Everyone should have their Personal Brand on their resume and on the tip of their tongue.Like any Brand, your Personal Brand is your promise of results. It's what you naturally do to be successful.

The beauty of this process in developing a Personal Brand is the step-by-step method of reflection and self-discovery. Very important in your path to success.

Having a Personal Brand statement tells potential clients and employers that you complete goals, have expertise and credibility (similar to publishing a paper book), and invite those with similar skills into your network.

Below is the "for Dummies" article on Personal Branding. Read carefully to get a complete understanding of what is expected.

Read the directions and work on the process.

Final thought: Keep and displayYour Brand in all your social media and resume opportunities.

Source:http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/personal-branding-for-dummies-cheat-sheet.html

Personal Branding For Dummies

FromPersonal Branding For Dummiesby Susan Chritton

Personal branding is a marketing strategy focused on your most important product:you.Developing a personal brand requires figuring out who you really are (your skills, values, passions, and personality), who you want to serve (your target market or audience), and how you differ from the competition (your unique niche). You distill that information into a concise brand statement and work to get every aspect of your life on brand: your website, professional bio, appearance, network, rsum, office space, and so on.

How to Build Your Personal Brand

The first step in the personal branding process is to spend time figuring out who you really are and what you want from your life. Often, this self-analysis is the hardest part.

Here are the building blocks of your brand that you need to identify:

Needs:Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs is a helpful tool that shows layers of needs from the most basic (physiological needs, such as food) all the way up to self-actualization becoming everything that you are capable of becoming.

Values:These are core principles that give meaning to your life a set of standards that determine your attitudes, choices, and actions.

Interests/passions:The things that intrigue and motivate you determine how you want to spend your time.

Mission:Everyone should have a mission statement an expression that clarifies what you are all about and what you want to do in life.

Vision:Your ideal version of how you will use your mission is your vision.

Strengths:Certain abilities and patterns of interest consistently produce a positive outcome in your life, and these are your strengths.

Freak factor:This term refers to a unique quality that makes you different and unusual.

Personality attributes:Describing the face that you show to the world helps you define your personality.

Education and work experience:These attributes are easy to identify because they're based on fact.

360 feedback:The people who know you best (such as friends and coworkers) can provide key information about your character.

Goals:Getting specific about what you want to achieve greatly increases your chances of success.

Target market positioning statement:This tool identifies how your brand will be positioned in your target market. It puts into words what makes your brand important and unique so that the people who need to know about you can clearly understand what you represent.

How to Create Your Promise of Value and Personal Brand Statement

Your unique promise of value and your personal brand statement are closely linked; the statement is an expression of the promise. Both of them focus on what your target audience expects from you; they create an expectation of what you can deliver. These are probably the most important pieces of your personal brand profile, so you want to get them right before you start to communicate with your target audience.

Your unique promise of value is the promise you make to your target market that your brand will fulfill. It clarifies and communicates what makes you special. You must be able to live up to this promise.

You use your unique promise of value to write the all-important personal brand statement. When you work on your statement, envision your best self. To begin your thought process on what your brand might include, answer the following questions:

What three or four key words describe your essential qualities quickly and clearly?

• What is your essence factor, the core of who you are?"I know I am in my element when __________."
• What is your authority factor, the knowledge that you hold and skills that you possess?"People recognize my expertise in _________."
• What is your superstar factor, the qualities that set you apart? (This factor is how you get things done or what you are known for.)"People comment on my ability to ___________."

To help you get started writing your statement, use this fill-in-the-blanks template. Don't be constrained by this language; simply use it as a starting point.

I use my ___________ and ___________ for ___________.

Known for ___________, I ___________.

Using ___________ (key trait), I ___________, by providing ___________.