I found some interesting articles surfing on the internet, I have mixed it for making this little syntaxis, I hope this helps you.

Sure, everyone knows what a brand is. Coke, Pepsi, McDonald’s. But that buzzword is getting thrown around a whole lot in career and job search conversations these days, too. And you might be thinking to yourself, “why do I really have to care about this?”

Here’s why: Whether you’re on the job hunt, a student, or gainfully employed, you must think, act, and plan like a business leader. With the surge of social media, you have not only the ability, but you now have the need to manage your own reputation, both online and in real life.

Your personal brand is all about who you are and what you want to be known for. And while that’s a pretty broad concept, I’m going to break down the process for building your brand into a few easy steps, which we’ll cover over the next few weeks.

Create your own brand, then sell it.

 

We as a society put things in a certain taxonomy. You’re labeled in hundreds of ways by thousands of people. These labeling frameworks help us, as consumers, navigate the world. Without labels, we’d be unable to tell a can of peaches from a can of beans.

Refuse to be labeled, and create a brand that’s authentic.

But when you refuse to be labeled, you’ll start playing by your own rules. You’ll measure yourself by your own standards, not the gatekeepers’ standards. You can define the terms of your brand, your creations, and your success. You can be an artist without being a starving artist. You can sell without selling out. But first, you need to create an authentic personal brand that transcends the gatekeepers (the critics, the haters) who want to put a label on you, and which gets right to the goalkeepers. The goalkeepers are the only judges who matter.

 

Creativity is not divine and branding isn’t dirty work. Forget the haters. They’ll say the mere association with a brand or a dollar sign strips you of credibility. And that branding sucks the life out of culture.

 

Creation doesn’t have to be the work of the divine. And branding doesn’t have to be the dirty work of the Madison Avenue ad man. In this fragmented media culture hyper-enabled by efficiencies of social media and self-publishing, you are a brand. So go ahead and be commercially responsible in your business, and let yourself feel creatively fulfilled by expressing your ideas.

 

The anatomy of a brand, in turn, is defined by its authenticity. And just like a doctor can’t describe the wonders of the human body in a pithy one-line description, a brand’s authenticity can’t be clearly defined in 140 characters.

 

Fight their labels. Ignore their labels. Peel off their labels. Refuse to be labeled by the gatekeepers. Create your own label. Find your swoosh, your Apple, your Rhino. (I’m not talking about making another cool “logo.”)

 

 

Your first task: Developing your “brand mantra.” Basically, this is the “heart and soul” of your brand, according to branding expert Kevin Keller. It’s the foundation of all of your branding efforts.

It’s not a mission statement rather, it’s a quick, simple, and memorable statement describing who you are and what you have to offer.

 

Here are four simple steps to creating your mantra:

1. Determine Your Emotional Appeal

For starters, think broadly about your personality and how it affects the experience someone will have with you. Are you insanely organized? Do people love working with you for your killer sense of humor?

Make a list of words that best describe these features of your personality. These words are known as emotional modifiers. Hint: They can be as simple as Disney’s “fun.”

Questions To Consider:

How do I make people feel?

How do people benefit by working with me?

What words do others use to describe me?

 

2. Determine Your Description

Your next step is coming up with a descriptive modifier that brings clarity to the emotional modifier, identifying what or who your brand is for. In Disney’s case, it’s “family.” In Nike’s mantra, “authentic athletic performance,” “authentic” is the emotional appeal, while “athletic” tells you what the brand is for. As an individual, yours might be an industry (“healthcare” or “education”), or it might be a tangible skill (“creative” or “strategic”).

Questions To Consider:

What field or industry am I in (or do I want to be in)?

What are the words I would use to describe my work?

Who is my target audience?

 

3. Determine Your Function

Lastly, write down what, exactly, you do (or will do). It might be something that directly relates to your career: writing, graphic design, or financial planning, for example. Or, it might be something more broad, like Disney’s “entertainment.” Are you a manager, a creator, an organizer? A connector of people?

Questions To Consider:

What service do I have to offer people?

What do I do that makes me stand out from everyone else?

 

4. Put It All Together

Finally, look at your three lists of words, and see how you can combine them into a short sentence or phrase—no more than five words. Your brand mantra should communicate clearly who you are, it should be simple and memorable, and it should feel inspiring to you. You might be a “dependable, strategic planner” or “a creative professional connector.” Or, your mantra might be something like, “motivating others to do their best.”

Now—what do you do with this statement? Check back soon for tips on how to use your mantra and build your online brand, as well as how to live your brand, every day.

“The First Step To Building Your Personal Brand” was originally posted on The Muse. For more on the best ways to market yourself, check out:

 

I am a brand. You are a brand. And your brand is…?