How and why to develop a personal brand for an ordinary person

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

You have a personal brand, even if you never thought about it. Find out what benefits you can get if you pay attention and work properly on your reputation.

Everyone has a personal brand

A person's personal brand (reputation) appears almost from birth and develops throughout his life. The point is to understand what image arises in the minds of others when they remember you, what defining opinion exists about you. When a person is zero without a stick, this is also a personal brand.

How many audiences, so many opinions can be about one and the same person. For some, you are Seryozha's mother, and for others, Tatyana Vasilievna, the chief accountant, and she is still a bitch.

You can manage your reputation

Everyone can create from scratch or change public opinion about themselves in the direction they want. But the boundaries of possible changes depend on a person's potential. A dull gopnik can become a dumb deputy. But the prefix "dumb" cannot be removed until the level of intelligence changes. In the same way, you cannot tell that you have a pumped up husband until he has at least some muscles. The idea of wishful thinking seems tempting, but it rarely happens.

You can't have multiple professional personal brands

For example, a person wants to be a famous knitter of woolen swimwear and an equally famous designer. He begins to play the fool: he writes on the same site about knitting and about development - but his career does not move either there or there. The reason is simple: you can only play one role in one information space.

Of course, you can take a pseudonym, separate the two projects into different platforms and audiences, but this is utopia. There is not enough time and hands for everything - something will remain at the level of a hobby, and something will bring the main income.

I propose not to complicate your life and immediately choose what will be in what place. Decide what you will earn on, in which area you will build your reputation, and what will be your sweet hobby without claims to monetization and expertise.

Personality editing is acceptable

Let's agree that we are talking about a real person, not a fictional one.

Even if you're a no-merit novice, you can embellish your story a little. Not saying, "I'm nobody, but I'm going to become a musician." Better: "I started studying music and am planning a career in this area." Yes, you have to show your deeds - lessons, progress, mistakes. But the status of an aspiring musician is better than a promise to become one.

Pretend until it works.

Austin Cleon writer, artist

Editing is possible until the next stage of development. Then it’s believable for others, feasible for you, and it’s also a good motivator for growth. If you introduce yourself as a soloist of the Bolshoi Theater after a couple of successful parties in a karaoke bar, there will be no sense.

The search for uniqueness leads to a dead end

As you start exploring the topic of personal branding in detail, you will be prompted from every iron to find your uniqueness. This sounds reassuring, but we are ridiculously similar, and most of us are very predictable. Otherwise, social stereotypes would not work. Advertising and that would not work if we were as unique as we are led to believe.

The idea of finding developed and expressed features in oneself is more realistic. Everyone has them. Someone is more cynical, and this is striking. Someone is a control freak and perfectionist, and this is a pretty significant part of the personality. Someone is lazy. Someone is lazy, but with a conscience.

In general, I am in favor of not looking for a divine spark in myself. It's great if you have one, but most people aren't that unique. But everyone has something that is inherent in him to a greater extent, and this most of all affects the character, actions, way of thinking and way of life.

For me, the reasonable uniqueness from the point of view of an adult is precisely in this.

What is desirable to understand before starting conscious work on a personal brand

Seeing a therapist is a good idea

You can't invent a personal brand, it just so happens. In politics, you can. But in business or career for ordinary people, this does not work. If you seriously engage in this, you need to adequately understand yourself at a very deep level.

We can only rely on what we have, keeping in mind what we want to become. If you make a mistake somewhere and ascribe to yourself values that you do not really share, that do not inspire and captivate you, there will be no strong brand - neither personal nor corporate. There will be an imitation that will quickly turn into nothing.

How many can say that they know themselves well enough and are honest with themselves? Personally, for more than a month I have been trying to figure out my values, goals, desires, strengths and weaknesses. The first attempts were outright lies to itself, and the "current edition", I think, is not the last.

But besides understanding, it is also important to accept oneself.

Personal brand development has nothing to do with sales

You may be famous throughout the country, but as poor as a church mouse. A personal brand is not a story about sales, but about influence.

Selling processes will have to be set up separately and on time - when there is a product, a ready-to-buy audience and at least some reason to buy from you. If you start from scratch, then you must understand that a miracle will not happen in a week. It won't happen in a month.

Look how long it takes for new stars to appear in your field, how long it takes for successful people from appearing on the market to being recognized. And you will see what path you have to go.

Your personal brand cannot be promoted by a PR specialist

Do not look up to the people for whom the country's leading PR agencies work if you are not one of them.

In the next article, we'll look at how to spell out your personal brand goals, your audience, and your competitors.