Building Your Personal Brand
By: Shawna Lake
Tags: Job Search, Personal Branding, Personal Brand, Usp, Career Change

Identify the core of your brand and your Unique Selling Proposition as an employee or job candidate.

Crafting Your Brand

Answer these questions to gain insight into the core strengths that set you apart from the competition. Be as thorough as you can when answering these questions. Put down anything that comes to your mind.

· What unique strengths do you have?



Maybe you are particularly good at seeing the big picture? Or maybe you can see opportunities where others see challenges. Or perhaps you are unusually good at motivating people.

· What unique insights do you bring to the table?



Do you have a unique insight into why some people self-sabotage their efforts? Or maybe you understand why certain people struggle to lose weight. Or maybe you have unique clarity as to why some people get easily overwhelmed.

· What are your core beliefs about yourself and others?



Maybe you believe that everyone has unlimited untapped potential. Or that everyone has the power to be self-disciplined. Or that everyone can be organized if they have the right system.

● What do you have perspectives on that others do not?



Do you have a unique perspective on productivity due to your struggles and successes? Or maybe you have developed a unique exercise method that helps people get in shape. Or perhaps you have transformed yourself from unmotivated to highly motivated and have a unique perspective on the subject.

● What skills do you possess that others do not?



Are you exceptionally skilled in setting up systems to help people achieve their goals? Or are you uniquely able to help people achieve their financial goals? Or perhaps you are incredibly good at motivating people to get healthy.

● What expertise do you have that sets you apart?



Do you have special nutritional training which you use to help people lose weight? Or are you an expert in attracting and keeping wealth? Or are you incredibly skilled at helping others navigate toxic relationships?

Answer these questions to get insight into who you are personally and what motivates and drives you. The answers to these questions will help you craft your personal brand.

● What are your core values?



What things matter to you most? Excellence? Honesty? Living holistically? Achieving financial independence? Getting into shape?

● What are you most passionate about?



What gets you fired up? What do you love helping others to do? Do you love helping them get organized? Or helping them achieve their biggest goals? Or helping people overcome self-limiting beliefs?

● How can you most effectively serve your core audience?



How can you most effectively resolve the challenges that others struggle with? What are you uniquely good at? If you put all your skills, experiences, and insights together, how can you use them to add value to your audience?

● What do you have to offer that no one else does?



What skills, experiences, insights, and expertise do you have to offer that sets you apart from everyone else? What makes you unique? How do you solve problems in a way that no one else does? What benefit is there to working with you that cannot be found anywhere else?

Answer these questions to determine what you want to accomplish with your brand. These will help guide you in terms of your overall brand direction.

● What would I like to accomplish, both personally and professionally?



What do you want to do with your life, and how does that flow into your business? Who do you want to help? Why do you want to help them? When you look back on your life, what do you hope to see?

● What do I want to be known for?



When people talk about you, what do you want them to say? What do you want to be the first thing that comes to their minds when they think about you? How would you summarize yourself in a single sentence?

● If I could be the world’s foremost expert on a topic, what would it be?



If you could be known as the “go-to” person on a given topic, what would that topic be? What subject do you most want to help people with?

● What key message do I want to communicate?



What is the core message that you want to communicate with others? If you had to sum up the core of your message in a single sentence, what would it be? If you had to sum up your message in a single word, what would it be?

● If I could only give one piece of advice, what would it be?

If you could only tell people one big thing that would help them, what would you tell them? If you had to distill your core message down to a single piece of advice, what would that be?

Download our Personal Branding Worksheet as part of building your Elevator Pitch.