personal brand Archives

In News

Ten Tips For Networking Excellence In 2023

September 18, 2023 No Comments

Networking is an essential skill for entrepreneurs to learn because it generates business.

The term networking can become over complicated. It is simply starting and nurturing relationships which is something that humans do throughout life.

It doesn’t have to be difficult. Practice, repetition and following the tips below will help you build rewarding professional relationships wherever you are, whether that’s at work, a seminar, a party or on a flight.

Define Your Objectives.

Who do you want to meet and why? How many networking events will you commit to attending? Where will you go to network? How will you measure your progress? What do I want to get help with?

Asking yourself these powerful questions is a great place to start. You can’t hit a goal without a target, so be strategic about your time and your intentions.

Be Mindful Of Your Personal Brand

First impressions really do count. Before attending a networking event, think about how you will introduce yourself. Do you have an elevator pitch of around 30 seconds? If not, write and practice one. Make sure you are dressed well and feel confident in your appearance (whatever that means to you). Your personal brand also follows you online, so be mindful of how you want to show up.

Find A Networking Partner

Networking can feel scary. Introverts should find someone to attend events with to take the edge off. This tip is also very good if you know that you need help staying accountable. Having a networking partner will mean you’re both more likely to show up.

Be Vulnerable

Is anybody surprised that 75% of entrepreneurs have reported concerns for their mental health? Running a business is hard and can be a lonely road. This is not to say that you should treat networking as a free talking therapy, but be vulnerable about the problems in your industry or that you’re facing in business. Vulnerability builds deeper connections more quickly, and you never know if the person you’re talking to has the perfect solution to the issue that’s holding you back.

Take Advantage Of The Internet

LinkedIn is not just an online resume. It’s the most suited platform for building professional relationships, so make sure to interact with content, post your own content and send direct messages. Aside from LinkedIn, you can network on every other social media platform. Attending online workshops and being active in forums are other ways to meet people who share your interests.

Always Add Value

When you make a connection ask yourself two questions.

How can I help this person?
Who else in my network can help this person?

Openly sharing knowledge, contacts and opportunities to help others win will create a culture of generosity within the relationship. The other person will be more likely to help and introduce you to others when the time comes.

Listen

People tend to talk more than they listen. If you can learn to truly listen, you will gather so much information about people, the industries they are in and the professional problems they face. It is said that knowledge is power.

Follow Up

Networking doesn’t start until you follow up. Aim to send a text, email or direct message within 24 hours of meeting someone. Check in with them every 3 to 6 months to further nurture the relationship.

Review Your Progress

Six months after attending a networking event, review the relationships that were built. You might start to notice trends such as which types of events are the most beneficial to your networking goals. From this exercise, you can tailor your networking strategy if needed.

Take The Pressure Off

Building relationships is a skill that you have already been practicing for years, so try not to feel intimidated by the word networking or by trying to ‘do it right’. The more you network, the more confident you will get.

Social Networking. getty

Networking is about establishing connections and creating a supportive community. Even if you don’t have a specific product or service to promote, your presence can still contribute to engaging conversations, the exchange of ideas, and potential collaborations.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By Dr Byron Cole

Follow me on LinkedIn. Check out my website.

I’m a multi award-winning entrepreneur, author and business start-up expert with a diverse portfolio of over 21 businesses spanning the UK and UAE.

As a mentor, I’ve had the privilege of guiding countless individuals towards success, generating millions of pounds for my mentees.

My published works include “Self Made,” a comprehensive guide covering the entire business development process, from start-up to exit. It offers practical and implementable advice. Additionally, “The Business Survival Kit,” published by Penguin Random House, achieved Sunday Times Best Selling status in the UK. My most recent book, “Rich Forever,” published by Hachette, educates readers on financial literacy and the creation of generational wealth.

In 2022, my dedication and contributions to entrepreneurship were recognised by the University of Greenwich, where I was honoured with an honorary degree. This recognition further validates my commitment to excellence and reinforces my status as a prominent figure in the entrepreneurial realm.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

5 ways to build a personal brand focused on impact, not ego

July 7, 2023 No Comments

By Rusty Shelton

Branding means creating an image in the minds of your audience.

Few phrases generate grimaces from professionals at the same rate as “personal branding.”

In fact, be honest—did your stomach turn a little bit when you just read it?

For many, when they read that phrase, their minds immediately go to people who have ego-driven, “Hey, look at me” kind of brands.

In my experience, having this kind of aversion to personal branding is typically a good sign because it means that you’re not interested in building visibility focused on your ego which is a foundational mindset for building a great brand. But just because many people don’t build their brand the right way doesn’t mean you can’t—or shouldn’t.

Your personal brand matters more today than ever before, and it not only needs to be visible and authentic, but also must build trust before you get in the room. Today, the first place most potential employers, partners, clients, and employees will come in contact with you likely won’t be in person—it will be online after a quick search of your name.

The frank reality is that your brand is what Google says it is. Branding means creating an image in the minds of your audience, and if the first image your audience sees is online, you need to be intentional about it.

The good news is that the more visible and authentic your personal brand is, the more of an impact you can make on others, and the more leverage it gives you personally. Here are five ways to build a personal brand that is focused on impact, not ego:

1. Understand your “why”

The best personal brands are built when an individual is focused on being the messenger, not the message. To do this well, you must have a clear impact that you want to make. Get clear on your message from the start because building a strong brand takes commitment.

2. Conduct an online-brand audit

Before you can focus on growing your brand, you must understand your foundation. Do you have a “brand name” you can own? If someone does find you, is what they find going to encourage them to take a next step with you, or cause them to question whether you are the right fit? This first impression is happening based on your online brand whether you like it or not, so you should be thoughtful about it.

3. Build authority-by-association

Ideally, you want the visuals that make up your brand to say what you shouldn’t say about yourself. For instance, “She’s a credible thought leader with something to teach and not an operator with something to sell.” Make sure you are associating yourself with brands that your audience knows, trusts, and respects by going beyond stock photos or headshots. Be sure to highlight any media coverage you may have received, photos of you speaking, and other images that establish trust by putting you in a setting that builds credibility. Even if you don’t have a ton of media or speaking experience, you can showcase visuals that put you in a setting that connotes authority.

4. Create an intentional content strategy

Most well-meaning people who try to build thought leadership end up focusing entirely on strictly professional content, which often results in slow growth. Instead, blend “you-driven” content (your perspective, pictures, and stories), news-driven content (timely content that connects to the headlines), and relationship-driven content (such as an interview series or podcast) with your professional content.

5. Be your fullest self

In this age of ChatGPT, more content is getting created than ever before, so the only thing that will set you apart is you. Resist the urge to play some kind of role you think you need to play to be a thought leader, and instead be more of yourself by leaning into your personality, interests, and quirks. This will give real value to your audience. Who you are and what makes you different is ultimately the only reason why people will follow you instead of all the other choices out there.

Whether you like it or not, others are getting an image of you online, so be intentional about creating one that accelerates trust and is authentic to who you are. By doing so, you’ll create a bigger impact and avoid the ego-driven branding trap.

Feature Image Credit: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

By Rusty Shelton

Rusty Shelton is founder and chairman of Zilker Media and strategist for Forbes Books. He is the co-author of The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego.

Sourced from FastCompany

In News

Seven Steps to Get Your Business and Personal Brand AI-Ready?

July 5, 2023 No Comments

Sourced from The Network Journal

Online competition for attention and engagement has never been more intense and the rapid rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is exponentially increasing this tension, experts note. They advise leaders to get their personal and business brands AI-ready in order to stand out from the crowd and compete.

One such expert is Karen Tiber Leland, founder of Sterling Marketing Group, a branding and marketing strategy firm specializing in personal, business and CEO branding.

“Any CEO or entrepreneur who is not preparing their personal and business brands for the coming AI tidal wave is in a dangerous place,” Leland says.

Because AI language models (such as the hyper-popular ChatGPT) rely on large datasets of text from the Internet to learn and generate responses, she explains, “You have to teach Google who you are and what your company is about — across the net…If you don’t have online discoverability, credibility and relatability, you can’t compete.”

Not having enough quality content that Google can find creates AI generated generic responses about a brand based on the limited information available, she notes.

In a recent test, Leland asked AI about CEO clients who had very little online presence. “The response was, ‘I don’t have enough information to provide an accurate response,’ or, ‘I’m sorry, I don’t know much about this person,’” she says. “Not being on the radar becomes a huge opportunity cost.”

Below are seven essential steps Leland recommends taking to prepare personal and business brands for AI and explains why.

Stop avoiding AI and embrace education and experimentation. The more you avoid AI, the further behind you will get. One way to stop avoiding AI and prepare your brand is to educate yourself with the abundant online resources and experiment to see how it could work for your personal and business brands.

Accept the need to create a parallel CEO brand. Although 82 percent of all Americans (88 percent of older millennials) agree that companies are more influential if their CEO and executives have a personal brand, many C-suite leaders still believe they don’t need to create one, Leland says. “What they fail to understand is that they already have one. It is just a matter of if they want their brands to be by default or design.”

Consistently create an abundance of online, high-quality content. AI models can better understand and generate contextually relevant and accurate responses as they become more advanced. If your content is visible on Google and considered an authoritative source, it is more likely to be referenced by AI models when generating answers to relevant queries. Content can be articles, blog posts, podcasts, media interviews, social media posts, videos, etc.

Take a fresh look at your target audience. Knowing whom you are trying to reach and their concerns is critical in being AI-ready. AI itself can be a good source of gaining data and insights about what your target audience is now wanting and needing. This allows you to create brand messaging and content that resonates with them.

Monitor your online reputation monthly. Keeping track of when you are mentioned online, by whom and what is said is necessary in today’s wired world. A whole host of AI online reputation management tools can help you stay on top of your personal and business brands and allow you to address any issues sooner rather than later.

Flip the focus of your social media. A robust social media presence is undoubtedly essential in building a brand. Leland says the problem is that 80 percent of most companies’ posts focus on the company, with only 20 percent being educational or entertaining. The key is to start having 80 percent of your posts written around keywords, industry topics, trends, customer interests and thought leadership.

Teach Google who you are and what you stand for. If you want to be an authority, you must author something, says Leland. Leland suggests writing at least one long-form (600-1000 words) social media or blog post a month is the minimum you should go for. In addition, measuring social media solely through the lens of “engagement” is a mistake. Part of the purpose of today’s social media posting is to make yourself discoverable to Google and to teach it who you are and what you stand for.

The bottom line is, ignoring the trend of AI and chatbots in business and personal branding is a significant mistake, Leland warns. Even if you are not preparing your personal and business brands for AI, your competitors are.

Karen Tiber Leland is the author of “The Brand Mapping Strategy: Design, Build and Accelerate Your Brand.”

Feature Image Credit: Sanket Mishra

Sourced from The Network Journal

In News

5 ways to build a personal brand focused on impact, not ego

June 29, 2023 No Comments

By Rusty Shelton

Branding means creating an image in the minds of your audience.

Few phrases generate grimaces from professionals at the same rate as “personal branding.”

In fact, be honest—did your stomach turn a little bit when you just read it?

For many, when they read that phrase, their minds immediately go to people who have ego-driven, “Hey, look at me” kind of brands.

In my experience, having this kind of aversion to personal branding is typically a good sign because it means that you’re not interested in building visibility focused on your ego which is a foundational mindset for building a great brand. But just because many people don’t build their brand the right way doesn’t mean you can’t—or shouldn’t.

Your personal brand matters more today than ever before, and it not only needs to be visible and authentic, but also must build trust before you get in the room. Today, the first place most potential employers, partners, clients, and employees will come in contact with you likely won’t be in person—it will be online after a quick search of your name.

The frank reality is that your brand is what Google says it is. Branding means creating an image in the minds of your audience, and if the first image your audience sees is online, you need to be intentional about it.

The good news is that the more visible and authentic your personal brand is, the more of an impact you can make on others, and the more leverage it gives you personally. Here are five ways to build a personal brand that is focused on impact, not ego:

1. Understand your “why”

The best personal brands are built when an individual is focused on being the messenger, not the message. To do this well, you must have a clear impact that you want to make. Get clear on your message from the start because building a strong brand takes commitment.

2. Conduct an online-brand audit

Before you can focus on growing your brand, you must understand your foundation. Do you have a “brand name” you can own? If someone does find you, is what they find going to encourage them to take a next step with you, or cause them to question whether you are the right fit? This first impression is happening based on your online brand whether you like it or not, so you should be thoughtful about it.

3. Build authority-by-association

Ideally, you want the visuals that make up your brand to say what you shouldn’t say about yourself. For instance, “She’s a credible thought leader with something to teach and not an operator with something to sell.” Make sure you are associating yourself with brands that your audience knows, trusts, and respects by going beyond stock photos or headshots. Be sure to highlight any media coverage you may have received, photos of you speaking, and other images that establish trust by putting you in a setting that builds credibility. Even if you don’t have a ton of media or speaking experience, you can showcase visuals that put you in a setting that connotes authority.

4. Create an intentional content strategy

Most well-meaning people who try to build thought leadership end up focusing entirely on strictly professional content, which often results in slow growth. Instead, blend “you-driven” content (your perspective, pictures, and stories), news-driven content (timely content that connects to the headlines), and relationship-driven content (such as an interview series or podcast) with your professional content.

5. Be your fullest self

In this age of ChatGPT, more content is getting created than ever before, so the only thing that will set you apart is you. Resist the urge to play some kind of role you think you need to play to be a thought leader, and instead be more of yourself by leaning into your personality, interests, and quirks. This will give real value to your audience. Who you are and what makes you different is ultimately the only reason why people will follow you instead of all the other choices out there.

Whether you like it or not, others are getting an image of you online, so be intentional about creating one that accelerates trust and is authentic to who you are. By doing so, you’ll create a bigger impact and avoid the ego-driven branding trap.

Feature Image Credit: Karolina Grabowska/Pexels

By Rusty Shelton

Rusty Shelton is founder and chairman of Zilker Media and strategist for Forbes Books. He is the coauthor of The Authority Advantage: Building Thought Leadership Focused on Impact, Not Ego.

Sourced from Fast Company

In News

Why Meetings Are The Best Place To Build Your Personal Brand—If You Develop The Right Mindset

May 24, 2023 No Comments

By William Arruda

Personal branding is about authentically delivering value to the people you seek to influence, inspire and impact. One of the best places to do that is in meetings. In fact, meetings (both in-person and virtual) are among the most powerful ways to build your brand and advance your career, when you actively engage in them. That’s because:

The people you seek to impact and influence are there

Many of the people you need to impress so you can keep you career moving upward are right there, face to face or on Zoom. It’s the place to showcase your work and talk about the unique contributions you make to your team or a project.

Meetings take you out of your solo world

Delivering value that’s invisible will not catapult your to career new heights. Everyone’s busy. You can’t expect your boss and other influential people to be actively figuring out what you’re doing every day. Meetings bring your value out of the shadows.

You learn what’s going on

Meetings are learning opportunities. They often provide context, important details and sometimes valuable insights—all of which can be helpful to your success and make your contributions more impactful. You also learn things that have nothing to do with the project at hand—like who the boss chose for the new team member—but are important for you to know.

You build connection and relationships with your peers

It’s hard to build a relationship via email, texting or Slack. Meetings let you connect more deeply and bolster relationships with key stakeholders. Relationships are built through multiple consistent touchpoints. Meetings are among the most meaningful touchpoints.

Meetings let you showcase your expertise

That doesn’t mean bragging. It means demonstrating what makes you exceptional. Meetings let you make your mark and reinforce your brand differentiation. By actively participating (not multitasking) and sharing your ideas and opinions, you show your knowledge and point-of-view.

You demonstrate your communication skills

Meetings provide the forum for articulating your ideas clearly and concisely (and in a branded way—with humor or structure or data). Solid communication skills make you look confident. And by actively listening and participating (no checking your email!), you show respect for your colleagues and let people know you are interested.

Meetings provide a forum for acknowledging others publicly

Everyone wants to be recognized for their contributions. Acknowledging others and expressing gratitude is fuel to those around you. And when you do this in meetings, in front of a group, it’s more like rocket fuel.

You can get feedback

Feedback is essential if you want to learn and advance your career. Meetings provide a forum for others to provide candid actionable input you can use to refine what you do and how you do it.

You demonstrate that you are a leader

Meetings are places where decision makers identify emerging leaders—those who demonstrate leadership skills without holding the title. When you take an active role in meetings, you demonstrate your leadership and collaboration skills and get on the radar of those who have the power to promote you.

You enhance your credibility and likability

By actively participating in meetings and providing valuable input and unique insights, you build your credibility as an expert in your field. The way your deliver your input and interact with other meeting participants can make you likable. Strong personal brands sit at the intersection of likability and credibility.

Make meetings matter. Be deliberate in the way you participate in meetings so you can stand out, grow your brand and advance your career.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By William Arruda

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

I’m a personal branding pioneer, motivational speaker, founder of Reach Personal Branding and cofounder of CareerBlast.TV. I’m also the bestselling author of the definitive books on executive branding: Digital YOU, Ditch.Dare. Do! and Career Distinction. I’m passionate about how personal branding can inspire career-minded professionals to become indispensable, influential and incredibly happy at work—and I teach my clients (major global brands and 20% of the Fortune 100) to increase their success by infusing personal branding into their cultures. Here’s a fun fact: I have the distinct privilege of having delivered more personal branding keynotes to more people, in more countries, than anyone on earth.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

Science-Backed Techniques to Achieving Your Full Revenue Potential

April 17, 2023 No Comments

By Terry Rice

Amina Al Tai, an expert on mindset and business coaching, shares tips and strategies to help you unlock your full revenue potential.

I help entrepreneurs build their personal brand and revenue. And although that may seem daunting, the process is relatively simple. You just need to leverage my A.T.M. model.

Actions – The activities you must perform to be successful

Tools – The applications and resources that increase the impact of your work

Mindset – The self-perception or belief you hold about yourself

Pretty straightforward right? Well, I’ve noticed most people tend to prioritize actions and tools while they almost ignore the importance of mindset. Here’s the issue with that; your mindset can tank your chances of success way sooner than any external challenges.

Sure, you might know you need to build your email list. That’s an action to take. And you may determine that you need an email marketing program to help you send and optimize your newsletter. As you may have guessed, that’s a tool.

But what happens if you start thinking “I’m never going to figure out how to use this email marketing program” or “I’m not sure if I have useful information to share”?

This is why mindset is so critical. It allows you to push through those self-limiting beliefs so you can take on new challenges and continue to grow on a personal and professional level.

And, that’s exactly what I chatted with Amina AlTai during this week’s episode of the Launch Your Business podcast. Amina is an expert on leadership, mindset and business coaching. And as you’ll notice, she clearly wants you to win.

During our conversation, which is full of techniques you can immediately apply, AlTai provides input on:

Developing a money mindset and charging your true value
Increasing endurance to push through extended challenges
Removing upper limits that decrease your impact
Identifying and capitalizing on your zone of genius

I’ll share one of my key takeaways from our chat below.

Your mindset can have a negative impact on your clients and revenue

Amina says that on a sales call, it’s not just about your money mindset. It’s also about the mindset of your prospective client.

Unfortunately, if your mindset leads you to believe you’re not good enough or you just want to get a “yes” out of the client, you’ll accidentally project lack or scarcity.

This is why you need to believe in yourself and your offer wholeheartedly. If you don’t believe that you can bring a transformation to your client, you need to dig in deep to understand where that story is coming from. Fortunately, Amina provides guidance on how to do so during our conversation.

Once you’ve developed your own money mindset, you can coach your potential clients through their potential fears and limiting beliefs. This will allow you to close more deals and deliver better results.

Next steps

Ready to learn more from Amina? First, listen to the full interview below.

Then, be sure to check out her new podcast Amina Change Your Life. She serves up bite-sized lessons and inspiration on career, entrepreneurship, ethical wealth building, and well-being.

You can also learn more from Amina by visiting her website and following her on Instagram.

Feature Image Credit: Laurel Creative

By Terry Rice

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

12 Easy Steps To Build Your Personal Brand On Social Media

January 27, 2023 No Comments

By Bernard Marr

Building and maintaining my personal brand is an important part of my job. But it’s becoming important in so many professions, way beyond the realms of influencers, entrepreneurs, and thought leaders. Whether you’re an architect, entrepreneur, designer, blogger, lawyer, or whatever, your personal brand can help you stand out from the crowd and attract exciting new opportunities your way.

If you think about it, you already have a personal brand. Everyone has one. If a potential employer or client were to Google your name, they’d probably find your LinkedIn and social media profiles, perhaps followed by any news articles featuring your name or any other websites that mention you. What impression would someone get of you based on the search results? This, essentially, is your personal brand. It’s your online reputation.

Personal branding means taking control of your online reputation and shaping it, so people see you in the way you want to be seen.

So, if you search for my name online, you’ll see my own website, then my latest tweets, my LinkedIn profile, my YouTube channel, and then my other social media profiles. Even just a quick glance at these results is enough to tell you I’m an expert in future technologies, digital transformation, and driving business performance. You’ll see the same (professional) photos of me and read the same voice (mine). All of that contributes to my brand. It’s consistent. It tells a story about who I am and what I do.

Of course, social media isn’t the only way to establish your brand, but it does play a huge role. Here are 12 ways you can use social media to your advantage and sharpen your personal brand.

1. First things first, get your profiles in order. Add a professional, up-to-date photo to your social media profiles, using the same photo across different platforms to ensure consistency. Then clean up your profiles by deleting any content that you wouldn’t want potential employers or clients to see. (You can always maintain a private profile for sharing personal things that you don’t want employers or clients to see.)

2. Be yourself. While you want to cultivate a professional brand, it’s important to let your personality shine through in your social media posts. Write in the way you’d normally speak. Be authentic. Be honest. Talk about things that really matter to you (rather than trying to hop on the latest trends). And don’t pretend to be someone you’re not. This is all part of ensuring your brand stays consistent.

3. Share what you’re learning. Something that I’ve found impactful – and easy – is sharing interesting and relevant news stories from my industry on social media. This really helped me build my profile and stay knowledgeable on what’s happening in my field. To keep up to date with interesting and relevant news stories, you can subscribe to industry newsletters or, even easier, set up Google alerts for certain keyword topics. Do be sure to add your own message when you share something on social media – even if it’s just “I came across this today and thought I’d share it. What do you guys think?”

4. Join industry groups on social media platforms. Then make yourself known by engaging with posts, answering questions, and liking, commenting, and sharing other people’s content in the group.

5. Be generous with your time and knowledge. Be helpful to others online by responding to questions and comments and generally engaging with them. And do take the time to like or amplify other content that you found engaging, inspiring, or useful. Basically, be reciprocal.

6. Make new contacts as often as you can, especially on LinkedIn. You can do this by identifying people you want to connect with in your field and sending a certain number of invites each week, with a short personal message. Make a habit of this, and your network will soon grow.

7. Create quick polls to pose interesting questions and boost engagement. You can always mix it up by posting a mixture of professional and more general questions.

8. Post quality photos and videos from your work life. People love visual content, so if you’re at a work conference, attending an industry event, on the way to visit a client, or whatever, share it. You can mix it up with occasional “everyday” photos and videos while still keeping it fairly professional (think your morning cup of coffee when you’re working from home, that sort of thing).

9. Really, you can post any sort of content that will help to cement your reputation – it could be advice, thought-provoking questions, excerpts from presentations you’ve given, pro tips, how-to content, or whatever.

10. If you really want to establish your expertise, consider writing longer-form articles and sharing them on LinkedIn. I did a lot of this – still do, in fact – and it has played a huge role in growing my personal brand.

11. Use cross-platform tools to make your life easier. For example, you can use a tool like Hootsuite to schedule your posts in advance and share posts across multiple platforms, such as Instagram and YouTube, all from one place. This means you can get maximum value from each piece of content without having to physically post it in multiple places.

12. Try pencilling in a specific time each day or week for social media. You may actively want to limit the amount of time you spend on social media (it can be a huge time suck). So, I find it helps to schedule posts in advance and block out specific times to check in with social media, reply to comments, and see other people’s posts.

Feature Image Credit: Adobe Stock

By Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is an internationally best-selling author, popular keynote speaker, futurist, and a strategic business & technology advisor to governments and companies. He helps organisations improve their business performance, use data more intelligently, and understand the implications of new technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, blockchains, and the Internet of Things. Why don’t you connect with Bernard on Twitter (@bernardmarr), LinkedIn (https://uk.linkedin.com/in/bernardmarr) or instagram (bernard.marr)?

Sourced from Forbes

In News

10 Ways You Are Ruining Your Personal Brand

January 26, 2023 No Comments

By Jon Michail

Do you minimize the worth of your brand? If you’re doing the following, you could be doing it.

Increasing your personal brand’s value in the eyes of your prospects, in-person or virtually, is the goal of brand building. Prospects will be more eager to pay more for your goods and services and more devoted to your brand, and the value of your rivals’ brands will seem less valued in contrast to the more valuable your brand is regarded to be.

Unfortunately, many people (personal brands) systematically undervalue themselves without even being aware of it. And before they even understand what is happening, their brand has lost all value, and it will be tough to get it back.

Do you minimize the worth of your brand? If you’re doing the following, you could be doing it.

1. Having a poor presentation

Your audience’s attention will be lost due to poor presentation flow. People will have difficulty understanding you, and rather than trying to figure out what you’re saying, they will tune you out.

When a presentation has a natural flow, and the information is organized logically, it is simpler to express your argument. When your sales executives’ presentation abilities are lacking, your sales proposals lose their effectiveness, and you fall short of your sales goals, affecting your revenues and brand development.

In addition, it affects repeat business, cash flows and lost opportunities when your personal brand fails to make an impressive presentation to customers and investors.

2. Poor grooming and hygiene

Qualifications, experience and skills all matter, but so is how your brand is presented. Who we are is revealed by how we look. Perceptions matter and personal brand grooming should project a professional image at work.

Therefore, we must pay close attention to how we look (visual image) and stand (body language). Style and discipline come together to make up grooming. Maintaining personal cleanliness is essential for a variety of reasons — personal, social, health, psychological or just as a matter of everyday living.

To make a good impression and get respect at work (and in life), one must maintain proper grooming and a professional look. First impressions count, and how businesses present themselves and behave impacts current and potential customers.

All brands value professional appearance and proper grooming. The absence of these may result in a negative perception and interfere with the company’s reputation and brand.

3. Letting yourself get behind the times

Your competition will overtake you as soon as you stop moving forward and trying to better your goods and services. You cannot simply take it easy.

Prospects now have more options than ever, and your rivals constantly look for ways to outdo you and gain an advantage. To keep your brand valuable and relevant, you must continue innovating.

4. Being a sell-out

Ever had a favourite brand that abruptly altered its sound and shot to fame? We all detest it when it occurs, known as selling out.

Unfortunately, businesses also carry out this. They begin seeking financial gain, and to win over more clients, they alter their identities and compromise their values. You lose the trust of your devoted customers when you betray your brand interest to increase your income, which eventually destroys the value of your brand.

5. Offering too many deals

Most brands frequently lower their pricing with special discounts to attract more customers. With the advent of daily deal websites like Groupon and LivingSocial, you’re starting to see this even more. When you run too many sales, buyers begin to think that your product is only worth the sale price, not the total price, since they see you selling it at such a low price.

People also do this. Never undersell your value; it will damage your reputation.

6. Social media conduct: inflammatory content

Social media networks, mainly those often targeted toward a kind of media that favours a broadcast approach, such as Twitter or Instagram, are one of the most open spaces where your behaviour will be on show.

This shouldn’t, at its most fundamental level, offend anyone. However, it is up to you and your organization to decide whether to individually reveal any sensitive information, such as your opinions on social or political topics.

Sharing material about divisive issues frequently runs the danger of alienating a portion of your audience. On the other hand, consumers like businesses that take a stand, which has sparked the growth of value-led branding tactics.

7. Inconsistency

Maintaining a consistent persona across your targeted social media outlets is crucial since muddled messages and a confused persona may be highly detrimental to your company.

In addition, a consistent identity across your online presence must also extend to how you act in person; otherwise, your performance at a networking event or business meeting may quickly undercut it. Tone, style, and substance are all governed by consistency.

8. Lack of professionalism

The perception of unprofessionalism might be highly detrimental to your brand.

Although various types of behaviour might be considered unprofessional, general guidelines disallow excessive alcohol use, sexual or improper statements and insulting behaviour.

In addition, remember that rumours can spread quickly, so inappropriate conduct in a low-stakes setting could be reported promptly to more significant individuals.

9. Wardrobe – your visual power

What you see is what you get when it comes to branding. That is, at least, how prospective consumers will feel. It’s up to the brand to gain that type of trust. They won’t have any reason to give a visually unappealing brand the benefit of the doubt. A brand’s visual identity is “what you see” in branding.

First impressions are crucial and always will be, especially while developing and growing your personal brand. Whether you like it or not, your work outfit reflects who you are and how you do business.

10. Lack of direction

Consider the audience that your branding is intended to reach. Trying to please everyone is a definite way to lose a reputation. Instead, choose and stick to a specialty, then use this niche to find related content and create relevant networks in-person and on social media platforms like LinkedIn and Twitter.

Conclusion

Developing your brand would be a fatal blow because its worth should increase along with your career or business’s growth. But unfortunately, any of these outcomes are possible.

For your insurance, you must be alert and take all necessary precautions to safeguard your personal and business brand against these potential sources of brand depreciation.

By Jon Michail

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

How To Accelerate Your Personal Brand In The Hybrid World Of Work

December 1, 2022 No Comments

By William Arruda

Maximizing your personal brand value in the hybrid world seems like a piece of cake. After all, in the before times (before Covid, that is) you practiced the techniques of real-world branding regularly in meetings, at networking events, etc. Then, Covid gave you a crash course in virtual personal branding thanks to ubiquitous, back-to-back Zoom meetings and reliance on online team platforms like Slack. So mastering the hybrid world is just a mixture of the two, right?

Yes. And no. Sure, you’ve learned skills and you have some experience in real- and virtual-world personal branding—but growing your personal brand in this new hybrid or WFA (Work From Anywhere) world is all about nuance, congruence and prioritization. When those three elements are managed correctly, your virtual and real-world versions will work together seamlessly, which accelerates your personal brand

According to the folks at Webex, hybrid work is defined as a flexible model that supports a blend of in-office, remote, and on-the-go workers. It offers employees the autonomy to choose to work wherever and however they are most productive. All good. But there are challenges too.

To build your personal brand so you can achieve your goals and increase your happiness at work, you need to master the virtual and the real in equal measure. The most important part of maximizing the hybrid world of work is knowing when to be real, when to be virtual and how to integrate the two.

Let’s focus on the most important opportunities for personal branding and how you should think about—and act on—them in this new mixed-up work world. In the hybrid world, you need to polish your presence in both realms.

Ace your first impression.

Your first impression will likely be formed in the virtual world. That’s because, even pre-Covid, we got pretty good at using Google and LinkedIn to learn about people before ever meeting them in person (even when they worked down the hall from us). When you focus on page 1 Google results and build a stellar, authentic, focused LinkedIn profile, you’ll be sure to build a powerful first impression. For the virtual world, prioritize video and images over text. For example, share video thought-leadership in your LinkedIn profile and add videos to YouTube so they show up when someone googles you, thanks to universal search. Just make sure what you put out there is fully aligned with who you really are.

Lead hybrid meetings.

Perhaps the newest challenge spawned by WFA is leading the hybrid meeting. First, you must acknowledge that the people who are together in the meeting room are having an experience that’s different from those who are connecting remotely. And each of the remote participants is having an experience that’s different from everyone else. To succeed in these meetings, prioritize virtual over real. That means overemphasize the folks who are not in the room because what they’re experiencing is a far less visceral. And being remote comes with more temptation to multitask—both of which mean you need to work hard to keep that part of your audience connected and engaged.

Be ever visible to your team and company.

Appoint yourself the company’s chief brand steward. This means whether you’re at the physical office or working remotely, you’re increasing your virtual visibility by sharing relevant company content with your online community. Make sure you’re connected to everyone on your team, to your internal/external clients, and to others so when you are out of site (not at the office) you can be top of mind (in people’s social media feeds). Just make sure what you share is relevant to how you want to be known, delivers value and gives you the opportunity to express your point of view.

Building your brand while WFA requires deliberate and steadfast commitment. The ultimate key to building your personal brand in our WFA world is to make sure there is congruence between the real and virtual—so regardless of whether your human interactions occur in a shared physical space or are happening via a mobile phone screen they convey your brilliance, authenticity and differentiation.

Feature Image Credit: getty

By William Arruda

William Arruda is a keynote speaker, co-founder of CareerBlast.TV and co-creator of the Personal Brand Power Audit – a complimentary quiz that helps you measure the strength of personal brand.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn. Check out my website.

Sourced from Forbes

In News

The personal brand is the new corporate asset. A new book offers a guide to building it

November 28, 2022 No Comments

By Ambi Parameswaran

An excerpt from ‘All The World’s A Stage: A Personal Branding Story’, by Ambi Parameswaran.

‘We spoke about executive presence and executive voice. But digital technology is changing the way we work. Many companies are offering their employees the flexibility to work from home or, in fact, from anywhere. And this trend grew exponentially during the pandemic. Where does all this presence and voice go in that scenario?’ Shankar had a great poser for the three of us.

Kunal decided to chime in with his additional query, ‘Well, many financial institutions too are examining how to make work more modular, so that people can have greater work-life flexibility. What Shankar is asking is quite pertinent. I know a company that has been having even board meetings where directors join virtually from several countries. I am also wondering if there is a need to relook at all the executive presence and executive voice gyan we discussed a few minutes ago.’

‘Virtual meetings are definitely becoming more and more common, but that does not mean that we need to throw out what we know about building personal brands through executive presence and voice,’ Rita said.

I knew that this was a new domain and we all knew very little about how this would shape up in the years to come. There were many contradictory thoughts going through my mind. But I decided to wade in with a question. ‘Well, Shankar, what are the key principles of executive presence and executive voice?’

‘We just went over that. Make sure you look smart and speak well. And be consistent. Shankar repeated what we had discussed earlier. He, however, followed it up with a question. ‘But when doing a virtual meeting, you are reduced to a little box, and sometimes it’s just audio. All your executive presence is nothing in a small box, no?’ Shankar asked.

‘Shankar, even in a small window you can appear like a ghost or a smart executive. I know some managers hold meetings with a brightly lit window right behind them. If they only flipped directions and faced the light, they would look much better and not ghost-like. Or look at the way you dress for a virtual meeting. Some executives are dressed in t-shirts when the rest of the attendees are formally dressed,’ I replied.

Rita jumped in with her suggestions on what works in virtual meetings. ‘I read somewhere that there are a few key principles of running a good virtual meeting. And those will help you build your executive presence.’

‘What are those principles, Rita?’ Shankar was now curious. Clearly, he was getting ready to implement some of these best practices for his virtual meetings.

‘Some of the principles are simple. When doing a virtual meeting always face the light. Don’t have the brightest light in the room behind you. And just because it is a virtual meeting that you are attending from home, you cannot dress inappropriately. Always dress right. Ensure that you find a place in your home that is tidy and will not distract the other attendees. As far as possible, find a room that is quiet or keep putting yourself on mute when you’re not talking. Background household noise can’t be helped but can be disturbing. Even if you’re in your office, you’ll be surprised how bothersome white noise can be in virtual meetings. Then there is the nostril problem,’ Rita stopped for effect.

‘What nostril problem are you talking about? Are you once again making fun of my big nose?’ Kunal asked with a half-smile.

‘No, not your nose, silly. I have attended meetings where the attendee is showing off his nasal hair. The simple rule is to ensure that the camera of your laptop or your webcam is at eye level,’ Rita added.

‘Wow, Rita, you are the expert,’ I complimented her on the simple hacks she had suggested. ‘In addition to these key things, I think you must also ensure that you test the system and the bandwidth so that you don’t end up freezing all the time. I always have a backup network to go to and keep doing speed tests to ensure that my internet speed is good.’

‘Everything you’re saying makes sense. But how can everyone ensure all of the above? Many people live in small apartments. How can they fulfil these conditions?’ Shankar wanted to know.

‘Shankar, if people are going to attend meetings from home, then they have to find a corner that is well lit and quiet. And investing in a good internet connection and a backup internet dongle aren’t big asks,’ Rita fired back.

‘I think all that we discussed about executive presence and executive voice applies to virtual meetings too. You need to arrive in time and should be able to join the meeting without any technical glitches. You should have done your homework and not be distracted or looking at your mobile phone when the meeting is in progress. Mute your mic when not speaking. Minimise body movements so it does
not distract the others. Pay attention and participate. In fact, virtual meetings give us an opportunity to put up our hands or send questions and comments in the chat box. All these can help improve the quality of meetings and our personal effectiveness,’ I added.

‘I get it now. Some of these are simple things but we may not pay attention to them,’ Shankar was nodding in agreement. ‘Yes, Shankar. In fact, going forward for a company like yours, that deals with global customers, virtual meetings may be a blessing. And if you run them well, they can improve your effectiveness,’ Rita said.

‘Absolutely, Rita. I think the virtual world is rapidly changing the way we do business. And those of us who understand these new rules of the game can get ahead of the pack,’ Kunal added. Kunal had been doing virtual meeting with global investors.

‘One thing that you have to agree on is that these virtual meetings are a damn sight better than those boring teleconferences we used to have earlier,’ I added.

‘Oh yes! Some of these routine telecalls in my previous job were a waste of time. They used to run for hours and we used to put the call on speakerphone and get on with our work. Only to say “great initiative” or “good point” every fifteen minutes,’ Kunal laughed as he said that.

‘You know that a lot of what we discussed here may sound basic, but you will be surprised to know how often these simple rules are violated or even forgotten. I often spend time coaching executives on the norms of digital meetings,’ Rita explained.

‘I think well-run virtual meetings can be a big help. They can save some valuable resources. And from what you guys are saying, the rules we discussed earlier for personal branding and executive presence are applicable to the virtual world too, right?’ Shankar seemed to have seen the light. Shankar’s next question was something I had expected much earlier. ‘Guys, you have been schooling me about personal branding, but I think we are missing out on one important area—digital and social media. Aren’t those essential for personal branding in this day and age? I’m hoping to hear a no, because I hate social media of any kind,’ Shankar said. And we had another topic to unravel.

Feature Image Credit: Illustration from the book

By Ambi Parameswaran

Sourced from Scroll.in