Understanding yourself: A Quick and Practical guide to Self Introspection for building a Personal Brand
Self Introspection key as a tool to build Authenticity in a Personal Brand |
Let me start with a Prediction, Most of you have a Facebook Account. I love Facebook and I am a fan of it.
The Best thing about it is you are connected or can connect with people who are your friends but due to a busy life or a different location you cannot connect.
Connections and Networks can be really powerful. Ask a successful Network Marketer or Business person the power and value of a Network.
People make a living of it (literally). You can leverage your Network to build a Successful business or brand.
My view of Brand or Business is not that of a person that uses his/her/zir network to suck the life of it. But rather to be a useful and reliable part of it (without being a doormat).
I believe building a Brand is like that, it is making a Promise and letting people know you can deliver on it.
Please check my Previous post on Personal Brand, where I share 6 Steps to Building a Powerful Personal Brand.
Lets look at Step 1, You are building a Personal Brand. You will have to start with you and an image or an idea of you.
A lot of us will accept that we mask our emotions at times and it is good.
But while building a brand you need to understand yourself so that you can showcase the 'Real You' you want people to understand and engage with.
The one who makes the promise to deliver a Service or Product that adds value to People.
So how does one Introspect? Do we have to prepare some kind of Questionnaire?
There are whole list of Questions. Let me break it down for you.
Experts recommend to use the following strategy while trying get a better picture of yourself.
Busting Some Myths about Personal Branding
Craft your own Brand Mantra |
# Everyone is not your audience
This is one of the mistakes people make. I think we kind of assume everyone would find your content important or interesting.
It is like a movie or a song that you love and everyone else is like, 'Nah! that is crepes'.
Find your audience by focusing on niches that can be monetized.
Everyone does not like philosophy or self help, Some people do so why not focus on them.
# You don't need to meet everyone's standard
It is good to be on par with others, but sometimes we need to be clear about what we are into.
We must understand our purpose for a project or activity. We must follow appropriate standards for the task at hand. Standards should also be implemented in a context or in situation.
If you niche demands blog posts, see if you are following the right practices needed for a successful blog post.
# Modelling Successful influencers guarantees success
I think this is quite a fallacious thought to think that we can blindly model some Successful people and its surely going to work for everyone.
Being successful is not following a recipe, Of Course there are established practices and techniques that do help people.
But I think these are more like guides or starting points rather than Laws of Success that cannot be broken.
# You have nothing to offer
I think this is an excuse we tell ourselves. Things or situations can be difficult to get around, but that should not stop you from achieving our goals.
Challenges make a journey more interesting. So you can focus on your positives and create a product or service that helps people.
May be you need to change the audience or the people you are selling to (some cases).
# Personal branding is one-upmanship
I think Personal Brands is about showcasing your Uniqueness and how you standout from your competition.
I don't think it is about putting people or brands down, competition doesn't need to be nasty.
Introspection and its Relation to PB
Change your world ! |
Where do we start is sometimes the question we all ask. Should we just blindly post pictures on Instagram or just write blogs or may be even a Book?
I don't think so, I think it is much more than that. What if all your efforts don't bear fruit? Should you just scrap it and leave it behind?
I think your purpose and goal will be a good guide to answer these questions besides an expert or consultant.
Introspection is key to authenticity, Authenticity adds value to your Personal brand.
Faking it till you make it does not mean being another person or portraying a false persona. I believe it is about portraying your potential to people. More like a symbol of what you could potentially become.
Introspection for building AuthenticityIntrospection is preparing your mind for showcasing You |
Introspection is key to understanding Authenticity.
We need to be clear about Who we are and what we are offering people.
Story telling is key but authenticity builds a Strong Brand that promises Trust and Reliance to its audience.
Now before you check my other posts on Personal Branding, Let me leave you with a key to Introspection.
I would say take sometime out of your busy schedule and reflect on your dream. Try understand how it connects with your passion and how you can monetize it.
You could perform a SWOT analysis to help you understand yourself. You can see how your goals reflect you.
I would journal your thoughts and ideas regularly. On the weekends just skim through your own writings and evaluate them.
I believe this is a good starting point to be Authentic. Sometimes we need sometime to just disconnect and connect with ourselves.
Concluding Thoughts
Reference:
https://plantae.org/self-reflection-personal-branding/
https://medium.com/digital-reflections/be-the-brand-personal-branding-101-ab0f80576a00
https://cocoandcowe.com/2018/02/13/personal-branding/
https://influencermarketinghub.com/what-is-personal-branding/
https://www.capitalonecareers.com/how-to-create-your-personal-brand-divi-cdev
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/self-awareness-personal-branding-slava-noor/
[full-width]