Personal branding for the new year

The New Year is finally here! I know a lot of you have decided upon resolutions or goals for the year. All of that is amazing and by all means aspire to have one of your best years yet. However, entering into a new year usually brings with its shifts in perspective. At this time of year, we usually tend to be more reflective and open to welcome all the possibilities the year has to offer.

This is where personal branding comes into play! Personal branding is simply how you are perceived by the outside world. The most successful people in life and business really do understand that first impressions matter in every circumstance therefore personal branding is really all about how you show up in 2017! Personal branding allows people to buy into the power that is YOU and is a necessary component of life and career success.

Therefore, since its new year, and a new you, it is really important to make sure that the goals you have for your personal development and professional life are in line with your everyday behaviours, conversations and overall image.

For anyone who wants to progress in their career, you are probably aware that today’s market place is crowed and super competitive making personal branding important to stand out from your peers, therefore giving you a competitive advantage over others. The people who are wildly successful have integrated branding into everything they do.

In my opinion, we are all born exceptional, different, and destined for greatness in whichever path we put our minds to, however to demonstrate this in the new year, as the new you, you will need to actively be able to demonstrate this at interviews, for promotion round, helping your business or start-up get off the ground, or taking on a new client.

This year make sure you are putting your unique mark on everything you do. The more you do this, branding becomes a natural part of how you manage your career and lifestyle.

Are you wondering how to do this? You will need to follow 3 steps:

Step 1: Discover. If you don’t know who you are, you can’t market or position yourself effectively. So you have to start with a discovery phase first.  You might have your own reality of yourself, but if other people are not perceiving you in the same way there’s a huge reality gap! People with strong personal brands are clear about who they are. They know and maximize their strengths and their other capabilities.  Now is your chance to uncover and define the unique skills that make you stand out from the crowd and slay as your authentic self!

Step 2: Differentiate. Think about yourself and your peers. What makes you different from those you are surrounded by? Chances are, it will be more personality characteristics or personal experiences. Once you know that, you will know what is compelling about you compared to others.  This is then what you will highlight and integrate into anything you will do.

Step 3: Define. Envision where you want to get to by the end of the year, and who you need to be in order to achieve it.  In order to define your personal brand you will need to hone in and keep focusing on what you can bring to the table and how you add value. You are at the point where you can now define how you will live out the rest of the year as your brand!

This post I wrote was also featured on sheaspiresuk.com/blog