The 5 Core Things that Speak of an Epic Personal Brand Part 5

It is said

that a child is born with no fear apart from two: The fear of noise and the fear of falling down. All the other fears are learned. It is interesting that one of those two original fears affects our personal brands in major way-the the fear of noise.

Personal Brand in a Noisy World

We live in a world that is full of noise. Everyone wants to be heard. Everyone wants to trade and be paid. We all are looking for a way to make it in life. Well, if we will not realize that the quickest, most harmonious way of making it is through a personal brand, we shall spend the days of our lives in frustration.

I remember as a young man just out of High School several years ago. I found myself in the Capital City of Nairobi running an errand for my dad and my uncle. I do not know where it came from but as I looked around the throngs of people in town each looking for a living, fear gripped me.

Odds Always Against Those With No Brand

I felt such insurmountable pressure to make it in life. It is like the odds were against me. There was no pubic university that had accepted me, and the personal brand in those days that mattered must have a degree of sorts.

If anything, it seemed as if the city was filled with noise from everyone alive, each wanting to be heard, each wanting to make it in life and a door to be opened for them. I feel like the same has not changed a bit since then. If anything, that noise of a collective personal brand has been increased over the years.

A Personal Brand Is an Answer

The answer is for us to create authentic personal brands that we can consistently use to serve our worlds. You see, without a personal brand, we all will not only feel lost, but we shall indeed be lost in a noisy world where everyone is not just looking for attention, but also looking to eke out a living.

Personal Brand Pillars

We have put together five pillars that are core to an epic personal brand. This is what you and I need in order to navigate this world, serve it with our value, and receive compensation of sorts in return.

1. Know Your Value Add

2. Know Your Audience

3. Know Your Difference

4. Build Your Stories

5. Build Excellence

To be functional is good, but to be exceptional is to connect emotionally to your audience through a touch of excellence. A personal brand that is crafted with the pillar of excellence is an epic personal brand.

Of course, it is easy to function at the bare minimum and just serve in a basic way. The problem with that kind of a personal brand is that it is noisy. I mean, everyone and anyone can do that. To build a personal brand that espouses excellence is to sieve yourself out from the noise.

The Law of Recognition

Let me ask you a question. Of all the things that you have ever recommended in life, is there any that was not epic and excellent? I bet there was none. Did you realize that as you experience something excellent, the very first thing you think of is the opportunity for a loved one to experience the same?

That is how an epic personal brand gets recognized. The law of recognition can take you places and open doors that nothing else is able to. But the Law of Recognition never works until a personal brand is laced with utmost excellence.

Excellence Must Be An Obsession

You are either going to weave excellence in your work or you are going to hire someone to fine-tune it. Your personal brand’s excellence will not cost you a lot. It will actually cost you everything.

You see, excellence is a language that cannot be quantified in transactions. To be functional as a personal brand, you are only thinking about the next opportunity or the next sale. To be excellent as a personal brand you are thinking of generations and legacies.

Return on Investments

As such, the cost of your attention to excellence might never be justified at the moment. It might never be paid back in the interim. But when a personal brand starts reaping the benefits of excellence, the rewards will far outweigh the cost not just in magnitude, but also in longevity.

Excellence is a spirit. It is not a band-aid that you put on a personal brand. It is authentic. You cannot pretend about excellence. You have to be seriously obsessed with it but you also need to differentiate between excellence and perfectionism.

Document It

The best way to churn out the spirit of excellence with any personal brand is to be intentional about it. In other words, you and I have to sit down and actually plan around the excellence that we are going to infuse into our personal brand. It has to be a continuous thing, not just a one-off.

When we are intentional about building our personal brand of excellence, we will have to document those areas of excellence and we will always want to bank on innovation to keep improving. Friends, that’s how you build an epic personal brand.