Personal Branding Workbook
Personal Branding Workbook
Personal Branding Workbook
No Two Alike!
Just like there are no two snowflakes, or no
two fingerprints alike, there are no two
personal brands exactly alike.
Dick Bolles defines personal brand as the
answer to these three questions:
1. What makes you unique?
2. How do you express that uniqueness?
3. How do you gain a reputation so people
will understand that your uniqueness
makes you valuable to them?
Deliver
Discover
Develop
Distinguish
Discover
Your personal brand journey begins by getting a clear picture of who you are. Strong brands
know how to maximize their strengths to stand out from the crowd.
How do usually describe yourself? Professionally. Personally.
Discover
Think about three projects/events you are most proud of in your career. Using the CAR
(Challenge - Action - Results/ROI) method answer the following questions for each one.
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
Distill
Thinking about your top three proudest activities of your career from the previous page...
What strengths keep coming up?
What skills do you enjoy using as much as possible, regardless of the task?
What skills have you mastered, but would rather not use on a daily basis?
What skills are missing? What would you like to develop, but haven't had the time or
experience?
Validate
Just as you dont want to design a product without doing market research first, you dont want to
assume you know everything about your brand. After all, your brand is held in the minds of others,
so it is important to incorporate and know what they think. Do a simple survey of friends, family, and
colleagues and ask them about your strengths, attributes, and weaknesses. Use a free tool like
Survey Monkey so they can give you anonymous feedback, and youll get more accurate results.
!
What do you think your top five strengths are?
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
What do your colleagues, friends, family, etc. think are your top five strengths?
1. _________________________________________________________________________
2. _________________________________________________________________________
3. _________________________________________________________________________
4. _________________________________________________________________________
5. _________________________________________________________________________
Attributes
Select the top five (or write in) attributes you feel best describe you. Be sure to compare them to what others have said.
Acknowledging
Generous
Reserved
Adaptive
Grateful
Resilient
Aggressive
Gregarious
Resourceful
Analytical
Honest
Respectful
Assertive
Humorous
Rewarding
Change-ready
Initiator
Steady
Committed
Inspiring
Supportive
Communicator
Intuitive
Thorough
Compassionate
Kind
Thoughtful
Confident
Learner
Transparent
Consistent
Open-minded
Trusting
Contributor
Organized
Trustworthy
Creative
Outgoing
Unstructured
Deliberate
Passionate
Urgent
Driven
Perceptive
Wise
Educated
Positive
Other _____________________
Engaging
Precise
Other _____________________
Enthusiastic
Proactive
Other _____________________
Ethical
Quiet
Other _____________________
Evaluative
Relator
Other _____________________
Flexible
Reliable
Disadvantages
It is just as important to know what you're not good at so you can de-emphasize your
weaknesses and steer clear of situations that may bring them out.
What are your weaknesses that you are aware of?
When faced with an overwhelming obstacle what is most likely to cause you to give up?
What is the least successful project you have ever completed and what tripped you up?
Diminishing Disadvantages
Think about what weaknesses you would like to turn into strengths. The easy way to do this
is to think about how that weakness will impact your success. If you think it will, jot down
some notes on how to improve it. If not, then there is no need to focus on developing it.
Weakness
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Action Plan
Distinguish
Now that you have gone through some self-discovery, its time to start to define your findings
so you can distinguish yourself from your peers.
What themes came out of the pervious exercises?
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Demographics!
Age Range __________________________
Income ________________________________
Gender _____________________________
Location _______________________________
Education ______________________________
Psychographics!
What do they do in their spare time? ______________________________________________
What magazines/books do they read? ____________________________________________
What movies or TV shows do they watch? _________________________________________
What websites or portals do they visit? ____________________________________________
What do they do for vacation? ____________________________________________________
What are their professional activities outside of work? _______________________________
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What companies?
Yes No
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Develop
Congratulations, you made it through all the important prep work! You are now ready to
create your personal brand statement. Your personal brand statement should be brief, (one
sentence, if you can) clear, memorable, and solution oriented. Yes, that is a lot to pack into
one sentence, but it can be done.
!
Templates:
I help [target audience] verb [market needs] by [value].
I use my [unique attributes] to [value or purpose] for
[target audience].
!
Examples:
I help small to medium-sized businesses grow strong
brands and boost organic growth up to 27% by creating
marketing programs that speak to customer needs.
I use my passionate and empathetic approach to build
key relationships with customers that evolve into multi-year
contracts for high-tech corporations selling enterprise
software.
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Deliver
Now that you have your personal brand statement, you have a jumping off point for all your
future professional communications whether that is within your current office, or youre
creating your resume and LinkedIn profile. You can also use your branding statement as a
decision-making tool when considering options in your career. Always ask yourself if what
youre doing, or about to do, is on-brand.
Communications!
!
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360Reach
360Reach enables you to get the true story
about how you are perceived by those around
you. It gives you the insights you need so you
can build your brand and expand your success
and position yourself for your next career move.
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Additional Resources
Websites and Blogs!
Personal Branding Blog www.personalbrandingblog.com
Personal Branding Hub www.reachcc.com
How To Fascinate www.howtofascinate.com
Careerealism (Personal Brand section) www.careerealism.com/category/personal-brand
FishDogs Career Branding for Social Animals blog.fishdogs.com
!
Books!
Ditch. Dare. Do! By William Arruda and Deb Dib
Career Distinction by William Arruda and Kirsten Dixon
Promote Yourself The New Rules for Career Success by Dan Schwabel
The Twitter Job Search Guide by Susan Britton Whitcomb, Chandlee Bryan, & Deb Dib
Branding Pays: The Five-Step System to Reinvent Your Personal Brand by Karen Kang
Me 2.0: 4 Steps to Building Your Future by Dan Schwabel
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