Consider Your Personal Brand

In a modern World of Facebook, YouTube and connected consciousness in all it’s forms – platforms that provide extensions of consciousness that pervade the new reality of a physical World mixed, and often distorted, with a complex and hyper-connected cyber World – we must be more self-aware than ever.

Everyone should be thinking about their personal brand – what it means to them, and what it says about them to the outside World.

I’ve become particularly interested in this subject as a result of my mission to bring positive change to the World by realising my vision of humanity at it’s best, striving to be better, and thriving through understanding how to interact with each other in a quality and meaningful way so we can work together to solve the meaningful problems we find ourselves faced with. I was introduced to the principal of being a ‘Key Person of Influence‘ by Daniel Priestley’s book by the same name (click the link for more details). I read this book whilst on holiday in Italy, and it provided some revolutionary insights for me about how to build my personal brand, and why it was important.

Whether you’re in business or not, this is something that should be on your radar. The benefits of becoming a key person of influence in business and your professional life are fairly obvious – the most exciting projects, the highest fees and the best opportunities always end up with key people of influence. Why is this? Quite simply, because they are seen, known and trusted in their respective market place, and furthermore are seen as experts in their field. Why wouldn’t you want to work with an expert who you feel like you know because you see their content everywhere? Become a key person of influence in your industry, and you won’t be worried about finding or keeping work so long as you provide a fair exchange of perceived value to your clients with excellent customer service.

However, you’re not off the hook if you are employed and have no plans to change the World anytime soon.

You’re even more unlucky if you’re a millennial… because it’s more than likely that 100% of your life is on-line, and what’s on-line is timeless – a fact few in recent generations seem to realise or appreciate enough!

These days, employers use peoples Facebook profiles and other social media information that is publicly available to get a more solid idea of who job applicants are, what their values are, and whether or not they will be a good fit for the role they’ve applied for, and be a good fit for company culture. There is so much information about us on-line with most people using social media platforms heavily and regularly, and so everyone should be considering this when they’re posting information and updates to the various sites that act as adverts for their lives. Your Facebook and LinkedIn profiles are now part of your CV – whether you like it or not!

This is exactly why everyone should be thinking about their personal brand, and working to nurture it into one they are proud to present to the rest of the World – it’s going to be presented to us anyway, so it’s well worth putting the effort in to get it right.

The first thing you need to do if this concept is new to you is to decide on what your key values are, and to write them down. This should be a set of guiding principals by which you consistently live your life, and that result in actions that match those of the person you are working to become. If you don’t know what these values are, or you have a rough idea but they’re not specific or clear enough in your mind, then you have no way of knowing if you’re behaving in a way that’s serving your higher purpose in life. Before you fire a gun, you need to make sure it’s pointing at the target…

It is then important that you review your social media activity to date, and be honest with yourself as to whether or not the way you’ve been advertising yourself is congruent with the way you want to be seen, derived from the values and guiding principals you’ve just written down. Some of it will be positive, and some will be negative – don’t get hung up on the stuff you don’t like the look of, just make a mental note and be sure to avoid repeating behaviour you’ve now identified as negative. Do more of the stuff you like, and that is in line with your goals.

Be sure to rave about the things you’re doing that are exciting and that demonstrate character and personal growth – these things are so valuable, and serve to inspire countless others to greatness as well as promoting your passion and thirst for life at your best. Let people know what you’re experiences are, and what key learnings you’ve derived from them – how have you grown? Share your story – we all have value to add to others through our stories of our unique perceptions of our experiences.

The more you show up as the person you want to be, the more you become everything you desire. At the very least, it’s important to be aware of how visible we all are on-line these days, so you can filter hat you share with the World and decrease the possibility of any negative content having a detrimental effect on your life, either in making new friends, building your professional network or finding your dream job.

No matter who you are, where you live or what you do – look after your personal brand, and your personal brand will look after you. Showing your true character, passion and drive through your personal brand is a great way to open doors for new and exciting opportunities in life, and it’s a fantastic way to meet like minded people who share your passion and thirst for living.

You’re amazing, and the World deserves to know about you so shout from the rooftops!

Author: PUBLISHED BY LITTLE GREY SAYS (Jamie Keeling)

Entrepreneur | Peak Performance Specialist | Martial Artist | Author | Investor 

"See it, believe it, achieve it"