Personal branding is about managing the brand called YOU. It’s how you want to be perceived by others- your professional skills, personality, values, image, expertise, leadership, and talent. When you proactively take the reins of your personal brand, it can give you and your company a competitive edge.

Lorrie Thomas Ross, CEO of Web Marketing Therapy Inc., was interviewed by Venteur in the article, “Dominate Your Personal Brand by Honing In on Your Expertise With Lorrie Thomas Ross”. This article addresses how personal branding is important for both your professional and personal life.

Dominate Your Personal Brand with Three Core Components

When developing a personal brand, the three core components to hone in on are Expertise, Identity, and Style.

Expertise
Expertise is about educating others on what you bring to the professional world that adds unique value. Focus your attention on your expertise and how you differ from others. What is your unique value? Owning your expertise is the core to elevating the power of your personal brand and will help you to build credibility, visibility, and sellability.

Identity
The internet has made it easy to create and sustain identity, taking the elitism out of marketing. Thanks to the wonderful web, your personal brand can be built on a local, national or global scale. Social media accounts, blogs, bios, videos, and images can all be used to not only build but shape your identity. It’s wise to occasionally go back to your accounts to update or delete things that no longer align with your personal brand.

Style
When people think of style, they typically think of clothing. And while it is important to dress for the role that you want, style goes beyond what we wear. Your style is also about your logo, website, content, reputation, personality, recognition, photos, web visibility, personal appearance, communications, reviews, recommendations, and what you share on social media. All contribute to people’s perception of your unique style.

When developing your brand, consistency is critical to developing, maintaining, and growing your brand. It is also important to understand that branding is a journey, not a destination and quality is more important than quantity. Never underestimate your branding, it can make or break your marketability.

Personal Branding Mistakes

Three personal branding mistakes people generally make are neglecting your personal brand, catastrophizing personal branding, and personal brand perfectionism.

Neglecting Your Personal Brand
Neglecting your personal brand may look different for each person, for some, it could be not posting to social media accounts, not blogging, or not keeping up with your website. The most successful leaders and professionals understand that marketing does not have an on-and-off switch and a lack of posting can negatively affect your brand. As mentioned above, consistency is key, and your brand requires regular upkeep.

Catastrophizing Personal Branding
When you approach branding from a stressful state, you will not put out the right vibe, nor will you attract the right tribe. Be authentic, optimize your foundation, and keep in mind that small steps over time contribute to a big difference. And if personal branding feels difficult, overwhelming, taxing or stressful, then you are doing something wrong. It might be time to ask for help.

Personal Brand Perfectionism
No one is perfect, we make mistakes. Perfectionism in personal branding can stop people from taking the first steps toward change. Perfectionism can also cause people to edit out all their personality and authenticity and end up coming across as robotic. Life happens naturally; let your brand evolve naturally too.

To read the full article, click here.

Personal branding is a part of your marketing puzzle, and marketing means maximizing relationships.

To attract ideal relationships, you must first have a healthy relationship with yourself.

Don’t Be Afraid to Ask for Personal Branding Help
Leaders who want to develop a meaningful personal brand while putting almost all their time and attention into their businesses should consider not doing it all themselves. Look at what you can do and be honest about the time you have to complete tasks, do not be afraid to delegate or ask for help. The key is to do what you do best and have others do the rest.

A strong personal brand can attract and solidify relationships, obtain media attention, secure funding, and much more.