3 Personal Brand Must - Haves To Unleash The Leader In You!

It’s not too late to start dreaming and thinking of ways to shift your personal brand strategy to support your career and leadership goals. Here are 3 ways to power up your brand to scale your career or business and maximise your results.

1. Get Brand Ready Emotionally To Ride The Waves Of Self Doubt, Fear Or Uncertainty!

Building a powerful and profitable personal brand and public profile for many women in leadership can seem a daunting process.  

The very thought of putting yourself out there as a female leader can bring up many emotions and challenges, including feelings of self-doubt, overwhelm and frustration as you struggle to identify what your personal brand means and then clearly articulate it to the world in an authentic way.

There’s no special secret to help you avoid the emotional roller coaster ride you will inevitably endure when first starting your personal brand and image development. Even seasoned professionals, successful industry leaders and women of influence ride waves of self-doubt, fear and uncertainty. 

Especially today, there is so much expectation for female leaders to have a voice and stand out from the crowd. In fact, according to Forbes, “new research suggests that to thrive in your career, your branding must be even more unique than you may have thought.” 

So how’s the pressure?! The reality is, you must get emotionally ‘brand ready’ and mentally prepared for the courageous leap you are about to take to power up your online public profile and create a profitable commercial identity.  

The emotional ups and downs are part of being an authentic female leader today and shouldn’t be underestimated.

Your ability to remain focused, determined and confident to reach your full potential as a leader can depend on it. They will ultimately empower your image and help you build a resilient growth mindset and reputation backed by unique experiences, wisdom, and insights that will enrich your brand, vision, and leadership capabilities. 

How To Get Emotionally And Mindset Ready To Build Your Personal Brand?

• Consistently challenge your status quo:  Start doing one thing every day that challenges you and forces you to get comfortable being uncomfortable, pushing yourself outside your comfort zone.
• Show the world you’re ready to dream BIG and stop playing small! Share your ultimate brand vision, career, business or leadership goal with 5 close colleagues, a mentor, clients or some of your clients and connections to get it out there! Sharing your vision of success will make it real, tangible and potentially solicit support from like-minded people and businesses.

I still remember the exact moment I told a work colleague my ambition to be “a motivational speaker to empower women” like it was yesterday. It was both scary and liberating. But it made my vision real and gave it a heart beat when I dared to voice my ambition out loud!

You might also want to check out: Creating An Entrepreneurial Mindset As A Female Leader

2. Create Systems And Structure To Show Up Consistently, Grow Your Impact And Brand Awareness. No Buts About It! 

The reality is crafting a credible and meaningful personal brand doesn’t happen overnight. Building a strong brand and image will also stretch you in time, resources and consistency. 

Successful leadership develoment is a gradual, consistent evolution that you must start thinking about today to achieve your long term career goals and dreams.  

It’s your willingness to take a no excuses approach that will build successful outcomes. But that also means implementing success rituals and positive habits to support your vision.

Tips For Effcetive Systems And Structures To Build A Powerful Personal Brand.

• Manage and grow your database as it is gold! It is of no real brand value for you to only store contacts in your Outlook contact book! If you haven’t already, create a formalised database of colleagues, clients, industry leaders, networks, and other women in business to upload and manage in a CRM platform to tag, categorise and gain insights into the behaviour and engagement of your contacts. This can take time to establish, so start now! Having a database of qualified contacts and leads will enable you to connect, share, promote and GIVE to your clients, followers or target audience. 
• Establish an online home base for your personal brand and public profile:  If you don’t have a digital platform or place you can call home online to represent all things brand you, you risk being obsolete! And I don’t just mean having an online bio on your company or business website or a digital CV. This just doesn’t cut it in today’s leadership landscape if you want to grow your authority, impact and influence.  

So choose a place where you can Be Seen, Be Heard and Be Noticed by the right people in the right way. A place where you are comfortable showing up constantly and can easily manage your online profile, add content, update regularly, start conversations, and share your unique insights and ideas. Establishing this early will help you grow your digital footprint as your brand and image evolve and maximise your SEO.

• Plan when and how you will show up consistently to engage, communicate and share your gifts, and values with others.  So you have a database and a home base for your online personal brand. Now you need a plan and strategy to maintain and sustain your brand’s image, executive presence and value using these assets.  

Get clear on the intention and your brand and leadership goals. Then design yearly and 90 Day Brand Success plans to help you strategically position your brand, amplify your impact, as well as help others to grow and thrive in their careers or businesses too.  

Fortnightly (or at least monthly) emails to your database are valuable to nurture your contacts and remain relevant, connected, and top of mind. Adding blogs, articles, long-form posts, and free helpful information, insights or free downloads on your home base will help consistently and intentionally integrate your messages, generate leads, grow your brand awareness, influence, and credibility with your target audience. 

Learn more: How Passion is the Key To Power Up Your Personal Brand (and Self-Empowerment!)

3. Gather Your Support Team And Get Guidance To Build Your Brand And Reach Your Goals!

Enlisting proper support and guidance is massively overlooked when most professional women, small business owners or female entrepreneurs, but it is hugely beneficial to growing your brand and image and sharing empowerment principles.  In fact, I should have moved this must- have branding tip right to the top of my list!

Frustration from lack of direction, know-how, motivation and self doubt can be a huge confidence killer for most female leaders and it can affect the impact of your brand and image in ways you don’t even realise! It can affect your energy, the way you show up in your life and as a leader as well as other people’s perception of you. It can also prevent you from thriving and reaching your full potential as a more empowered female leader.  

So what to do about it? 

Two Essential Things Your Personal Brand Needs.

• Learn how to delegate, get specialised help or guidance when you need it. You may struggle with delegating, but it is not only a characteristic of a good leader; it’s an enormous strength for building a highly profitable and powerful personal brand.

Many people start all inspired about building a profitable brand and commercial identity only to find their motivation wanes as they realise they are struggling to maintain and sustain their online image and presence.

Before you hit burnout mode, seek extra guidance and support in critical areas of your brand that aren’t your strengths so you can concentrate on the areas that you love the most and thrive at. 

You can take find out more about your brand’s weaknesses and what to do about them by taking the Brand Strength Test

If you aren’t tech-savvy or don’t have time to learn how to manage your database and send out regular emails to nurture your contacts, enlist someone to help you.

If you need help writing a powerful LinkedIn summary or backstory for your About Page on your website, engage a copywriter to craft a powerful narrative. Or sign up for one of the best online personal branding courses available to help you gain greater clarity around who you are, what you stand for, and how to position yourself as an industry leader. 

• Invest in a 1-1 personal brand and business coach or a trusted mentor: And finally, the ultimate source for you to guarantee your brand mastery is to invest in a brand and business coach or a trusted small business mentor who can design personalised and high-level personal brand and leadership strategies for you to grow a world-class signature brand.

If you’re serious about getting cut through and amplifying your impact for instant wins as well as long term success, this is the best investment you can make for ‘project you’.

I have invested in some of the best business coaches for female entrepreneurs in my life and career who have been instrumental in guiding and supporting my vision and success and have been hugely valuable in gaining clarity and fast-tracking my own brand and business results. 

Check out : Bummer, Nobody Knows Who You Are? How To Build Your Build Brand Awareness + Free Guide 

Ready To Make An Impact With Your Personal Brand Online?

As one of Australia’s top personal branding coaches and image consultants specializing in image and brand building and enhancing your executive presence, I can help you brand your coaching business and develop an authentic personal brand!

In my Woman of Confidence Members’ Club, I help female leaders unleash their highest potential with the help of my effective personal brand strategies and tools!