Sue Currie Blog

The first step to realising our personal brand is to understand ourselves better. What kind of personality do we have, what is the impression others have of us?

To do this write out a list of words you think describe you. What adjectives would you choose if you were a journalist and writing a story about you? How would you describe that person?

What about your passions? What is it you really love doing and what is the feeling you get from that? How do others see you? Can you get some feedback from your family, work colleagues and friends? Ask them to choose words to describe you and see what they come up with – good and bad! Did those words match up to your list? If so then you are getting close to your true personality.

Have you some hidden dreams, ambitions that are yet to be realised. Perhaps there’s some negativity or attitudes or behaviour that needs to be modified.   It can be hard to self-reflect but is invaluable to really understand yourself more.

Is there a characteristic or talent that sets you apart? For Elle McPherson it was her amazing figure that launched her career. Kylie Minogue – her singing talent. They had those raw talents but needed to develop other skills and grow as businesswomen to really move on.

Once you have an understanding of your personality, combine that with your skills and talents and work toward writing a personal brand statement that is just for you – your internal dialogue – then you can use that as a basis for external communication.

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Do you have a well known tag line, wear an item of clothing or have a memorable persona? Perhaps if you did it would set you apart from the others in your field.

To become top of mind, you need to create or craft something that highlights you and only you. It becomes your signature, your logo, your swing-tag, your brand. Something about yourself, your message or business that is easily identifiable that says, that's you.

Jeanne Little in Australia is well known for the saying, "Hello daaaaarling!" and for over-the-top false eyelashes, plus a flamboyant fashion sense. She has been known to craft an outfit out of garbage bags.

Maggie Tabberer a fashion icon known for her elegant style, large figure, loose unstructured style of dress and signature colours of black and white.

Well-known business consultant and speaker Winston Marsh whose signature phrase is f-a-n-t-a-s-t-i-c.

Aussie homeloans guru John Symond for the phrase “We’ll save you!”

My friend Narelle “the tropical princess of the north” who always wears colourful clothes and amazing  beaded neckpieces that she designs herself.

A good friend of mine recently was in touch regarding his new career – that of a magician.
We used to work together a number of years ago in the public relations industry. Long story short, he decided that PR wasn’t the right role for him and pursued other creative avenues until he found what he truly loves doing. I too used to work in PR but now am following my passion of professional speaking.

Neither of us reinvented overnight. It was a process and although not easy certainly one I’d recommend to anyone who feels they need to do something different or are really not happy doing what they do now.  It can be painstaking to realise your ambitions and develop your true persona. But doing what you love is key to developing a strong personal brand.  

So much of who you are is aligned with your work. Find your passion at work. How to do that? Do a self-audit, look at your background, what you’ve enjoyed doing in the past, what you’re good at, what you’d really love to do if circumstances were different. There are heaps of books on career management. One I would recommend is Career Distinction. Or check out your local library.

Click here to know more about Bruce Glen magician. 

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In my work as a personal branding consultant I am often asked to advise on corporate image and wardrobe for professionals. On one occasion I was given a brief by a very large financial services organisation. They wanted to address the problem of “too casual” saying that skimpy shoe-string strap tops and wearing thongs to work were quite normal.  How could they fix that?  Well I did talk about the inappropriateness of that in my speech but also advised that they needed a really definite dress code policy for employees. How do people know what is expected if you don’t tell them?  And if you’re an employee it is your job to ask what the dress code is and observe how the senior, more successful people dress.

Your dress code should be written out and given to all employees when they sign up for their new role. It should clearly state:

The overall brand image of the organisation.

Guidelines to business dress. What is appropriate office wear? Also what is expected when meeting with clients?

Guidelines to casual Fridays including policy on jeans if appropriate; what is accepted and what is not.

Footwear

Jewellery and accessories including body piercing

General appearance including grooming

Safety wear if part of your industry or clients

Remember if your outfit could speak – what would if say about you and
your company?  If you need any assistance with image or dress code policy please contact us.

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This is the final of your B R A N D   P L A N....

N is for Noticed – Have you attracted notice? This is where you evaluate and measure if your plan has worked? After it’s all over, look back at your objectives that you so carefully wrote out. Were those goals achieved?  Have they been met?  Did you get 50 new customers? How about those articles you hoped to get in the newspaper? Did you get that promotion you so carefully made a brand communication plan for? This is where you look back and see what you’ve achieved and did you get value for money. Perhaps you need to do more of the same to achieve your next goal or evaluate what you could do differently.

I invite you to read the previous posts and let me know your thoughts on the brand communication plan to help raise your profile.

Action – Implementation

This is where you work out how you’re actually going to do everything you’ve planned for your brand communication plan. Put a time line into place. What needs to be done to make it all happen?  Well let’s work backwards on our timeline. Say we set an end date for end of February, 12 weeks from now. And let’s say our objective is to hold an open day at your premises attracting 50 potential new customers. By week 11 you would need your rsvp’s in. So about week 8 you’d need to send out invitations. Therefore allow a couple of weeks say week 5 to get invitations printed…week 4 start to compile a list of 200 …week 3, need to make sure the design is done…week one,  who do know already to invite? And so on for all the tasks associated with your communication plan. Come up with a detailed plan of action, a work in progress (WIP).

Let’s now continue our B R A N D   P L A N

Ledger – the budget – how much is it going to cost?

Public relations is a great way to launch your product , service or YOU. You don’t always have to advertise. PR is certainly cheaper than advertising but not necessarily free. You do need to allocate some funds toward a communication campaign.

How much will new brochures cost? What about a post card mail out to your database?  Will you hire someone part time to help you? Maybe it’s new photos or a new wardrobe you need to raise your personal image.

You need to look at the resources you have to put towards this project. If its $5,000, how can you effectively use that money? It might be that you spend $2,500 on brochures and $2,500 on publicity –  perhaps getting someone to send out a media release. Then measure it. See what gets the most effective return on your investment by asking people how they found out about you.  

P is for Your PR and the tools to use to reach your target. This is the ‘how to do it’ part. Here you detail exactly how you are going to reach your target public with your message to achieve that desired outcome you’ve already set – those smart goals. So what tools are you going to use?

There are hundreds of ways of communicating with your target public. Publicity and sending out a media release is one. Also sponsorships, having open days, or special events; community meetings, shopping centre displays, launches, letter box drops with brochures, networking or volunteering at your company, to name a few. As an example if it is an open day at your factory to achieve 50 new customers, what tools would we use? Perhaps an invitation hand delivered with some sort of gimmick, perhaps some publicity in the local paper, setting up a creative media photo opportunity or sending out a newsletter to current customers. For your desired outcome, list 4 or 5 communication tools or strategies to help reach your objective.

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Desired outcomes. What are your communication objectives?  We all know about goal setting and it’s the same with our brand communication plan. If we articulate what we’re after then we are more likely to achieve it. But we need to be smart about it. That is specific, measurable, realistic, achievable and timely. So you need to write a thorough statement of what you really want to achieve with as much detail as possible. So it could be: to achieve 50% extra sales by December 30: to achieve 3 print articles in local media by February 2010: to hold a factory tour or open day on November 20 attracting 50 potential customers: to gain 3 extra clients paying 10,000 each by January 2010.