Think back to a time early in your career when you met with your boss for a performance review. Do you ever remember your boss stating something about your ability in a certain area, as if that was all you were good at?
Or has someone ever introduced you at a business function by firing an area of ​​your expertise as if that was all you did? (Which made you think, "Hey! That's only a piece of what I do, but it's certainly not all I do!")
If either of these situations occurred, you were branded (and burned!).
Perhaps something like this happened to you recently, or maybe you're wondering if you ever really defined your brand. (It's not too late!)
You can define your brand, re-work your brand, or tweak your brand. The important thing is that you know your brand and use it to its fullest potential.
Why Brand Yourself?
Branding yourself opens new and better doors for you. It ensures that you focus on work that you enjoy and that utilizes your strengths (even in creative ways). It also keeps you current in your field so that you can re-position your brand, if needed.
Branding yourself also ensures that other people are not in control of your brand. In another article, I wrote, "If you do not brand yourself, someone else will – and it may not be the brand you want for yourself." When you let other people brand you, you let them control your future. You also let them control how others perceive you.
Would not it be better if you branded yourself, controlled how others perceived you, and had more control over your future than other people ?
And while thinking about why you would brand yourself, consider what you want "branding" to do for you, such as build credibility, earn more money, ensure that you will thrive in economic downturns, or open new doors of opportunity.
What else do you want branding to do for you?
This self-branding thing can get really involved: there are a lot of steps to discovering, creating, and marketing yourself as a brand successfully. To help you out, I've created a "Brand Yourself! Coaching Program". It is a self-paced coaching program you can purchase directly from Borgeson Consulting. I'm very excited about this program! Since it is self-paced, it is very affordable – less expensive than traditional coaching by telephone, and you complete it at your own pace.
