Why Everyone Should Create a Personal Brand

When you hear the word brand, what comes to mind — perhaps it’s the iconic Nike swoosh or a big, yellow M? But on a deeper level, a brand is so much more than a logo. It embodies the relationship between company and consumer, and conveys the promise a business makes when you purchase their product or service.

The Evolution of the Personal Brand

Recently, there’s been a surge in popularity of a different type of brand — the “personal brand.” It’s what YouTube influencers with millions of followers have. It’s the story they tell through their actions and how they present themselves to the world. And it impacts your expectations when you consume their content.

But establishing a personal brand can have tremendous value beyond the realm of digital celebrity. Anyone can have one — even you. In fact, you probably should, even if you’ve never posted a single selfie to Instagram.

Branding for Everyone

A personal brand is the accountant with a knack for making numbers tell a story, or the teacher whose passion and creativity in the classroom ignites minds. Your personal brand can capture the authenticity, reliability and unique flair you bring to all your everyday actions and interactions — personal and professional.

A personal brand doesn’t have to be about achieving global recognition. And if you start putting your own logo on all your belongings, you’ll probably get some strange looks from your friends. But it can help you do better and be better at almost everything — even if you’re the only one who ever knows about it.

To borrow from marketing lingo, you can start creating a personal

simply by asking, “What’s my unique value proposition?” or the core values and promises you make to others — and to yourself Is it integrity and fair dealing? Never-quit persistence?

Make yourself a personal slogan like, “finding the fun in the everyday.” Why not even create a logo and pick a color that represents what you stand for? Put it where (only) you will regularly see it to remind yourself of the promises you want to keep.

Expectations of Excellence

Expectations are powerful. They can affect perceptions, performance and even our biology.

In one study, 84 hotel room attendants were measured on health variables impacted by physical activity. Some were told that cleaning hotel rooms is good exercise and satisfies lifestyle recommendations of the surgeon general. Others were not given this information.

Four weeks later, the group that was told their work activity was healthy perceived themselves to be getting more exercise than before, despite the fact that their actual activity level remained unchanged. But more surprisingly, they showed a decrease in weight, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio, BMI and blood pressure relative to the group that was told nothing.

A brand is an efficient mechanism to shortcut your expectations for the best version of yourself. Start branding yourself as an innovator, a creative writer or an exercise enthusiast — and see what happens.

Source

https://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/3196007/langer_excersiseplaceboeffect.pdf?sequence=1