So you’ve read my points on the power of a Personal Brand (see "Live It Loud and Clear!" or "Be Your Own Adjective") and you're interested, but you don’t know where to start. That is the topic for this month’s message. To get to the heart of your own personal brand, the essential impression you make on the world, you have to strip away the details and get down to your bare-boned basics, your “constants”.

I use four key tests to determine base characteristics: the Environment Test, the Timeless Test, the Reflective Test, and the Resonance Test.

Sometimes the best way to define something is to clarify what it is not. Your brand does not consist of the part of you that surfaces only in certain circumstances. It is not the “you” that shows up at work but not at home. It is not the “you” that social acquaintances see, but not your family. I call this the Environment Test. Look for the elements of your style and personality that are constant in all circumstances. Are you diligently organized in everything you do at work, home and play? Are you full of caring and empathy in everything you do? What holds true for you consistently across the board? Make a list of your consistent traits that exist in all environments.

When you have a number of traits or attributes that pass the environment test, next look to the dimension of time. Your core brand is timeless. The parts of you that truly and uniquely stand for you have probably been there all your life. As for me, I am passionate, creative, strategic and determined. You can probably find someone who knew me from just about any stage of my life from childhood through present and they’d shake their head and laugh at how well those words fit me. Those traits make up my brand. They pass the test of time.

The next test is the Reflective Test. This test includes the feedback from those around us. Often we think we know what our strongest and most consistent traits are, but we are only seeing our own outward perspective. The true test is to see what bounces back reflectively from our friends, family, and associates. To compile this list we need to ask those around us what they perceive to be our most dominant traits. In this part of the process, don’t be afraid of traits that sound negative at first. In every person their greatest strengths are found right next to their greatest weakness. It all depends on how you apply them. (Check back next month for more on this topic.)
Next is the test of resonation. When you narrow your list of adjectives about yourself down to a small handful of words, the last test is to see how well they resonate with your heart. If a word on your list feels shallow or hollow, it is not part of your core brand. The traits that truly fit you have a weight about them when you think of them. They sit with presence in your chest. These are the words that have energy for you and drive you to action.

This is how you begin to define your brand. As you start this process you will uncover the secrets to what makes you “you”. In marketing terms, this helps define your USP, unique selling point. Understanding this about yourself can be the key to finding the right career, the right clients, the right partners (in business and in your personal life), and to maximizing your life.

This is the third article in a series on the concepts of Personal Branding.

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© Andrea O'Neill, 2002