Do you really know how much you're worth? Most people place a value on themselves based on the salary they earn, the assets they hold and the amount of experience they have working in a particular industry.
What's astounding is that of all of the assets they own, their personal brand tends to be the asset with the least amount of investment but the most potential value.
Here are some reasons why.
You'll find you will become a magnet for opportunities for growth in your career and in your wealth. In fact, you'll get to a position where you won't have to fight against others for opportunities. Additionally, you won't worry about losing opportunities as you will always have more in the pipeline.
You will be able to earn more by charging premium rates. People love to hire experts and they are prepared to pay top dollar for their services. If you work for someone and you want a raise in your income, your personal brand is a significant influencing factor in this.
Have you ever been in a workplace and slogged away so hard only for managers or key stakeholders in the business to overlook you for recognition or a promotion? By building a strong personal brand, your recognition will always remain at the front of their minds.
But how do you get started?
Develop a content plan and start publishing guides or helpful advice that solves the questions that people have in your industry. You can easily do this by uploading videos to YouTube, publishing a blog post on your own website or uploading a podcast audio recording. Once you have published the content, you can then begin sharing the content with influential people in your industry and in your workplace.
The book "48 laws of Power" by Robert Greene has the 5th law state that 'So much depends on reputation. Guard it with your life!' Your personal brand is your reputation. So it is up to you to build it into a valuable asset.
Most people settle for their brand being a person who turns up to the office everyday. But building your personal brand into something iconic requires you to get in front of people and to develop a personal signature or stamp of approval that people recognise. Whether this is from your communication style, tone of voice, your publications, emblems or personally branded logos - it's essential that you build your personal brand with an image that can be recognised and valued by the people who can positively influence your life.
You want to get yourself cited in industry publications and media. You can achieve this by doing interviews or contributing to platforms that are seeking expert content. One of the easiest avenues is to sign up and receive notifications from SourceBottle with expert or contributor requests that you can help with.
Another good book that you can use as a guide to build your personal brand is called "Become a key person of influence" by Daniel Priestley. In the book, he provides the exact steps that you can take to start building your personal brand.
However, even if you only do half of the suggestions that have been provided above, you should be impressed with the positive outcome of your life's events in the next 12 months. The next move is up to you.