You have a personal brand, whether it’s intentional or not.

Deciding to build and/or influence your personal brand lets you design and live your life on purpose.

When you have a personal brand that works for you, it opens doors.

In Matthew McConaughey’s book called, Greenlights he says, “Live My Legacy Now”.

And Carl Lewis believes, “If you don’t have confidence, you’ll always find a way not to win.”

SET IT

You can set your personal brand.

How should you start?

1. What is your purpose? Your purpose and your values are the best foundation for your personal brand.

• If setting a personal brand is about designing a life and living it, you want it to reflect what matters to you.
• Where do you want to make an impact?
• What are the values you want to live each day?
• What opposing behaviours or blind spots to your values do you want to be sensitive to and self-identify and prevent?
• What is consistent at home, at work, and in your spare time that matters to you?

Have the courage to define your purpose.

The coolest thing about being a business owner? Amplify’s purpose is the same as my purpose!

• Enhancing Communities
• Amplifying Opportunities
• Cultivating Connections

2. Once you know your purpose and values you need to seek opportunities and live them!

• Find a job that is aligned and also values what matters to you.
• Spend your spare time making an impact through volunteer time, who you hang out with, how you raise your family, the learning you seek, and where you invest.
• Work with organizations that share your purpose and values. Support them as an employee, a customer or volunteer.

 3. Tell people about it!

It takes courage to find your purpose and maybe even more courage to tell others about it.

• Use social media to share what matters to you. Make an impact with a one-to-many-free medium!
• Even just liking posts can be a way to stand out and show what you care about.
• The next step is to share content.
• Sharing your thoughts is one more way to get your message out.
• When you are ready, or if you have ambitions, you can ‘author’ your content too!
• The level is up to you, and all of these make a difference. You don’t have to become a blogger or YouTuber to grow your brand effectively! But you can!
• Teach!
• A great way to share your purpose and life is to volunteer to speak on topics that help you live your values.
• You can gain reputation and creditability when you show up as an expert and share your knowledge.
• Host other speakers to help people learn and to grow.

The most important part of setting a personal brand is that your actions, words, roles, and time are aligned to the image and impact you are trying to establish.

RIDE • REFINE • REVISE IT

If you are taking the time to plan and establish a personal brand, chances are you have a growth mindset, and that will serve you and your brand well.

As you grow, you’ll want to ride your brand to help open doors and live a life that allows you to be the difference you set out to make.

But you’ll also want to refine it as you change and as time changes.

You can mature as a brand and use the asset to open new doors and opportunities.

You can also do a re-brand!

And here’s the kicker – your actions will re-brand you, and so will your messaging, even if you don’t set out to revise your brand. 

Consistency helps you re-enforce or ride your brand.

Alignment does too.

But when your words, actions, time spent, or affiliations deviate, you risk your brand.

That’s okay if it’s the truth and you are changing as a person. You’ll want the brand to change with you.

But if it is not planned or intentional, your personal brand can take on a life of its own. When that happens, it can get in your way!

GRIND IT

If you take your eye off the prize, you’ll lose the opportunities to live your values and purpose.

The efforts should be worth it if you build a personal brand with your purpose and values as a foundation.

You can’t just set it and forget it.

• It would help if you revisited that your values and purpose are still what you want to anchor on.
• Committing through your choices, actions, and words would be best.

Personal brand happens to all of us – whether we are aware of it or not.

People have their perceptions of us, and sometimes they are not fair or accurate.

But they are built on stereotypes, choices, and things to which we are tied to.

That personal brand will hurt or help us, regardless of our decision to set it, ride/refine/revise it or grind it.

A brand isn’t about ego, and it isn’t about being flashy or extravert.

You have one.

Now decide what you want to do with it and if you want to control it.

Your personal brand is a core component of choosing a life versus being a victim of one.

If you want to control your career and your life, a personal brand is a tool to use.

If that matters to you then it is worth the work.

The CPA has an article called, The Importance of Personal Branding that is especially important for CPAs in the early stages of their careers, as creating a personal brand can open doors and change the course of their lives.

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