The 3 Golden Rules of Personal Branding

Life’s full of lists, isn’t it?  The Top 10 this, the 100 Greatest that, 50 Things To Do Before…

Well here’s another – The 3 Golden Rules of Personal Branding.  There are of course many more than just three, but when it comes to the basics, if you get these right you’ll be half way there:

Rule #1 – Be Authentic
I wrote in an earlier blog that ‘faking it to make it’ doesn’t cut any ice in personal branding; people will always suss you out and your credibility will disappear faster than a chocolate biscuit at a Weight Watchers meeting.  So stop being who you think your audience wants you to be and instead try being yourself.  It’s incredibly liberating and it’s a lot less effort (one of my clients said she couldn’t believe how much time she’d wasted in her career trying to be someone else).

Rule #2 – Be Clear
Think of defining your personal brand as being like a chef creating a signature dish: you have hundreds of ingredients at your disposal (your values, beliefs, reputation, behaviour, skills, image, etc) but if you used all of them in your personal brand you’d overwhelm people’s palates.  Instead, you need to create your personal brand using only a handful of the best ingredients – the ones that really make you stand out from the crowd and tell people all they need to know about you.  And that will make it easier to follow Rule #3…

Rule #3 – Be Consistent
…because if you’re selling the same personal brand every time people meet you you’ll soon become renowned for it.  And that way, when people want what you’re offering, they’ll know exactly where to go for it.

And if you enjoyed this blog, please take a second to click on the buttons below to share it with your online community – thank you!