Is it time to revamp Your Personal Brand?
Personal Branding Coaching by Designer Maxwell Alexander
Of course, you know how you view yourself: Loyal, trustworthy, dependable, honest. But that might not be how others see you. Like it or not, how you are perceived by the public is the reality of who you are. It is that public persona that comprises your brand. How important that image is to you can help you decide if you want to craft it yourself or if you want to put it in the hands of a public relations expert.
So why should it be important to you? Because it is your personal brand and the image you portray that outlines the level of your success in business and personal relationships. Strategically developed personal branding can bring more clients your way, attract more and much better opportunities and most importantly give you the confidence, skills, and assets to go out there and conquer! Whether you are an employee working towards your next big promotion or a business owner bringing your business to the next level, or an aspiring social media influencer - everyone can benefit from clarifying your personal brand message, strategically positioning yourself with your goals and expertise in mind and boosting your visibility in order to gain a competitive advantage.
Those considered to be your peers play an important role in determining your brand. If you are a part of an industry that is popularly distrusted, such as lawyers, hedge fund managers, real estate agents or used car salesmen, your image is tarnished before you can even craft it. If you are a member of a group that is widely respected, like the military or a charity, then you've got a head start in the public relations game. Look around you to see how your associates are judged to see if you want to actively work to create a specific positive perception, or try to distance yourself from a negative image.
Your proximity to the public should also factor into how you want to be viewed. If you want to be out front and in close contact with your following, then you'll definitely want to communicate a brand that keeps them near. If you prefer to be a behind-the-scenes operator, public perception is not as important. The amount of time, effort, and resources you invest in branding will definitely affect how closely you can work with the public.
Lastly, how valuable you are to stakeholders is vital to the image you choose to convey. The people who depend on you have to believe in you. Projecting the qualities from above of loyalty, trustworthiness, dependability, and honesty are vital to retaining those who invest in you. Without them, you really don't need a brand. Your brand is non-existent and virtually, so are you.
With these considerations in mind, you're ready to create a brand that will define you in the eyes of the public. You know who the best you really are. Make sure the world sees you through a lens of your own making.
If the thought of branding your own self is still overwhelming and you don't know where to start, it might be a good time for some training! Personal Branding Training to be exact, yes it is a skill that everyone can learn and master in just a few coaching sessions. Maxwell Alexander has branded hundreds of big and small (corporate and personal) brands all around the world, starting from fitness and technology startups to Fortune 500 companies and the world's largest NGOs. With more than a decade of corporate and personal branding experience, Maxwell is ready to take your personal brand to the whole new level. Reach out today for your free 15-minute consultation.
7-Week Personal Branding Bootcamp with Designer Maxwell Alexander // Get Your Own World-Class Personal Brand for just $7,000
7-Week Personal Branding Bootcamp Outline:
WEEK 1: Intro to Personal Branding, Brand Strategy, Target Audience, Messaging and Goals
We will start with a quick introduction to what branding is about: Essentially a process of communicating the essence of a product to a target audience participating in a market economy. Guess what? You will learn how to think about yourself as a product and this will help us to develop a brand strategy that will package, send and deliver your personal brand essence to your target audience. We will support your strategy with S.M.A.R.T. goals aligned with your journey to happiness, fulfillment, and success.
Target Audience is a crucial aspect of branding. Ultimately, your strategy must connect your product with the target audience while speaking their "language" literally and culturally. As a human being, you might not be a part fo the target audience you are trying to reach, but your personal brand should relate to the group. During Week 1 we'll talk a lot about Millennial generation, just because it is the generation that is currently driving the consumer economy and if you are in the business of making money (or being productive), your target audience will be, for the most part, comprised of Millennials who see the world through a completely different lens than any of the previous generations.
WEEK 2: "Seeing is believing" - Developing a Visual Identity and Visual Style Guide
Together, we will translate your personal branding strategy into a visual style guide. Even though your brand is "personal" it still has to have all of the assets in order to operate according to its purpose. A brand is a tool and comprised of a multitude of components most of which are visual. It might not be as obvious as printing a logo on your forehead, but rather creating a look book of how your new reality will look like when the branding process is complete. We move towards what we see, so this visual style guide will become your beacon and help you to stay on course.
During this week you will learn how to become your own world-class creative director without having $200K in student loans. You will also find out how to avoid the most common mistake aspiring startups make: doing everything on their own. "One man in the field isn't a warrior" - Russian proverb said. Together, we'll assemble your personal production team and establish a workflow that will let you tap into the unlimited potential of crowdsourcing. Consistency is the key in branding and you will need your personal branding team to help you stay on track.
WEEK 3: Your Personal Style, Dress Code, Taste
What to wear? Where to shop? How to align my dress code with my personal branding strategy? Why should I care and what is the goal here? - As humans, we judge a book by its cover, and in personal branding, your clothing style is the cover you will be judged by. During Week 3 you'll learn about the "silhouette" - the most obvious yet invisible secret of the fashion industry and how to align your looks with your branding strategy and goals. We will even pick your personal brand fragrance to use the power of scent to seal the memory about you in one's head and discuss what "strategic makeup" means for you.
WEEK 4: Personal Branding Photography and Videography
Photography is one of the most powerful ways to make your brand come alive and during Week 4 you will learn simple tips and tricks on how to make your photography follow your brand strategy and look consistently professional. How to take a professional headshot that doesn't look like a high school graduation photo? How to take a selfie that is "on brand"? Or how to stage a quick smartphone photo shoot that will support your brand goals? And what about lighting and the best file size for my pictures? You'll get an answer to these questions and much more! And if you are in the tri-state area, you get a complimentary lifestyle photoshoot with me, world-class brand photographer Maxwell Alexander. Applying the creative direction skills from Week 2 will make everything easy and fun. Next week we'll get into how to use the valuable skills during the photo ops.
WEEK 5: Co-branding, affiliations, networking and photo ops
During this week you'll learn the power of branding by association. The concept originates in classical product branding, however, it is even more relevant in personal branding. We all heard the saying: "Tell me who your friends are, and I will tell you who you are". People (or rather other personal brands) you surround yourself with impact how your own brand is perceived by your target audience and on top of that in the age of social media and search algorithms, this becomes a crucial technical aspect that impacts your brand's SEO rankings. We will dig deeper into "who to be friends with" from the branding perspective, but you might find it inspiring on the personal level as well. Plus you will learn a few easy and enjoyable practical ways to leverage the power of branding by association using your photography skills from Week 4.
WEEK 6: Content is the King! How to deliver your brand message through content
Now that you are all skilled, equipped and ready, with the help of your personal branding team (see Week 2) we will get to the actual process of strategically generating and distributing high-quality content that will serve as a conduit between you and your target audience.
We will develop online platforms for your personal brand to shine, including your own website and a blog that will serve as a hub of all of your content marketing efforts. We will develop your social media branding assets and discuss best practices on how to exponentially increase the effectiveness of your content by riding the wave of cultural and technological trends.
Search Engines Optimization (S.E.O) is the key part of this process and you will learn how to keep your content and the connection between your brand and the target audience alive for the long-term. Dominating search results have become the number priority in establishing the visibility and credibility of a brand, and during Week 6 we will get it done.
WEEK 7: Here is the fun part! PR at its best
During the past 6 weeks, we have established an amazing personal brand and developed a great foundation for the launch. With all of the confidence and tools in place, you will learn basic PR concepts and techniques to get featured in the news outlets, blogs, print, and online publications. We'll even craft and publish a story about you in Hudson Valley's premiere style and design publication and push it through a few other established PR channels - everything to jumpstart your presence on the global arena. Congratulations, you are now officially famous! Well, at least your personal brand image 🙂
At the end of Week 7, we will go over a few tips on how to keep the gears spinning without much of the involvement from your side. After all, you've got a business to run! In the meantime, branding is not meant to be permanent and has to evolve as the world around us is always on the move, so we'll keep in touch and I'll be happy to help you with any changes or accommodate feedback from the market.