard Kirby)
7. Your appearance tells others that you’re capable of taking on whatever task you’re given. Others will be drawn to you because you seem confident and successful. Back this up with intelligent things to say, and you’re golden. (Author, Heather Huhman)

This week – look forward to insights and practical tips about:

• The #1 killer of job hunting success
• Keeping confidences
• Developing a personal brand mindset
• Moving to a new city and what that means to your personal brand
• The importance of the language of branding
• Focusing on what you can do and the importance of mindfulness
• How to handle personal branding when you’re an independent contractor
• And, the best way to partner with recruiters