Helpful Thoughts on Elevating Your Personal Brand

As an entrepreneur or professional, your personal brand is your most valuable asset. It’s how people see you and what they think about you when your name comes up. A weak personal brand will kill opportunities before they even have a chance to emerge. Having a strong personal brand, on the other hand, can open doors and create opportunities. 

Here are some helpful ways to elevate your personal brand.

Understand Your Brand

Before you can elevate your personal brand, you need to understand what it is. In the simplest form, your personal brand is a combination of your skills, experiences, and personality – and how people perceive these elements within you. To put it another way: It’s what makes you unique. Start by asking yourself a few questions:

1. What are my strengths?
2. What am I passionate about?
3. What are my values?
4. What do I want to be known for?

Take some time to reflect on these questions. The answers will help you define your personal brand and give you a clear direction for how to elevate it.

Build an Online Presence

Your online presence is more critical than it’s ever been. With a lot of networking and business being done online, your internet presence is often the first place people will look to learn more about you. Here’s how to build a strong online presence:

1. Create a Professional Website: Your website is your online home. It’s your little plot of real estate in the online world – the only place you get 100 percent control over. It should include a bio, your resume or portfolio, and contact information. Make sure it’s clean, professional, and easy to navigate.

2. Leverage Social Media: Choose the social media platforms that best suit your personal brand. You don’t need to be everywhere. Instead, pick a platform or two and focus your energy on those. Instagram is great for LinkedIn Introductions, while LinkedIn Twitter can be useful for sharing your thoughts and connecting with like-minded individuals in a more creative light.

3. Start a Content Channel: Sharing your knowledge and experiences through a blog, YouTube channel, or Podcast can help establish you as an expert in your field. Write or talk about topics that interest you and are relevant to your brand. This will attract people who share your interests and can open up opportunities for collaboration. If you spend a lot of time at in-person events or conferences, consider printing booklets of your best content and handing them out after speaking gigs. (Include your bio and social links for people to easily find you online).

Network, Network, Network

Networking is another key component of elevating your personal brand. As the old business saying goes, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. But you could also extend that saying to it’s not just about who you know, but also who knows you. 

Here are some tips for building up a network of people who know you:

1. Attend Events: Go to industry conferences, workshops, and meetups. These events are great opportunities to meet people in your field and learn from experts.

2. Join Professional Organizations: Becoming a member of a professional organization can help you connect with others in your industry. Many organizations also offer resources for professional development.

3. Be Authentic: When networking, be yourself. People are more likely to remember you if you’re genuine and authentic. That means going beyond the basic elevator pitch and boilerplate sayings. Be a relaxed and down-to-earth person. Have the kind of conversations you’d have if you were meeting a peer at a kid’s birthday party and you were sitting around chatting with a beer in your hand.

Seek Feedback

Feedback is a valuable tool for personal growth. It can help you understand how others perceive your brand and identify areas for improvement. You just have to know how to get the feedback.

The number one piece of advice is to never be afraid to ask colleagues, mentors, and friends for feedback. Most people are afraid of the possibility of getting constructive criticism, so they avoid asking. But if you can just put yourself in a frame of mind where you realize that criticism and feedback is a form of people caring for you and your development, it changes the game. People who know you can provide valuable insights into your strengths and areas for growth.

There are also online tools available that can help you gather feedback from your network. These tools can provide anonymous feedback, which can sometimes be more honest and constructive. (Just be cautious with how you use this. You probably don’t want to ask your Twitter followers, as you might become a victim of trolling.)

Once you get some feedback, take the time to reflect on what you hear. Rather than instantly getting defensive about constructive feedback, lean into it and use it to make positive changes to your personal brand.

Stay Consistent With Your Personal Brand

Consistency is key when it comes to building and maintaining a personal brand. Make sure your actions, words, and online presence all align with your personal brand. Consistency builds trust and credibility, while deviations make people question your authenticity.

Regularly take the time to review your personal brand and make adjustments as needed. As you grow and evolve, your brand should too. As you mature in your personal brand, you’ll start to feel how natural evolution elevates your brand to a whole new level.