Consider This: Who Am I? What is Your Personal Brand? (Part 2)

(Editor’s Note – This is the second of a two-part series on Personal Branding. Last month’s Part 1 column can be found by clicking the following link: Who Am I? Part 1.)

By Ken Hammock, The Joy FM

Every business has a brand.

Many have marketing departments which intentionally strategize to control the business brand. Some dabble in marketing in an attempt to portray that “one thing” they are best known for, and others just fly by the seat of their pants hoping only to make a sale or two today. Either way, every business is branded by the customers they serve.

Jeff Bezos of Amazon said it best, “Your brand is what other people say about you when you are not in the room.”

There is a unique challenge with most entrepreneurial endeavors and what I call solo-preneurs. When you serve a local community, your business brand is virtually always reflects the personality or reputation of the owner and not by the marketing efforts of the business. The actions, words, and choices of the person will probably overshadow the business.

So, your personal brand is important. You become known by others primarily by how you’ve touched their life. Whether it was a positive touch or a negative touch, you left a mark. How are you known?

There is a way to determine your existing brand and how to build a strategy to improve who you are. There is a way to control how you are known. And, there is a way to repair brand damage.

Your first step is to find a mirror. You must be honest with yourself.

I’ll be transparent here. Several years ago one of my hardest obstacles, one I waged war within my own heart, was to honestly look in the mirror and convince myself that I had a problem. I had issues that need to be fixed. I was not upholding honorable or good standards, and I had become apathetic towards truly caring about other’s impression of me, operating with compassion, or fulfilling every detail of a commitment whether the client knew or not. That was hard, and as I said, it was war.

Your second step is to repair damaged relationships. I’ll go deeper into this another time.

Next, set your goals for personal brand improvement. Build your set of standards, personality traits, and procedures. Find a mentor. Recruit an accountability partner. Expose your bad habits and practice new, good habits. Define your overall aspirations and what is needed to get you there.

Finally, manage your journey wisely. Set blinders and don’t be distracted. Learn from your past but be resolved that the past will not be your motivational driver. It is behind you. Develop a system to hold YOURSELF accountable. In essence, you must manage you.

I have much more to say and will go more into depth in future posts. I hope this is motivating you to change. I know it may seem difficult. But you can do it.

Let me know if I can help.

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Ken Hammock is a 30-year marketing veteran and is the Corporate Engagement Specialist for The JOY FM. You can reach him via email at [email protected].