To begin with, let us try an figure out an answer for this simple question: What exactly is personal branding ?

Here’s the deal, Personal Branding is simply your magic that makes you standout amongst the many. Its your possession of the values you stand for and offerings that you consistently deliver. After all, you are one of a kind! So, it would be better if you are aware of what makes you YOU! Your skills, special assets and experience will together sum up to be your personal branding characteristics.

Personal Branding: A Leadership Imperative Step

Personal Branding is quite similar to a trademark, something which is uniquely yours, something to be carefully managed and protected. When you live up to your personal brands, you tend to be true to yourself. This notion comes through specially when you interact with others and start realizing . In a nutshell, one can say that personal branding is a leadership imperative. Personal branding brings out the authentic leader inside you as you tend to act and response keeping in mind the vision of who you are, what your abilities are and what matters to you, be it professionally or personally.

Lets Talk About how to Build your Brand

Well, its easy. To be able to truly live your brand, you need to define it first. You need to figure out what are you passionate about and in which field do you consider yourself an expert. You need to keep asking questions to yourself such as what is it that you want to be known as, how will you narrate your story, unless you get the answers. You must understand, you are the writer of your own story and the canvas is limited. So you need the best art ! You need to figure out the best in you which is all the more exciting.

Take time while you figure out your personal brand. It simply doesn’t happen in one go, in fact takes a lot of time and patience to be able to figure out what is your personal branding.It reacquires adequate self-analysis and self introspection, something that might be a bit troublesome for most. Once this part is clear, rewards will surely be heart warming.

Here are a couple of tips associated with personal brand building.

Be active: You should own your career. It is quite understandable that one can be personally accountable for her own professional growth at the same time managing it as well. You never know what will be the profile for you tomorrow, depending upon your credentials, your skills etc. So it is recommended to be proactive and be upfront while paving your path towards a successful career. Different roles seek different understanding levels and different ways in which one manages the tediousness of work and responsibility.

Be visible: Its important to maintain a certain level of visibility among your co-workers or your organization. You can’t just store all your skills in yourself and preserve it ! You need to bring it out and let the world be aware of your skills, your capabilities and your self !Introduce yourself to the world, have business cards showing off your profile. Make a statement every time you get a chance. That`s how you initiate on the process of personal brand building.

Professional Speaker & Personal Brand Launcher – Michelle Villalobos