A strong personal brand can be the difference between whether or not you secure a new job and knowing yourself and what you're looking for when you're dating is always going to be helpful. Building a personal brand is a thoughtful and strategic practice, here are five steps to building personal brand through shaping a value proposition that sits well with you and you feel great sharing.

1. Define your personal vision and mission

Think about the difference you want to make to the people that are important to you, inside and outside of your work. Develop an articulation of your core values by understanding the principles that you need to live by to feel content.

Question prompts:
- If I had no responsibilities, what would my perfect day look like?
- When do I feel at my happiest and most alive?
- Which qualities do I like the best about myself?

2. Audit your personal brand

Write down your professional milestones and achievements. Then how you enjoy spending your time and who you enjoy spending it with. This includes examples inside and outside of work such as being part of an industry group and volunteering at your local community kitchen. Then gather feedback and thoughts from others, those who know you well and less-well to get a broad understanding of how you’re perceived.

Start writing inputs into your value proposition down on paper, and then group ideas together into phrases. Be as descriptive as possible with your language. You might be a ‘diligent financial accountant with a flare for improvisational theatre who tells stories with numbers’. By avoiding generic phrases like smart and being specific you start painting of you as someone who loves ‘modelling so much that you build excel models to help you win at football manager’ or maybe you’re ‘exceptionally well-read with a passion for adaptations of Shakespeare’.

Question prompts:
- If you had to describe in 3 words, which would you use (and why)?
- What’s your favourite memory of time that we’ve spent together

3. Start building your narrative

Take some time to sit with and reflect on all of the things that you’ve thought about, heard from other people and written down. This is where you craft and refine the illustrative stories that communicate your brand - who you are, what you stand for and what makes you special.

Then think about your narrative through the lens of Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework. By placing your target audience as the hero of your stories, and you as someone who can help your target audience by solving their problems, you start building out a compelling value proposition.

Donald Miller’s StoryBrand framework‍

- A character (your audience is the hero)
- Has a problem
- They meet a guide (you). With 1) empathy and 2) authority
- Who gives them a plan
- And calls them to action
- That helps avoid failure
- And ends in success

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4. Be intentional and share your story

Each interaction you have with someone is an opportunity to reflect your personal brand. From the things you share about yourself to the way that you respond to other people. For example, actively listening to your colleague sharing a story about their weekend and asking them questions builds a perception of you as someone who genuinely cares about your team. Supporting your friend’s business venture by buying from them or sharing their content promotes the perception of you as someone that cheers for others.

Be intentional and create a marketing plan for your personal brand - how are you going to get your message in front of the people who can help you achieve your goals? Identify the owned, earned, and paid media channels you’re going to use and the best messages for each one.

For example, if you run a nutrition business, speaking on a BBC feature about the importance of Vitamin D for bone density and the best foods to incorporate into your diet to increase your Vitamin D levels, alongside supplementation, helps you to build your personal profile and positions you as a nutrition expert in front of millions of people.

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5. Check in with yourself and keep investing in your personal brand

Personal branding is an ongoing process.  While the foundations and principles stay the same, as you continue to change and grow you’ll need to dial up certain elements and adapt your messaging. For example, being deliberate about how you incorporate big life events, like becoming a parent, into your personal branding can be empowering as it helps bring you clarity on your how all of the pieces of you who are fit together and how you want to communicate that.

It’s also an opportunity to make sure that you’re still comfortable with your brand, how you’re being perceived, and make adjustments as necessary.

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