This post is a continuation of a series of posts on personal branding. You can find a summary page with links to each article HERE.
Exercise one set out to help me define what I known for. With that information fresh in hand, I can now set out to create my brand message. I'm not really sure how this will work out but I dive into the second worksheet head first.
Task One to create your personal brand message:
Digging into the first task of exercise two felt very much like a repeat of the initial tasks in EXERCISE ONE. However, instead of listing skills and attributes (S&A) I am known for, this task required me to identify the S&A's that are most important for the work I do, either currently or in the future.
I could only list three for each this time. Here are the S&A's I felt were most important to the work I do.
Task Two to create your personal brand message:
Next up was a comparison. Taking the S&A's above I then needed to compare them to what I am currently known for and what I aspire to be known for from exercise one.
At a high level, this task has the potential to be a big eye opener for some. Imagine if what you are known for and what you aspire to be known for do not correlate with what you believe is most important for the work you do.
For some this could mean reconsidering current and future career paths in order to be more authentic to yourself and better utilize your strengths. This is where people need to decide if they want to be happy and fulfilled by their work. If they do and their S&A's do not align they may need to change their current career direction in order to achieve that balance.
Mine while not exact, were not far off.
Task Three to create your personal brand message:
The next step in the process was to identify three things I want to be known for. These do not need to be the same things that I want to aspire to be known for but odds are they will be closely related.
This task was slightly more difficult than I thought it would be. I n the interest if full disclosure, I actually skipped this part initially and moved to task four which helped clarify my thinking.
Task Four to create your personal brand message:
Next up was to identify five activities I find most fulfilling in my work. In other words, what do I engage in during working hours where I get lost in the moment, where time passes quickly and where at the end of the day I feel like I added significant value.
Probably not surprising by now but here are my five.
With task four complete I went back to task three. This task really required some introspection on my part. What do I want to be known for? Asked a different way what am I here for?
What mark do I want to leave on the world? In order to answer this, I referred back to my strengths finder assessment, my smile file and my answers from exercise one. I reviewed all of these files looking for links between all of these seemingly disparate items.
This task proved more difficult I think because I was reviewing files about me. You see, I am much more adept at “seeing” things in other people but I have a blind eye for myself. After some time, I came up with the three below, two of which came as a surprise to me.
Expert in a chosen field and motivating speaker both surprised me but also “felt” natural. As you can see from other blog posts I'm very comfortable speaking in front of an audience.
Usually, when I do it, I am the expert in the room. Bear in mind by expert I mean that I know a little bit more than others. There are always other people with more knowledge than me. However, this also presents a challenge for me because by claiming I want to be an expert in a chosen field,
I kept thinking about my potential audience and without a “product” to be an expert in how can I be a motivating speaker?
To date, I have learned through this exercise that I am a team or community builder whose strengths lie in seeing a bigger picture between disparate items.
I bring clarity to this ambiguity in order to help others visualize what can be, then draft an easily understandable plan to move teams or individuals towards a goal or destination. I can't really argue with this description but where I continue to struggle is what is my product?
What do I speak about when I'm on a stage in front of people? Perhaps the rest of exercise two will help me understand.
QUESTION: What activities during your day make you fill the most fulfilled with your work?
