“There are people less qualified than you, doing things you want to do, simply because they decided to take action”—Jack Ma.

I will say it like a broken record.

Everyone who has a heartbeat has a brand. It is inherent. Everyone born of a woman does come with a personal brand. Why? Because there is nothing you will put in a personal brand that is not already within you and around you.

It is also important to note that the supply and demand curve for jobs and work generally in all corners of the world has changed. There are more people “qualified” and “competent” than are necessary for the job market. That is where the personal brand comes in to help.

Some Benefits

First, a personal brand will help you to stand out from the noisy crowd of qualified and competent. It will make you be preferred from that crowd because of the prominence that it give you. Second, your personal brand will cause you to discover that you have an audience to serve that is not necessarily the traditional “job” or “boss”.

In other words, when we focus on creating personal brands well and long enough, we will start realizing opportunities that are not in the traditional work world of employment and job. We start realizing opportunities to add value in areas that we are gifted that are not necessarily being advertised and interviewed for but are needed.

The Basics

That is why it is important for us to keep considering creating a compelling personal brand that will help us to add value in life. There are three important but basic things that we need to consider about personal branding.

1. Knowing The Brand

Perhaps the greatest gift you and I will ever give ourselves is the clarity of our personal brand. The thing about a personal brand is that it is there. You have it. What we need to do is to know it.

• We need to know what is it?
• We need to know whom it serves
• We need to know how it serves
• We need to know what tools we use to serve.

To know your brand is to know what you are passionate about as well as knowing what you can do. Where these two parameters of the personal brand meet is where value is being added to your audience.

You can know what your brand is but you do not have an audience. That should not freak you out. Knowing is a critical aspect. It is the sharpening of the axe that Abraham Lincoln talked about when he quipped:

“If I am given 6 hours to chop down a tree, I will probably use four hours to sharpen my axe”

Take some time to know what your brand is. Identify your passion, your strengths, and identify the value that you can add to life. Viola! You have known what your personal brand is.

2. Owning The Brand

It is one thing to know you have a brand but quite another to own it. This is where very many people go wrong. Many a personal brand around the earth has been sacrificed at the altar of status quo, survival, and school. It sounds controversial but it is true.

I knew my strength and gift of writing and speaking when I was 11 years of age. I never owned that aspect of my life until when I was over 30 years of age trying to figure out what matters in life. The same happens to many people in the world today.

Be Known By It

To own your brand, it means accepting it and separating yourself to it. It means to start fortifying yourself to grow your capacity for channeling that personal brand. You could take courses that are relevant. You could join groups and associations that will help you beef up that brand.

Be Passionate About It

The person who has owned their personal brand is identified with the passion with which they have preoccupied themselves to do all there is about that personal brand. They find fulfillment and joy in nothing else but their personal brand.

Your heart is smack in the middle of this ownership business of your personal brand. If the heart is not in it, there will be no ownership of the personal brand.

3. Showing It

Jesus said that you cannot put your candle under the bed. Unfortunately, that is what many people who are passionate and have owned their personal brands are doing. They are so familiar with that brand that they think it’s not a big deal.

Consequently, they never talk about it, do not show it on their social media pages. Some are afraid of what it might cost them. They are afraid that they will lose some people from their lives who do not agree with their passion. They are afraid to be embarrassed and identified with that brand.

No Need For One If You can’t Show it

So, they end up not showing the brand. There is absolutely no point of a personal brand if it cannot be voiced abroad and shown to people. Showing your brand is the exact reason for having a brand in the first place because it helps you to offer value and solutions where they are needed.

These three things are basic requirements in having a personal brand. The good news is that anyone anywhere can start the process of personal brand building but knowing it, owning it, and showing it. Of course, this takes a bit of time, therefore patience is important.

A brand is not woven only through graphic design.

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