Cur­rent work­ing habits are trend­ing toward self-employ­ment, free­lance, remote work and per­son­al brands. With the rise of work­ing inde­pen­dent­ly and out­side the shad­ow of a known brand or agency, devel­op­ing a per­son­al brand is more impor­tant than ever. 

Those look­ing to hire free­lancers, con­trac­tors and oth­er free agents want to know more than what they’re get­ting (qual­i­ty of work); they want to know whom they’re getting. 

By devel­op­ing a con­cise under­stand­ing of who you are and what you stand for in the work world, you can become a more desir­able per­son­al brand that peo­ple want to hire, work with and sup­port in career development. 

Before we get into tips, let’s look at a cou­ple peo­ple with exem­plary per­son­al brands. 

Two Examples of Personal Branding 

Ash Ambirge

Founder of the Mid­dle Fin­ger Project, Ambirge is famed for efforts in over­com­ing adver­si­ty and her bla­tant dis­re­gard for female stereo­type expec­ta­tions. Ambirge’s voice remains reli­ably con­sis­ten­cy with­out offend­ing oth­ers as she leaves a fil­ter­ing option to read her site cen­sored from her cynicism. 

Peter Shankman

Shankman start­ed HARO, a rev­o­lu­tion­ary bridge between PR reps and jour­nal­ists that changed the way the two enti­ties inter­act­ed. Shankman is always clear with his opin­ions, so peo­ple know exact­ly what to expect when work­ing with him. 

Now, let’s look at how these personally branded gurus managed. 

Core values

As all estab­lished brands now stand for some­thing larg­er than their busi­ness — the com­mu­ni­ty, a glob­al effort, human rights, etc. — so you must stand for some­thing greater than your work in your per­son­al brand. Under­stand your core val­ues — what you’ll fight for, what you won’t work toward, what you’ll help build and pro­pel into reality. 

Your story

What’s your whole sto­ry? Why do you do what you do? Peo­ple want to know what moti­vates you to suc­ceed because it helps them know you’ll work to make the most of their mis­sion and goals when you part­ner together.

Concept of your own brand

Simplicity

Less is more when it comes to your per­son­al brand. Enrich less con­tent with more soul­ful mean­ing to get your point across about who you are, what you pro­vide and what you stand for. 

Consistency

Con­sis­ten­cy is key! Peo­ple want to know what to expect. This doesn’t mean you have to dull your per­son­al­i­ty and lim­it your­self to one skill. If you keep your diver­si­ty of ser­vices, opin­ions and tones con­sis­tent, your audi­ence can adapt and find com­fort with a wide vari­ety of content. 

Brand voice

Find­ing your voice is a crit­i­cal ele­ment of per­son­al brand devel­op­ment. While you want to speak as your­self, always keep a goal in mind to cater your voice to your spe­cif­ic busi­ness objective. 

Make it obvious

Who we are inside is a com­plex jour­ney that nobody but you needs to take. When it comes to per­son­al brand­ing, make what you do and who you are as obvi­ous as pos­si­ble. Con­sumers will get to you know as you show more work and they watch you evolve as an artist, design­er or the pro­fes­sion­al you’ve become in any industry. 

Authenticity

Be your­self, but be mind­ful of how your brand com­mu­ni­cates and inter­acts with your audi­ence. How can you authen­ti­cal­ly engage with this group?

Diversity

Every­one with a pas­sion has oth­er inter­ests, too. What oth­er top­ics relat­ed to your pas­sion project that your audi­ence might be inter­est­ed in learn­ing about? If it stays con­sis­tent, they will appre­ci­ate and respect your opin­ion on these oth­er matters.

Are you inter­est­ed in defin­ing or refin­ing your per­son­al brand? Reach out to Rosy Strate­gies to get start­ed on one, today.