Brand Yourself
Brand Marketing
All of us need to understand the importance of branding. We are CEO’s of our own companies: Me Inc. To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called You – Tom Peters
Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records. Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name. Going to a job interview? Ditto – Tim Ferriss
You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well – Jeff Bezos
If you want to fly the best airlines in the world then try Emirates or Qatar Airways. If you want to wear the best watches in the world then buy a Rolex Submariner, Omega Speed Master, or an Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Italy, France, and Mexico are the best countries to visit if you want to experience great food. Everything is a brand in itself.
Identify your strengths
Therefore, if you want to thrive in 2020 and get a job then you must sell yourself and build a brand.
You are the brand and the most valuable intangible asset. You need to see yourself as cherished, lucrative, and luxuriant. As a person you can have a huge impact by being authentic, real, vulnerable, and transparent. You have the distinction to impact the purchasing behavior of the consumer. You represent your beliefs and values. After that you have customers, followers, and clients who give you power. In other words, you are acceptable and recognizable.
Your principles need to be clarity, visibility, continuity, authenticity, and consistency. As a brand you need to have some competitive advantages. Your strategy has to be aligned with your goals, values, vision, and mission statement.
Look at your resume what are your skills, accomplishments and why do you want to pursue a career in this specific industry. Make sure your resume is engaging and wants the interviewer to be interested.
Develop your brand
In addition, the significant facets of the brand are name, slogan, and stories. As a brand you need to create an identity that promotes your principles, purpose, and ambition. The aspect of human characteristics associated with a brand is its personality. Your personality is the main differentiator as it builds an emotional connection with another human being.
Work on a branding statement on Linkedin and Twitter. Is your online presence aligned with your goals, values and does it reflect you as the person? The resume, cover letter, and your online presence is a business card.
Dress professionally
Most people make an impression in the first ten seconds. When you go to buy a product, we always want to buy what looks attractive. The packaging is important. Dress appropriately and professionally for what the job requires.
Tell me a little about you
Make sure you have an elevator pitch to talk about you, your accomplishments, and what you can do for the company.
Birds of a feather hang together
Just like an organization targets its potential audience, you need to target your potential companies. Make a list of companies you want to work for. Call the person responsible for hiring. Tell them you want an informational interview. Tell them how you can solve their problems.
Here is my challenge for you for 2020. Go ahead and build a brand for your self.
Photo Credits: Chris Karidis Bram Naus Green Chameleon Nassim Handstied Christina @ wocintechchat.com
2020, a year that will go down in history. With so many losing their jobs and probably even venturing out for a whole new and different career will surely benefit from all of this beneficial information when branding yourself…and finding that new career. Great post, I enjoyed reading it.
Great post. Branding is necessary. It’s like feeding your baby everyday to grow them up.
This is now a different ballgame in marketing ourselves. Time to reboot our resume.
This is a timely post Jerry as I have once again going through the process of job hunting and having to do all of what you mentioned above. It really is all about selling you as is much of our life anyway. Oddly enough I just posted something on finding your strengths. 🙂
I love this idea of treating yourself as a brand – because that’s exactly what we are. When we understand our value and worth, we can pitch ourselves and our strengths with more confidence. Anything can look good on paper, but the visual, the presentation needs to match up!
Some really good tips here. I’m definitely not the best at marketing myself when it comes to job interviews.
Great tips! I work for myself and always need to find working contacts. I do need to learn to see my skills higher
Some great tips here, it’s really important to look and feel the part when going for a job interview. That is also a great reason to create an online presence: when your employer googles you and finds great content you’ve produced and that is valued by others in similar industries, that can make them much more interested.
This is such valuable information! Especially for those that are just getting ready to graduate from school and head into the work force. Not that we all shouldn’t brand ourselves, but that generation tends to forget that their actions online can impact their real life… As you said, people can easily Google you, and they do! Often potential employers will Google you and brows your social media accounts – what kind of image are you creating? Is it ‘on brand’ with the image you’re trying to portray?
Here is a topic so close to my heart and something that I have been talking about to MBA students whom I coach for years together. In this highly competitive world just a degree is not enough as many have the same or advanced degrees. There comes personal branding which makes the real difference between getting the top job or missing out.
I love this post. There are so manu useful hints and tips here for sure. Many people will find this so useful especially with job losses we will see in 2020 x
One of the things that I’ve been focused on lately is brand recognition. As you talked about earlier, it is so important and a huge aspect of a business that I think is often ignored to an extent. My favorite piece of advice here is treat yourself like a brand.
I’ve worked for the same school district since 1997, so I haven’t had an actual job interview in over 20 years. However, as I work on my blog, I’ve been thinking about branding. While it’s not currently a business, per se, perhaps one day it may become one.
Great post. It’s something I am seriously working on as I’m out of the job market but will be soon ready to re-enter it. I think having an elevator pitch is so essential – not just for work but outside as well. It’s the chance to verbally give someone a first impression of you. Make it interesting, make it count. And showing confidence while you pitch it is half the work!
This is such a great post.. I love this post. It just changed my mindset on some certain things. I like the fact you said Me Inc😊.. Yes, we need to have some certain principles and work on ourselves first before we can be able to convince people about our brand. Thanks for sharing. God bless!