This is the last post in our series where we follow Marcos Salazar’s personal branding journey, as he uses the concepts and four-step process outlined in Me 2.0 for his own career.
It’s been an amazing month sharing my personal branding journey with all of you. I have received great feedback, engaged in some interesting discussions, and made some good friends along the way. For that, I thank all of you who took time out of your busy lives to read (my often long) blog posts and would love for you to continue following on my personal blog via email or RSS.
The value of taking a periodic step back
As I reflected back on my personal branding journey this past week, I thought about all that I have learned about what it means to create a personal brand today. Things such as the tricky balance of marketing yourself while not being seen as a pure self-promoter, the value of forming relationships via social media, or developing a brand that makes you a purple cow are just a few of many lessons I learned that will help me in building a strong personal brand going forward. However, what may have been the most important thing I have learned on this journey is that developing a strong personal brand can be used as a psychological tool for personal growth.
Instead of just seeing personal branding as tool to market yourself, it is important to see it as an avenue for digging deeper and deeper into who you truly are and who you want to eventually become. In today’s ever changing, hypercompetitive working world we are always on the go and often so focused on getting to that end goal that we don’t stop and see what’s right in front of us. Therefore, it is important for us from time to time to take a step back and ask ourselves if our current personal brand is in line with what we are passion about. So when you get a chance, set some time aside, look at the bigger picture, and see if your personal brand is aligned with your both your passions and professional goals.
Continue focusing your brand
While I decided to develop my brand as a Renaissance Worker with this concept encompassing my varied skills, talents, and work experiences into one identity, I have come to see that you simply can’t focus on all of them at once. A problem I often have is I sometimes take on too many projects at the same time and spread myself thin. Well, if you add too many slashes to your personal brand there is a potential to spread others people’s attentions too thin also. Therefore, as time goes on I will continue to tighten up my brand more and more while exploring the passions that are most important to me.
One example of getting more focused is deciding on the topics I will be writing about on my personal blog, www.marcossalazar.com. As I was thinking about new blog posts I wanted to write, I realized I needed to focus my topics so people can know what type of information and resources I will be providing. This is why I have decided to put my writing under a smaller of themes:
1. Psychological Development for Young Professionals
2. Career adventurism in the 21st century
3. Gen Y & Millennial issues (work, social, professional, & psychological topics)
I may throw in occasional posts from some of my other slashes such as girl and women leadership, social media, exercise and fitness, and a new area I am exploring – Gen Y & Millennial politics – but for the time being my writing will be focused on these three themes.
In addition to my blog, I have learned how valuable a tool Twitter is to raise awareness about your brand out. Therefore, I will also be focusing my Twitter streams just like my blog. I love how Dan does such a great job of being a resource for topics related to Personal Branding and highlights them with caps at the beginning of most tweets. I will be doing something similar but will focus my tweets on the topics above.
Syncing your growth
As you evolve as a person, so should your brand. In the 21st century we are not going to stay in the same job, or even the same field, for the rest of our lives. Therefore, as your passions, interests, and talents expand, so should your personal brand. This may not necessarily mean going the route I have gone of developing a whole brand around all of your passions and talents but rather, learning how to integrate your growth to serve and further your personal brand. Good luck and hope you enjoyed my personal branding journey!
Author:
Marcos Salazar is the author of The Turbulent Twenties Survival Guide, which focuses on the psychology of life after college and what graduates go through as the make the transition from school to the working world. He writes a career adventurism and psychological development blog for young professionals at www.marcossalazar.com. You can connect with him on Twitter @marcossalazar.
