In Chapters 4 through 6, you identified key components of your brand—the attributes that enable you to deliver unique value. In this chapter, you put all those components together in one sentence that describes the value you offer—whom it’s intended for and what makes you different. This is your personal brand statement (PBS). You then use your PBS and everything else you have learned about yourself and your motivations to develop a broader expression of your unique promise of value—your brand profile. Both the statement and profile guide your career decisions and put you in a position to express your brand through all of your communications including your resume and “elevator pitch.” Together, your PBS and brand profile keep you in the driver’s seat of your career.
A PBS can take many shapes. A few examples follow:
Mark: Using my sarcastic wit, understanding of people, and passion for creativity, I empower cutting-edge advertising teams to deliver the powerful, breakthrough advertising campaigns that yield revenue and brand value for consumer products companies.
William: I use my 20 years’ experience in corporate branding, passion for human potential, and avid pursuit of innovation to inspire and motivate executives, professionals, and entrepreneurs across the globe to achieve the highest level of professional success.
Kirsten: I use my energy, forward thinking, and passion for web technology to help high-achievers take control of their own career success.
Putting Your Brand Statement to Work
Why create your PBS? It helps you on numerous fronts. You can use it as a:
Reminder of your life’s purpose. Your PBS serves as a constant reminder of what you want to do with your life.
Compass for making important decisions. As you progress through your career, you can expect to face a series of daunting decisions— everything from whether to accept a promotion or job offer to which professional development assignments would be best for you. As much as you might wish for a bell signaling that you have made the correct choice when such decisions crop up, no such bell exists. However, your PBS can serve as a compass to guide your choices. For example, if a manager in another department asked you to consider an open position on her team, you would be able to compare that opportunity against your PBS to see if it fits.
Filter for setting priorities. Your PBS helps keep your brand in the forefront of your mind and thereby serves as a filter for setting priorities. In this way, your PBS enables you to “put first things first” and say no to conflicting demands or commitments that are off-brand for you. For instance, your PBS helps you decide whether you should accept the offer to speak at your professional association’s upcoming conference or spend the time finishing the white paper you are writing.
Communication tool. Your PBS communicates in a concise, clear way what you are here to do. It enables you to quickly tell others what value you can offer them. Make it evident to those around you what you can offer them.
Chance to maximize your talents. Talents grow with use, yet many of us are modest about our talents and gifts. Generally our personal brand calls us to use all of these skills and requires that we use them daily for our own benefit and the benefit of others.
Opportunity magnet. When you communicate your brand through your PBS, you attract people who value what you have to offer. And those individuals bring new professional opportunities your way. To illustrate, as Kirsten began speaking exclusively on topics related to career success online, she found that she gained more clients and future opportunities to present.
The story that follows demonstrates the benefits of creating a PBS.
Developing Your Personal Brand Statement
An effective PBS possesses these three qualities:
1. It consists of just one sentence.
2. It can be easily understood by a 12-year-old.
3. You could recite it from memory at gunpoint.
—Good things, when short, are twice as good.
—Baltasar Gracian, author of The Art of Worldly Wisdom
Consider these additional examples of PBSs:
Sandie: I use my quirky nature and my belief in making everything fun to motivate marketing teams to work together more effectively to drive greater value for their organizations. (If I can’t make it fun, I won’t do it.)
Bob: Sitting at the intersection of technology and business, I use my passion for communication to help IT professionals in Fortune 100 companies express themselves in ways that are understood by businesspeople.
Monica: I inspire and activate high-achieving salespeople in healthcare organizations through my focus on motivation, positivity, empathy, and competition.
Once you’ve come up with a rough draft for your PBS, spend some time reworking the draft until it rings true for you. Let ideas roll around in your mind for a while to see how they feel and sound. Don’t feel compelled to use this formula slavishly. If you think you can express your brand better through another format, be creative. Your PBS should be unique to you!
Also, keep in mind that your PBS is not your promotional tagline—such as Nike’s “Just Do It” or Garnier’s “Take Care” or the Marines’ “The Few. The Proud.” Instead, it is a concise summary of how you intend to solve a problem, meet a need, or make a difference in the world. Table 7.1 helps you gauge the effectiveness of your PBS.
Writing Your Brand Profile
Now that you have drafted your PBS, expand it into a brand profile—a fuller summary of your vision, purpose, values, passions, attributes, strengths, and goals. An example appears in the box on page 77.
If one is the master of one thing and understands one thing well, one has at the same time insight into and understanding of many things.
—Vincent van Gogh, Dutch Post-Impressionist painter
Your brand profile is a useful tool for developing career-marketing tools—such as your resume, elevator pitch, biography, and Web portfolio copy. We’ll cover these in more detail in Chapter 8.
For each statement below, check Yes or No. Then read the instructions for interpreting your score.
My personal brand statement …
Yes
No
1. Is inspiring.
2. Is exciting.
3. Is clear.
4. Is engaging.
5. Speaks to my target audience.
6. Is consistent with my vision and purpose.
7. Reflects my passions and values.
8. Makes me feel proud.
9. Feels familiar and comfortable to me.
10. Evokes times when I have felt most fulfilled and engaged in my life.
Total
Interpreting your score: If you checked Yes for at least seven of the statements, your PBS is likely very effective. For any statements where you checked No, consider how you might further revise your PBS so that you can honestly respond to the statement with a Yes.
Putting Your Brand Profile to Work
Once you’ve completed your brand profile, put it to work. The following guidelines can help:
Refer to your brand profile daily—especially when making decisions about what job to take, which assignment to choose, and how to position yourself in your field. Measure your brand against your employer’s brand statement (the organization’s mission, vision, and values). Are they compatible with your own vision, purpose, and values?
Bring your brand profile home. How does your brand operate within your home? What can you do to better align your activities outside of work and your brand environment (explained in Chapter 12) with your brand?
Give away your brand. If this is truly what you are compelled to do on this earth, don’t make it all about money. How can you add value to the world or your community by living and breathing your brand?
Throughout the rest of this book, you’ll frequently use your PBS and your brand profile to communicate your brand to your target audience (Step 2: Express in the 1-2-3 Success! process) and to manage your brand environment (Step 3: Exude).
Now that you’ve completed Step 1: Extract in our 1-2-3 Success! process, you’re ready to move to Step 2: Express. During that step, you will discover more specific strategies for using your PBS, brand profile, and other means to communicate your unique promise of value to your target audience.