MODULE 1: Understanding your values

Personal Branding is an often misconstrued concept.

Some believe it to be about self-promotion, (look at me, look at me!), and others believe it to be non-professional (back in my day we didn’t do marketing...), while others happily jump on the branding bandwagon as it helps them in their careers and businesses.

The reality is we all have a personal brand whether we like it or not. Our brands are what people perceive us to be, rightly or wrongly. It’s a perception based on interaction with us directly or indirectly through other people’s opinions or from what’s found about us online.

The digital brand is of most concern to people and one we will focus on in this course. People now perceive the world through a digital lens. There are 2.5 billion smartphones on the planet, enough for every adult, so anyone, anytime, anywhere can now Google your name. Think there isn't much about you online? Perhaps it’s time you Googled yourself and find out!

Many people, when investigating their brands, find content didn’t know was ‘out there’, because they hadn’t looked properly. Old social media sites like MySpace and Flickr, images and video that others have posted and tagged them, news articles and more. Not to mention poorly maintained LinkedIn profiles and old Facebook pages, which are as damaging to your reputation because they are so out of date.

Therefore, the decision isn’t do we have a personal brand; we all do. The choice is how we manage and use it for our benefit.

The first step in the process to build a powerful personal brand is to know what you want!

Values are unique to all individuals and your goal this week is to better understand your own. The additional benefit of knowing about values is that you can recognise others ’values. Your partners, family, friends, work colleagues, clients and more. When you understand what drives people, you can more easily influence them. The inbound personal branding process depends upon finding people with similar values to your own as they will have more desire to work with you. Like attracts like.

Setting a clear intention for your personal brand work will help focus your thinking and create motivation to do the work required. Intentions are similar to missions or goals, with one big difference.

Goals are specific, measurable, actionable, realistic, and time oriented, otherwise known as S.M.A.R.T.

At this early stage it is difficult to be 100% clear on your goals, so this exercise will assist you to form a broad indication on what you want to achieve, without the burden of being specific to time lines or how you can get there.

It is more effective to document your dreams and vision for your life now, then work out how to get there later in the program.

Big dreams are scary, but that’s the point. Arrest reality for the time being. The scarier the better as it will motivate you to do the work!

Tip: To set your intentions clearly visualise what you would like your lifestyle to be in the future. Dream big! It should be inspiring to you. Something that if you achieved it life would be amazing! Focus on the process itself and not just the outcome. For example, “be rich and having a Ferrari” isn’t a specific intention as it only specifies the result not what you will do to get the result. A more effective example would be “be the best financial advisor in Australia with 100 staff and a bestselling book”. This intention is likely to produce the result you desire and is a better focus for your personal brand work.

There are seven values, or areas of life, we will examine: Business, Finances, Family, Friends, Health, Spirituality and Education. We have defined these terms below, but they are broad categories and your particular definition will vary from others.

Definitions:

• Family – The people closest to you. Children, parents, siblings, closest friends or partners. The five closest people in your life.

• Friends – Those close to you, but not family. The next closest people from 5 to 25.

• Finances – Your money and/or assets of a financial nature.

• Business – How you earn money. It could be working for others or for yourself. Perhaps you have multiple streams of income?

• Health – Your wellness. This can be physical such as fitness, strength, or being free from illness. Or it could be your emotional health and mental wellbeing. There is no right or wrong, just what you define it to be for you.

• Spirituality – Your higher self. This could be traditional religion, or a form of personal development such as meditation or mindfulness. Spirituality refers the non-physical side of our being.

• Education – Either traditional learning through schools and universities, or your own studies. It doesn’t matter the form, just that it’s focused on your mental development.