Personal Branding is NOT Image Management

Breaking some myth: 

Personal Branding is not a very talked about subject in India yet, though this is a huge thing in west. Unfortunately, the few so called Personal Branding “companies” in India are primarily into Image consulting while calling it personal branding. This is not only fueling the misconception around it, it primarily amounts to deceiving people with a very wrong notion.

Personal Branding is based on personal goals of individuals which are tuned based on individual strengths, experience, expertise and knowledge for a long term purpose, with a Roadmap and timeline as well as skill-set adjustments.

This also defines the potential  Customer Group the individual might be addressing (example a mid level executive’s CG can be the CEO of the organization; an artist’s CG can be the gallery owners, or a start-up entrepreneur’s CG could be investors or end users ) as well as the positioning that one should take given the above factors (GOTO person, best in the industry, great story writer, etc)

Imagine two beautifully wrapped boxes. One is covered in attractive wrapping paper, but contains only scraps, while the other has unique and excellent gifts inside it.

Image Management is like the first box that deals with your ‘image’ or appearance alone, whereas Personal Branding is essential life or career strategy to make you Unique and Influential in the area of your work or specialization.

Tell The World Your Worth.

A lot of entrepreneurs, business owners and professionals struggle with self-promotion as well as personal brand building.

Most of them struggle because of 2 very costly limiting beliefs - not because they are humble or introvert.

The first is…

“I’m ‘just’ a small operation / one person. No one’s interested in what someone in my position is up to or has to say.”

The other is…

“I know I need to promote myself and build my own brand and influence, but I have no clue how to do it and it seems like a huge job that I’m not up to handling.”

Now think hard : The way things work in the “New Media Age”, you DO ABSOLUTELY have a voice, and people absolutely DO want to learn from your expertise.

And second: Yeah, it can be difficult if you’re trying to build influence from scratch without a solid step-by step plan.

But starting today, let's change that. 
Let's create that plan...

Simplifying Personal Brand

Think of a work situation. Whenever there is a problem with creating a brilliant presentation for any key meetings, everyone goes to Priya; or if everyone gets stuck with some technology at work, the first person they think of is Rahul. And many a times both Priya and Rahul’s KRA doesn’t even include these skills! Yet they do it – because they love it and they have become experts in these skills!

Now, both Priya and Rahul has got something special  – Priya is remembered for her skills in making absolutely killing presentation; and Rahul is the problem solver all things technology.

Both of them are known for these skills and have become the “Go To” persons in their respective fields.

So, what is that special thing that they have? They have something called a Personal Brand! 

What happens when you have a Personal Brand?

First – you become a GO TO person, so your value increases tremendously.

Then, you become a problem solver – that means people will wait outside your door to hire you.

Three, your Prestige goes up in the industry. 

However, in most cases, either people do not understand the importance of a personal brand – because they don’t know yet what makes them the “GO TO” person; or they keep themselves busy in a career which is not their true calling and therefore, cannot utilize the true value of a personal brand!

It is also to be remembered that a Personal Brand doesn’t work if you do not know how to articulate it and communicate it to your target audience.

Therefore, Personal Brand needs lots of effort, planning and sincere execution to arrive at the result that you set out with in the first place.

 So, How to build a Personal Brand? 

Well, write to me atsusmita@thesmartideas.in and we can begin this wonderful process.

Personal Branding - Summed Up

Personal branding describes the process by which individuals, professionals & entrepreneurs differentiate themselves and stand out from a crowd by identifying and articulating their unique value proposition, whether professional or personal, and then leveraging it across platforms with a consistent message to achieve a specific goal.  It is also a process of self discovery of your strengths, capabilities, passions, likes and interest – that contribute positively to your professional, social and personal life.

In this way, an individual can

• enhance their recognition as experts in their field, 

• establish reputation and credibility,

• advance their careers, and

• build self-confidence. 

Personal Branding is NOT Image Management.

The term personal brand is believed to have first appeared in the August 1997 issue of Fast Company Magazine, in an article by management guru and author Tom Peters, who wrote,

"We are CEOs 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."