The Personal Branding Series! Part 1: What is Personal Branding?

28th July, 2009 at 11:17 | Posted in Personal Branding | 5 Comments
Tags: Creating a Blog Business, Ebook Benefits, Exile Lifestyle, Location Independent, Personal Branding

The research I conduct for this site brings me across a lot of websites that I need to sift through to find gems that will help me learn. Occasionally those gems turn into diamonds; one such example is the Exile Lifestyle Personal Branding ebook.

The process of being Location Independent involves a lot of changes in my current lifestyle, especially when it comes to building an online business and a public image. It is the reason why I think it’s important to make these changes early in my career rather than later when my reputation has become firmly cemented in opinion.

The beauty in starting any project is that you have the flexibility to adapt from the get-go. Imagine already being someone successful and having no basis to who you really are and then trying to create it or worse trying to change it. I’m fortunate that I’m presently a ‘nobody’ because I can work on myself now and present to the public who I want them to see.

This, the Personal Branding Series, will have nine parts that will be scheduled to post every two weeks. In the series I will  apply the personal branding ebook directly to my life and document the process for all to see how it can be done. I expect this process to present some interesting challenges as I step through the sections and learn what I need about creating the right kind of image for who I am now and who I want to become; let’s jump in head first, shall we…?

What is Personal Branding?

Personal branding involves managing your reputation, style, look, attitude and skill set the same way that a marketing team would run the brand for a bag of Doritos or bottle of shampoo. The idea is that you can develop a collection of symbols and associations with yourself, granting your name, face and work the same benefits that companies with solid brand equity (like Coca-Cola or Apple) enjoys.

The way I view personal branding is less brand than it is image; I consider a brand a product, something physical you purchase but an image conveys everything about who you are.

… it’s making yourself known for what you want to be known for.

Being known as a journalist is fundamental to the success of my location independence. Without a portfolio behind me and without a reputation and an audience I have nothing. Creating a brand based around my writing ability will determine how successful I will be when I do find the avenue of business suitable to my tastes.

What I see in this personal branding process is two stages. This, the initial learning phase, will be the teething problems, the ironing of my image where I have a base to build from with the magazine and other avenues as they come. The second I see as the actual online location independent component after I’ve left China and begun travelling elsewhere, no longer solely reliant on getting a job to sustain my interests.

Where Does Personal Branding Take Place?

Personal branding is not something that you can invest an hour or two in and then never have to think about again. It’s a 24/7, full-time job that takes a lot of attention, tenacity, and cajones to do right. Fortunately, once you get into the habit, it’s something that can fit seamlessly into your life without having to keep it at the forefront of your mind.

I have realised that as my reputation and public image with the Haerbinger Magazine grew I have had to be very aware of everything I do and say. Australian’s are known for not being backwards-in-coming-forward and I am no different. When I first arrived in China I was only an English teacher; I wasn’t in the business of caring about people’s opinions of me. That’s not to say that I went out of my way to be rude, I just didn’t hold back my opinions as much as I do now.

I am naturally a direct and honest person but I have learned the value in the saying, ‘less is more’. Everything I do and say now has consequences, not just to my image but to the image of the magazine I am working very hard to represent.

Why Do You Need a Personal Brand?

Building a positive reputation can lead to increased word-of-mouth advertising for you and your services. When your reputation spreads and precedes you, it also makes interactions with potential clients that much easier, allowing you to spend less time convincing them to hire you, and more time negotiating the scope of services and payment (and actually working on the project).

A good reputation immediately instills trust in people. If you have a positive attitude, present yourself professionally at all times, and produce quality workmanship it stands to reason that people will talk positively about you and will want to work with/ for you. For me, this means not only building a network of people who enjoy reading my work but who are willing to plug me to anyone and everyone they know, both online and in person.

The more you refine your brand, the more targeted your message becomes …

I am effectively working on two images simultaneously here. The physical one that involves representing the magazine, and this one, for my location independence. Both inter-connect, but it is as though they are the two sides of the same fence; face and faceless.

Over time these two sides will merge in what will be a natural transition because I am building them to reflect each other and my core values. When meeting new people I talk about both aspects, it depends on my audience as to which I give more emphasis but both get equal air time and respect.

Being able to objectively apply the ebook to my way of thinking is automatically making me see what aspects of my life I would like to see improve. It is one thing to read a resource book but actually applying it in this way gives the learning process greater dimension.

Coming Next in the Personal Branding Series- Part 2: The Labeling Theory

Reference: Any quotes used throughout the series come directly from the Exile Lifestyle Personal Branding ebook;  permission has been sought from author, Colin Wright.