Create your personal brand

- Visibility is credibility. If people don't know what you do, you can't sell it. There are three steps in the process of marketing yourself. I've developed this over time in the classroom and use it with all my clients. The first step is to define your brand. What is it you do exactly? And more specifically, what can you do to make or save money for a client? What is it that's special or unique about you? In other words, what combination of skills and experience do you have that would make an employer want to work with you? Brand is relationship and reputation. When people in your industry think of you, what comes to mind? When your name is mentioned, do you colleagues think flaky, difficult, unreliable? Or do they associate you with qualities like creative, good follow-through, friendly, hardworking and positive attitude? For example, Dr. Susan Love, for whom I worked many years ago, is a surgeon, author and advocate for preventive breast cancer research. Her brand is that she is one of the most respected women's health specialists in the country. Once you've defined your brand, the second step is practicing how to articulate your brand message. This is your soundbite or elevator pitch, a description of about 30 seconds that encapsulates the main skills you offer. That's about as long as an elevator ride in a tall building lasts, which is where the name comes from. Your brand message extends to your story or narrative, and that includes your passions and why they're your passions, your history, professional and personal, and how you got to where you are in your life. Most of us are neither trained nor terribly comfortable talking about ourselves, but as the composer Philip Glass said, "You practice and you get better. "It's very simple." Like any skill, as you deliver your brand message over and over, you improve. And let me add, that you may never be great at pitching yourself, you just need to be good enough so that after people meet you, they leave with a clear understanding of who you are and what you can do for them. Once you've determined what your brand is and how to communicate that, you can now move onto networking, marketing and selling your brand. And, yes, you need to go through the process in this order. There's no point meeting with people who could potentially hire or refer you if you can't clearly convey your message. But once you know how, you're ready to find the people who can use and will pay for what it is you have to offer. Whatever your vocation, whether you're a chemist, college professor, financial advisor, anything, marketing yourself and your services needs to become an integral part of your work life. It's equal in importance to the actual work you do because without it, you won't get to do your work. So, define your brand, articulate the brand message, and practice networking, marketing and selling your brand until the entire process becomes second nature. Now, finding the work you want to do will be that much easier because people will constantly be aware of what it is you can offer them.