How to Create a Strong Personal Branding

StatementAs seen on

Careerealism

What Do You Do?

A few weeks ago, I met some of my boyfriend's family members from out-of-state for the first time.

A few of them politely asked me, "What do you want to do now that you're out of college?"  

At the time, I didn't have much to say beyond, "I'd like to land a full-time job and possibly go to grad school for something sort of educational technology related."

It Occurred to Me That…

It wasn't the case that I didn't know what my talents and strengths were or what type of work I wanted to do, but I certainly hadn't

prepared any organized way of telling them that.

In short, I was lacking a personal

branding statement, also

known as an elevator pitch.

Why Do I Need a Brand?

Personal branding is extremely important if you want to show others what you are capable of, and it is not enough anymore to have just a great online presence.

You need to know what you would say to someone if they stopped you on the street and asked, 

"What do you do?"

Concise, Confident, Clear

A concise, confident, clear answer to this question will not only make a great first impression, it will instill in

you a sense of clarity regarding what your career goals are and how

you can best achieve them.

How Do I Do It?

The best advice I have read so far about creating a personal branding statement comes from an article by J.T. O’Donnell over at Careerealism.

She treats this process like a recipe. Combine the answers to 5 important questions you must ask yourself, and the result will be a delicious personal branding statement that you can be proud of.

Here’s my statement after answering her questions:

I love to be the person who people go to for answers, like a human search engine.

I can take information gathered from a number of sources and combine it into something useful and thorough that ultimately teaches other people something in a way that is easily understood.

I like to figure out what the problem is that needs to be solved, and then I start compiling a list of the resources I will need to use.

I love to take notes to organize my thoughts, so I use many outlines and style them like a to-do list.

I rely on a combination of my memory, writing, and organization skills to help get my point across to my audience. 

On family game night, I am the person who reads all the instructions for a new game before we play it so I can be familiar with the rules and details of it.

Then, when people have questions, I can look up the answers and add my own interpretation of it so we can all learn to play the game the right way faster. 

In the past, I wrote more than 500 press releases for a branding organization.

Our clients each had several social media profiles and websites whose information I had to combine into a 1-3 page press release.

I have also tutored many students who were called in for job interviews after I taught them how to prepare their answers and streamline their resumes and cover letters.

I believe my skills would be of great value in the training industry as an instructional designer or training coordinator.

Using my research skills, I would love to create training manuals, courses, and presentations for multiple industries that would help employees learn new skills and increase their efficiency.

By answering 5 questions…

 I was able to craft a personal branding statement for myself that speaks to my unique talents and can be modified to fit

any situation.

Visit Careerealism today to learn how you can craft a unique statement of your own!

Thanks for viewing!

For more content like this, be sure to check out my blog at:

http://www.starrconvictions.com

You can also contact me at:

http://www.ericastarr.info