Do you want to succeed in life? Personal Branding is your key to success.
Personal
branding is a very important ingredient to success in your life. Are
you employed by someone else or you are self-employed? Do you know
yourself and how others perceive you at your place of work or in your
business? Do you feel happy with the feedback you get from others? I
would like you to focus on how you can brand yourself to be successful
in your endeavors.
What's personal branding?
Before I can go
any further, let's get to understand what a brand is. I know there are
other definitions of the word "Brand". But in view of the ideas I am
giving you to lead a successful life, allow me to say that a brand is a
collection of all the perceptions in the mind of your customers.
Your
customers are your employers, who pay you a monthly salary in exchange
for your services. Your customers are again the people who buy from you
in your business. Your customers are also all people who relate with you
in the day-to-day running of your business or at your workplace.
Now
the question is, "How do they perceive you?" Do they perceive you as a
corrupt person, a slow performer, one who is not resourceful,
self-driven or a non-achiever? Whichever the case, you should know that
for you to succeed in anything you do, you need to be perceived
positively. Personal branding is therefore the act of building positive
perceptions in the mind of your consumers.
How can you brand yourself to improve your service delivery?
Anything
you do to build positive perceptions in the mind of your customers is
what I am referring to as personal branding. There are quite many things
that one can do but I let me give you only 10 basic points that you
need to consider.
1. Keep time
A good number of people in
this century cannot keep time. But let me ask you, "How do you feel if
someone you made an appointment with at 10.00am turns up at 2.00pm?"
Obviously, so many things can happen to the two parties. I do not need
the answers now but one thing I guess right is that the consequences are
not good.
If you are just wasting time and your valuable
resources doing nothing, you will regret and have nothing to be proud of
in your old age. There is no time for Africans and for Whites. We all
have the same time. 99% of the time is within your control. Lost time is
lost opportunity, lost wealth. People who do not keep time are a very
weak brand. Cut them out of your way. They are disrespectful and can
only fail you, fail your company or your business and make you lose
great opportunities.
2. Be passionate
I have come across so
many people, who do things for the sake of earning a living. They
complain almost about everything: fellow workers, the salary, the
workload,.. I just pity them. Never do something you are not passionate
about. Passion is the fuel, catalyst, motivator and a key to success. If
you are passionate about your job, your business, your family, your
everything, the chances of succeeding are high.
People who are
passionate about their work, they do not get tired and they are most of
the time self-driven. They can initiate and pursue things to the end.
They are enthusiastic and even in business, they always attract many
customers. Do you see how good it is to love what you are doing?
3. Learn to deliver something extraordinary
Let
me begin by asking you. What's so special with you that will draw
people to you? You are in business or employed by someone, what's so
special in the way you do your work that will make your customers or
employers consider you as a valuable person?
Do something
extraordinary to improve your brand as the best marketer, doctor,
teacher, businessman, nurse, driver, administrator, etc...If you are
just an ordinary person in everything you do, I assure you that you will
live to regret and to be frustrated. If it's promotion, you will never
get it and so many other opportunities.
To deliver something
extraordinary, you have to be reliable to your customers, to pursue what
you do to the end, to renew what you do and to renew yourself. Do you
see how it works?
4. Read to get knowledge, new information and new skills How often do you read?
Do
you get time to read or you are like those, who say they are too busy
to read? Well you can be busy but you need to know that effectiveness is
what matters in life.
Read to acquire knowledge and skills and
apply them to improve your livelihood and to improve your service
delivery. Improved service delivery is key to good branding. Over the
years, there are quite a number of things I have learnt without getting
any certificate but they have turned out to be my bread winners.
5. Understand globalisation and technology
This
again is a very important issue. I know a good number of learned
fellows, who lag far behind in this aspect. I would like to tell you
that life of a cubical slave is gone. In this era of information, one
has to be up-to-date. But how will you if you cannot use the internet?
How will you when you just use the computer like a mere typewriter? How
will you when you fear technology?
My simple advice is that learn to look at new technology and re-engineer yourself before it's too late.
6. Market yourself as the best
Whatever
you do, do it to the best of your knowledge and ability. If you are an
accountant, be the best accountant. The same with teachers,
administrators, doctors, politicians, etc...
Position yourself as
the best to improve your brand. Do not wait for your bosses, for your
customers to take action. Remember that powerlessness is a state of
mind. Do not mind about other people misinterpreting your motive when
you are on the right track. Know how to market yourself, you will
succeed in your endeavors.
7. Be credible
To brand yourself
as a good businessman, a good worker, you MUST pass the test of
credibility. If you cannot pass the credibility test, then you can never
succeed in whatever you do. Trust protects you.
There are many
people out there who think of earning a living out of fraudulent means.
At times they are deceived by unearned monetary gains when they
accumulate a lot of money. But it's a matter of time. If you think you
will harvest where you have not sawn, then you are yet to be born. Learn
the law of harvest! Be honest!
8. Be an independent contractor
As
you work wherever you are, whether employed by someone else or
self-employed, get to understand the principle of independent
contractor. You need future references for being an independent
contractor.
It does not matter whether you are a boss or a junior
staff, whether you are employed or self-employed. Stop thinking like an
employee but see yourself as an agent. What you do at job X will become a
reference point to job Y. A mason is likely to get more masonry work if
his previous customers recommend him as the best mason.
Let me
put it like this, you are not working for business X but you are working
with that business as an independent contractor. If you choose to do
something, then do it right because it will be your future reference.
Good references can lead you to success in your business, in your work,
in your career.
9. Have a high level of moral authority
Personal
branding demands a high level of moral authority. Moral authority
belongs to those people who offer themselves for the wellbeing of
others. If you think you will only be to yourself, then you are
mistaken.
10. Be organised
The future is for those who are
organised. More people are getting educated but very few people are
organised. Take it from me that acquiring good organisational skills is a
key to good service delivery and to success in your business.
Learn
to organise your files, your documents, your furniture, your office
wall hangings, your curtains, your notice boards, etc... Learn to be
organised at your work and at home. Learn to be organised with your
finances and your expenditure. Good organisational skills will help you
to save time and money, to reduce work related stress, to be effective,
to look respectable, to minimise your costs and maximize your profits.
Do you see the benefits?
