This is very important because somebody's viewpoint of you,
or their perception of you can really affect whether or not you can get
growth opportunities or whether or not you're put in the wrong opportunity.
So that's why it's really important that we,
you know,
define your personal brand today and that you clearly understand what that looks
like.
Hey,
there,
welcome to Mak TV where we believe that the transformation from manager to
leader is such a crucial one.
And that is because true leaders change lives.
So in today's video,
we're going to be talking all about personal branding and how you can define
your personal brand at work.
And I want you to stick around till the end of the video,
because I do have something very special for you that will help you make
practical application of what you're going to be learning in today's video.
But before we get into it,
I want you to do something very important,
which is to hit on a subscribe button.
That way we get that all out of the way.
Don't miss any more content that I share here every single Tuesday.
So I want you to do that now,
then we can get right into it.
Okay.
Let's get started.
So first things first,
let's just clarify the fact that personal branding is really about your
reputation.
So you have to remember that each and every interaction that you have with
someone is actually like forming their experience with you.
So it's basically telling them everything that they need to know about you,
as well as what they can expect from you in the future.
So,
as you can imagine,
this is very important because somebody's viewpoint of you or their
perception of you can really affect whether or not you can get growth
opportunities or whether or not you're put in the wrong opportunities.
So here's the thing about personal branding.
It's a lot like culture.
The reason why I say that,
you know,
the fact that it's a lot like culture is because much like culture,
if you're not intentional about creating it,
then it'll just exist by default.
So that's why it's really important for you to walk through these next couple of
steps that we're going to be considering.
So step number one,
when it comes to defining your personal brand,
is that you have to first think about what your unique selling point is.
Now what I mean by that is simply what makes you,
you and what are your strengths?
What are the things that come naturally to you?
So is it that you're just an extremely creative person?
Are you a really good communicator?
Are you very relational?
Like,
what is it that comes naturally to you?
You really want to think about this?
Now I know for some people thinking about what their strengths are,
what comes natural to them is a little bit hard.
That's why you can use the help of personality quizzes for example.
Now my team and I,
a couple years back,
we actually did a standout assessment together as a team.
It was really,
I would highly recommend it,
but there is a cost to it.
If you're more on a budget and you just kind of quickly want to figure things
out and then you can always use 16 personalities.
It's just,
you know,
it's really,
really good as well.
And it's based off of the Myers Briggs personality test.
So I would highly suggest using one of those to kind of help you narrow down
what your strengths are.
So I will actually put that in the description box below for you.
So once you figure out what your super strengths are,
whether or not you choose to use personality tests or not,
what you want to do is do some pruning and,
you know,
prune it down to about three to five core strengths.
After you printed it down.
What you next have to do is validate.
So what I mean by that is that you want to approach somebody else that knows you
really well and ask them if,
whether or not these are your top three to five strengths.
And you want to choose someone that's going to be completely 100 with you.
Like there's no point in approaching someone that's just going to like agree
with everything you say.
Choose somebody that,
you know,
will tell you the honest truth so that you can really narrow down what your
super powers are.
Now,
the reason for going through all this step,
one and two,
which is,
you know,
figuring out what your strengths are and then validating them is because of the
fact that you really do need to know who you are and what your unique
selling points are,
so that you can take advantage of them and maximize them.
People with strong personal brands are very clear about who they are.
They know what their strengths are,
and they know how to use them well.
So this is why I'm saying it's really important for you to first figure out what
your strengths are and then validate what they are so that,
you know what you're like top three to five superpowers are no matter what.
The next step is to think about your values and your values are really important
because they're much like your North star.
Values are what really help us,
you know,
make our decisions and drives our behaviors.
It affects our choices and knowing what our values are,
is really important because it actually differentiates us from everybody else.
Because when we approach something,
we're approaching it from a place that comes from our values,
which is why it's really important for you to know what they are.
Now,
I will say much like your strengths.
You actually have to prune them down as well to about three to five.
And I will warn you that this is going to be really hard just because of the
fact that values in general are just very like,
they're very noteworthy,
right?
Like when we look at a value,
we just automatically are drawn to them.
So it's going to be kind of hard for you to really narrow down which ones really
resonate with you.
But when you do have what you can do is pay really close attention.
Because even though there's a ton of values out there that are super awesome,
there's going to be certain ones that just like hit you in a completely
different way.
You have to be paying really close attention.
The other thing that really helps is like,
thinking about what the opposite is to that.
So I'll give you an example.
So a couple of years ago,
when I was going through this exercise for myself,
I remember having like my list of values on this piece of paper.
And I remember looking at the word humility.
And I looked at it and I said,
yeah,
that,
that really resonates with me.
But like,
is that really my top three to five?
And it's good to ask yourself these questions and be very honest,
because at the end of the day,
this is about you.
Not anybody else.
You're not trying to show off to anybody else.
You're just trying to figure out who you are.
So I was looking at the word and I was like,
hmm,
well,
let me think of what the opposite of that is.
And so I thought I'm the opposite word,
which is pride.
And I was like,
immediately just felt uncomfortable in my skin.
Like I know for a fact that I make a lot of my decisions against pride,
like I don't even hang out with people.
I want nothing to do with people that are very prideful or boastful.
So I knew immediately after thinking about that,
I was like,
yeah,
humility is definitely in my top three to five core values.
So I put that on the list.
So that's another way that you can really like prune down what really matters
to you in terms of your values.
The next step is to think about how you're currently doing what you're doing.
So are you the type of person that's comfortable approaching someone that you do
not know if you're at a party?
Are you the type of person that follows through on your commitments?
Are you the type of person that pays attention to your personal appearance?
All of these things matter.
Like asking yourself these sort of self reflection questions helps you to
see how maybe others are perceiving you.
And if you notice something that you're like,
hmm,
I don't really like the fact that I'm being perceived that way,
then you're going to change things,
right?
You're going to try and improve on that.
So that's why it's really important to ask yourself these kinds of reflection
questions.
The final step is to bring into alignment what you do,
how you do it,
and the way you say it with your brand.
You know,
the reason why we spent this time,
you know,
defining what your strengths are and defining your values and your
characteristics is so that we can see what's currently in alignment and what's
out of alignment so that you can start making adjustments to make sure that
whatever you're doing in your daily life actually aligns with the brand that you
want to be portraying.
You know,
it's not enough to just say something,
you have to do it.
That's why they say actions speak louder than words,
right?
And so if you want to be that brand or that person that is dependable,
then you actually have to follow through on your commitments.
If you want to be a thought leader,
then you have to spend time doing the research,
voicing your opinion,
and like putting yourself out there.
Like,
it's not enough to just say you want to be this type of person.
If you're not following it up with consistent action.
Now the keyword here is consistent.
Because even if you do it a couple times like,
a couple times,
isn't enough to be known as that individual.
You have to be very consistent at it.
So those are just the five simple ways that you can really start building your
personal brand at work.
Now,
like I mentioned,
at the beginning of the video,
I do have something for you,
which is basically a downloadable guide that will help you work through this,
right?
So we discussed the steps,
but it's a little bit hard to do this on your own,
which is why I've created this full guide for you.
That has a ton of questions and a ton of prompts to help you just figure
this out while walking you through the steps.
So if you're serious about building your personal brand at work,
then I highly suggest you download the kit.
Thank you so much for watching.
I really hope that you found this video to be valuable.
And if you did,
don't forget to hit on the subscribe and notification bell,
so you don't miss out on any other videos.
Again,
thanks so much for watching.
I hope you have a fantastic rest of the week.
Don't forget to keep smiling.
I'll see you in the next one.