4 Steps to Creating Your Personal Brand (For Both On & Offline)

Personal branding is not a new concept. It was first coined by Napoleon Hills in 1937 in the book Think and Grow Rich. However, over the last decade, as careers have started to shift away from the traditional setting (such as W-2 employees, office & in-person requirements, & pension plans) to a more non-traditional career ecosystem (more freelancers and 1099's, less job security, employees looking for more flexibility & less desk jobs, and hundreds of thousands of student loan debt), personal branding, individualism, and self-positioning has largely increased.

And, in this day of endless competition and saturated job markets, personal branding is one of the key topics that you cannot afford to skip out on.

Why so?

When you have a consistent voice and a strong personal presence & brand you are much more likely to have:

less career burnout
more job satisfaction
employers & clients chasing after you (and not the other way around)
getting paid what you are actually worth
better work/life integration & balance

After working with hundreds of professionals and teaching the tools of personal branding, here are my top four tips on how to grow an influential personal brand beginning today:

Step 1. Define your Value Proposition: Define what makes you unique because being different IS cool, sexy, & very on trend right now. What is your mission statement? What is most important to you? What problems do you solve? What area is your zone of genius? What do you want to be known for? Address these questions first, & start here.

Step 2. Nail the Art of the Humble Brag: Once you've identified your niche, get comfortable (& confident) in articulating and communicating to key stakeholders as to why they should trust you or listen to you. This is such a critical step that so many of us skim over - Practice, Practice, and More Practice is the most important part of this step!

Step 3. Build Brand Awareness & Marketing: Visibility = Credibility. Gone are the days can you hide behind your desk & your computer screen, and expect employers & clients to come to you. You need a robust referral network & evidence that you are the expert in your niche in order to stand out and be seen. Otherwise you risk blending in.

Step 4. Create your Strategy (& execute on it): Gone are the days can you just "wing it" and hope that you accomplish & achieve your goals. To stand out in this marketplace, you need a tailored strategy and a roadmap on how to navigate marketing yourself & standing out.

Overall, your personal brand is essentially what people say about you when you are not in the room.

Your brand will continue to evolve as you shift through different seasons in your career too - so don't think you have to have it all figured out to get started on this process.

In order to create your brand by design (and not by default), check out more of my philosophies on this topic here: Why Developing a Personal Brand Is Your Key to Standing out in a Saturated Job Market

Here are a few websites where you can learn more about the benefits of having an established personal brand:

18 Statistics That Prove Personal Branding Is Necessary

Why Personal Branding Is More Important Than Ever

10 Branding Statistics You Need to Know in 2021

Always with you!

xx,

Ashlee

Ashlee Klevens Hayes, PharmD, MHA

Executive Career Strategist

e: HELLO@RXASHLEE.COM
(SHE/HER/HERS)