3 Reasons Personal Branding Matters

I was looking at my 'To Do' list and it got me thinking about personal branding:

I promise you that you will never find a more useful explanation of personal branding and why it matters.

3 Reasons Personal Branding Matters:

1. People have 'to do' lists coming out their yin yang. At work. At home. Endless lists of things to get done.

2. They hire products, services and people to help them get them done.

Examples:
I hire eggs and toast to fill my belly in the morning.
I hire my car to take me to work.
I hire my computer to write this blog post.
I hire my financial advisor to help me make the most of the money I make.

The list goes on. And that's my point. So many jobs and never enough time. That is your opportunity.

3. People will hire you to help them get a job done that they can't do (or don't have time or interest to do themselves). The more critical the job the more people will pay to get it done well. The amount that people will pay to have their floors cleaned is far less that what they will pay to have their arteries cleaned of plaque!

This matters for everyone in business

If you are an employee your boss hires you to help them do a job. If you are a business owner or service professional like I am clients hire you to help them get things done too. 

The nugget I want you to remember most

Being known as a trusted resource that helps a certain group of people get a critical job done better than anyone else is the ultimate commercial bottom line reason to invest time, money and energy in personal branding. This applies to employees and entrepreneurs.

But I like this reason too
 
Beyond the commercial value, why I love personal branding so much is that it is a deliberate process that forces you to get clear about and make promises about what jobs you can get done well (ideally better than anyone else).

Making a public promise (either on your Linked In page, resume or a blog or website) should ideally drive you to keep those promises. It will stretch you and challenge you to be a better person and professional. It will result in building a strong reputation (aka personal brand) and future demand for what you have to offer. That is unless you don't live up to your promises. You know where that ends up.

Let me be clear. The intent with personal branding is to be proactive and deliberate about the reputation (aka brand) you are building in the minds of people that matter to you.

So here is how you can start right now:

1. Write down all of the jobs that you love to get done for people. What do you love to help people achieve? What problems do you love to solve for others? What hassles or headaches do you love to remove?

2. Now go through the list and identify the jobs that are most important that you believe are being done poorly by other options out there. Do some research and see who else is trying to do the same job that you want to do and look for opportunities to offer something unique.

3. Go talk to the people you want to help and find out if your assumptions are correct,or not. If so, just simply ask them if they want some help with getting the job done and you are off to the races.Your natural passion and interest to help someone get something done that they are tired of not crossing off their list at the end of each day is money in the bank for you and great value for them.

Personal branding matters and it's your job to define your brand, express your brand and live up to your brand. Go do it. 

Full disclaimer: The concept of 'jobs to get done' comes from a talk I heard a few years back by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen. The concept aligns with another model of branding which suggests that our personal brand is a combination of 'identity' and 'utility'. The 'job' concept aligns with the utility piece of the puzzle. I will share more about the identity piece next time.