Brand You - personal branding and how to do it

1. Brand You: introduction: Welcome to this course at all about branding you and showcasing the best of you to the world that you leave a memorable impression. Let's put it that way. It has also two views is if you think about it, not just from careers and jobs, but from your personal life as well. That whole networking, making friends, getting to know people, socializing In part and parcel of this brand you that we're looking at. We're going to look at through this course, is some bits about what a brand is. What you feel a brand is. Because again, this is, you just got to put this into action, not me. How do you build your brand once you understand what a brand is and how you can relate it to an individual rather than just doing a more, I don't know, a cleaner. How do you actually build your brand? There's a piece in there about being authentic or genuine, not trying to put an act on. There is a little bit about an audit. How do you know where he went to B away you are doing an audit to find out where you are now, then where you want it to be, why your ideal looks like. And then what's the gap? That's all an audit is really how do I get from a to b? There's another piece in there about values. So we all have a value system and they tend to be individual to you. My value system will be the same as yours. They may be similarities, but it probably won't be the same. This is quite a bit of a soul searching piece because it goes back to that piece about being authentic or genuine. If you know what your values are, if you know what you stand for, then it's easier for you then to kind of build on that and unstuck symbol. This is a non negotiable. I've written into many there about asking for help and it's not about asking for help, asking for feedback really. I don't know if any of you've ever done a 360, but it's that kind of action that we're looking for. It's as much feedback as possible so that you can then go away and go, well, this is what I think I projected into the world. This is why I'm hearing. How do I improve that or how do I change that? If I need to? Then put it all together and kind of creating an action plan. Let's crack on. 2. Brand You: What is a brand and how does it apply? : Welcome to this course on branding. You. Basically a course around how you can build your personal brand. And to give you some hints and tips on how you can do that. I've put a tagline in here that says showcasing the best you to the world or at least to your team. Basically, that's what it comes down to it being the best that you can be. What is a personal brand? What is your brand? I love this quote from Jeff Bezos. Your brand is what other people say about you when you're not in the room. So think about that. What do you want other people to be saying about you when you leave, that you have some control over. And I think that's one of the main things to remember and I'll go over this again later. It is about what you have control over. What is personal branding and why do you need it? Do you think over the course of the next 20 to 30 minutes, what we're gonna be looking at is, what is a brand? How do you build yours? What tips can we give you to do that? How you can be authentic or genuine? Little bit of a life audit so that you can see where you are and where you want it to be. A look at what your values are. And then I've put in a PTA about asking for how poor I'm asking for really here is it's feedback that you weren't because unless you can understand how other people see you, how can you do any of this work? And then a little piece around to putting it altogether so that you can stop making the changes you need. Sometimes we forget that every action we take in every word that we utter helps build this profile for other people to see. That feeds into how they deal with us, how they receive compliments, comments and feedback, and how they then react to it. In a work environment and especially for people managers. This also feeds into how our team reacts to us. Trust and respect are paramount within a team obviously. And these are built by being honest, trustworthy, and basically you. This module will look at you and all your glory. What you feel some of the words will use mean to you. Because again, it's about that personal interpretation, how to personify them. We'll also look at your personal values, some of the things that make up you. And along the way, we'll look at brands in general. How to review what skills and talents you might already have and how to put it all into action. I'm quite a fan of a dictionary definition of the words that we use when we're training, just so that we can see how it resonates with us. And here we've got two different versions of what a brand is. Obviously, we look at the brand as a noun where it describes your product or a surface from a particular company. But it's also can be used as a verb to describe the act of judging someone. As in branding you X, Y, or Z. For us, for our usage of the word, it's sort of fall somewhere between the two because to some extent you are at the product and you are being judged by other people day in, day out, every minute of the day in every interaction. So you are both of these definitions at any one time. Ask you a question now, how would you define a brand? Maybe pause this for a moment and just have a think about a brand that you can relate to that you think personifies, you. Then think about this piece. This I think is mind-blowing. Imagine being so self-aware of the effect your actions and words have. And using that to influence people's perception of you and how they react and respond to you and your actions. Having that power to be able to take a step back almost in a situation. And instead of just reacting, actually think if I do this, if I react this way, if I save this phrase, it could mean this. It could bring a completely different outcome from a conversation. How do you build a brand? The way that I see brands that are a bit like people, they try to be unique, as unique as possible. They tried to be instantly recognizable so that they sit in your head and you automatically reach for a particular brand when you want a product. They also tend to stand for something can these days with things like climate action, racism, all of that kind of stuff. It feeds into the brands on our High Street as well. As I said, this is good or bad. To build a brand actually requires you to define you as a brand. What do you stand for? And what do you want to portray to others? It is quite difficult. And again, it's handy to have sort of a pen and paper handy when we're going through these. Because this is about doing a bit of soul searching. There's a lot of that in this course. It is about what you want your brand to be, what you want it to say, and what you want other people to remember. The words of Jeff Bezos when you leave that room, what do you want people to be saying about you? Good thing to do here as part of the initial research is for you to get some feedback from others. And this is where asking for help comes in. I don't know if you're aware of something called a 360. Basically, a three-sixteenths where you asked for feedback usually on your performance. And usually in a work environment from your peers, your team, potentially if you're a people manager, the idea is it kind of goes the whole 368 above and below you, but also on the same level as you so that you get a rounded vision from your feedback. With this, I mean, I potentially do it a little bit more informally and try and do it so that it is something that comes from potentially all aspects of your life as steel of your loved ones. Ask your family, asks you friends, just say what? What do you think it'd be doing a bit of work myself, I've doing some personal development. You know, when when I talk, what do you think? When I say things? What do you think? You have a laugh about it? But basically BU, BU, your personality, don't try and be fake. And again, do it in work too. Just to see what you can do. This is just a quick one. It's just a reminder that this is all about you and possibly it depends on your personality. It may be the first time you've actually done anything like this. And it may make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, but it is worth doing because it helps you become more self-aware and it helps you understand what skills you have so it can actually be a good thing to do. This is a quote from me from when I delivered this face-to-face. And it's about being your own cheerleader. It's waving your pump pumps for yourself, which we don't often do. I mean, a lot of people find it uncomfortable and really don't like doing that kind of work. But occasionally I think you need to and this which leads nicely into the audit piece, is something that you need to do because it will boost your self-esteem. It will boost your self-confidence because we all have skills that we just take for granted doing some of this audit work and some of this introspection, some of this root self-reflection actually can help increase your self-esteem as well as everything else. So this is where I want you to do a little bit of work as we go through the course. This task is about building your brand. And to do that, you need to know three things. Where you are now, where you want to be, and how do you get there? If I can ask you to again, pause this, take a couple of minutes to consider it and make some notes and think of this. If somebody met you today, what do you think they'd say about you after you left the room? What do you want them to say about you? And how big is the gap between the two? And how do you bridge that? Again, if, if you wanted to do this piece of work, that would be brilliant. If you then wanted to share it via the discussion group, that would be good too, because you may be surprised that have smaller gap is. Now this piece just basically reiterate what we said on the previous slide. But does it I think in a clearer way, when we're asking you to do this audit, all we're asking you to do is think about three things. What do you have, what you want, and how do you get there? All in the context of your brand or people's perception of you. What do you have? How do you think you'll perceived now? And what feedback can you get to put together to actually come up with a picture of where you are now. Then what do you want? So, what do you want people to say about you? How would you like to be perceived? And is there a difference? And that's the how. And if there is a difference, how do you get from a to B? 3. Brand You: what are your values and how to pull it all together: Okay, Welcome to part two of the module around branding. You look at how you can develop a personal brand. Now let's look at being authentic or genuine. The word authenticity and authentic I think had been done to death to some extent. I think that's the problem that a lot people have with them is that they've lost their meaning. You can take it as authentic, you can take it as genuine. It's down to you how you do it will look at definitions later on. But this is one of my favorite quotes from Dr. Seuss. Today you will use that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is u at the new? That's perfect. Because again, it goes back to that individual piece of work. You are an individual. Nobody else out there is like you, however much you might want to be like. Whoever is the latest reality TV star, the latest chart topper, the latest movie star, however much you want to be like them, you never will be because you are you and you are unique. And what we want to do with this personal brand is actually revel in that. If we look at authenticity and we look at dictionary definition, it's about the quality of being authentic or real or true. Similar words that could be used around things like originality, dependability, trustworthiness, veracity, truth, fidelity, credibility and reliability. And again, as I mentioned before, genuine is another one to throw into there. But what does be an authentic mean to you? Do you think, why do you think it could be important in your branding exercise? So again, pause, take a couple of minutes and just have a think about that and make some notes. We've looked at what being authentic is. Being genuine. We've looked at different words that you could use instead, some of which might feel fit better with you. But what do we think sort of pros and cons of this kind of behavior might be. So I always think that the pros section, the good, if you like, can be a little bit easier to define. So if you think about it, being authentic means that you're showcasing your true self. That your trustworthy enough, that people will trust you. So again, it goes back to, it's difficult to build trust, but it's almost impossible once it's lost. And so being trustworthy, being yourself, being genuine can actually keep that trust going. It also helps build strong relationships because again, people trust you, they know you're genuine, they know you're not fake, that you're not a persona. But also from a personal perspective, it can do things like boost your self-esteem. So think about the fact that if people react positively to you as an individual rather than what you think you should be doing in front of them, or how you should act or what you should say. If you're actually just being, you imagine how great that must feel. Imagine how wonderful it would be, and how tiring it must be to put on a persona every day for work. I know sometimes we say that you almost have a word persona in a home persona. But hopefully we're getting to the point where that is not necessarily true anymore or needed. That you can actually just be yourself 24 hours a day. That must be like a huge weight lifted from you. So wrapping up this section around being authentic, this is quite a good way of summing it up, I think, and it's the courage to be yourself because it can take courage for some people to actually go into work and be themselves. And also understand that. How do I put this? I was talking to somebody recently who said that they felt they were seen as a nice guy. However, because of that, they felt they suffered from the ability to say no or the lack of ability to say no, I should say. Therefore, they could be perceived to be a bit of a soft touch or a bit of a pushover because they liked the unlikely to kind of push back on anything. But they are self-aware enough to realize that that is something they need to work on and change that. And it may not be something that they feel is 100% genuine. But it is about having that balance as well. Because you can be the most genuine person in the world. But if you're being treated a bit like a doormat by other people, that's not going to make you feel good. And all of this around personal branding is also about making you feel good, makes you feel better. Another good quote here. And you create a credible brand by strain, true to who you are. This goes back to not just a product or service or logo on all of that stuff. It's about YouTube. It, to me, it fits into that personal brand Ps. The excellent word in there as well, credible, but also staying true is a good phrase. Because you want to be credible as an individual. You went to be credible as a person. People should be able to come to you, people should trust you, and that's your credibility. They should also listen to what you have to say and take on board your knowledge and your experience. And that feeds into credibility too. But By staying true to who you are not putting on a persona and not almost putting on a false brand. Like one of those ones you get on markets where they change a letter here or there and it's no key or not Nike and that kind of thing. And if you want to be a genuine person, then you need to stay true to who you can watch you off. This final task I'd like you to do again is hit pause. Take a few minutes to consider what your personal values are. As individuals, we all have our own set of values that we apply to work or home. And it's part of our moral code. They guide our actions and define who we are and what we will or will not do. The easiest way to think of values is in terms of your personality and behaviors. They are an integral part of who you are. Now, most people are most values, I should say sorry, are adopted, are inherited as we grow and we learned from others. Whether that's your parents, religions, school, they form our values. And some are purely from personal choice as they fit in with who we are or who we want to be and who we grow into as we get older. But certain ones are so ingrained and so part of us, part of our DNA, that they will potentially never change. Alright? Okay. If you could pause it and note down some of the values that you think are important to you. Then what I'd like you to do is circle your top three. What three out of any list that you come up with are the most important to you. What are they? And why? Then think about how did they help you define your brand? How do they fit in with your brand? To give you an example, I like things like teamwork. I like ingenuity and creativity, but I also like honesty. But tempered with diplomacy. It can be too honest. It's understanding that time when you need to be diplomatic. And the same with ingenuity and creativity. You can't just go off and reinvent x, y, and zed when it doesn't need inventing and it's not part of your job. So we look at these as values. But you then have to kind of almost pick your fights, pick the time that you use these. Pause and come up with a list for us. Okay? So you've got your list of values, you've looked at a bit of an audit, your skills, your life, if you like. You've looked at that piece around being genuine. How did you bring it altogether and how do you start building your brand? Because again, this won't happen overnight and it's an ongoing process and it's constantly changing because we react to external stimulus and we will change. Some of your personal brand will change over time. And what you potentially start working on today may not be what you're still doing it in 12 months time. I've written a list here and it's not exhaustive. But now is the time to kind of take some action and plan on your next steps to help you bridge the gap from where you are or your perception of where you are and where you want to be. Things like building your reputation. Can you do anything currently within your job to build your reputation amongst your peers so that people start to see slightly differently and start to see you as that trustworthy individual, if that's one of your values. Can you take steps to start showing them your value system so that you're living and breathing that rather than what you feel they wanted to see. Can you make your presence felt? So by that, I don't mean stand up and down and wave your hands in the air or anything so that people go, Oh, look at him. That's not what we're talking about. What we're talking about is, can we, is there a way to make your expertise, your knowledge, your personality, shine within your business and do it in a genuine and natural way. This piece of work here is for you to contemplate and keep going back to. But if you could, I would like you to do from this is share one piece or one thought in the discussion forum, that would be great. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So something that you do need to be aware of is that while you're doing this reflective practice, while you're looking at yourself as an individual, which some of us just don't do or uncomfortable doing. It might raise some thoughts that you want a bit of further discussion around. So please don't take this particular sign as gospel because it again, it's something that I put into the to the training session when I run it. But what we're trying to do is say that if you want some support, if you want some advice or guidance, that's what their discussion forums, therefore, with the other students and me, because I will always be in and out of the discussion forum. So if you want some advice, if you want, I don't know anything, go all the way around this course, then just pop a question or a note into the discussion forum. And I will respond as quickly as I possibly can. I'm gonna leave you with one final thought. Again, it comes from, good old Dr. Seuss. Be who you are and say what you feel. Because those who mind don't matter and those who matter won't mind. Basically that, that sums this up. But again, going back to the people who matter and saying they don't mind, that's fine. But find from them what their perception of us. And similar to those who you work with, who potentially, you would say don't matter. But get their perspective too. Because again, it's almost like the end result of this is trying to say change their perception of you as well. All right, I hope you've enjoyed this. I've got one last piece to do with you. And then you can run off and grab a coffee. I have designed these really simple resources to go with the course. I will upload them as part of the course or into the discussion forum as well. One of them, the first one is a note to peace. And the idea of the four quadrants is that as you're going through, if you want to make note on a particular subject you can do and you can keep all the notes in one place. There's an action plan. So as I mentioned to you, is what actions can you take? I've been optimistic and quite a lot on there. But even just a couple. And again, it's baby steps, but just a couple of steps forward can really help you. Then there's a cheeky little word search. Again, it's based on words and phrases that we've used within the course. And it's just a bit of fundraising. But I would say that the action plan is something that fits in nicely with your project. 4. Brand You: Project: Now for your project, as you've gone through, I've asked you occasionally to pause and maybe do a task which is more personal and obviously it's somebody that you don't need to share. I'd like to happen with the final project is it takes some of the paperwork that I've given you, which is the quarter piece, where you've got four bits to kind of fill in with notes and ideas for yourself as you've gone through all the action plan. And I mean, ideally, yes, the action plan would be great for you to complete and then maybe share with us as well through the discussion forum. Because what I would like is that there's at least one step that you feel you can take if any of this has resonated with you that you can put into action before you consider your next step. So don't be fazed by the fact that the action plan estimate like about 16 steps on it. It's not about that. Even if you already feel him one, it is. The longest journey starts with a single-step or something like that. Baby steps start with 1 first and then see how you go. But the project, if you could fill in some of that paperwork and share it with us. Great. If you can fill in the paperwork and then maybe share your step with us. Equilibrated this no pressure at all. But what I would like to see is, is that you feel you're making progress. If you could share that. Wonderful. Thank you very much.