Your Personal Brand: What Do People Think of, When They Think of You?

What do people think of when they think of you? Your sense of humor, your fashion sense, your common sense, your enthusiasm?

This is your brand.

Do solopreneurs even have brands?

As it turns out, we EACH have a brand - our personal brand (also sometimes called a micro-brand).

You ALWAYS have a brand - the question is whether you are consciously creating it, or ignoring it.

Why consciously create your brand?

Because you CURRENTLY DO have a brand, whether you want to or not, and you ALWAYS WILL have one. When you consciously create it, you have the opportunity to create a powerful alignment between you and your clients.

Your brand tells your potential customers what to expect from their experience with you. That information can be powerfully persuasive to either jump on your bandwagon, or say no thanks, I like this other wagon better.

When your brand aligns with what your potential customers want to experience in their lives or businesses, your path to claiming them as a client is smoothed.

What does alignment look like?

It's based on values.

How do you figure out your brand?

1. It needs to be reasonably consistent with your work. If you're creative, your brand needs to include creativity, flair, innovation, or similar values. If your work is in accounting or book-keeping, dependability and consistency will be important. People are turned off when they have an expectation that is not just unmet, but also turns out to the opposite of what is offered to them.

2. It needs to reflect your core personal values. If you love fun and laughter, that should be part of your brand, even if you're thinking: laughter isn't why my clients come to me! They come for my great (body work, skin care products, whatever). Wrong! Part of the reason they come to YOU, vs. someone else in the same business, will undoubtedly be your sense of fun.

3. It needs to be something that your customers want to be aligned with. When you have a great brand, people want it for themselves! Your people will experience your brand and feel like you've got something going on that they want.
Your brand will translate to prospects and clients that care about ... what?

You've already got your brand - even if you haven't planned it out. So why not consciously create your authentic brand that truly reflects your core values and attracts the clients you are meant to have?

CALL TO ACTION

1. What is your current brand? If you're not sure, ask 5 colleagues, friends and family members to tell you. Email them and ask them to write down 5 words or phrases that come to mind when they think of you. You'll have a lot of fun reading the responses, and I bet you'll be surprised at how consistent the answers are.

2.What are your core values? Try writing down several on your own first. If you want some additional ideas, see http://tinyurl.com/personalvalues

3. What do you want your business to stand for? Excellent customer service? Reliability? Innovation? Quality?

4. Given the way people perceive you now (the results of part 1.) and the way you want your business to be perceived (the results of part 3.), is there any disconnect? Are there any values you need to add in?

Your authentic brand will be a divinely-right combination of your inner values, what your business stands for, and what your clients want to be aligned with. When you consciously create that, you'll iron out any disconnects, fill in the missing pieces, and you'll become even more magnetic to YOUR tribe - the people you're here to serve.