4 Steps to Build Your Personal Brand and Boost Your Career

READ TIME - 4 MINUTES

Most people think about branding as something for products or companies and don’t realize that branding applies to individuals as well.

I’ve been in corporate for 23 years and rarely hear people talk about personal branding, yet it’s one of the most important topics.

What people say about you behind closed doors is your brand, and if you don’t have a good one, it could impact your career.

I once thought I was seen as a strategic leader, but I found out that people saw me as the guy who gets things done.

Until I fixed my brand, my career was frozen.

Most people don’t pay attention to personal branding because they:

• Don’t understand that personal branding is as important as product or company branding.
• Don’t know how to find their personal brand.
• Are afraid to know what people think of them.

But in this newsletter, I am going to help you identify your personal brand and build one that aligns with your career growth plan.

The biggest myth around personal branding is

"YOU CAN’T CHANGE IT.”

The truth is that you can change it, and I did it too!

Here is how. 

Step 1: Decide What Personal Brand You Want to Have

This is a crucial step.

You need to decide if you want to be seen as strategic, innovative, analytical, or an executor...etc.

Typically, this should align with your career growth plan.

For example, if you’re looking to move up the ladder and be a leader in charge, then you need to come across as strategic.

If you want to go to the analytics side of the company, then you need to have a brand associated with “analytical.”

You get the point.

Step 2: Start Taking Actions Aligned with This Branding

This is where I made my biggest mistake.

Early in my career, I wanted everyone to see me as strategic and innovative, but all my actions were around “getting things done.”

So when I surveyed everyone I worked with, they all described me as “Feras gets things done.”

There was a huge disconnect between what I thought and what people saw me as.

So, I started taking action in meetings, projects, 1:1s, and every opportunity to show how strategic I am and how much I can think outside the box.

In less than 12 months, I was able to change it.

Step 3: Ask People to Describe You in One or Two Words

This step opened my eyes.

Ask 5-10 people to describe you in one or two words.

By the time you ask the fifth person, you will know your brand.

The key is to ask people to give you just one or two words.

I would do this step once a year until you feel your brand is finally spreading and people see you as you want them to.

Step 4: Promote Your Brand

This is the step most people are still not comfortable doing because we grew up believing in “heads down, work hard” and everything will be okay.

This is wrong...

We need to promote ourselves.

We don’t need to be jerks about it, but telling people about our accomplishments and what we do is completely RIGHT and OK and needed today more than ever.

Personal branding and career growth are so correlated, and if we don’t close the gap between what we want our personal branding to be and what people actually see, it can be a career killer.

99% of promotion discussions happen behind closed doors when you're not in the room.

The best advocate for you during those discussions is your personal brand, so make it count.

The good news is, you have more control over this than you think.

The best day to start building your brand is today! Don’t waste time.