Personal Branding, a Key to Success In Your Life Or Business

Personal Branding

Personal Branding is an essential ingredient to success in your life. Are you employed by someone else or you are self-employed? Do you know yourself and how others perceive you at your place of work or in your business? How do you feel about the feedback you get from others?

In this article, I would like you to focus on how you can brand yourself to be successful in your endeavours. Personal branding is an excellent way for your success.

What’s Personal Branding?

Let’s understand first the meaning of personal branding. There are other definitions of the word “Brand“. But because of the ideas, I am giving you to lead a successful life, allow me to say that a brand is a collection of all the perceptions in the mind of your customers.

First, your customers are your employers because it’s the customers who pay you a monthly salary in exchange for your services. Secondly, they are people who buy products and services from you in your business. Thirdly, your customers are also all people who relate with you in the day-to-day running of your business or at your workplace.

The question is, “How do they perceive you?” Do they perceive you as a corrupt person, a slow performer, one who is not resourceful, self-driven or a non-achiever? You should know that for you to succeed in anything you do, people must perceive you positively. Personal branding is, therefore, the act of building positive perceptions in the mind of your consumers.

How Can Personal Branding Help You to Improve Your Service Delivery?

Anything you do to build positive perceptions in the mind of others is what I refer to as personal branding. There’re many things one can do but let me share with you only ten critical aspects of good personal branding.

1. Keep time
2. Be passionate
3. Learn to deliver something extraordinary
4. Read to get knowledge, new information and new skills
5. Understand globalisation and technology
6. Market yourself as the best.
7. Be credible
8. Have a high level of moral authority
9. Be an independent contractor
10. Be organised

♦    Keep Time

There is quite a good number of people in this century who cannot keep time. But let me ask you, “How do you feel if someone you made an appointment with at 10.00 am turns up at 2.00  pm?” So many things can happen to the two parties. Think about them. I don’t need the answers now. But one thing I guess right is that the consequences are not favourable.

Believably, it’s the reason why keeping time is key to one’s success. On the other hand, if you consider the number of active years you have, you will realise that you probably do have to do things hurriedly. Let’s be practical. Assuming you are 30 yrs and you started working at 23 yrs. If you are to retire at 60 yrs, it merely means that you will have worked for only 37 yrs and you are remaining with 30 yrs of active service. Hmm! They sound many, but what have you done?

If you are wasting time and your valuable resources doing nothing, you will regret and have nothing to be proud of in your old age. There is no time for Africans and whites. We all have the same time. 99% of the time is within your control. Lost time is lost opportunities, lost wealth. People who do not keep time are a weak brand. Cut them out of your way. They are disrespectful and can only fail you, fail your company or your business and make you lose great opportunities. My friend, keep time!

♦    Be Passionate

Secondly, passion drives you to do things. But I’ve seen so many people, who do things for the sake of earning a living. They complain almost about everything: fellow workers, the salary, the workload, etc. I pity them. Never do something about which you are not passionate. Passion is the fuel, catalyst, motivator and key to success. If you’re passionate about your job, your business, your family, your everything, the chances of succeeding are high.

People who love their work, do not get tired. They are most of the time self-driven. Secondly, they initiate and pursue things to the end. Thirdly, they are enthusiastic. In business, they always attract many customers because of their enthusiasm. Do you see how good it is to love what you are doing? Do you see how passion is an essential ingredient to personal branding?

What’s Your Brand

♦    Learn to Deliver Something Extraordinary

Let me begin by asking you. What’s so special with you that will draw people to you? You are self-employed, or someone else employs you, what’s so unique in the way you do the work that will make your customers or employers consider you as a valuable person?

Advisedly, I always tell people that it’s not good to always consider monetary rewards for everything you put your hands on. Do something extraordinary to improve your brand as the best doctor, teacher, businessman, nurse, driver, administrator, etc. If you are just an ordinary person in everything you do, I assure you that you will live to regret and to be frustrated. If it’s a promotion, you will never get it and so many other opportunities.

To deliver something extraordinary, you have to be reliable to your customers. You have to pursue what you do to the end, to renew yourself and what you do. Do you see how it works?

♦    Read to Get Knowledge, New Information and New Skills

I have come across many people, who only believe in getting a certificate for anything they learn. After their first degree, they pursue a master’s degree and a PhD after that. They make sure they accumulate many documents. Yes, it’s good to have such qualifications, but you have to acquire knowledge or skills and apply them to improve your livelihood.

What I mean here is reading to acquire knowledge and skills to improve your service delivery. Improved service delivery is key to good personal branding. Over the years, there are many things I have learnt without getting any certificate, but they have turned out to be my breadwinners. Acquiring applied knowledge is a crucial aspect of personal branding.

♦    Understand Globalisation and Technology

Personal branding entails understanding globalisation and technology. There are many learned fellows, who lag far behind in this aspect. I want to tell you that the life of a cubical slave is gone. In this era of information, one has to be up-to-date. But how will you if you cannot use the internet? How will you when you use the computer as a typewriter? And how will you when you fear technology?

My simple advice is that learn to look at new technology and re-engineer yourself before it’s too late. Understanding technology is an excellent way to good personal branding.

♦    Market Yourself as the Best

Marketing yourself as the best is a crucial aspect of personal branding. Marketers have learnt marketing, but a few can market themselves. They instead promote other people’s products. What’s that? Well, let’s come back to the point. Whatever you do, do it to the best of your knowledge and ability. If you are an accountant, be the best accountant. The same with teachers, administrators, doctors, politicians, etc. First, position yourself as the best to improve your branding. Do not wait for your bosses or customers to take action. Remember that powerlessness is a state of mind. Secondly, do not mind about other people misinterpreting your motive when you are on the right track. Know how to market yourself; you will succeed in your endeavours.

♦    Be Credible

To brand yourself as a good businessman, a good worker, you MUST pass the test of credibility. If you cannot pass the credibility test, you can never succeed in whatever you do. Trust protects you. It’s also a key ingredient to business success.

There are many people out there who think of earning a living out of fraudulent means. At times unearned monetary gains deceive them when they accumulate a lot of money. But it’s a matter of time. If you think you will harvest where you have not sown, then you are yet to be born. Learn the law of harvest! Be honest!

♦    Be an Independent Contractor

As you work wherever you are, whether someone employs you or you are self-employed, get to understand the principle of independent contractor. You need future references for being an independent contractor.

It does not matter whether you are a boss or a junior staff, whether someone employs you or is self-employed. Stop thinking like an employee but see yourself as an agent. Most importantly, what you do at job X will become a reference point to job Y. A builder is likely to get more masonry work if his previous customers recommend him as the best mason.

Illustratively, let me put it like this. You are not working for business X, but you are working with that business as an independent contractor. If you choose to do something, then do it right because it will be your future reference. Never do it badly by giving any excuse! Always remember that good references lead you to success in business, at work and in your career.

♦    Have a High Level of Moral Authority

Personal branding demands a high level of moral authority. Moral authority belongs to those people who offer themselves for the well-being of others. If you think you will only be to yourself, then you are mistaken.

♦    Be Organised

The future is for organised people. Though more people are getting educated, very few people are organised. Take it from me that acquiring excellent organisational skills is key to good service delivery. Be organised in your business or at your workplace.

Learn to organise your files, your documents, your furniture, your office wall hangings, your curtains, your notice boards and at work and home. Learn to be organised with your finances and your expenditure. Excellent organisational skills will help you to save time and money, to reduce work-related stress, to be effective, to look respectable, to minimise your costs and to maximise your profits. Do you see the benefits?