10 Personal Branding Tips

Personal branding is becoming one of the most important topics among designers and entrepreneurs. By having a strong and well-known personal brand it is much easier to sell products, win friends and influence people. If you want to start shaping your personal brand these 10 tips are definitely going to help you get going on the right track.

1. Start with “Why?”

For the very beginning start with defining why you are doing what you are doing. According to Simon Sinek, a NY Times bestseller:

“People don’t buy WHAT you do; they buy WHY you do it.”

The concept is very similar to a well-known “vision, mission and values” statements. By defining your personal why, how and what you will be able to express and reflect your intentions much easier in everything you do. For a better understanding of the concept check the video on TED which has been viewed more than 11 million times.

2. Define priorities in your personal and professional lives

Take a notebook or a piece of paper and write down your personal and professional goals, short and long term. List as many goals as possible to clear up your mind, list even those that you think are unrealistic or impossible. After that try to group these goals into two groups: personal and professional, or life and career, doesn’t matter how you call them, you got the idea. After that try prioritizing these goals, you have to understand that the first goal is the most important and will take the most of your energy and time. These two groups of listed goals will allow you to focus on the most important things.

3. How are you going to help others?

Answering this simple question will allow you to understand why people are going to listen to you. People care only about themselves. Help others and others will help you.

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

4. Get interested in other people

If you will be genuinely interested in other people’s lives, hobbies and their beliefs you will find out new things that will inspire you and make you a better person. Your personal brand will be perceived as more humane and welcoming by just asking “How are you? What you’ve been up to?”. Taking a note to yourself will help you to remember things for the next meet up. In this way you will establish a closer relationship with any person you communicate to.

5. Always be open and positive, leave criticism to yourself

Nobody likes judging. Actually it is one of the biggest fears people have, being judged by other people. This is what stops most of us from doing what we like, because we are afraid of failure and being judged.

6. Learn and teach

Nothing creates a better following than teaching what you are learning. In this way you learn more because you have to break down the things into small pieces to make them understandable for others. Teaching is also a form of giving back to community. Sometimes you think that you don’t have anything to teach but there are always people interested in what you do.

7. Create a blog and start writing

Blogging is probably the best way for self-branding online. Writing your thoughts, sharing your experiences and helping people through your blog will help you build awareness of your personal brand and will earn credibility and trust among your followers. Starting a blog is so easy that you can start up in a few clicks, for the very beginning try wordpress.com or tumblr.com.

8. Get involved in social media

I don’t mean to sign up and be there. Get involved in conversations, be genuinely interested in what people do, help others if you know something valuable. Contribute to community, first give then take.

9. Share your ideas, success stories, keep inspiring people

Inspire people by sharing your ideas and success stories. Share inspiring quotes, articles or books you’ve read. Help others by revealing your way to success. Don’t keep everything for yourself.

10. Dare to do something differently. Fail. Learn. Repeat.

“If you learn from defeat, you haven’t really lost.” – Zig Ziglar

If you really want to stand out from the crowd you have to do something different. By doing what others do you won’t become something more than others. This step requires courage because you will fail, will be judged by others. The key to success is not to give up, learn from your mistakes and repeat the process until you become the best person you can.