Personal Brand: Do You Feel Like Brands are for Cattle?

You’ve heard it thousands of times — you must have a personal brand — and it needs to be same across all your career marketing documents.

You’ve read hundreds of articles about branding, but as soon as you start to write your brand, you freeze because you still have no idea how to write your own.

I mean Pepsi®, Coke®, Amazon, Niké, and Apple and have made it look so easy, don’t they? If you feel stuck when trying to figure out your personal brand, it’s okay!

And like me, you might even think when you hear the word “brand” of cattle branding or of a big brand displayed prominently on gigantic logs at ranch entrances. There are a lot of those here where I live.

I’ve never really liked the idea of branding people.

Don’t get me wrong, the concept is important, but it has always felt like pigeon-holing a person into one specialty. I’m a believer that people are multi-achievers who wear many hats throughout the day and can do more than one thing for a living.

I know as an entrepreneur, I do. So, I teach my clients that it’s okay to change or modify their brand! In fact, many of my clients have 3 or 4 résumés targeted to different industries or specialties.

Your personal brand doesn’t need to be redundant.

In my opinion, your brand just doesn’t have to be so permanent or the same statement over and over for the sake of branding.

When clients hear me say that, I can sometimes feel the weight being lifted because they are usually stuck right there—at the top of the page on their résumé, cover letter, bio, or LinkedIn profile.

But then they ask, “So what do I write for my brand?”

MAGNETIC TIP: Your brand can include a combination of your unique brilliance, your personal values, your promise, and keywords from the organization’s job announcement and mission statement. You can even have certain colors across your branding.

Here are two examples for one client who is an accountant:

“…Senior auditor dedicated to financial accuracy with drive and dedication to significantly improve the bottom line…” 

“…Senior accountant performing accurate accounting through methodical financial analysis, sound accounting principles, and proven tax strategies…” 

Here is an example for a TSA Specialist.

“…Transportation Security Specialist implementing creative solutions that improve productivity, save significant effort, and reduce waste across multiple agencies…”

Résumés are moving targets that need to be customized to each job announcement and the ideal candidate profile. So don’t walk around with the same exact “brand” embedded in your documents.

Your brand is just a small part of how you convey your value.

It needs to pack a punch that is memorable and aligns with the values and mission of the organization. Be thoughtful about how you brand yourself.

With a little effort, your brand will represent your expertise and convey your value in your career marketing. When this happens, your chances increase for being invited to interview, landing the job, and negotiating your salary at a level that motivates you to want to go to work each day!

If you need more help ‘peeling back the onion’ to discover your brand, send us an email or message us on social media. We have branding exercise to help you discover yours! Our proven strategies are solid…and you’ll love your brand(s)!

Please leave a comment below and tell us what you think of branding.

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