PERSONAL BRANDING

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO BUILDING

YOUR PERSONAL BRAND
(written by Neil Patel and Aaron Agius)
 www.winalyse.com

Contents
Introduction 2

Chapter One: How To Create Your Personal Brand Vision 3

Who You Are 4–6

Where You Want To Be 7–8

Others Worth Emulating 9 – 10

Developing Your Professional Image 11 – 14

Chapter Two: How To Define Your Target Audience 15

The Person That Will Pay You 16 – 17

The Person That Influences The Person That Pays You 18 – 19

Your Supporters 20 – 21

Chapter Three: How To Build Your Brand Through Outreach 22 – 24

How To Get Exposure By Guest Blogging 25 – 27

How To Get Exposure Through Article Contributions & Interviews 28

How To Build Your Brand Using LinkedIn 29 – 30

Chapter Four: How To Connect With Mentors 31

Why Mentors Are Needed For Professional Success 32 – 34

How To Approach Mentors And Earn Their Respect 35 – 36

Chapter Five: How To Monitor Your Brand 37 – 38

How To Remove Less-Than-Ideal Search Listings 39 – 40

Tools That Help You Monitor Your Brand 41 – 43

How Not To Handle Negativity / How To Handle Negativity 44

Chapter Six: Be Yourself Because Everyone Else Is Taken 45

Why It`s Necessary To Stand Out From The Crowd 46 – 47

How To Develop Your Personal Story That Seperates You From Others 48

How To Create A Personal Elevator Pitch That Wins Over People You Meet 49

How To Built Presentations For Telling Your Story 50 – 51

How To Get Speaking Opportunities 52 – 53

Five TipsTo Write A Strong Personal Branding Statement 54 – 55

Core Values – Examples… 56 - 58

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Introduction

Are you ready to build your personal brand?

This guide will take you through every step to building the professional and personal life you want.
Branding on a business-level is common, but today branding is becoming just as important on a personal
level. After all, you might work for a business that works with other businesses, but it’s people working
with people and that’s what makes business relationships valuable.
Why should you build your personal brand?
Building a recognizable personal brand opens professional opportunities.

Creating a vision for your future and implementing that vision can lead to:
• A better job
• Better contacts and clients for your company
• Industry recognition
• And more

If you’re looking for a better job, you want your potential boss at your ideal company to associate your
personal brand with something that she or he needs on her or his team.
If you’re looking to grow the sales for a company, you want potential clients to associate your personal
brand with a feeling of trust and long-term success and satisfaction.
This guide will take you through all the steps you need to take to create your unique personal brand. In
today’s job market and entrepreneurial landscape, there is no room for being another face in the crowd.
You have to separate yourself from the competition. You have to be more appealing to your target
audience and you can achieve it by creating a recognizable personal brand.
Not Everything In This Guide Will Apply To You
This is an advanced guide to building your personal brand. There is a lot of information covering many
different steps you can take to build your personal brand.
However, not everything in this guide needs to be followed to reach your goals. Not everything in the
guide applies to everyone so if you notice something that doesn’t fit your vision or your goals it’s okay.
The purpose of this guide is to cover as much as possible about the process of building a personal
brand. In the final chapter, we discuss why it’s important to be yourself. You can take the information
here as a guide, but use the information in your own way. Follow steps exactly or use certain information
and create your own steps for finding success.

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Chapter One: How To Create Your Personal Brand Vision

Businesses create vision and mission statements. Creating a personal brand begins much the same
way by creating a personal vision.
Only you can determine how you want your life to unfold. You can’t control every aspect of your life, but
you can create a long-term vision and develop steps to achieve that vision.
Your life’s vision should include how you see yourself in 10, 20 and even 50 years. Consider the
elements in life that would make you happy - a family, a beach house, a challenging corporate job?
There are no right or wrong answers and in this chapter we’ll guide you through the steps necessary to
create your personal vision.

Welcome to the first chapter on how to build your personal brand!

If you’ve made it this far you’re likely interested in creating and building up your personal brand
so you can do one (or more than one) of the following:

• Find a better job so you can earn more money and be happy to go to work every day
• Win more clients for your company to increase sales and increase your earnings
• Land better clients for your company to make your company more efficient
• Grow your professional network so you open more professional opportunities
• Build online communities to further increase professional opportunities
• Lay the foundation for future success; however you define it

Your personal brand is what separates you from everyone else in the world.
The first step to creating your personal brand is to organize your thoughts and create your personal
brand vision. This is the way you want yourself to be perceived by others and also how you want to live
your professional and personal life.

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Who You Are

The foundation of personal branding rests on authenticity: The ability to tap into your genuine, humble,
and individual human qualities from which your identity, personality, and character stem.
The following steps will give you a better understanding of who you are today and from there you can
more easily figure out where you want to be in the future.

Discuss who
Identify
Set Prioritise Identify you are with
Step Step Step Step Your Step
Your Your Your Family,
One Two Three Four Ideal Five
Values Values Passions Friends and
Traits
Peers

Step One - Set Your Values

Your values are the things that drive your life. They’re at the core of your being and you refer to them
when making decisions. Maybe you don’t always refer to them, everybody makes bad decisions
sometimes, but when you make your best decisions in life you usually consider your values.

For example, a person might have the following set of values:

• Family
• Friends
• Community
• Ambition
• Intelligence

These values define the things that are most important to the person. When faced with a decision such
as taking a new job, the person would consult with their personal values. They would ask themselves
what the best choice would be in terms of their family, their friends and the other values on the list.
There is no limit to the values you can include on your list. They are your values. Consider the people,
feelings and situations in life that make you most happy. That is usually the place where you’ll find your
values.

Step Two - Prioritise Your Values

It’s wise to hire people whose values are similar to the company’s. Candidates who have values similar
to the hiring company’s are more likely to meet the company’s needs, and they tend to adapt faster to
a new role.
As you go through the things that make you happy in life you’ll realise that your values aren’t all formed
equally. The list in the previous step could be listed in priority, based on the things that the person values
the most starting with family.
There will be situations in life when you’ll be faced with decisions that put your values at odds. For
example, you might be considering a new job. It might fit into your ambition and intelligence values, but
it might require more time away from your family and the job might not have the same community values
than you have.

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The goal of building your personal brand is not just to get a better job or to grow your company. It’s
about finding happiness with your professional life. The decisions you make will be more likely to lead
to happiness and follow your values.
Many of us know people that have success in their profession, but lack happiness because they didn’t
realize how highly they value their family life. And it works the other way too. There are people that have
a wonderful family, but they feel unfulfilled because they lack professional challenges.
Prioritise your values and you’ll know how to approach your personal brand vision.

Step Three - Identify Your Passions

Your passions are the things that you like doing with your time. Some of your passions may overlap with
your values, but they are generally different.
For example, your top value might be your family and one of your passions might be going to dinner
with your spouse or playing with your kids. The value and the passion intersect, but there is a slight
difference. In this step your task is to identify your passions so you can figure out the activities that give
you the most reward in life. A key to creating a successful personal brand is to identify your passions
and make it your goal to experience those passions in your professional life.
A passion is something that interests you. Passions intrigue you and make you want to investigate. They
make you want to get better for personally driven reasons. A passion is something you would do even
if you weren’t being paid or even something that you would pay for yourself if you had to.
Passions can be both personal and professional. For this exercise, you should identify both personal
and professional passions. This will give you an idea of the things that drive your professional life, but
also the things that you want to be doing when you’re not working.

For example, a person might have the following professional passions:

• Design
• Smartphones
• Technology

The personal passions of this person might be:

• Family
• Travel
• Outdoors

These passions, along with the person’s values provide a clearer vision for where the person wants to
be in two, five or even twenty years. Once you’ve identified your passions it starts to become clear what
type of profession you’re best suited for and that would bring you happiness.
In the example above you can tell that the person would probably be happy in a profession that involves
designing smartphone technology for the travel or outdoor industry, but the profession would have to
leave time for spending time with the family and probably for taking family vacations.

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Step Four - Identify Your Ideal Traits

The next step is to identify your traits. These are the unique aspects of your personality that help to
shape the person you are. Traits are things that give others a key inside your brain.

Step Five - Discuss Who You Are With Family, Friends And Peers
Finally, discuss your findings with those that are closest to you – family, friends and peers. There are
your own assessments of who you are and those are important, but it’s good to get an idea of who you
are from others, too.
Ask people what their perceptions of you are. Ask them what they think your values, your passions and
your traits are. The outside perception might differ from your perceptions or they might align closely.
Either way, you’ll have more information about the person you are and you’ll be able to better understand
where you can make changes to getwhere you want to be in your professional and personal life.
This guide is about building your personal brand so you can find a better job, get more clients for your
business and to live a happier, more fulfilling life. You might think that your own perception of yourself
is the one that matters, but building your personal brand is about how others are going to view you and
what you stand for.
So it’s essential to get feedback from family, friends and peers so you understand how to align your
personal brand with your goals.

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Where You Want To Be

Now that you have an understanding of who you are you can move into the stage of figuring out where
you want to be. This is both for your professional and personal life. For example, from the previous
section you may have realized that design is an important element of who you are. This understanding
can start to lay the foundation for where you want to be, which could be a design lead for a smartphone
application design and programming firm.
But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. There are a series of steps to take to figure out where you want
to be and how you can layout a path to get there. In this section we’ll take you through these steps and
by the end it should be clearer what type of career and life that will give you the most enjoyment and
satisfaction both professionally and personally.

Step One Step Two Step Three Step Four Step Five
Determine The Narrow Down Create An Ideal Take Steps Back Compare The
Aspects Of Your The Aspects Career Ending From The Career Vision Against
Life That Have To A Potential Ending To The Your Values
Been Rewarding Vision Present

Step One - Determine The Aspects Of Your Life That Have Been Rewarding
You might not like your current job. You might not like the jobs you’ve had in the past. However, there
is a good chance that there were points in your life that made you happy. We’ve already taken you
through the steps to identify the things that make you happy and that give you passion in life. Use those
memories to find the aspects of your life that have been rewarding.
For example, you might have worked in customer service. Dealing with angry customers can be a
challenge and maybe you didn’t enjoy that aspect. In fact, maybe you disliked it very much. However,
maybe you took pride in finding a solution for customers that made them satisfied and that was beneficial
for the company. You might not want to be a customer service representative in the future, but maybe
a career path in sales with the eventual goal of becoming a sales executive or top-ranking executive in
a business is a desirable path.
Likewise, this is about more than your professional life. Assess the aspects of your personal life that
have been the most rewarding. Use those experiences to help define the type of personal life you want
to have in the future.
Create a list of these aspects. Don’t limit the list. This is like a brainstorming exercise. List all the things
in life that have been positive until you’ve gone through every stage of your life.

Step Two - Narrow Down The Aspects To A Potential Vision

Go through your entire list of positive aspects and put them into categories. Then further narrow down
these categories until you get to just a few categories. At this point, you’ll start to see a potential
profession that would make you satisfied in your professional life.

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Step Three - Create An Ideal Career Ending

Now that you’ve narrowed down the list to a few categories you’ll start to see the type of profession that
will make you happy. The purpose of the previous steps was to narrow down the focus from a vague
idea to something more specific.
For example, you might have had an idea that you wanted to be a marketing executive at the beginning
of this chapter, but now you will have the understanding of yourself that you want to be a marketing
executive for a technology firm and specifically a firm that works in mobile technology.
Create a description of your career ending. This is what you’ll be doing on the day you retire or when
you start winding your career down or even at the end of your life if you plan to work until the day you
die. Be as specific as possible. Yes, things likely won’t go exactly the way you write them down, but by
writing them down you’ll give yourself a clear vision of what will make you happy and satisfied in life.

Step Four - Take Steps Back From The Career Ending To The Present
Once you’ve determined where you want to end up in life you can start winding the steps back. You
might want to end up as the marketing executive in a mobile technology firm, but you likely won’t get
there tomorrow. There will probably be many steps in the way to get there.
Start with your end date and list thestep that precedes it. It might be that before becoming the marketing
executive you are a sales director. Before that you might be the lead of a sales team. Before that you
might be the top sales representative for a specific region and before that a mid-level sales associate
and before that an entry-level sales associate.
There might be multiple paths to your eventual ending. You can lay out different paths, but rank them in
priority of the one that is most likely to yield your ideal ending and the one that has is most appealing to
you because you’ll spend much of your life working in these positions.

Step Five - Compare The Vision Against Your Values

Now that you have the steps laid out for your career you have to compare them to your values. You’ll
probably be excited about the prospects in your career now, but you have to check with your values
before getting started.
For example, you might want to be a marketing executive, but if it requires you to spend an enormous
amount of time away from your family or takes away time from your community involvement and those
are two important values then you’ll have to reassess your path to your career ending.
There is usually a balance in your career that can yield both success and satisfaction as it relates to
your aspirations and your values. Check your career path against your values and find the balance and
path that will give you the most satisfaction in all areas of your life.

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Others Worth Emulating

Think you need to start from scratch? Think again.

Remember spending a good amount of time watching and learning, and then emulating what others
were doing? It was natural to copy what seemed to be working. But over time you branch out, do your
own thing, experiment and your own personality, brand and value emerge into email subscribtions &
leads.
Throughout this process you’ve probably had people in your mind that have provided inspiration. It might
have been a parent that set a good example for you and who is someone you look up to in life. Maybe
it’s another relative or someone that you admire in an industry that you’re passionate about.

Step Two • Rank The Step Four

People With • Make
• List The Career Arcs
People You Adjustments
• Take A Similar To Your • Learn The
Admire To Improve On
Deeper Look Aspirations Steps These Their Paths
Step One At Their Step Three People Took
Lives
Step Five

Step One - List The People You Admire

As we said, by now you probably have had people in your mind that you admire. You’ve been thinking
about their careers as you’ve built the vision for your life. But now it’s time to take those thoughts to a
deeper level; a level where you can take action on the knowledge you have of those people and their
careers.
So take each of the people you’ve been thinking about and create a list. Next to each of the names add
descriptions about the people and what they’re doing in their lives now. Also include reasons why you
admire the person.

Step Two - Take A Deeper Look At Their Lives

Once you’ve written down your list of people it’s time to take a deeper look. Many of us tend to look at
other people’s lives and only see what we want to see. Or we might only see what they want us to see.
Either way, it’s easy to focus on the positives in someone else’s life and forget that they have problems
and frustrations like everyone else.
This step is about taking a deeper look into each person on the list to figure out if you missed something
obvious that would not fit into your personal brand vision. Often you’ll find that someone you admire is
very successful in their professional career, but that they might not have a family or maybe they’ve had
struggles in their personal life with one aspect or another.

Step Three - Rank The People With Career Arcs Similar To Your Aspirations
After looking at each person on your list on a deeper level you’ll know the people that fit best with the
career arc similar to the one you’ve been developing up to this point. You’ll probably find a few surprises
in your research. These surprises will be people that have had aspects of a life that you may have
wanted to emulate, but after further inspection you realize that maybe their life isn’t the life for you.
Rank the people on your list based on your developing brand vision. Find the ones that closely resemble
yours. It will be difficult to find those that perfectly fit your vision but that’s okay.

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Step Four - Learn The Steps These People Took

Once you have a ranking of the people you admire most and that you’d most want to emulate it’s time
to dig deeper into those that rank highest. At this point you’re going to look into the steps that the top
people on your list took to achieve their results.
For example, a person on your list may be the CEO of a very successful company. You admire the
person they are now, but nobody achieves greatness overnight. They may have an accelerated path
later, but there was likely a slow build early on in the process.
At this point it’s your task to look at the steps the top people on your list took to get to their current place
in life. This gives you insight into how others have done it. You can compare it to the path you laid out
for yourself earlier in this chapter.

Step Five - Make Adjustments To Improve Upon Their Paths

The final step in this process is to make adjustments to the paths of those you admire the most. At this
stage you should have a couple of people on your list that are worth emulating. But you don’t want
tofollow their paths exactly.
Innovation works best when people look at what people have done before and make improvements on
those previous achievements. So at this point you’re looking at taking the paths of the people you want
to emulate and look for realistic ways to improve upon their paths.

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Developing Your Professional Image

Think your professional image is good enough?

One study found that: Only 15 percent of hiring managers say nearly all or most job seekers have the
skills and traits their companies are looking for in candidates.
Throughout this chapter you’ve been doing some introspective thinking and work to determine who you
want to be and where you want to go. At this point you should have a very good idea of those things
and you can start taking action on carrying out the steps necessary to achieve your desired life goals.
In this chapter we’re going to give you exactly the tools you need to develop your professional image.
This is another step in building your brand vision and carrying out the early stages of building your
personal brand so you can experience success in your professional life.

Consistency
American football is the most popular professional sporting event in the United States. Each spring,
executives from each team evaluate young players for the NFL Draft. These executives are faced with
all types of decisions. One type of decision faced each year is the question of talent versus consistency.
In the 2014 NFL Draft there are two players. One, Jadeveon Clowney is seen as an extremely gifted
and talented player. Another, Khalil Mack is also seen as talented, but not on the same level as Clowney.
However, some executives prefer Mack to Clowney because Mack is seen as being more consistent.
While Clowney has unmatched talent, executives often prefer someone they can count on to bring the
same level of performance to each game. Clowney has the potential to show flashes of brilliance, but
he is also prone to more downswings in play that would leave teams at a disadvantage.
People in many areas including business value consistency. People are generally more comfortable
working with someone they can count on to bring the same level of commitment to the office each day.
You want to be someone that people can count on. You want to be consistent. This means committing
to work routines and sticking to it at all times no matter what. Going in to the office every day at the
same time and leaving at the same time. Being consistent with the time you take to respond to emails
and phone calls.
Even doing something like creating your own blog and publishing regular blog posts. The same is true
with social media. Being consistent with the type of content you take, the tone of the updates and the
publishing schedule you keep are all things people look at when evaluating your character.
Make consistency part of your personal brand vision and practice it diligently. It will serve you well
whether you’re looking for a better job or if you’re looking to attract new clients.

Creativity
Creativity is another quality people look for in those they want to work and associate with. People
generally feel they have a certain level of creativity. But most know that there is a limit to creativity. Most
people that go far in business have realized the power of tapping into the creativity of others. This is
where you can show your creativity and pique the curiosity of potential employers and business partners.
The Internet has made it much easier to showcase your creativity on a public and accessible platform.
People that successfully build their personal brands will launch their own personal websites (more on
this later). On those websites, people will create portfolios that showcase previous work. The websites
also often have blogs where the owner can write consistent posts on various ideas in their chosen
industry. It’s a way to share thoughts and ideas with the industry including those that the person might
work with in the future.
For those wanting to take their careers to a new level it can be difficult finding work to include in a
portfolio. It’s especially difficult if you really haven’t liked your current job. Find what you can from your
current and previous jobs. Turn the work into case studies. Tell the story of the project including the
challenge you and the team were presented with and describe the path to overcoming the challenge
and finding a solution.

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Once you’ve done that, look for ways to build your portfolio. You can do this outside of your current job.
You might find part-time work on a project basis. For some things you might have to work for little or no
money. Think of it as an investment of your time into your future. There are such things as portfolio
building experiences and it’s a reality you’ll need to accept in the early stages of your new career.
Build your portfolio with an eye on your career vision and keep building as you reach each next step.

Memorable

It’s easy to say that one should “be memorable”. Most of us want to be memorable, but we also recognize
that it’s not as easy to do, as it is to say. The fact is that to move up in the world and to achieve your
new career goals you will have to be memorable especially to the people that will play a role in your
ascension.

There are lots of ways to be memorable. You can’t do them all so the best way to be memorable to
people is to do things that are unordinary as part of your regular routine. These things will be regular to
you, but seen as different and therefore memorable to the people you encounter.
In business, people that take things a little further are memorable. Think of the typical job application
process. 95% of the applicants will send their resumes, letters and do the interviews. The 5% that are
memorable are the ones that further investigate into the company and provide a proposal on how they
can help the company increase sales and profit. They’re also the people that send a follow up thank you
note after the interview.
You can also be memorable by having a unique hobby. Earlier we went through the exercise of
identifying your passions including the things you like to do outside of work. It’s good to have hobbies
and it’s good to share stories from those hobbies with the people you meet. Instead of just another
candidate for a job you will be the candidate that has a flourishing vegetable garden or the candidate
that plays jazz piano in local lounges at weekends.
To be memorable, go one step further in your relationships than others typically go. That will make you
stand out and be passionate about your passions in life. You don’t need to do something crazy, but talk
about your hobbies with the people you meet. They will be more likely to remember more about you if
they actually do know more about you.

Professional Photos
It’s not too often that your casual photos will look professional enough to impress people. Even if you’re
pretty good with your smartphone, that selfie won’t do for a professional photo to represent your brand.
Even the photos your spouse, family member or friend takes likely won’t cut it. It’s worth the investment
to have a professional photographer setup a shoot and take a few headshots. You want the photo to
show who you are. If you want to be an executive, you’ll want to wear a suit or proper business attire.
The photographer will know how to setup the lighting and how to edit the photo to make you look
professional.
Professional photography can be expensive. A photo shoot can cost several hundred dollars. You’re
taking up the photographer’s time and when it comes to finding a better job and moving up in the world,
it’s worth a few hundred dollars to create a photo that will help get you where you want to go.
Pay the money if you can afford it. If it’s out of your budget, find a photographer that will work on trade.
Offer to do some kind of work that they need in exchange for their work. You might be able to do some
accounting work. Maybe you can write a few blog posts for their blog. Do yard work around their house
if you have to. It is worth it to have a professional photo that you can use for years on all of your branding
material including a well designed website, social media profiles and more.

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Professional Website
Social media profiles are important for building a professional brand. Social networks have large
communities and you should be active in the ones that are important for professionals (LinkedIn, Xing,
Twitter, etc.), but having your own website is just as or even more important.
We just talked about being memorable and taking things at least one step further than everyone else in
your industry. Having a website is one step you can take that some people aren’t willing to take. Many
do have websites, but many don’t and it’s an area you’ll need if you want to have a memorable personal
brand.
In the next chapter we will discuss about building your personal assets including your website so stay
tuned for more details, but know that a website is a requirement for building your personal brand. The
website will need a professional design and content on the ‘about me’ page that effectively describes
who you are and what you have to offer. You will also use your website to showcase your portfolio of
work that we’ve covered and it’s where you’ll host your blog.

Email Signature

What kind of email signature do you have? Does it have your name, title, company and maybe a cute
little quote about living each day to the fullest or about how success only comes before work in the
dictionary?
These things are okay, but they’re either the basics or they’re something that everyone does. A proper
email signature needs to have all the correct information and it needs to be designed so that it looks
professional while loading quickly on any email inbox server.
A great tool for building your professional email signature is Wisestamp (www.wisetamp.com)
Wisestamp has a number of templates for creating your signature. The templates are professionally
designed and include all the correct information and assets to communicate who you are and what you
stand for.
Items included on the Wisestamp signature are:
• Photo
• Name
• Title
• Company
• Phone
• Website
• Email
• Address
• Social Profiles w/icons

These are all the essentials for a properly branded email signature. With Wisestamp, you can easily
integrate these signatures into your personal and business emails. Now, when you exchange emails
with people, they’ll have all the information they need to learn about you and to contact you if they’re
interested in a meeting or a conversation.

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Build Credibility
Credibility can be as simple as responding to pressing questions with great answers.
Some of the items we’ve been discussing are included in your credibility. All the official items like a
website, social profiles, professional photography and an appropriate email signature give your personal
brand credibility.
But credibility can also be built by associating yourself with others. There are probably people in your
industry that you can work with and associate yourself with to improve your credibility. If you can, you
could offer to work on a project with another person. An example would be a designer and a programmer
working together on a project. But you don’t even have to work with someone to build your credibility.
We mentioned blogging a couple of times in this chapter. Blogging or publishing any kind of content is
a great way to build your credibility especially if you co-author posts with someone else or if you guest
post on respected blogs.
You’ve probably seen logos on personal websites before or even on business websites. These logos
are used to show companies the brand associates with. Businesses do it to show their clients and
individuals often do it for publications where they’ve had articles published.
You can do the same thing for your brand. Offer to write guest posts on popular blogs. You’ll have to
write your absolute best material to make it onto the best blogs. It’s a lot of effort, but once the article is
published you’ll always be able to associate yourself with the blog. That is a great way to earn credibility
by association.
From here you can take steps to work with people and to continue to associate with other credible
people in your industry. Through all of that you can continue to work in your job as a reliable person that
can be counted on for quality work. These are the things that build credibility and that is an essential
component of a great personal brand.
In the next chapter we’ll give you the steps you need to define your target audience.

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Chapter Two: How To Define Your Target Audience

Once you have your vision, it’s time to determine who your target audience is. Most professionals are
selling something to someone. If you’re looking for a job, you’re selling yourself to a potential employer.
If you want to start your own business, you’re selling yourself to potential clients.
But your target audience goes beyond an employer and customer. You’re looking to build a community
of people—employers, peers, influencers, etc.—who can all be assets in different ways.
In this chapter, we’ll show you how to define your target audience. Knowing the exact person, you’re
selling to makes it easier for you to communicate your brand message.
One of the biggest mistakes that budding personal branders make is trying to appeal to everyone. Think
about the game of darts: You have to aim in order to hit the board. (If you let your darts go without aiming
them, you probably won’t be very popular.) If you hit the board, you score. And if your aim is very good
and you hit the bull’s eye, even better!
You know that defining a target audience is business best practice. But defining a target audience is
best practice for anyone that needs others to give them something. It might be a salary, an investment
or money in exchange for a product or service. Whenever you need something from someone you go
through at least some of the steps in defining a target audience.
We go through the target audience process even at an early age. Think back to when you were a kid.
When you wanted a treat you went through the target audience process. You knew that your dad
probably wouldn’t be the one to approve your request so you went to your mom and you made sure to
catch her in the right mood.
That’s an example of defining your target audience. It’s a basic example, but businesses go through
that process so they have more success. It doesn’t make sense to try to please everyone. Your time,
energy and money are better invested in a target audience. And that goes for defining the target
audience for your personal brand too.
In this chapter, we’re going to take you through the steps you’ll need to follow to define the target
audience for your personal brand. We’ll cover a few of the basics, but we’ll also include more advanced
steps for making sure you’re targeting the exact people that can help you achieve your goals.

Building Relationships: Give A Lot To Get A Lot

This guide is about building your personal brand so it’s naturally going to focus on what you can do to
help yourself. There is nothing wrong with wanting to improve your status in life and achieve the goals
that will make you happy.
But for this chapter the focus shifts a bit to building relationships with your target audience. Relationships
are essential to living a fulfilling life. In fact, studies have shown that we need people to be well and to
thrive. Without people, all the money in the world wouldn’t make you happy.
The cliché in the world of relationships is: You Get What You Give. We all focus on our families and
ourselves. It’s natural and it’s okay, but if in order to have good things come to you, such as quality
professional relationships, you need to give to the people that you want to connect with.
We’re going to go through a step in this chapter where you will focus on the motivations of your target
audience. The reason for this is for you to focus on what others want from you. Once you know what
that something is you can give it to that person and show that you have their best interests in mind.
In life and in business, when you help others achieve their goals they’ll be more likely to help you achieve
yours. You want something from your target audience, but in this chapter you’ll only get what you give.

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The Person That Will Pay You

There are basically three people that fit into your personal brand’s target audience:
• The Person That Will Pay You
• The Person That Influences The Person That Pays You
• Your Supporter

The first person on the list, the one that pays you, is your main focus. This might be your current boss
or your next boss. It might be the target customer of your current business or your next business. It
could also be an investor or a bank.
After Chapter 1, you have your vision and you have a good idea of the person that will pay you and help
you get to your goal. These next steps will take you through the necessary process of refining your
target audience to make your brand implementation more effective.

• Identify The Person That Decides Whether You Can Advance

Step One

• Create A Complete Description

Step Two

• Identify The Person’s Motivations (Professional And Personal)

Step Three

• Identify Your Potential Opportunities

Step Four

• Create A Game Plan

Step Five

Step One - Identify The Person That Decides Whether You Can Advance
(Boss, Investor, Client, etc.)
In Chapter 1 you laid out a path to your ultimate career goal. There are steps along the way to help you
achieve that goal and along that path there will be people that will decide whether and when you can
take it to the next level.
If you’re looking to reach an executive level within a company, then the person that decides how you
move up in the business is each of your bosses along the way. For example, you might start as a sales
associate. Your target audience is your immediate superior or the lead of your sales team or division.
Identify the person that is in charge of the next step in your career. It might be an investor. It might be a
client. Or it could be the boss we just mentioned. It could be a specific person that you have in mind or
it could be the vision of a person. Whatever it is, identify that person and move to the next step.

Step Two - Create A Complete Description

Next, create a complete description of the person. Marketers and business leaders do this all the time
with their customers. They put comprehensive descriptions together of their target customers to create
detailed, vivid images of the exact person their employees will think about when making every decision
in the business. Now, you will do the same with your target audience.

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Open a document and start writing the description. Include things like:
• Name
• Age
• Gender
• Job Description
• Hobbies
• Etc.
Go into extreme detail. Talk about the daily tasks the person does at their job. Talk about what they do
at the weekends with their family and friends. The more details you can include the easier it will be for
you to target this person as you implement your personal brand strategy. Go as far as including a photo
of the person. If it’s a real person, find their photo. If it’s not a real person, find a photo online that fits
your vision and include it in the profile.

Step Three - Identify The Person’s Motivations (Professional And Personal)

As you build the profile of your target audience you’ll get inside their head and figure out their
motivations. This is important because, as we said earlier, when you know what this person’s
motivations are you can help them achieve their goals as a way to achieve your own goals (you get
what you give).
For example, if your target audience is your current boss, the sales team leader. Their motivation might
be two-fold: 1) move up to the next position in the business, which is probably regional sales manager
or a similar position and 2) more free time to spend with his or her growing family.
Knowing these motivations, you can help your boss achieve his or her goals. You can lead new initiatives
to increase sales across the team. You can improve the efficiencies of processes to cut down on time
spent in the office.
Another example, your target audience is your next new client. Your client’s motivation is to grow their
business, which means more sales and more profit. If you can help your client achieve those goals
they’ll be happy to pay you for your products and services, which helps you achieve your goals (you get
what you give).
Identify the motivations of your target audience and from there you can identify your opportunities to
help them and improve your position on the way to your ultimate goal.

Step Four - Identify Your Potential Opportunities

Once you know what motivates your target audience it’s time to formulate ways to help them achieve
their goals, thus helping yourself achieve your own goals. You can do this on your own, but another way
to find opportunities is to go to your target audience and have a conversation with them.
For example, if you’re on the sales team and you want to help your boss, the sales team leader, to
achieve a sales goal, go to him or her and discuss what the goals are. Discuss ways that the team has
succeeded in the past. Ask about any ideas the team has recently had for increasing sales. This
conversation will bring opportunities to light and you’ll know exactly what you can work on to achieve
results.

Step Five - Create A Game Plan

Next, leave the meeting and put together a game plan for taking the opportunities and achieving results.
Look at the way others have done things before you. There is no reason to start from scratch. Look for
examples within your company. Look for examples outside your company. Take the things others have
done to achieve results. See if there is room for any improvements. Then start taking each step to
achieve the desired results.
Once you’ve achieved the results you can go back to your boss and discuss the specific steps you made
to help the team and to help him or her. This kind of specific improvement in your professional career is
what will lead to you moving up and achieving your ultimate goal.

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The Person That Influences The Person That Pays You

When building your personal brand, the key point is that you should have a set of 10 to 20 influencers
that you are targeting in order to extend the reach of your content and personal brand.
The number one person that you’re targeting with your personal brand is the person that will
pay you: employer, investor, client, etc. However, that’s not the only person in your target audience.
The second person on your target audience list is the person that influences the person that pays you.
Influencers include any person that holds another person’s attention in some way. It might be a business
partner. It might be an industry writer or an industry speaker. It could be a mentor, client or vendor.
These people hold attention and influence the decisions that your number one target audience makes.
And that’s why you need to pay attention to the influencers. If you can earn their trust, their approval
then you can win them over and they can influence the person that will pay you.
Here are the steps to follow to identify the influencers and win their approval.

Step Identify The Step Create Step Create A

One Influencer Two Descriptions Three Contact Plan

Step One - Identify The Influencer

There are a few ways to figure out the people that influence the person that pays you.
First, look at the social media profiles of your target. If it’s a real person you can look at theirs and if it’s
not a real person you can identify a handful of people that fit your description and look at their social
media profiles. You’re looking at the people this person is following or connected with. Twitter is a great
indicator for this especially if your target is active on Twitter. The people they follow are people that
occupy their attention. Also look at connections on LinkedIn. These two social networks are usually the
two most commonly used by professionals.
Next, look for online publications that have readership demographics that match your target from the
first section. Professionals usually have industry magazines and websites that they follow and subscribe
to. The writers on these sites hold great influence over your target, but also pay attention to the people
included in the articles. Industry publications often contain quotes, interviews and mentions of people in
the industry including business owners, managers, consultants and others. These could also be
influencers of your main target.

Step Two - Create Descriptions

Create a description of each person that influences your target. Make a description for each of the
important connections on social media as well as the people involved in the publications. These
descriptions, like the ones in the first section, will help you to better understand who these people are
and how you can earn their trust and get them to mention you when talking to your target.

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Step Three - Create A Contact Plan

Once you understand who the influencers are and where they are online you can put together your
contact plan. This will be your way to connect with the influencer and help them with the things that
motivate them.
The basics would include connecting on social media like LinkedIn and Twitter. It also includes following
any blogs the people write or contribute to. Follow the blogs, comment on the articles and make yourself
visible to the influencer.
The next step is to get more aggressive with the way you reach out to make connections with influencers.
Now you’ll start using contact forms and emails to reach out and connect. You’re looking to build a
relationship with the influencers so you can be top of mind when they’re influencing the person that pays
you.
Think back to the motivations discussion in the earlier section. You need to figure out what motivates
these influencers. If they’re business peers of your target then find out what would help them to increase
sales. If they’re vendors then figure out how to help them get more clients or figure out how to help them
improve their standing with your target. If they’re writers then figure out how to help them get more
pageviews. When you know what motivates people, you have a better chance of making a connection.

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Your Supporters

The most important form of support that keeps an idea going and brings it into being is your support
network - your “ambassadors” - people who believe in you without reservation and spread the word
about the value and importance of your endeavors, and open crucial doors for you.
Finally, we have to remember your support team. These are the people that support you in your effort
to move through your professional plan to achieve your brand vision. Supporters can include family
members, friends, colleagues, co-workers, mentors and anybody that can offer support as you work
your way to your vision.
The team is important because you can believe in yourself, but it’s good to have people providing
reassurance when you get frustrated. It’s good to have people there to tell you the truth if they see
something in your effort that they feel could be better. You’re only one person and without supporters,
you won’t have all the tools necessary to achieve your goals.

•Provide
Regular
Step Updates
Three

Step
Two
•Let Them
Know Your Step
Goals One
•Identify Your
Support
Team

Step One - Identify Your Support Team

The first step is to simply identify your support team. We just mentioned some of the potential people
that can make up your support team. Reach out to a select few people that you trust the most. You want
these people to be both support, but honest when dealing with you. You don’t want a group of “yes”
people that only agree with what you’re doing and what you think is best. You want people that will
challenge you and push you to be your best.
Chances are good that most of the people you reach out to will be open to your professional goals and
they’ll be willing to help you. Let them know that it will require conversations and feedback on their part
and that it will last for a long time. Most will agree, but don’t be offended if not everybody agrees to help.

Step Two - Let Them Know Your Goals

Next, once you have a handful of people on your support team you tell them what your goals are. These
are the goals you established in the first chapter of this guide. Share your plan with your support team
so they can see your vision. Ask them for feedback on your goals. Some might question parts of your
plan and that’s good. The purpose of the team is to challenge you and to provide different perspectives
on what you’re trying to accomplish.

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Step Three - Provide Regular Updates

Next, setup regular updates with your support team. Monthly might be good for those closest to you, but
it might be much for those that are less close. In general, quarterly or even every six months is good to
keep your supporters updated.
You want to tell them about your progress. Tell them the specific things you’re working on and how it’s
going to contribute to achieving your professional goals. They’ll give you feedback and encouragement,
which will be important because you’ll run into setbacks along the way and knowing that you have people
supporting you is great.
The updates will also keep you motivated. People can be motivated on their own to do well and you
probably are, but it’s good to feel like you have other people watching you. This gives you an added
benefit to keep moving forward, to keep working on those projects to make each step along the way.

Give Back To Your Supporters By Asking Questions

It’s not a one-way street with your support team. People want to help you, but to get the most out of the
relationship you’ll need to reciprocate the efforts for them. They might also have goals for their
professional life and you can work together to help each other reach those goals. You can be each
other’s support team. You can offer advice, criticism and challenge each other.
Another common thing that professionals are doing today is setting up their own groups or boards. It
might be a group of startup entrepreneurs that meet every quarter even if it’s a Google Hangout or
something where they go over the important aspects of each other’s businesses. They check-in with
each other and report on progress, but they also ask questions and get opinions on strategy. It’s a real
help for professionals because you get input from successful people on what you’re doing and it also
keeps you motivated because you want to do well each time you check-in with your group.
In the next chapter we’ll give you steps to build up and protect your personal brand assets.

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Chapter Three: How To Build Your Brand Through Outreach

When you start building your personal brand it’s difficult to get exposure. It’s necessary to get exposure
in the places where your target audience is spending time.
In this chapter, we’re going to explain how you can gain exposure through earned media, advertising
and a few other strategies. Following the steps in this chapter will give you formulas for creating content
that is appealing to your target audience while establishing you as an authority.
To build your brand and move toward your professional goals you need to go where your target audience
is and get their attention. Outreach is the act of providing value to those that have established audiences
filled with the people you want to reach. You provide value and in exchange they give you the chance
to sell yourself to the audience.
In this chapter we’ll show you how to use outreach to grow your audience while increasing opportunities
that can lead to professional advancement as you work toward your personal branding goals.

How To Build Relationships That Lead To Opportunities

Many opportunities arise out of first connections. You can sit back waiting for those connections to
happen by chance such as waiting for ads to appear for new jobs or for the right lead to magically come
in through your website or you can go out and make connections happen for you.
As you know, the second option is better. Life waits for nobody so if you want to kick your career into
overdrive you’re going to have to go out and make connections because every connection could be the
one that leads to your next opportunity.
Here are the steps and methods to making connections and building professional relationships.

Step One Step Two Step Three

•Find People •Discover •How To

Willing To People Connect With
Connect At Willing To People In
Local Events Engage On Groups And
Social Media On Forums

Step One - Find People Willing To Connect At Local Events

Local events in your city or community are still some of the best places to meet people and build
connections and relationships that lead to opportunities. A lot of people focus on the power of social
media and social media certainly is important (we’re talking about it in the next step), but face-to-face
interaction is still an essential way to foster opportunity in your professional life.
Here is a little trick to find local events where you can find people willing to connect.
Go to Google.
Type in the following phrase, but don’t hit “Enter” just yet:
[your city] business
That’s it. Obviously add your city to make it something like “Seattle Business” or “Bangkok Business”.
Let Google’s suggested searches reveal potential connecting events.
Sometimes, just using the word “business” won’t be enough. You might have to add the word “event” to
the end or something similar to get the proper suggestions. You could also substitute the word
“professional” for business and add “event” or something close to get even more results.

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For example, typing in Seattle Business Events will yield the following suggestions:
• Seattle Business Events
• Seattle Business Events This Week
• Seattle Business Networking Events
• Seattle Business Events Calendar
• And more

Next, hit “enter” on a few of the suggested searches that look the most relevant to your situation. You
should discover a number of opportunities where people like you are going to connect with others.
There are a variety of different events. Some will be casual gatherings like cocktails with professionals
where you can mingle with professionals from the area, free to discuss anything you like. Other events
will be more scheduled with speakers and question and answer sessions.
Find the events that best fit your professional niche. Go to a variety of events; ones that are more casual
and ones with speakers and schedules. Find opportunities to connect with people and learn what others
are doing in their professional lives.
Your goal is to make connections and see if there is the opportunity to build a relationship. You’re looking
for people that share similar aspirations as you and that are involved in similar fields. For example, an
accountant will look for others that have an interest in accounting and business. He or she would connect
with those people, get to know them and through that relationship job opportunities may arise whether
it’s a full-time position, a freelance position or even an opportunity to start a new firm.

Step Two - Discover People Willing To Engage On Social Media

Now we can get into social media. There is a lot of opportunity to make connections on social media
that can lead to professional opportunities. You can connect with people that could make potential
employers, employees, business partners, clients and more.
However, for professional relationships, not all social media networks are equal.
Twitter is a good network for connecting with people. Many are willing to respond to their mentions
especially if you engage with intriguing conversations. There’s an easy way to get people to respond to
your tweets on Twitter.
First, find someone that is well known in your industry. You probably already follow people like this on
Twitter. Look at their timeline to see the types of tweets that they have responded to and interacted with
in the past. These are clues to the type of updates that interest them.
Next, write the same type of updates that have gotten engagement from your target in the past.
For example, you notice that your target has commented multiple times on an industry news event.
They’ve shared multiple articles. They’ve replied to tweets with their opinion on the topic. To start your
engagement, simply comment on the topic with a similar viewpoint to the one your target has shared.
It’s obviously better if you share the same opinion because this makes the potential relationship a
genuine one so look for something that you care about. Make your comment. The person will likely
respond and a relationship can grow from there.
Relationships happen in real life following this method all the time. It starts with one common interest or
shared experience and grows from there. With Twitter, you have a huge platform full of potential
relationships and you can target connections based on your interests. Identify people in your industry,
follow them and comment on the things they care about. It’s that simple.
Repeat the same efforts on Facebook and other social networks.

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Step Three How To Connect With People In Groups And On Forums

Before LinkedIn, Facebook and even MySpace there was a very social culture online. People would
congregate in forums and chat rooms with others that shared similar interests. These groups and forums
are still some of the biggest communities online and you can use them to your advantage.
Chances are there are a number of these online communities for your professional niche. Go to Google
and search for things like [your niche] forum or replace “forum” with words like “community” or put the
word “online” in front of the search to find relevant communities.
For example, search for “online accounting discussion forum” and you’ll get a result for
AccountingForums.com. This forum is full of discussion among accountants.
To get started in the discussion, find the conversations where you’re comfortable and add your thoughts
and opinions. Aim to help those with questions where you feel comfortable providing advice. If you’re
not comfortable answering questions you can always ask your own questions. Even if you feel your
questions are rudimentary you’ll usually find many people willing to offer advice.
From these discussions you can build relationships that can turn into opportunities.

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How To Get Exposure By Guest Blogging

Google’s head of the spam team Matt Cutts made a declaration that guest posting had become spammy.
And if you’re up on the SEO industry you know that spammy guest posting has been on the rise.
However, Google seems to simply be acknowledging the fact that many have abused guest linking for
the sole purpose of gaining links. As a way to scale efforts, people would write guest posts with little
value and post them on whatever site that would accept the articles.
Thankfully, Google appears to have targeted this type of guest posting leaving the opportunity for real
authorities to publish high quality guest posts for the purpose of SEO and branding. Guest blogging still
works.
As you build your personal brand you can use guest posting to gain exposure to audiences and to build
the profile of yourself as a writer and the profile of your website and blog. Here is how you can
accomplish this with a guest posting strategy.

Step One Step Two Step Three

•How To Find Websites •How To Write Emails •How To Write High

That Accept High That Get Responses Quality Guest Posts
Quality Guest Posts

Step One - How To Find Websites That Accept High Quality Guest Posts
There are a number of websites that still accept guest posts, but the ones with strong audiences, the
kind of audiences you want to reach, are becoming more picky about the people they let guests post.
The best sites only want the best content so go into this effort with the idea that you’ll have to write your
best stuff ever for these top-notch websites.
Use social media, search engines and search tools like Topsy to identify the top websites in your niche.
Nearly every industry has industry journals, blogs and websites dedicated specifically to topics for that
industry. These are the best places to publish guest posts and many will have opportunities for outside
writers.
Create a list of potential websites where you can guest post. Next, see if they have a procedure for
submitting ideas for complete articles. Some of the sites will have pages titled “Write For Us” or
“Contribute”.
If you don’t see pages like this, don’t worry. There are still ways to publish on these sites. The clue will
be the number of different authors you see on site. Usually the site will have regular writers, but often
they’ll accept outside writers and usually those with experience in the industry have a good shot at
getting a guest post accepted.
If you don’t see a “Write For Us” page look for a “Contact” page. This page will usually have a form or a
series of email addresses including one for the editor or associate editor.
If you still can’t find this information, use a search engine or LinkedIn to find people associated with the
publication. You could even click on the authors’ names on the articles on the site to see if they have
author pages. These pages will often have links to Twitter and LinkedIn accounts.

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Step Two - How To Write Emails That Get Responses

If the sites have official procedures for guest posting then follow the rules and submit your best content.
Even if your content is turned down, respond by asking what would have made the article worth
accepting. Ask for specific things. Then go back and improve your article or write a new article following
every item addressed in the response. When you follow specific instructions laid out you’re more likely
to be accepted so always ask for specific feedback.
If the sites have contact forms and email addresses, you’ll have to write emails to work your way toward
a guest posting opportunity. The key to these emails is building a relationship with the person you’re
emailing as you work your way toward a guest posting opportunity.
To start your email, use the word “because” early. This gives the recipient a specific reason for the email
and makes them more likely to keep reading and to answer your questions and to accept your
submission.
For example, you would write:
Hi,
I’m writing because I saw that [publication name] has accepted article contributions from outside writers
including [article name].
What is the procedure for submitting an article for review and what criteria are used to accept
submissions?
The word “because” is used early and the message asks for specific criteria for the submission. This
way you know exactly what you have to do in order to get an article accepted.
Even if you hear that the publication is not accepting articles, continue your efforts. If the person says
that articles are no longer accepted, respond with something such as, “What would make an article
appealing for publication on your site?” and similar questions to see if you can get a response with
specific information.
The responses you get can lead to openings for your article to be accepted as long as you write the
type of article the person describes in their correspondence.

Step Three - How To Write High Quality Guest Posts

Only the best articles are accepted on the best industry websites. The easiest way to figure out what is
required on the sites you identify is to review the top articles on the site.
On some sites you’ll find areas in the sidebar next to the articles where “Popular Articles” are listed. You
might also see variations of this with something like “Most Viewed”, “Most Emailed” and similar lists.
These are indicators to the most popular content on the site.
If a particular type of post has been popular for the site in the past you know the site’s owners are looking
for more content like that. Identify the top content and create an article that is just as good or even better.
If you can’t find a “Popular Articles” list anywhere on the site, look at the social shares for recent articles.
Most publications today have share buttons with counters. Look for the articles with significantly more
shares than others. You can also look for posts with the most comments.
If you still can’t find the popular articles, go back to the people that you’ve contacted at the site and ask
them for a short list of the best articles on their site. They might just send you the top five articles and
from that you can extrapolate an idea for an article that can be just as good.
For example, an account finds that three popular articles on an industry website all relate to
entrepreneurs and new business taxes. The accountant would create a title idea that would involve
common tax mistakes made by new businesses and first-time entrepreneurs. It’s a great topic and one
that the site would likely accept.
However, make your article all encompassing and in-depth. Cover every angle and provide actionable
steps for readers. The best articles establish a benefit for the reader in the title (ex: Save Money On
Your Taxes By Avoiding These 5 First-Time Business Owner Mistakes). And provide actionable steps
with each of the mistakes. See what’s been written before about the topic and improve on those ideas.
Don’t just copy previous ideas. Find out what ideas have worked and make them better.

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There are two tools that can help you find popular articles and topics so you can expand upon them and
earn interest in your personal brand.
The first is SocialCrawlytics, which allows you to identify popular posts and topics. Enter in the URL of
popular industry influencers, the people you aspire to be like and popular industry websites. This tool
will show you the most popular content. From those results, identify the topics you can write about. Then
use The Skyscraper Technique to create something even better. The site you submit the guest post to
will be blown away and will love to publish and promote your content.
The second tool is Ahrefs, which allows you to explore URLs, posts and other content specifically the
sites that link to the content. When you find a blog, look for popular posts and use Ahrefs to examine
the backlinks coming to the post. Website owners love backlinks. By finding posts with the most
backlinks you can create similar content ensuring that you’ll get backlinks to your article.
By finding where the backlinks come from you will also find potential people to reach out to and share
your guest post with once it’s published.

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How To Get Exposure Through Article Contributions & Interviews

Guest posting isn’t the only way to contribute content to outside audiences. You can contribute to articles
with other authors and you can make yourself available for interviews.

Step One Step Two

•Find Authors That Need •Find Bloggers That Publish
Research Or Work Done For Interviews & Reach Out
Their Articles

Step One - Find Authors That Need Research Or Work Done For Their Articles
From the list of websites you’ve created for your industry, identify authors that have included research
and other time consuming work in their articles. Reach out to these authors asking if they could use help
with the research for future articles.
Often, the authors will have ideas for research for new articles, but they won’t have time to do the
research themselves. They can provide you with direction and you can carry out the research as a way
to help them. In return, they will often credit you with helping on the article and while it might not be a
co-author status it can lead to co-written articles in the future and a positive relationship that could lead
to other opportunities.

Step Two - Find Bloggers That Publish Interviews & Reach Out
Most interviews start with the owner of a website reaching out to potential interviewees. When you’re
just starting out on your personal branding effort you’re not going to have anyone reaching out to you
for interviews. Don’t wait for your profile to build in the industry. Reach out to website owners seeing if
they would be interested in interviewing you for their website.
When emailing website owners you have to make the message about them. Describe the benefits for
their website and for their profile. You want to say that you’ll share the article with your entire network
of followers and that you’ll link to the interview from your website.
You also have to make your story sound appealing. Start by asking what type of interview the person
would be most interested. Ask what makes an appealing interview for their readers. Then tweak your
story to fit the criteria and you’ll be more likely to be accepted for an interview on the site.

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How To Build Your Brand Using LinkedIn

LinkedIn is built as a network where you can reach out to people in your target audience to make
connections. You want to connect with your target audience as a start. You want to optimize your profile
and join relevant groups, but there are more advanced ways, ways that experts have used, to get better
results from LinkedIn.

Step Two
•Use LinkedSelling &
Step One LinkedUniversity To
Expand Your
•Follow Lewis LinkedIn Efforts
Howes’ Five Tips
For Using LinkedIn

Step One Follow Lewis Howes’ Five Tips For Using LinkedIn
Lewis Howes is recognized as one of the experts on LinkedIn. He has built his own businesses using
connections on LinkedIn and consults others on how to do the same along with speaking at numerous
events.
Lewis has five steps for getting the most out of LinkedIn if you’re looking to grow your personal brand.
First, complete your profile. LinkedIn gives you a guide for filling out your profile, but Lewis found
that to really get the most out of your profile you need to tell your story complete with who you
are, whom you help and how you help them. This allows potential connections to see if you can
help them and if they are compelled they’ll reach out to you. Lewis has filled out his profile
completely in every way including uploading videos and projects.
Second, Lewis recommends connecting with everyone. This includes people in your industry
especially industry leaders. Don’t be afraid to ask for a connection from important people because
people are generally accepting on LinkedIn and as your connections grow the people you ask will
see that you have shared connections making them even more likely to accept your request.
Third, endorse and recommend others. A big part of Lewis and his success with LinkedIn is
helping others. He suggests endorsing others for the things they care about most. He also
suggests recommending people for the areas they are most involved in. These endorsements
aren’t just good for the people you give them to; they can be good for you as well because people
often reciprocate.
Fourth, create a niche group within your industry like the Marketing Leaders of Australia.
As the owner of a group you have the potential to build another online asset that can be part of
your personal brand. Reach out to people in your industry to get them interested in participating.
Give them specific topics to write about within the group to get things started. Moderate the group
so there isn’t any article sharing spam. You want the group to be a place where people can go to
ask questions and to provide answers if they feel they can help. You can even start writing your
own articles specifically for your LinkedIn group. Publishing it only in the group adds value for the
members and can entice others to join to get access to the content.
Finally, add keywords to your profile to optimize it for search both within LinkedIn and for your
public profile that can be found on external search engines like Google. If you’re an accountant,
add keywords that employers might search for to your profile both within your description and
summary and as a list of your specialties.

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Step Two Use LinkedSelling & LinkedUniversity To Expand Your LinkedIn Efforts
LinkedSelling and LinkedUniversity are two companies focused on helping businesses get leads and
sales using LinkedIn. There is free content available along with premium content and you can hire them
to manage your LinkedIn campaigns.
For now, you can start by using their basic steps to connecting with your targeted connections.
First, by this point you’ll already have connections with your target connections and you’ll have started
building your niche group like Lewis Howes mentioned in the previous step. At this point, you’re going
to start messaging these people. LinkedIn gives you the ability to message your connections and
members of your group. The first step is not asking these people for a job or to become your client. You
have to build the relationship. With the first email you can simply introduce yourself by explaining who
you are, the people you help and how you help them. That’s it.
Next, you’ll move through the process of selling your brand on LinkedIn, which are your profile and your
group. For your group, you can share weekly messages complete with the best discussions, shared
articles and the comments.
Over time, you’ll build trust with your followers. If your profile is setup to be appealing and your
connections know what you’re about and what you offer they will reach out to you.

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Chapter Four: How To Connect With Mentors

One key to success is continued learning. Even the smartest people in the world can become smarter
and more skilled in certain aspects of life.
Mentors are great assets for professionals looking to build a personal brand. You can learn how they
became successful or how they view the world and use the strategies to build your own success.
In this chapter, we’ll show you how to find mentors and how to approach them so they will help you with
your personal brand.

According to one study:

While 74 percent of hiring managers say job seekers should have a mentor, counselor or job coach to
talk to about whether their skills and experience match those required for the jobs they are interested
in, yet only 40 percent of job seekers report having a similar professional resource.
In fact, the proportion of job seekers who would rely on their own experience to decide what information
to include on applications, resumes and cover letters rather than seek advice from others including
career counselors or instructors has grown from 58 percent in 2012 to 67 percent in 2013.
“Job seekers are doing themselves a huge disservice by ignoring the wealth of guidance and insight a
mentor could provide,” said Madeleine Slutsky, chairman of the Career Advisory Board and vice
president of career services at DeVry University. “Cultivating relationships with individuals who have
experience with the current employment landscape can be a tremendous help in the job search
process.”
Some of the most successful people in the world have had mentors. Bill Gates had Dr. Ed Roberts.
Steve Jobs had Robert Friedland. Tiger woods had his father. Elizabeth Taylor had Aubrey Hepburn.
A mentor is someone that can provide guidance and friendship for your life. They might have experience
in the exact life path you want to pursue, but that quality is not a requirement. Often, the best mentors
are simply good listeners, educators and friends.
In respect to your personal brand, we recommend finding a mentor. In this guide we’ll take you through
the reasons a mentor is needed for your professional and personal growth and the process you can use
to find the perfect mentor for you and your situation. Finally, we’ll cover how you can approach potential
mentors, earn their interest and trust and get them to help you with your pursuits.

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Why Mentors Are Needed For Professional Success

Rachel Louise Ensign of the Wall Street Journal said:

A mentor can help a young worker answer tough questions about his or her career path and get
perspective on the industry. The relationship may even help you eventually land a new job.
Throughout your life you’re going to face a number of decisions. Some are relatively easy, but many
pose difficult choices. There are times when the facts might tell you to do one thing while your emotions
tell you another. It’s a constant challenge to figure out what you should do especially when there is a lot
riding on the choice.
For example, throughout this guide we’ve gone through the stages of setting you up for a strong brand
in the industry of your choice. As you go through the steps in the guide you’ll come across choices
regarding your professional life. Should you take that job? Should you wait for something else? Should
you leave your job and start your own business? Should you start the business on the side?
Throughout your life you’ll constantly have questions. Here are some of the reasons why a mentor will
be one of your biggest assets for professional and even for personal success.

Reason Reason Reason Reason Reason

One Two Three Four Five
•Someone That •Someone That •Someone That •Someone To •Someone To
Will Listen Will Share Will Keep You Push You To Do Provide
Stories Focused A Little More & A Perspective, But
Little More Not An Answer

Reason One - Someone That Will Listen

Life can be a lonely place especially when it comes to your professional life. If you have a great spouse
or partner then you have someone that will listen, but a mentor can be a great complement to your
professional career.
Good mentors are great listeners. They’ve often been great listeners for their entire lives. They’ve
understood that listening is more important than talking. They’ve heard many people tell different stories
and share different experiences.
During your life you’ll simply need someone to listen to your struggles, your triumphs and everything in
between. A mentor can be the person you go to when you need someone to simply listen.

Reason Two - Someone That Will Share Stories

There is a difference between someone that will tell you what you should do and someone that will share
stories with you from their life.
Have you ever had a conversation with someone where they’ve simply told interesting stories and you’ve
walked away feeling like you’ve learned so much? Their story doesn’t even have to relate exactly to you
and your life, but good storytellers are able to make you feel like you can pull nuggets of wisdom and
take lessons and apply them to your life.

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Reason Three - Someone That Will Keep You Focused

One of the challenges in life, especially for people that are drive, is keeping focused on specific goals.
If you’re a dreamer or if you always have ideas floating around in your head you’re going to struggle to
stay focused on the important things.
A mentor can help you keep the focus. They can guide you in developing your goals for your professional
career. They’ll help you hone the plan for executing your professional path to achieve those goals.
Throughout your life it will be normal to have new ideas on how you should change what you’re doing.
As you know, the most successful people are not the ones that make changes all the time. Successful
people stick to their plans and steadily make progress.
A mentor can keep you focused on your goals. They’ll help you bring your focus back to your plan while
maybe making subtle changes, but without lurching around from one strategy to another. It’s hard for
people to do this alone. Some can do it, but many need an outside perspective to remind them to bring
things back into focus.

Reason Four - Someone To Push You To Do A Little More & A Little More
Some people are driven to succeed like nothing else. It doesn’t matter what is going on in their life, they
always seem to keep pushing to succeed. But even the most driven people need reminders to keep
pushing especially after experiencing some success.
It’s good to enjoy success and it’s okay to reflect on failure, but you can get caught up in those emotions
for long. Successful people know they have to keep pushing to get one step further in their careers.
Mentors help push successful people to the next step. When the person achieves something the mentor
will be there, giving them another challenge. When the person struggles with something the mentor will
be there, reminding them that the next achievement is not far off.

Reason Five - Someone To Provide Perspective, But Not An Answer

You don’t want people that will give you answers and tell you what to do. To become successful you’ll
have to become adept at making decisions on your own.
However, mentors provide perspective when it comes to decisions. They can share their experiences.
They give understanding of the situation and from that perspective you can figure out the best course
to take for your situation.
Mentors are experts in many things, but ultimately they are educators. They give perspective and
guidance and help the people they work with to get to the next step and to keep pushing to reach goals
through success and failure.
According to one study:
80% of CEOs polled have stated they have had mentors
By now you know that a mentor is recommended and really a necessity to having success in your
professional career. In this section of the chapter we’re going to take you through the process of finding
a mentor that can work with you through your professional life as you build your brand and achieve the
goals you set for yourself.

Source One Source Two Source Three Source Four Source Five

Colleagues, Industry
Local Organizations Social Media
Family And Bosses And Professional And Trade Connections
Friends Extended Organizations Associations
Network

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Source One - Family And Friends

Tiger Woods learned about life and golf from his father. His father wasn’t a professional golfer, but he
served as his son’s mentor well into Tiger’s adult life. Tiger looked to his father for guidance as he
reached each of the milestones in his career all the way from his early years to the later years when he
was winning major golf tournaments.
A mentor can come from within your own family or from a close group of friends. Parents can serve as
great mentors. They generally have your best interests in mind, but they also usually aren’t your friends.
They’ll challenge you. They aren’t afraid to share their honest feelings and most importantly they’ll often
listen to you when you need someone to talk to.
If your mentor is going to come from within your family or close group of friends you probably already
know who that person is. It will be someone you can trust to listen, to share their experiences with you
and someone that will challenge you and push you to be your best.

Source Two - Colleagues, Bosses And Extended Network

If you have a job you might have a boss that could serve as a great mentor. Bosses are people in our
lives that have generally had more experience than ourselves. They are in the same industry so they
can provide really detailed and relevant stories and experiences.
You could also contact a boss you’ve had in the past that you respected and looked up to. It doesn’t
need to be your current boss and it might work better if you’re not as directly involved with the person
anymore in your job.
Colleagues can also make great mentors. These would be people that you work with, have worked with
or people you know in your industry. It might be someone that has followed the same career path that
you would like to pursue.
Also, look into your extended network. Ask friends, family and colleagues if they know anyone that they
would recommend as a potential mentor. Getting a recommendation can be your key to finding someone
that has experience being a mentor and that would be interested in helping someone out again.

Source Three - Local Professional Organizations

Your local chamber of commerce or business organization can be a place to find a potential mentor.
These organisations are full of other professionals that want to be involved in the community. They can
help you with what you want to do in your professional life and in the community.
It can be an advantage to find someone that lives in the same area and someone that has been involved
in the community and the local professional world. People in local organizations also have connections
and those connections could turn into opportunities for you if you find a great mentor and earn their trust
and show them your skills.

Source Four - Industry Organizations And Trade Associations

Industry organizations and trade associations often have mentor programs and can listen to what you
need in a mentor and provide a suggestion for someone that would make a good mentor.
In previous chapters we’ve discussed the opportunities that industry organizations present. As a
member, you can build your credibility and now you also have the opportunity to meet a mentor that
could help you throughout your career.

Source Five - Social Media Connections

Finally, your social media connections could be mentors as well. Perhaps the best social network to find
a mentor is LinkedIn. You could go through your connections or look through the groups you’re involved
in to find someone that has shown a willingness to engage and someone that would be a good fit for
your professional efforts.
The world is a much smaller place now so look through your social networks to see if there is someone
that could provide mentorship. With technology like video chat, email and more, you can now have
successful mentorships remotely even with someone across the world.

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How To Approach Mentors And Earn Their Respect

Now that you know why a mentor is important and the potential sources to find a mentor we can get into
approaching a mentor.
Identifying a potential mentor or mentors is a big step and once you find someone that you want to reach
out to it’s important to reach out in the correct way. You want the person to be interested in working with
you to develop your career. It can be a difficult spot because you’re asking someone to help you and to
use their time for something that might not give them much in return.
So you have to frame it in a way that is interesting and even fulfilling to them. Here are the steps you
can take to do just that when reaching out and approaching your target mentor.

Step One •Do Your Research

Step Two •Explain The Reason You’re Getting In Touch

Step Three •Share Your Intentions And Desire For Help

Step Four •Discuss Your Goals And What You Want To Work On

Step Five •Setup An Ongoing Mentorship Schedule And Process

Step One - Do Your Research

Before approaching your potential mentor you have to put in your research. You have to know what the
person has done in their life, what they are doing now and even a little about their family and other
personal details. You might find that the person likes a particular sport or that they have a particular
hobby. These can all be items and points of discussion when you start your efforts to reach out.
Above all else, you need to show interest in the person. If you put forth the effort to get to know them
even before reaching out you’re showing them that you are willing to work for what you want in life. That
effort can lead to a mentor seeing potential or seeing right through unfound enthusiasm.

Step Two - Explain The Reason You’re Getting In Touch

After doing your research you’ll be just about ready to reach out and get in touch. The most important
element of your first correspondence is having a reason for getting in contact. People don’t like to be
bothered, but research shows that if you provide a reason for doing something you’re more likely to get
a favorable response.
There are a number of acceptable reasons you can use when reaching out to a potential mentor. Getting
a referral from someone you know is a good reason. You can reach out to the mentor and let them know
that a mutual friend or acquaintance referred you to them.
Even something as simple as saying that you saw the person at a local event and didn’t have time to
introduce yourself can be an acceptable reason. Or maybe you’re reaching out because you follow the
person on social media and find yourself agreeing with them on a number of items.
Whatever the reason is make sure you at least have one and use it when reaching out. You’ll be much
more likely to hear back form the mentor than if you reach out and get right into asking them to be your
mentor.

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Step Three - Share Your Intentions And Desire For Help

Once you’ve made contact with the mentor and they’ve acknowledged you, you’ll want to share your
intentions. There is something to be said for getting to know them whether it’s via email, phone
conversation or face-to-face meeting, but you want to let them know early on that you’re looking for
someone that can provide guidance or just a listening ear as you look to grow into your professional life.
We recommend starting the conversation by stating your reason for reaching out. Ask the person a few
questions about themselves. Lead into their professional life and look for a way to move the conversation
into your desires for them to be your mentor.
For example, ask the person about something they’re working on now. Once you’ve given them time to
tell their story or to explain the situation, mention your interest in the topic and move into your desires
as a professional. This is the perfect way to find common ground and show that a potential relationship
can make sense.

Step Four - Discuss Your Goals And What You Want To Work On
As you move through the discussion about a potential mentorship and you’re getting the person to
somewhat agree to help you out you’ll want to begin discussing your goals. Discuss the plan you’ve laid
out for yourself up to this point and where you’d like to be toward the end of your professional life.
From there you can discuss what you’re doing right now to work toward your goals. This will give your
mentor an idea of what you want to do and it will show them that you’re already working toward your
goal. Through this discussion you’ll need to mention that with the help of this person you’ll be able to
besuccessful.

Step Five - Setup An Ongoing Mentorship Schedule And Process

Now that the mentor has agreed to help, you’ll have to add formality to your arrangement. You’ll want
to setup regular meetings. Regular check-ins — monthly is good — provide structure to the relationship.
You can check-in with the person and discuss your goals, both long and short-term.
The schedule and structure gives the mentor a clear way to work with you and it will also give you the
push you need each month to keep working toward your goal. Without formal structure, relationships
like this tend to get lost in the shuffle. You might talk from time to time, but you’ll lose focus of your goals,
especially the short-term goals.

What Makes A Mentor Want To Work With You

Finally, it’s good to know why someone would want to work with you and help you achieve your
professional goals. There are a few reasons why someone would have a vested interest in helping you
out. For one, if the person is a family member, especially a parent, they’ll have a natural desire to see
you succeed. Your success will, in a way, be their success.
That’s the key to finding a mentor and getting them to buy-in to helping you. You have to find a way to
give them satisfaction in seeing you find success. Your boss or colleague would likely want to see you
succeed because your success within the same organization would likely correspond with the
company’s success, which would benefit them.
Someone outside your family or organization might want to work with you because you show passion
for fresh ideas and technology. Sometimes, veterans in industries look to form friendships with younger
people so they can learn from them along with providing guidance and mentorship.
In the early discussions you have with your potential mentor you can ask them what they are hoping to
get out of the relationship. It’s not all about you and if you can figure out why the person is interested in
spending time with you; you can form a better structure for your ongoing relationship. This understanding
can make the relationship more successful and fulfilling for both parties.

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Chapter Five: How To Monitor Your Brand

Once you’ve established what you want your personal brand to be and you’re working to grow it you’ll
need to monitor the growth and the perception. It’s important to see how your target audience associates
you with your industry and how they feel about you in general.
In this chapter, we’ll share monitoring tools with you and we’ll show you how to use those tools so you
know what your audience thinks about you.
By this point in the guide you have all the knowledge to start building your brand in all areas. One of
those areas will be online where you’ll have your website, blog and social profiles. These assets will
help you control your personal brand online, but you’ll still need to monitor your brand.
In this chapter we’ll go through the reasons why it’s important to monitor your brand along with how you
can monitor your brand and take action if and when various situations arise. There are tools you can
use, both free and premium, that can help you monitor your brand effectively and we’ll share the best
ones and how you can use them.
Why You Need Control Over Your Name
Your personal brand revolves around your name. You need control over your name if you want to gain
recognition in your industry. Having that recognition can make it easier for people to find you when they
search for your information online.
Throughout your career you’ll come across opportunities including people that might hire you for a new
position. These people now use the Internet to find information about you. You want the content they
find to represent you well and to be relevant to the person you want to be as a professional.
Having embarrassing results, results with other people or even no results can reflect poorly on your
character making it more difficult for someone to hire you or to offer you opportunities. Your online
reputation might not be the difference between getting an opportunity, but there is no reason to not have
control over your name online today.
People use the internet to research others. Don’t give them any reason to not make you an offer for an
opportunity. You want them to find the content that you control.

Step One Step Two Step Three

•Controlling Your •Separating Your •Keeping Your

Brand In Search Name From Website And
Others That Social Profiles
Share Your Updated
Name

Step One - Controlling Your Brand In Search

When you search for Aaron Agius on Google (in most countries) you’ll see that nearly all results that
appear on the first page are desirable. Efforts mentioned throughout this guide are all reasons for these
results, but you’ll notice that Google has introduced Authorship and Rich Snippets. These enhance
results especially for personally branded search terms like names.
The image next to the Louder Online result adds trust to the result. The image also makes the result
stand out more, even more than the results above it on the page. This is incredibly powerful.
You can use Authorship and Rich Snippets to your advantage when taking control of your personal
brand in the search results.
Manage how your name appears in search rankings including on search engines like Google and Bing
and also on search engines for popular websites like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

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These actions will all contribute to filling up the search results for your name.
Other ways to control your search results is to guest post on popular websites. We mentioned guest
posting earlier in this guide. If you can get published on popular websites, you can use the authority of
those websites to build your profile. Those sites are highly regarded in search engines and those articles
will likely appear high in the results for searches relating to your name. A well-written article on an
authoritative website can be a great result to have when potential employers, partners, clients, investors,
etc. are searching for information about you.

Step Two - Separating Your Name From Others That Share Your Name
Controlling your name becomes more difficult when you have a common name or have a name that
matches or could be confused for another popular brand name. If this is the case for you then you’ll
need to work your brand name a little different.
For example, if you are building your career as an entrepreneur, you’ll want your name and likeness to
be associated with your name and your industry. Now, if you have a name that is the same as someone,
especially someone that is well known, you’ll struggle to be known only for your name. This is where
you can be “John Smith The Entrepreneur” instead of “John Smith The Movie Star” or whatever the
famous person is known for.
You could also make use of a middle name to separate yourself with the same name. You could also
forego your last name and go by your first and middle name only. You could also use your middle and
first initials and your last name to separate yourself.
It’s a challenge to find a name that will work, but we’ll talk in the next chapter about the importance of
differentiating yourself from others in the world and especially in your industry. You want to be known
and you want people to think of you when they see and hear your name.

Step Three - Keeping Your Website And Social Profiles Updated

If you search for the names of people you admire, people with strong personal brands, you’ll notice that
their personal websites and blogs appear high in the results, but you’ll also notice their social profiles.
The reason social profiles rank highly is that they are popular websites. The engines recognize the
relevance of social media profiles now and return those profiles in name searches because they provide
good information for the searchers.
However, one flaw in the search results is that it will often be the person’s most updated social profile
that ranks highly when searching for their name. Often you’ll see that the Twitter profile will rank high
for someone that uses Twitter.
One key to controlling your search results is to maintain your website with fresh content. A blog is a
good way to do this. You can also control the social profile that ranks highly for your name by keeping
your preferred social profile updated and fresh.

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How To Remove Less-Than-Ideal Search Listings

One of the biggest frustrations with online brand management is finding and removing less-than-ideal
search listings. Nobody is perfect and in today’s world it’s very possible that an unflattering photo, video
or article might find it’s way to the top of the search results.
If you search for your name and find results that could potentially damage your brand you’ll want to get
it removed. Here are the steps you can take to remove those listings as a way to control your online
brand and make sure people are seeing what you want them to see.

Step One
Reach Out To The Content Owner

Step Two
Delete Social Profiles Yourself Or Contact Social Networks

Step Three
Report Negative Mentions If They Break Site Conduct

Step Four
Work To Build Positive Results To Bury Negative Results

Step One - Reach Out To The Content Owner

Let’s say your friend posted a photo of you from college or from a night of celebration. It’s not your best
photo and you want to remove it. Or let’s say you wrote a political blog post on someone else’s blog
many years ago that was really a rant and doesn’t make you look good today.
The first step to remove these negative results is to reach out to the owners of the websites or profiles
and ask them if they would remove the content. Explain the reason why you would like the content to
be removed. Most people will understand.
You can reach out via email if you have the person’s email address. You could use contact forms to
reach out to websites. You can also use social media to reach out to people, but use direct messages
to keep the conversations somewhat private.
When reaching out, never be abrasive in your approach. You don’t want to give the person a reason to
keep the content on their site. Some will be difficult, but always be cordial and appreciative. If they don’t
agree to take the content down you can resort to other methods mentioned below.
Avoid being confrontational at all costs. It can lead to more negative results and negative reaction that
can reflect worse on your character than the original content.

Step Two - Delete Social Profiles Yourself Or Contact Social Networks

Obviously if there is a social profile (maybe a MySpace profile) that you want to take down you can
delete it yourself. It might be an old social network or maybe a forum account where you used to post
things that seemed fun five or ten years ago, but now they just seem immature and inappropriate. If you
can still gain access, do so and delete the entire profile and all associated content.
If you can’t gain access you can usually contact the website or social network, explain the situation and
they will delete the content. Again, keep it cordial and nonabrasive and you’ll have the best chance to
have the content removed.

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Step Three - Report Negative Mentions If They Break Site Conduct

One item that is in your favor with negative content is that you can usually get websites to remove it if
the content breaks the site’s code of conduct. If someone posts something about you that isn’t true or
that breaks the rules of the website, there is usually a course of action to report the content.
If that is not available you can usually submit a contact form request or send an email to the site’s
administrators. Show them the offending content, mention the appropriate rule in their code and ask for
the content to be removed.
Often on social networks you’ll get negative mentions or mentions that are offensive. These can reflect
poorly on your brand. Usually you can let them go because people can see through the person that
wrote it, but if it gets out of hand the social network will likely respond if you report the content.

Step Four - Work To Build Positive Results To Bury Negative Results

Finally, if the above courses of action don’t work you can still take control of your results in search and
on social media by creating content that is more relevant and more likely to rank and be seen. You can
bury negative results with positive results.
Launch your personal website. Keep it updated with fresh content on a blog. Start your social media
profiles and keep them updated with fresh content. These pages will start to rank and push negative
results down especially if you can build authority to the pages by getting links and social shares.
Also look at setting up a guest blog on popular sites. We mentioned this earlier in the chapter and it’s a
good strategy. The more authority the website has the more likely it will be ranked high for search results
related to your name.

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Tools That Help You Monitor Your Brand

Big brands need to know what’s going on with their brand online. It’s a challenge to manually search for
and find every mention related to a big brand online. That’s why tools exist to help these brands monitor
their brand names, products and services.
But these monitoring tools aren’t made only for the big brands. Individuals can use these tools to monitor
mentions of names and other items including businesses that you’d want to work for or with. You might
want to monitor mentions of specific job titles that might be mentioned across social media to keep track
of openings. These tools do all the work to find the information for you and allow you to find what you
need quickly so you can take action.

Tool One Tool Two Tool Three Tool Four

•Google Alerts •Radian6 •Mention •Talkwalker

Tool Five Tool Six Tool Seven

•HootSuite •Moz Fresh Alerts •Twitter Search

Tool One - Google Alerts

Google Alerts is a free service provided by Google. Obviously, Google is one of the best when it comes
to crawling the Internet for information. For them, Google Alerts is a nice service to provide users and it
does a pretty good job of finding names, phrases and keywords published anywhere that the Googlebot
can access.
You need a Google account and a Gmail address to take advantage of Google Alerts.
The first alert to setup is the one for your name; the one you’ve chosen to make for yourself as we
discussed in a previous chapter. Enter your name inside quotes. This ensures that you’ll only get alerts
for your exact name and not instances where your first name appears in one location on a page and
your last somewhere else on the same page.
The default settings for receiving alerts are good. You’ll get updates once a day from everywhere and
anywhere your name is mentioned online. If you’d like you can set up the alerts to go to your inbox as
they happen, which is fine if you don’t get too many results.
You can then setup and change Google Alerts to create a list of words and phrases you want to monitor.
It can be variations of your name, business names, job titles, etc.
There are limitations with Google Alerts. You only get alerts for information that Googlebot can access.
Information behind passwords, like on social networks, is not detectable so you won’t know when you’re
mentioned on those types of sites in some case.

Tool Two - Radian6

Radian6 was a standalone monitoring software that was acquired by Salesforce in 2011. The service
allows you to track mentions of your name and other keywords throughout the website on millions of
different sites including sites like Facebook and Twitter. It also tracks things like blog comments, forum
posts and more.

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With Salesforce, you can use Radian6 to track mentions of brand names and work that into a sales
campaign, but it has value for those with personal brand goals too.
You can input the same information that you would in Google Alerts including your name, business
name, etc. Then you can track for mentions of those keywords and phrases. You’ll have access to the
information on a dashboard.
When you see an opportunity you can leave to reply to a specific comment on a blog or in a forum
thread. You can reply to a new job posting and do all the other things we’ve been discussing in this
guide.

Tool Three - Mention

Mention is another social monitoring tool. It’s a standalone tool that works like Google Alerts, but aims
to go further than a free service. Although, with Mention you can get your first alert for free so you can
track mentions of your name throughout the web including some social media sites for no cost.
The service even offers analytics and reporting on the number of mentions your alerts get. This is great
because it allows you to set goals for the number of times you want your name mentioned each month
or each quarter and you track your progress.
One of the goals for personal brand management is increasing awareness for your name. Awareness
can increase as you publish more blog posts, guest posts and contribute comments and posts to blogs
and forums. With Mention, you can track the interaction with all those items including the number of
shares your content receives especially when you guest post.

Tool Four - Talkwalker

Talkwalker is another monitoring tool. You can enter your name like the other tools, but you can also
enter relevant topics. So you could enter the industry that you work in now or want to work in, in the
future.
With Talkwalker, you can get really fresh updates about your industry so you can act on the latest events
and trends. When something popular comes along in the feed you can quickly act to provide
commentary on it with your social media updates or with a blog post. You could also use the tool to track
popular trends and quickly offer to write guest posts for popular websites since they’ll be looking for hot
topic items for their sites.

Tool Five - HootSuite

HootSuite is an entire social media management tool. You can track different mentions of your name on
social media, but you can also manage each of your social profiles through the tool by sending updates,
responses and more.
With HootSuite, you can really combine all your social efforts into one platform. This is the perfect tool
for finding the people you want to interact with on social media and really form relationships with them.
Interact with your target audience on social media. Track those that respond and continue interacting
with them to build a relationship.
Write top lists on your blog. For example, write a post titled, “Top CMOs In Online Retail”. Share the
post on social media and mention those you’ve included in the post when you share it on social media.
Then, after those people re-share the post and interact, continue responding to their updates and
providing comments. Don’t be annoying, but keep in touch and track the relationship using HootSuite.

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Tool Six - Moz Fresh Alerts

Moz Fresh Alerts is part of the Moz software package and specifically part of Fresh Web Explorer. Fresh
Alerts are meant to provide better results than you would get with Google Alerts.
Moz provides great recommendations for their tool in posts. They recommend using the tool as a way
to build links. For example, when someone mentions your name on a blog post, forum, etc., you can
see it with Fresh Alerts and contact them asking if they would link to your personal website. This builds
not only a link to your site for traffic, but it increases the overall number of links to your site, which
remains an important SEO factor.
Moz suggests that you can also track competitors and you can track the success of your content while
discovering publishing opportunities and guest post opportunities.

Tool Seven - Twitter Search

Finally, don’t overlook Twitter Search. When you’re logged in to your Twitter account you can use the
search function to track any name, keyword or phrase mentioned within the social network.
Obviously you can track your mentions on your Notifications feed, but to track simple mentions of your
name you need to use Twitter Search while searching for “your name”. Keeping it in quotes brings back
exact results for your query. You can also search for your website and blog URLs. This way you can
see any time someone shares one of your pages or posts on Twitter without mentioning your Twitter
handle.

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How Not To Handle Negativity

When you build your personal brand online you’re going to come across negative people with negative
responses to your posts. Using social networks like Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook give you a platform,
but it also gives other people a platform to express their feelings toward you. It can happen on your own
website and your blog as well.
In order to build your personal brand, you have to put yourself out there by giving your thoughts and
publishing content. People are going to like what you have to say. They will find value in what you share,
but some will have negative things to say and it’s difficult to handle it.
The worst thing you can do with a negative person online is to try and “correct” their feelings about you
and your content. They have generally made up their mind about you and what you’re doing so there is
very little chance of convincing them otherwise. Instead, when you respond to their feedback you’re
igniting their fire and showing that you’ll engage with them. This opens the door for them to continue to
have fun at your account. They are trying to get a rise out of your emotions and when you respond,
especially when you respond with high emotion, you’re giving them exactly what they want.
In other instances, you might find yourself receiving constructive criticism. There is a difference between
people that throw baseless insults your way and people that provide things that are constructive. This
type of feedback is good online, but when taken in the wrong context, people have fought back against
criticism and this can lead to huge blowups and very public and very embarrassing situations.
There is one example with a couple that owned a restaurant. They appeared on a popular television
show where they heard constructive criticism. The couple took it as negativity and fought back. They
fought back on the show and people started commenting on the couple’s Facebook page. The couple
became outraged and fought back with a barrage of comments. This made the people following the
couple online even more engaged and the online fight became worldwide news.
This is an obvious example of a way not to handle negativity. Never fight back against constructive
criticism. You can choose on your own whether you use the feedback or not, but you never want to fight
back against it especially in a public forum like Facebook or another social media site. You don’t even
want to fight back against it in the comments on your own blog. Again, you’re never going to “win” these
fights or convince the other person that they’re wrong and that you’re right.

How To Handle Negativity

Perhaps the best way to handle negativity is to ignore it. Negativity usually comes from the very vocal
minority of the audience that follows you. There are simply some people in the world that get pleasure
from making others feel bad. The important thing to remember is that these people are not the ones in
your target audience. You’re not creating content for them. You’re not trying to get something from them
or to form relationships with them.Ignore the negativity and focus on the people that really matter. When
you can let go of the negative people you can focus on what matters including constructive feedback,
which will come from the people that care about you.
There are other ways to handle negativity. Singer James Blunt had a high profile reaction to negative
people that interacted with him on Twitter. The singer took the sarcastic approach to the negative people
sending him replies on the social network. People loved it, but it was a risky move. James Blunt was
able to have fun without really attacking the people he was responding to. Outside viewers could see
what he was doing and it came across well. It showed his personality a little bit and maybe showed that
he didn’t take himself too seriously.
Again, it’s risky to take this approach. The quiet approach usually works best when it comes to negativity
on social media. There is just so much risk to respond to it, but if you’re genuine and honest while
showing restraint you’ll usually have luck if you engage with negative interaction online.

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Chapter Six: Be Yourself Because Everyone Else Is Taken

We’re going to close the guide with an important chapter on being unique. You want to take influence
from others including your mentors, but it’s important that you be yourself. That’s how you’ll separate
yourself from the competition.
In this chapter we’ll give you steps for further identifying why you’re different and how to embrace
differences to attract people to you in a positive way.
Think of the great people you admire – business leaders, parents, family, friends and all the people in
your life that have done something worthy of praise. In all likelihood, each of these people has pursued
their own path. They’ve taken lessons from those that came before, but they’ve innovated on those
lessons to create things that are better.
The entire guide you’ve been reading is about building your personal brand. It’s not about copying
someone else’s brand. There is a lot of self-discovery in this guide. You’re instructed to go through
exercises that allow you to figure out what you’re passionate about and what would make you happy in
life if you sit back 50 years from now to reflect.
In this final chapter we’re going to give you a few more directives on how to be unique. It’s the most
important point from this entire guide. The world needs more people that are independent. It needs
people willing to try new things and to find new ways of making life more successful and more enjoyable
for more people.
So follow these final steps and start your journey to discovering who you are and what your vision is for
your future.

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Why It’s Necessary To Stand Out From The Crowd

Some of us have been conditioned throughout our lives to stay quiet and to keep in the background. It’s
safe in the background. When you’re in the background there isn’t much that can harm you, but if you’ve
spent any amount of time in the background you’ve noticed that you can’t really accomplish much either.
People are attracted to uniqueness. Individuals, companies and organizations that embrace uniqueness
can make themselves more appealing by standing out from the crowd.
For example, you go to a greenhouse to pick out flowers for your kitchen table that you want to give as
a gift to someone you care about; you walk in the greenhouse and all they have are red roses. As far
as you can tell there is no difference between any of the flowers so you go with the bunch that’s closest
to you and you walk out the door.
If you make a habit of being a red rose amongst other red roses you’ll be giving yourself more
competition than necessary. Red roses are great flowers. Any bunch would be a good choice at least
on the surface, but the person picking the flowers can’t tell the difference.
Now, you go into a different greenhouse and see a bunch of red roses once again. But this time you
notice a beautiful bunch of yellow roses. You immediately walk over and have a smell. You admire their
beauty and you’re compelled to choose them.
Being different gives you an advantage over the competition. In the rose example there is nothing really
different between a red rose and a yellow rose. They’re both roses, but one simple difference like color
can be enough to entice someone to notice you.
If you want to succeed with the steps in each of the chapters in this guide you need to figure out what
makes you “yellow”. Being different gives you an advantage. There are billions of people in this world
competing for the same jobs, the same clients and the same promotions.
Your key to winning in your life is to figure out what makes you different, learning to embrace that
uniqueness and using it to get people to pay attention and to choose you over everyone else.
Here are three short steps to figure out what makes you unique:

•List Your Quirks, Passions And History

Step One

•Prioritize Your Unique List

Step Two

•Blend Your Unique Traits Into Your Personal Brand Goals

Step Three

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Step One - List Your Quirks, Passions And History

Most people have unique quirks, passions and even a history that makes them different. Create a list of
all the things that might make you unique. It might be a crooked smile or a certain wave in your hair.
You might have an incredible talent for whistling or you might be an ace at bowling. Your history might
include working on your grandparents’ farm every summer or participating in scores of swimming events
through school and even into your current years.
This is a brainstorming exercise so go through and list everything about yourself that is quirky and
different. Also list your passions, the things you care about more than anything in the world.

Step Two - Prioritize Your Unique List

Next, go through the list you’ve created and prioritize it. List the things you care about the most or the
things that you think separate you from others. We all have unique things about us that might not be so
unique when we think about it.
Remember, you’re trying to separate yourself from the packs of other people vying for the same things
in life. If you have something incredibly different then you’ll want to use that to your advantage.

Step Three - Blend Your Unique Traits Into Your Personal Brand Goals
Once you have your priority list you can start working your most unique traits into your personal brand
goals. Basically, you’re adding your uniqueness into your vision for the future.
For example, if you’re a private pilot that likes to fly airplanes in your free time it’s probably something
you’re going to do throughout your life. You’re committed to it because you get great enjoyment from it.
You could work this into your personal brand goals in many different ways. You could start a column on
your blog where you share stories about your flying experiences. You could start a business that has
something to do with aviation. You could even make your love of aviation something that people see
when they meet you. You could wear a small airplane pin on your shirt everywhere you go.
These things are all conversation starters. They come together to build your story and stories are
memorable. When you go to that interview or sales meeting you’re competing with many others, but the
person you meet with might remember, “The candidate with the great flying stories.”
That can mean the difference between getting a new job or being stuck in your old one. It could mean
the difference between huge sales growth or stagnant sales.

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How To Develop Your Personal Story That Separates You From

Others
This is another business saying and when it comes to finding success in life you’re always selling. You’re
selling yourself to an employer. You’re selling goods to consumers. If you can hone your personal story
you’ll have a much easier and more successful time succeeding in all facets of life.
You’ve already started creating your story with the previous step. Now it comes down to honing a story
that shares details about who you are. That let’s people in so they can get to know you and when people
know you they trust you and buy into what you’re selling.

Step One
Step Two
Why Are You Here?
Step Three
What Is Your
Vision? Practice Telling
Your Story And
Writing Your Story

Step One - Why Are You Here?

One of the most successful people when it comes to personal brands is golfer, Arnold Palmer. He’s
recognized throughout the world for his image. A major part of his brand is his ability to golf obviously,
but since he first started building his brand he’s used the story of his family and where he came from.
Palmer was the son of a farmer and golf course groundskeeper. He comes from meager means early
on and some people might shy away from sharing that aspect of one’s life with others, but Palmer
embraced it and people were drawn to him and his story.
Write down where you’ve come from. Be proud of the things you’ve experienced and especially of the
things you’ve overcome. People latch on to these stories and they feel like they really know you after
you share information about your background and history.

Step Two - What Is Your Vision?

Next, people want to know where you’re going. We’re a curious species in that we always want to know
what’s coming next. We’re always looking forward and you can feed into that curiosity by telling people
your vision for the future including your own future.
A common question in job interviews is, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”
You should be able to answer that question and surprisingly, few people can. We think ahead, but we
don’t really hone our vision. You can gain an edge by using your vision to your advantage.

Step Three - Practice Telling Your Story And Writing Your Story
You’ve worked on your vision throughout this guide. Now your task is being able to tell your vision to
others. Try it out with your friends and family. Tell them your plans for life. Gauge their reaction. If they’re
asking questions it’s a good thing. If you see a sparkle of interest in their eye it means you’re doing a
good job.
Your story is going to set you apart from the competition. Start practicing your story now and it will serve
you well throughout your career.

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How To Create A Personal Elevator Pitch That Wins Over People You
Meet

An elevator pitch is when you make your pitch to someone within the time it takes to ride the elevator.
They’re next to you riding in the car and you only have about 30 seconds to make your case. When it
comes to your personal brand, it’s essential to be able to tell your story and express your value in the
time it takes to ride an elevator.
Throughout your professional life you’re going to be presented with opportunities to meet people. You
might even meet them riding in an elevator in an office. These are opportunities to introduce yourself
and get them interested in what you do. They might hire you. They might partner with you. They might
be intrigued to the point of telling a colleague about you.
Here is how you can turn your story and value statement into an elevator pitch.

Step One Step Two Step Three

•State What You Do For •Provide Proof Of Your •End With A Call To
People Value Action

Step One - State What You Do For People

The person you meet will often ask for your name and ask what you do.
State what you do in terms of how it is a benefit for your target audience. You want the person you’re
giving your pitch to, to see the value in what you can offer them.
A plumber would have a few potential statements for this opening: I fix plumbing issues and help
people get out of messy situations.
Or: I help people pick new plumbing fixtures and professionally install everything.

Step Two - Provide Proof Of Your Value

Proof can really set your elevator pitch apart. Have one or two examples of work you’ve done that have
been really successful and keep those ready in your mind for your elevator pitch opportunities.
You could share a recent project you worked on and how it increased profit for your employer or how
recent work you’ve done made your clients look great in front of their family and friends.
For the plumber, he or she could say:
A recent client of ours recently had their kitchen featured in the local newspaper “Best Of” section for a
remodeling article.

Step Three End With A Call To Action

Finally, end each conversation with a call to action. You can simply hand the person your business card
and ask them to contact you if they ever need work or if they know anyone that might need work.
Sometimes the difference between getting people to take action and never hearing from them again is
simply giving them an action to take.

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How To Build Presentations For Telling Your Story

Your local university and professional groups are usually looking for speakers. They want professionals
to come in and talk to students and other professionals in the community about experiences in the work
force. Students are looking for examples of how they can take on the professional world and there are
usually frustrated professionals seeking ways to improve their lot in life.
You can use these speaking engagements as opportunities to grow your brand in front of your target
audience. The speakers at these events not only get exposure to students and other professionals, but
also to professors and business owners.
At these events, you will usually be asked to bring a slide deck presentation that you can use to aid your
discussion. Setting up this presentation in the right way can make you stand out from other speakers
and presenters and make you appealing to your target audience.

Step One Step Two Step Four

StepThree Step Five
•Address •Share •Provide
•Share Action •End With A
The Your Story
Your Story Steps For Call To
Common Of
Of The Action
Issue The Struggle
Success Audience
Audience
Shares

Step One - Address The Common Issue The Audience Shares

Start your presentation by addressing the common issue each person in the audience is having. If you
were speaking to students you would start by talking about the struggle to get a first job out of college.
If you were speaking to a group of frustrated professionals you would touch on that frustration by stating
how many people are frustrated with their job, but don’t know where to start to get something better.
By addressing the common issue, you speak right to each person in the audience and grab their
attention. They see the potential benefit for them and will pay attention.

Step Two - Share Your Story Of Struggle

Next, move into your story of struggle. You have to prove your credibility and earn interest. Your story
accomplishes both of these. You’ve already been working on your story throughout this chapter. For
each presentation, tweak your story so the details focus on the topic of discussion.
Your story might not mirror those in the audience exactly, but stories give people a way to understand
a topic and they can work their own experiences and situations into the story and see what the solutions
might be by listening to you.

Step Three - Share Your Story Of Success

Start by sharing your story of success – I was a graduate struggling to find the right job just a few years
ago… and then move into your story of success. Talk about the steps you took to take control or your
life to achieve your goals.

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Step Four - Provide Action Steps For The Audience

Next, give the audience action steps. You can talk about these throughout your story and presentation
and then when you’re done with the presentation, list the action steps the audience needs to take to
follow a path similar to yours. People like actionable presentations and giving these steps will make you
different from other speakers. You want to be memorable and different.

Step Five - End With A Call To Action

Finally, end with a call to action. Always leave something in it for you at the end. Share your contact
information and ask people to contact you if they have questions. Audience members might contact you
with a few follow up questions or someone in the audience might ask you about a job opening they have.

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How To Get Speaking Opportunities

Speaking has been important for people growing personal brands including Chris Ducker. We asked,
Chris the following question:
If you were building an online presence from scratch today, what 3 things would you consider
provide the biggest ROI on your time and money?

His answer included a point about speaking opportunities:

“I’d start looking at events and meetups where I could speak. Speaking allows you to connect with
people in a much more different way than that of blogging and podcasting, for example. Provide tons of
value in person and then getting to speak with your audience immediately after you come off stage is
not only very gratifying, it’s a huge step forward in creating those P2P (People to People) Relationships
that mean more than anything else in brand building, I believe. Plus, speaking in front of a crowd instantly
puts you in the light of a leader, which is why people are there to see you present in the first place.”
James Schramko also had worthwhile information about finding speaking opportunities. We asked him:
Which one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your
personal brand?
His response:
Travelling to bigger markets (USA from Australia) to expand my network. This led to introductions and
speaking from stage at large events.
The best places to seek speaking opportunities, as mentioned above, are local universities and
professional groups. Your city likely has a chamber of commerce. Contact them and ask if they have
any programs where local professionals can come in and share their story.
Do the same with universities. Contact the university and ask if there are any classes or any groups on
campus that would enjoy hearing from a professional in your industry.
These speaking opportunities work to build your collection of credentials and they also put you in front
of your target audience. You could even get recognition from the local press, expanding your reach even
more.
Employers, clients, etc. are always looking for social proof and getting speaking opportunities at official
organizations like universities and professional organizations are proof that you’re an expert in your
industry.
Lewis Howes also believes in the power of speaking. We asked him:
Which one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your
personal brand?
His response was:
Connecting with influencers at the key events they are speaking at and attending.
Be Yourself Because Everyone Else Is Taken
Being different could also include doing things others aren’t doing. For example, we asked Gagan Biyani
the following question:
Which one action, decision, or choice has had the single biggest impact in the growth of your
personal brand?
His response was:
Starting the Growth Hackers Conference was the single most valuable action that helped build my
personal brand. Starting a conference allowed me to network with and speak alongside a number of
incredibly talented growth marketers. You can only do that if you’re a credible speaker already, so really
the trick to building a personal brand is to have a track record first. After that, starting events and
conferences is a great next step.

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Throughout this guide we provide you with the tools necessary to build YOUR personal brand.
You may take inspiration from others, but always keep thinking about building your brand. Opportunities
will come to you if you stand out from the crowd. Nobody is going to hire you for a job, choose your
company as a vendor or invest in your business unless they understand why you’re different.
Use the items in this chapter and earlier in the guide to help you build your personal brand. Then
embrace the things that make you unique. Embracing your uniqueness and being passionate about it
makes you appealing to people. It makes you appear more valuable than others that don’t embrace
their own unique qualities.
Be yourself and be confident when interacting with people. That alone can lead to amazing opportunities
both in your professional and personal lives.

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Five Tips to Write a Strong Personal Branding Statement

As far as personal branding goes, there is one relatively easy, concrete, and crucial thing that can
consolidate your image, make a lasting impression on others, and even help steer your career direction
– a personal branding statement.

Nowadays potential clients, hires, and collaborators will Google you and research you online, before
even thinking of reaching out for an inquiry or interview. (Think about it – don’t we all?) They will have
an image of who you are and what you do, before ever surfacing on your radar. This could work for or
against you. How do you position yourself positively?

The first and best action plan would be to create and publicize a personal website yourself, giving you
control over what others find and learn about you when they look you up online. Another action might
be to tidy up your image across social media; yet another would be to maintain accounts on platforms
relevant to your work, like LinkedIn or Youtube. But all these these can be strengthened and
spearheaded by a personal branding statement.

What is a Personal Branding Statement?

The personal branding statement is a synopsis, ranging from one to several sentences long, that defines
and communicates your personal brand. It is your own vision of who you are, what you do, and what
value you bring to others. It is a useful device that describes your most important endeavors, abilities,
and accomplishments; at the same time, it can reflect your personality, beliefs, and even your world
view. Once formulated it can be cited and summoned anywhere, anytime, whether on your personal
website, on social platforms, or in real conversations and communities.

Ready to give it a go?

Here are our 5 tips on how to write a strong personal branding statement.

1) Make it conversational.
Write your personal branding statement in a conversational tone, as if to a friend across the coffee table.
The point is to make a connection, to generate some level of chemistry with the other person. So you
want to convey your statement in a manner that is open and personable, rather than formalized behind
a stone wall of professional propriety.
• Avoid 3rd person – by definition it just doesn’t sound like it’s coming from you, which is contrary
to the point of personal branding. Either go with 1st person to be friendly and inviting, or omit
pronouns to set a sleek and deliberate tone. (“The name’s Bond. James Bond.”)
• Generally avoid big words and highly technical descriptive phrases. You need to craft your
personal branding statement with real people in mind, on the receiving end. Being simple and
human is likely to impress and resonate with people more than trying to project overly intense
authority. “I save infant kangaroos” will work better than “I resuscitate fledgling marsupials”.
Keep it friendly – save the advanced detail and jargon for those who know enough, and are
interested enough, to read more deeply into you.
• Practice saying it aloud to someone as you write your statement, since you will actually be doing
that from time to time. If it sounds natural and substantive, then it is!

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2) Stay sensible. Stay classy.

It’s easy to sort of let go in your language and imagination when writing a personal statement, especially
for the young and casual. But the way you talk with your closest friends, or the role you see yourself
playing in a movie someday in some multiverse, should not necessarily be incorporated into your
personal branding statement. Those yearnings must be checked. While it is by all means good to write
a personal branding statement that pleases and motivates yourself, you don’t want to cross the line and
come off as flippant, thereby hurting your chances in front of potential leads.
• No slang, emoji, or creative spelling and punctuation. Unless you are absolutely sure that is
what appeals to your entire target audience.
• Never, ever include highly sensitive or polarizing quips. Puns and references may be okay for
certain professionals, but be cautious.
• Don’t call yourself a guru, hero, ninja, or visionary unless you actually are one. If you have any
inklings of doubt in calling yourself a “consulting samurai”, then I’m afraid you probably are not
one yet. Please stick with “consultant” for now.

3) Write your statement in bit-sized, movable parts.

Think Ironman’s armor – you want to assemble your personal branding statement in detachable,
standalone parts, so that you can select and adapt various bits depending on the platform and purpose.
One size does not fit all – you may need your statement lightened for social media, shortened for an
email signature tagline, lengthened for your career bio, or specially focused for particular conversations.
Always going with your full-on personal branding statement, regardless of the situation, will likely cause
awkward interactions and missed opportunities at points.

Your personal branding statement doesn’t need to be perfect. You will naturally find yourself
tinkering with your statement over time to reflect changes and advancements in your life and career,
especially if those trajectories are still shifting. For the purposes of continuity and fluidity, it’s definitely
preferable to tweak and improve bits of your personal branding statement, than have to periodically
throw out and reinvent the whole thing.

4) Reflect your core values, beliefs, causes.

Impress with a voice that says: “It’s not just about me, but something much bigger”. Values, beliefs, and
causes connect people on a deep level. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in a technical, artistic, business,
or rice field – a mere few words revealing true personal culture, can connect even strangers more quickly
and powerfully than polished descriptions of abilities and accomplishments. Take some time to realize
what matters most to you, and convey that.

5) Show your unique value.

Above all, differentiate yourself. Weave a story that defines you uniquely; write a personal branding
statement that could describe no one else but you. Because if not, and your statement is just a lifeless
job description of your functional areas, then ultimately you are replaceable, unremarkable in the eyes
of others. That would defeat the whole purpose of personal branding.

Showing your uniqueness and individuality is the best way to breathe life into your personal
branding statement. Everyone has a unique set of values, passions, and attributes that drives them in
work and in life. Know what it is that makes you the individual you are, and no one can ever dismiss
that. That is what will make others want to know you, connect with you, and work with you.

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Core values – examples…

Abundance Acceptance Accessibility
Accomplishment Accuracy Achievement
Acknowledgment Activeness Adaptability
Adoration Adroitness Adventure
Affection Affluence Aggressiveness
Agility Alertness Altruism
Ambition Amusement Anticipation
Appreciation Approachability Articulateness
Assertiveness Assurance Attentiveness
Attractiveness Audacity Availability
Awareness Awe

Balance
Beauty Being the best Belonging
Benevolence Bliss Boldness
Bravery Brilliance Buoyancy

Calmness Camaraderie Candor

Capability Care Carefulness
Celebrity Certainty Challenge
Charity Charm Chastity
Cheerfulness Clarity Cleanliness
Clear-mindedness Cleverness Closeness
Comfort Commitment Compassion
Completion Composure Concentration
Confidence Conformity Congruency
Connection Consciousness Consistency
Contentment Continuity Contribution
Control Conviction Conviviality
Coolness Cooperation Cordiality
Correctness Courage Courtesy
Craftiness Creativity Credibility
Cunning Curiosity

Daring Decisiveness Decorum

Deference Delight Dependability
Depth Desire Determination
Devotion Devoutness Dexterity
Dignity Diligence Direction
Directness Discipline Discovery
Discretion Diversity Dominance
Dreaming Drive Duty
Dynamism

Eagerness Economy Ecstasy

Education Effectiveness Efficiency
Elation Elegance Empathy
Encouragement Endurance Energy
Enjoyment Entertainment Enthusiasm
Excellence Excitement Exhilaration
Expectancy Expediency Experience
Expertise Exploration Expressiveness
Extravagance Extroversion Exuberance

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Fairness Faith Fame

Family Fascination Fashion
Fearlessness Ferocity Fidelity
Fierceness Financial Independence Firmness
Fitness Flexibility Flow
Fluency Focus Fortitude
Frankness Freedom Friendliness
Frugality Fun

Gallantry Generosity Gentility

Giving Grace Gratitude
Gregariousness Growth Guidance

Happiness Harmony Health

Heart Helpfulness Heroism
Holiness Honesty Honor
Hopefulness Hospitality Humility
Humor Hygiene

Imagination ImpactImpartiality Independence

Industry Ingenuity Inquisitiveness
Insightfulness Inspiration Integrity
Intelligence Intensity Intimacy
Intrepidness Introversion Intuition
Intuitiveness Inventiveness Investing

Joy Judiciousness Justice

Keenness Kindness Knowledge

Leadership Learning Liberation

Liberty Liveliness Logic
Longevity Love Loyalty

Majesty Making a difference Mastery

Maturity Meekness Mellowness
Meticulousness Mindfulness Modesty
Motivation Mysteriousness

Neatness Nerve

Obedience Open-mindedness Openness

Optimism Order Organization
Originality Outlandishness Outrageousness

Passion Peace Perceptiveness

Perfection Perkiness Perseverance
Persistence Persuasiveness Philanthropy
Piety Playfulness Pleasantness
Pleasure Poise Polish
Popularity Potency Power
Practicality Pragmatism Precision
Preparedness Presence Privacy
Proactivity Professionalism Prosperity
Prudence Punctuality Purity

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Realism Reason Reasonableness

Recognition Recreation Refinement
Reflection Relaxation Reliability
Religiousness Resilience Resolution
Resolve Resourcefulness Respect
Rest Restraint Reverence
Richness Rigor

Sacredness Sacrifice Sagacity

Saintliness Sanguinity Satisfaction
Security Self-control Selflessness
Self-reliance Sensitivity Sensuality
Serenity Service Sexuality
Sharing Shrewdness Significance
Silence Silliness Simplicity
Sincerity Skilfulness Solidarity
Solitude Soundness Speed
Spirit Spirituality Spontaneity
Spunk Stability Stealth
Stillness Strength Structure
Success Support Supremacy
Surprise Sympathy Synergy

Teamwork Temperance Thankfulness

Thoroughness Thoughtfulness Thrift
Tidiness Timeliness Traditionalism
Tranquility Transcendence Trust
Trustworthiness Truth

Understanding Unflappability Uniqueness

Unity Usefulness Utility

Valor Variety Victory

Vigor Virtue Vision
Vitality Vivacity

Warmth Watchfulness Wealth

Wilfulness Willingness Winning
Wisdom Wittiness Wonder

Youthfulness

Zeal

There you have it!

If your personal core values list is still too long and bulky, chip away at it some more until you only
have about 10 values on your list. Make that part of who you are and know that this is your code (or
map) to your best life.

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