Overview/What You Will Learn

How can you build your unique brand to get the job you want?  Find out from William Arruda, personal branding expert, Founder of Reach Personal Branding and Co-Author of Career Distinction: Stand Out by Building Your Brand. He offers quick tips and describes his powerful three-phase process to uncover, communicate and bolster your unique personal brand.

Key Points

• Your personal brand is your unique promise of value.  It’s what makes you stand out and what makes you valuable to the people who need to know you.

Phase One – Extract Your Brand

• Unearth your brand by going deep inside and defining your vision, purpose, values, passions and goals.   

• Understand what others think about you.  What would others say are your greatest strengths and attributes?

•  Understand what sets you apart from your peers/competitors.

Phase Two – Express Your Brand

• Begin to get your message out and to establish visibility and credibility.
  • Help your target audience know you and recognize why you are exceptional.
  • Identify how you can be visible to those you want to reach.

• Use vehicles both in the real world and online.
  • Choose vehicles you enjoy – e.g., public speaking opportunities vs. writing articles or vice versa.
  • Know which vehicles will reach your target audience.  (Who reads certain publications, attends which conferences, or frequents what websites.)

Phase Three – Exude Your Brand

• Align everything around you to ensure you are “on message” and bolstering your brand, including:
  • Your appearance;
  • Your office environment and tools;
  • Your personal brand identity system – i.e., your “look” on the web. Manage your image by maintaining a consistent profile and communications across social networks;
  • Your professional network. Keeping your professional network strong is the most critical factor for your success.

Your Next Steps / Tips for Success

• Craft a clear message stating what it is that is exceptional about you and why people should want to know you.   

• Develop and execute a plan to express your brand. Target specific communications vehicles and specific audiences.

Identify ways to bolster your brand, unify your “look” and strengthen your professional network.

William Arruda is an international branding consultant, author and public speaker focused on professional development and executive leadership.  William is the Founder of Reach Personal Branding, the #1 provider of personal branding services to Fortune 500 companies and leading universities, guiding professionals to unearth what makes them exceptional and use their unique gifts and experience to drive value for their career and organization. He lectures and conducts workshops on personal branding at top-tier graduate schools of business, including Harvard, Duke, NYU, Berkeley, Wharton, University of Michigan, UCLA and Cornell. In addition, he lectures and consults to executives at the world's largest corporations including Johnson and Johnson, Price Waterhouse, Sheraton, Microsoft, Disney, Ogilvy and J.P. Morgan.  He is the co-author of Career Distinction: Stand Out By Building Your Brand, a guidebook with the tools managers need to differentiate themselves from their peers and thrive in today’s job market.  William blogs at http://www.thepersonalbrandingblog.com/tag/william-arruda/.