Creating Your Personal Brand with HonorSociety.org

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room,” – Jeff Bezos

That quote by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos could not be truer. A brand is something that lives on long past your name, appearance, and application. It’s a living, breathing entity that is the summation of everything you are. Your brand can make or break your chances with any job today. Why would a company go for the off-brand applicant when Nike is lined up right behind them? That’s why you must take this notion of branding seriously today – it’s an integral part of the process.

Partially in thanks to the availability and accessibility of technology, social media has made branding essential. Every single person has an online footprint, which means those materials and contents about you online contribute to this brand. It’s no longer a concept reserved for small and big companies – you, as a person, are just as much a brand. In fact, the more effort you put into this brand, the greater your chances of negotiating higher pay, a better position, and more flexibility.

So, in actuality, what is a personal brand?

Personal Brand: The Definition

A personal brand is the image you put forth. It’s a culmination of who you are, what you stand for, and what you value. It’s the core of who you are as a person and what makes you tick. It’s the secret that makes you… you! It’s a brand that centers around you as an individual, communicating to the world around you everything that goes into making you the person you are today.

A personal brand is the easiest way to uniquely stand out from the competition. It should communicate in seconds who you are as a person so that recruiters understand everything they need to know. It shouldn’t be deceptive, and it most certainly should not be inauthentic. You need to figure in your head that, “your competitors can’t bring to the table because there is only one YOU in the world.” Your unique set of experiences, strengths, beliefs, perspectives, skills, and passions make you one-of-a-kind, and you need to own that. If you curate a personal brand that is a huge deviation from you as a person, you are going to attract the wrong kinds of careers for yourself.

Here are a few other benefits of a stellar personal brand:

• Negotiation Ability: As mentioned, a Nike is going to be able to charge more than an off-brand sneaker company. Since your value is uniquely and obviously stated, your bargaining power will increase. This will help you with your career and job search as you are able to entertain a variety of positions that will be available to you. With a personal brand, you can charge a premium price for your services. In this case, your services are your employability.
• Crash Course Resume: A personal brand augments and backs up the information on your resume. We are visual creatures at the end of the day, which is why a personal brand is a great way to round out your presentation as a professional. A significant amount of personal branding involves the content you share with the world. The more valuable and engaging that content is, the more impressive your overall resume is going to appear.
• Natural Attraction: Finding a career that is right for you can seem like a daunting task. Therefore, let’s talk about manifestation. If you are putting in the time to curate a brand that is true to you, then you are going to attract offers and recruiters that have the perfect job for you. Why waste time sifting through careers that won’t make you happy? Instead, with a personal brand, you will attract your ideal audience and referrals without having to lift a finger. It’s manifestation made easy.

So where do you start with making this brand? Here are some tips!

1. Identify Your Skillset: As you did in the previous chapter, go over your values, skillsets, and passions. Write them down. Everything you post as part of your brand should pay testament to one of these components. Your core values should be blatantly evident in everything that is included in your personal brand.

1. Find Where Your Audience Resides: Let’s say you are trying to get hired at an art exhibition space. The artsy brands tend to spend a lot of time on visual apps, like Instagram. You would put more of your effort into the social media apps where your ideal boss is lurking.

1. Determine What You Want to Accomplish: Do you want to start out with the highest salary possible, or do you want to work your way into one of the hardest companies to join? You need to think about what you want to accomplish and tailor your brand accordingly. If you want to have salary leverage, then start positioning yourself as thought leader. You can do this by publishing articles every day on industry topics and trends.

1. Determine Your Unique Value Proposition (UVP): Your UVP should be a quick, 10-second explanation on why you are unique and why any company can’t resist hiring you. It should include your skills, your dreams, and your commitment to the industry. Don’t be afraid to be bold in this statement – it’s no time for being humble!

1. Start Seeing Yourself as a Brand: Accepting and visualizing yourself as a brand is a very important part of all of this. If you find a personal brand silly and funny, the recruiters can tell. Ignore your peers that you fear may “talk about you” or make fun of you for trying. This is your life you are living, which means you should do everything in your power to achieve the career of your dreams!

1. Create a Personal Website: Lastly, consider making a personal website that backs up all of your claims. You can build one in Wix, WordPress, or SquareSpace and host it for about $8/month. You can create your own UVP that you communicate on your home page with plenty of links to your work and articles. Every employer you come across will be highly impressed by this kind of preparation.

Honor Society Visibility

As part of your personal brand, here at Honor Society, we provide our members with a descriptive profile and vanity URL they can use on their resume and an application material. It also is archived as part of their name when searched on Google. If your potential employer does a search on you, they will see that you are proactive, a good student, and part of our recognized community.

If you want to see an example of one, click the following link:

https://www.honorsociety.org/members/mike-moradian.

If you want to learn more about the power and potential of a personal brand, our team recently wrote an entire book dedicated to the topic: How to Build Your Personal Brand. It’s worth the read, especially if you want to ensure you beat out the competition.