While your brand audit results may not
be exciting, taking this honest hard look
at yourself is the essential first step to re-
branding you as it yields the sometimes
painful truth and helps you identify what
needs to change.
Like and Accept Yourself
You are a work in progress and even
though your audit may have revealed a
dismal picture, like and accept yourself. If
you don’t, no one else will. Learn also to
accept the few things you cannot change,
and like yourself regardless.
Define your Desired Brand
Once your audit is done, you need to
clarify your life’s mission, or reason for
existing and vision, which defines what
you want to become within a given time-
frame. These, together with your personal
values become the story you want to create
with your life including how you want to
be known. Once you define your desired
brand there may be gaps in who you are
now and who you want to become. Use
the gaps to help you identify the steps you
need to take to re-brand yourself.
A brand audit would
not be complete with-
out checking your so-
cial media presence as
your social media ac-
counts often show up
first in searches. What
names do you call your-
self, what do you like
and what images do you
post? What do your on-
line friends talk about
and how do you com-
ment on their posts?
All these contribute to
your brand footprint
and may build or erode
your personal brand.
08 MAL23/18 ISSUE
Positive brands give you mileage with people
and open you to new opportunities, taking you,
your career and business further, faster. A neg-
ative personal brand on the other hand can limit
your chances of success by limiting your oppor-
tunities. It stands to reason then, that develop-
ing a positive and strong personal brand should
be a priority.
Improve your Packaging
With tangible products, packaging matters
a lot. Before you speak, you are already
making positive or negative impressions
by your dressing and body language – it’s
rarely neutral. Looking at yourself, what
does your dressing say about you?
Your physical image should be clean,
stylish, pressed and well-fitting, without
unnecessarily drawing negative attention
to yourself. Keep your outfits and make-
up simple and tasteful and let them work
together seamlessly – even when you are
‘just’ running errands. You never know
who you will run into.
Your shoes should also be clean and not
scuffed and peeling, having seen better
days. Pay attention to your personal
hygiene as well – bathe and brush your
teeth daily. Drink plenty of water and
keep your hair and nails neat and trimmed.
Work out regularly to stay fit and improve
your physical image and overall health.
Be Positive
People are attracted to nice, positive
people. No matter what you are going
through, have joy in your heart and a
positive expectation of life. Be grateful for
the things that happen in your life. Positive
or negative, they teach you important
lessons for now and the future. You can
choose a positive attitude and consistently
doing so makes others view you positively.
Be Real
Strong brands are authentic – they are
consistent inside and out. How real are
you? Realness involves walking in integrity
and speaking the truth to yourself and
others. Do people get what they see or
are you multi-faced, with people not sure
who the real you is? The more real you are,
the more people will trust you and the
stronger your personal brand will be.
Embrace Excellence
You can’t argue with excellence – it is self-
evident. As you re-brand yourself, refuse
to be ordinary. Instead begin to deliver
excellently and commit to delivering
the wow factor consistently, so that you
get known for excellence. Volunteer for
additional projects that others avoid and
deliver excellently on them. Work hard,
push yourself, be dilig ent, and focused.
Go the extra mile and stand out for
thoroughness and doing more than what
is asked.
Relate Well
Developing good relating skills is a lifelong
process, but well worth the effort. Have
unconditional positive regard for others –
seeing them in their best, rather than their
worst light. Become genuinely interested
in people and enhance your understanding
of them by actively listening to them and
noting their body language which conveys
much deeper meaning than the actual
words they are saying.
Pay attention as people speak and
empathize by stepping into their shoes
and looking at the world through their
eyes. What are they thinking and feeling?
Show them that you see how they feel
by reflecting this understanding back to
them verbally and non-verbally.