You already have a personal brand, whether you realize it or not.

Why should you care about this? I can think of a few reasons:

• Influence: Cultivating influence is key if you want to make an impact and have your voice heard. Building and sustaining influence requires a strong and compelling brand that others trust and respect. 
• Control: Rather than letting life happen to you, being intentional with your personal brand gives you more control over your career direction.
• Competitive Advantage: A strong and compelling brand gives you a competitive advantage to pursue interesting assignments, attain career advancements, and navigate career transitions into different roles or industries.

If you’re still not convinced, let me share my journey.  

My first career was in forestry, and I struggled to find my first professional job due to a flooded job market. I took a part-time entry-level position with a park system to get my foot in the door and prove myself in hopes of advancing my career.  

Using my personal brand power, I was promoted to a full-time position within three months and promoted to manager within one year. Remarkably, these positions hadn’t existed before; they were tailored to me because of my brand.

When I decided to pivot into an entirely different career field, I once again leveraged my brand to secure a new job without needing additional schooling or certifications. In the process, I doubled my salary.

My entire career history looks like this. As I continued to move around, jobs were created for me based on my brand.  

With my brand, 

• I can influence others to hire me and buy into my ideas,  
• I am in control of my career direction;
• and I have a competitive advantage over others, even those with more advanced degrees, certifications, and years of experience.

Has your curiosity been piqued? Then, stay tuned for next week when we’ll start diving into how to create your personal brand.

Wishing you the best!

P.S. This is part 2 of a 5-part series on personal branding. Use these links to catch up on anything you missed!

• Personal Branding Part 1: Everything Sends a Message
• Personal Branding Part 2: Why Your Brand is Important (this post)
• Personal Branding Part 3: Identifying Your Goals and Audience
• Personal Branding Part 4: Creating Your Brand Statement
• Personal Branding Part 5: Promoting Your Brand