The Unofficial MBA

“Manage Smarter” have a great article (here) on personal branding.

The interesting thing they mention is that investing time in developing your personal brand can alleviate stress in public speaking situations. Now, we all know that public speaking is one of the most common fears worldwide, ranked even higher than the fear of death! So anything that can help in this area has got to be a good thing.

Personal branding defined: An individual’s total perceived value, relative to competitors, as viewed by their audience.

I’ve quoted their definition of personal branding above, and I think we can break this down into two main elements:

1. it’s about perceived value as viewed by the audience
2. it’s relative to the competition

The article on Manage Smarter breaks this down in a different way, but I would like to look at it from these two perspectives. First off, take a look at yourself, and what your “perceived value” is from the receivers perspective. Do you put across a message that effectively demonstrates your worth? You’ll notice that most people go one way or the other, and not many people get it right! They either promise too much and don’t deliver, or they have a lot to offer but don’t sell themselves. It’s important to get your personal brand just right, and effectively message exactly what you have to offer.

The other thing is relative to the competition. Now, you don’t want to get hung up comparing yourself to everyone else out there, but you should at least know how you compare. Look at where you outperform, and where your strengths are. You should also be aware of your weaknesses so you can preempt any questions about them.

Look at building your own personal branding, and developing your message. If you understand this, it can be a great confidence boost, because it removes any doubt about who you are and what you offer.

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