It’s no secret that having a strong brand is essential for professional growth and success. Whether you’re just starting your career or are an established professional, there are always benefits to building and improving your personal brand.
Just like Oprah Winfrey’s show, which returned every fall with new themes and set designs, you too can strive to make your professional brand bigger, better, and stronger each year. But why is building a personal brand so important? Let’s take a deeper look.
Famous Brands
What immediately comes to mind when you hear the following names?
- McDonald’s
- Nike
- Michael Jordan
- Beyoncé
- Kim Kardashian
- Taylor Swift
- Serena Williams
The minute you read each name, a vision entered your mind. Each of the above brands has been meticulously created. Someone took the time to design, strategize, and communicate the idea they wanted to convey to make a lasting impression. The same goes for your brand. When you intentionally create your professional brand, you can control what people think of when they hear your name. You create the image that comes to mind when people think of you.
Why is this important when it comes to your career?
Think for a few minutes about the worst boss you’ve ever had. What comes to mind? What emotions do you feel?
You immediately thought of a particular experience you had working with this person. Your mind returned to something they did or said that made a lasting impression on you. People remember experiences, especially negative ones. That bad boss invokes a strong emotion when you think about them.
The same goes for your professional brand. People remember experiences and conversations they’ve had with you. They reflect on your work ethic and how you showed up in meetings. If you create a solid, positive brand, you create the narrative. You get to decide what emotion you want to invoke when people think of you. Building a professional brand can boost your career in many ways. Here are five benefits of creating a career brand!
1. Increased Visibility In Your Career
With the proper messaging and presentation, you can put yourself out there as an expert in your area of expertise. You want to become recognizable for your particular strengths and skills, giving your current employer and potential employers insight into the value you bring them.
With a well-crafted professional brand, you further position yourself in people’s minds as the go-to person for specific tasks or projects, making you an influencer in your industry. The bottom line: if you want to move forward with your career, prioritizing visibility should be at the top of your list!
2. Trust and Credibility of Your Reputation
With increased visibility comes credibility. People begin to trust that you’re an expert in your field, opening up numerous opportunities for networking, collaboration, and mentorship opportunities. Building a stellar career brand is not just one of the smartest moves a professional can make; it’s outright vital.
When you successfully grow your brand, credibility is the immediate byproduct. After all, as your visibility and reach grow, so does an inherent trust in your expertise. This trust in your brand creates prime opportunities for valuable collaborations, powerful mentorship connections, and priceless networking moments.
3. Higher Salary Potential
Everyone wants money, and when you have a reputation that commands the attention of other organizations, money follows. When you develop a stellar brand at your current organization, they may be afraid to let you go — which means salary increases are in store for you. And once other organizations see your success, they’ll come knocking on the door with even more job offers — all offering money and career enhancement opportunities.
4. You Take Control of Your Career
Creating a solid professional brand allows you to control how others view and perceive you. It also gives employers, colleagues, and potential business partners an immediate understanding of who you are and what value you can provide them. Therefore, this message must accurately reflect your values, experience, and capabilities. It lets others know what kind of person they’re working with before even meeting you.
5. The Power to Reinvent
One of the most powerful aspects of personal branding is that you can reinvent and revamp your brand every year. As you gain more experience, shift jobs, or discover new fields and interests, your personal brand should reflect these changes. By constantly evolving and adapting to market forces, you ensure that others always know exactly what sets you apart from the competition.
Building a solid personal brand can boost your career in several ways, and these are only a few of the many benefits of creating one. A well-designed brand will not only ensure your growth and success but also help you create a long-lasting impression that will make you indispensable to your team.
Oprah never settled for being just “good enough.” She came back every season with new and inspiring themes and set designs, cementing the success she already had while paving the way for more to come. To this day, Oprah’s brand continues to position her for success.
And with time and effort, you can do the same for your personal brand. You control what people remember when they hear about your professional brand. Let’s work together to make yours stand out within your industry!