A couple of years ago I was doing a presentation about career management and personal branding.
I did about 30 minutes on personal branding, with examples, gotchas, etc., and at the end this lady said “I still don’t understand what personal branding is.” I’m glad she voiced her concern because so many people just don’t get it.
My thought was “my heavens, I just spent 30 minutes telling you – how can you not know now??”
Instead of saying that I had a phrase pop into my head, and it’s been my definition of personal branding since then:
“Personal branding is simply how other perceive you.”
I don’t care how YOU perceive you.
It’s all about how others perceive you.
How would they describe you?
What would they say about you?
If you ask them you might be surprised how inaccurate they are, or what they focus on (your sense of humor instead of your ninja project management skills).
Most people haven’t spent time helping others think about them in the right way, with the right language, and the way they are perceived is left up to anyone they meet.
That’s not good strategy.
Here’s something to think about:
How do you want others to perceive you?
If you can answer that, and work towards helping others understand that, you are on the right path!
