Dan Schwabel has taken a lot of time pondering about Personal Branding and I really like the definition he gave in Career Hub’s blog. Dan writes, “To me, Personal Branding is ‘an individual’s total perceived value, relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience.’”

Most of us don’t take enough time to think about personal branding. We don’t think about how our choices affect our total perceived value. We all have a personal branding. Is it what you want it to be? What kinds of choices affect our personal branding? Every decision. Decisions about what we say, how we say it, the clothing we choose to wear, where we go, how we respond, how we initiate…every decision.

How is your personal branding coming along? What do you want to be known for? What is most important to you? What are your key strengths? If you want to improve your Personal Branding, take some time to answer these questions and compare your answers to the decisions you’ve made so far today. How do you want to change so that you are reflecting what you want to reflect? What do you want your personal branding to look like?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on today’s blog! If you’d like a complimentary intitial consultation regarding your personal brand, please contact me.

Lots of seminars and programs are offered on branding. Books have been written for over 10 years on personal branding. A lot of discussion among career professionals center on branding. Whether we know it or not, everyone has their own personal branding. Still, most of us don’t take very much time to think about our own branding.

What can branding do for you? Branding makes you more attractive to employers even when there are no formal job openings, controls what interviewers remember most about you, creates trust and conveys value, differentiates you from others, guides you in decisions, marks you as an expert in niche areas, and much more.

Who should consider their personal branding? I would say everyone. Really, I think the bottom line of ‘branding’ comes down to what is most important to us, namely our core values, being authentic in everything we do so it aligns with our core values. Branding is how we convey those core values. What is most important to you? Do your actions align with your branding?

“In a world full of choices, the brand acts as a sorting device,” wrote Mike Neiss in Tom Peter’s blog.

Career branding is important for all those in a career, especially to the transitioner. If you haven’t thought about your career brand, you may be sending mixed messages, ultimately hurting your opportunities. If you’d like to talk about your career brand, please contact me.

Bud Bilanch wrote a blog today I found really interesting. Bud wrote about the importance of having all that we write in our blogs center around our branding. So, I thought it is important for me to write out my branding purpose for this blog. Here it is: “A blog devoted to coaching you in leadership and career management so that you can better enjoy Monday morning as much as Friday afternoon.” I truly want to do all that I can as a Leadership & Career Coach to coach you to enjoy Monday mornings as much as Friday afternoons.

One of the practical ideas Bud listed was blogging each day on a specific subject centered around our branding. So, what I am going to do is blog on the following:

• Tips on Career Management (for Advancer, Transitioner, & Graduate) - Monday, Wednesday, and Friday
• Leadership - Tuesday and Thursday

Questions you may want to ask yourself:

• What would people say is most important to you in your career?
• What would you say is most important to you?
• How are you conveying your top priorities in your career?
  
• What would be some positive results if you were more focused on conveying what is most important to you?
  
• List a couple steps of action you could take to convey your ‘branding’ so that others can easily see what is most important to you in your career and what you are all about. I’d love to hear from you!

Today, being Independence Day, I want to say I am so thankful to be an American and I am very thankful for all the choices we can freely make in our career and personal lives. I see the USA as a very blessed country.

To learn more about branding your career, contact me at Terri@SummitViewCareerCoaching.com. Bud’s blog is at http://bbilanich.typepad.com/blog/2007/07/branding-by-blo.html.