building your personal brand!

Now let’s start by addressing what exactly I mean by building your own personal brand because I am not about to tell you how to build your own business. Over the next few articles, I plan to teach you how to build your own business persona. Each interaction, communication, and post you put out or complete builds a different aspect of who you are in the world of business, more specifically: your reputation in business.

               Think of your brand as your aesthetic: if you’re a more laid-back individual you may wear tennis shoes, meanwhile someone with a more professional approach may opt for slacks and heels or dress shoes. Neither is better for one person than the other unless you are intentionally choosing what to wear and how to dress based on how you communicate to clients and how you want them to view you. I personally wouldn’t buy a hot dog from a lady in heels, and I wouldn’t fully trust a banker who did business in his running shoes. There are so many little things in this series that we will discuss in order to help you present your internal perception of your own personality to those around you.

               I’ve had many coworkers over the years with many different business personas. For example, my two managers this last summer were polar opposites. One was big on hospitality, he always had a welcoming smile and a list of questions at the forefront of his mind such as “how’s the family?” “how’s the dog” which presented a more personal feeling when conversating. Meanwhile, my other manager was very laid back, using brief welcomes and encouraging conversation points such as “he’s such a hard worker” and other statements related to people’s successes when introducing them to coworkers which gave the feeling of admiration without feeling overwhelmed by his strong compliments. These different relational approaches, while they may be a subconscious development for my two managers, were vital to their successes. They created similar yet almost polarly opposite personalities that enticed a feeling of personal connection with each of them and their respective customers. Having a consistent approach was key to keeping their customers coming back, and hopefully by the end of this series you will be able to do the same.

You can show your personality through:

Emails

Call scripts

Body language

Clothing, and more.

All of which we will discuss over the next few articles.

               When you develop your personal brand, it will become your reputation whether that is a hard worker, a friendly face, a family man/woman, or a role model. All of these are different personas that you can focus in on and develop in your daily life in order to build yourself into the businessperson that you have always seen yourself as. Hopefully by the end of this series we will have found a way for you to outwardly express this internal persona to those around you.