It's easy to dislike selling, or even the idea of it. I will never forget my first experience as a 12-year-old newspaper salesman who needed desperately to help my mother and grandmother who were raising eight of us, me being the oldest. I would go out early in the morning and run my route. But to make more money I had to sell more subscriptions. It was cold in Philadelphia and I dreaded the cold calls (man were they cold), but I persisted. In less than six months I ended up selling the most new subscriptions and winning a trip to New York City. You can imagine my excitement when I was on top of the Empire State Building and got to see the Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall.
I realized that living was selling, and what I was really selling was myself. My customers were buying me. They liked that I was always polite, I went out of my way to make sure the papers were on their steps, and if it rained I would wrap the papers in plastic and put them inside their doors. My brand,"The Newspaper Boy Who Cared," traveled throughout the neighborhood.
Children are natural salespeople. They know how to work their parents to take a trip to Disney, get permission for a sleepover, buy the toys they want at Christmas, and even get a nicer bike and maybe a nicer car, or if you were as lucky as I was, a hand-me-down old slant six Chevy with the floor rotting out. Children sell themselves with their cute smiles and special hugs. Who can deny the batting eyes of a little girl? Above all, it is about who you really are. Personal branding is your unique value proposition. It is your calling card.
Building your personal brand is a real gut-level exercise in what is really important to you. Personal branding is sometimes very difficult. If you're not someone who enjoys examining yourself, you may need to get help with your personal brand strategy. Personal branding is the most important thing you can ever do for yourself, your career, your business and your family. It's a way of knowing who you are so others can understand what you are about.
Personal branding is an ongoing, potentially ever-changing process. As your vision changes, as your strategy changes, as your hopes and your dreams change, so will your personal branding statements, if ever so slightly. Personal branding is based on what's REALLY important to YOU, not to me, not to your boss, not to your customers, not to your clients, or your wife, but to YOU! It's called PERSONAL BRANDING for a reason. It's personal and it's your brand.
Personal Branding is not ... It is not a tag line or a slick commercial based on what you think people want to hear. Personal branding is honest, authentic and unique to you. Ralph Waldo Emerson says, "Insist on yourself; never imitate. ... Every great man is unique."
Personal branding is not a one-time event. It is an ongoing process that you develop based on what you want yourself to be known for, and how you want others to know you. Listen to what others say about you, and if it fits, put it into your brand. Personal branding is not a "silver bullet" to "cure what ails you." Personal branding must be matched with authentic, consistent actions that, over time, get repeated back to you. Personal branding is as much about what OTHERS say you are as what YOU say you are. But it starts with some tough personal assessment to come up with a clear, crisp and concise brand statement. It is about YOU, INC.
