How to Build a Personal Brand in American Business

Working hard has always kept me occupied. As a college student, I took on two internships at simultaneously, only to discover that neither employer was recruiting once I graduated. In my first work at a large technology business, I went above and beyond my quarterly goals, only to be laid go three years later. Despite my efforts, my post was eliminated. After a few years of regaining my footing, the chief of my department at a telecoms company offered me a huge project. Unfortunately, my supervisor was transferred to another team, and the new leader dropped it totally. A personal brand is more than just a resume. It's more than just an elevator pitch or a social media profile. It is your essence, formalized as a reflection of your exterior professional self. It is a code that you follow in all of your interactions and actions in the world. Your personal brand is for and about you, but its primary goal is to connect with other people.

Here, we'll walk you through the process of creating your own personal brand that showcases the best of you in a way that resonates with your intended audience.

A great personal brand exists within you, but it requires cultivation to bring it into focus and onto the page. Learn how to create a personal branding plan that expresses your story through your personal website, content marketing activities, and beyond. What constitutes a personal brand? A personal brand is essentially your story. A personal brand comprises who you are, what you believe in, your strengths, and how you apply those strengths to benefit your community. It may be told in a variety of formats and applies to all aspects of how you show yourself online, such as the color palette of your website, the intro music for your podcast, and the written tone of your Linkedin profile Developing a strong personal brand early on will help you achieve your goals, whether they be connecting the appropriate people to your cause or finding the ideal job. It also generates a template that allows you to quickly scale across platforms and projects. A person uses drag makeup in front of a mirror in a green room. As Seth Godin once put it:

"A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories, and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer's decision to choose one product or service over another."

Seth's description is similarly applicable to personal brands in that they influence a person's or company's decision to follow, engage, hire, or collaborate with you. Why is good personal branding so important? Creating a compelling personal brand that connects with your target audience requires a combination of honesty and narrative. A great personal brand communicates your identity, basic beliefs, and commitment to a certain specialty. Your brand voice flows easily throughout a blog post, Linkedin profile, personal website, and social media material. The finest personal brands provide a distinct perspective and establish a personal connection with potential clients or social media followers. This can quickly establish credibility in a given business and confidence among potential clients. After getting to know oneself, answer the question "why." Why are you creating a personal brand? Do you want to get into the creator economy? Are you developing a personal brand in preparation for a business or product launch? Are you establishing a professional public image to assist you obtain funding or other business partnerships?

Answering why will help you define your target audience.

Are they customers? Investors? Employers? Any other group? What does that group require? What is your value proposition? Essentially, how does your unique offering add value to that audience? Prepare an elevator pitch. Here's where you pull it all together to create a clear personal branding statement that encapsulates your value proposition, represents your personality, and speaks the language of your intended audience. Consider it one part slogan, one part elevator pitch—for yourself. The finest hits are usually captured in one to three sentences (extra points if they fit nicely into a social bio). If you're stuck, the template below can help you create a first draft of your personal brand statement. I'm [Introduce Yourself: Name, Define Details, Credentials, What You Care About]. I provide This is a skeleton of a formal personal brand statement that contains the most vital information, but it should be edited for tone and personality. Megababe founder Katie Sturino begins her personal branding narrative with the following statement: "Katie Sturino is an entrepreneur, social media influencer, body acceptance campaigner, and passionate animal activist. She uses her personal platform, @katiesturino, to promote awareness about size inclusivity, supporting women of all sizes to find their confidence and express their style."