This episode is the last of our three-part series on personal branding. 

So as a reminder, two weeks ago in the first episode in this series, we talked about how to create your brand reputation *on purpose*. That one was all about being intentional about what kind of brand experience you create when you work with others. Meaning, what it’s like for your colleagues and boss to work with you. This is about the things you do day in and day out which, over time, creates the reputation you develop within your career.

And *last* week, we talked about how to create your personal brand positioning statement. This is all about getting clear on who you are, what matters to you and what you uniquely offer that is different from others. It’s about defining your unique strengths and attributes – the things that set you apart from everyone else – and aligning them with what your employer or clients are looking for from you. Its typically one sentence the succinctly and powerfully sums up who you are and what you have to offer. 

There are so many ways this comes in handy. 

I encourage my clients to use this sentence as the lead headline on their resume. 

I teach them how to story tell around the statement during interviews. 

And it's also a very helpful filter for evaluating all kinds of things – from potential jobs to the types of companies, cultures or bosses best align with who you are – and ultimately it helps to direct the thing we’re going to talk about today which if your brand image. 

So, if you haven’t listened to those two episodes yet, you might want to go back and give them a listen. Because they’re going to offer you so many practical tips on how to get clear on who you are and what you have to offer.  

But today I want to talk about a third important aspect of personal branding which is, how to cultivate an intentional brand image. 

Which means, how to define and curate the image you project to the world. Not because you’re trying to get anyone else’s approval or conform to anyone’s narrow standard of how you should look. 

Just the opposite.

When you cultivate a brand image that truly reflects who you are, it creates feelings of confidence. Pride. Empowerment.  

And as we’ve shared before on this podcast, when you feel positive emotions, that leads you to take positive actions and you’ll get positive results. So, when you feel proud of the image you’re projecting in the world – when you truly feel that how you’re presenting yourself is a reflection of YOU – everything you feel and do will be about delivering the kinds of results you want in your life.

So, before we get into the episode, I want to go a little deeper on what I shared a second ago.

What we’re going to discuss about your personal brand image is NOT about pleasing anyone else or conforming to anyone else’s view of how you should look. 

It’s not intended to be any sort of statement about what’s acceptable or what’s not. 

And it’s not intended to make any sort of statement about any aspect of what makes each of us unique and special. So, we’re not talking gender identity, race, age, body type, ethnicity, or any other attribute.

But what we ARE going to talk about today is WHY we need to be intentional about how we choose to present ourselves to the world. And then how to go about doing that.

For more, give the episode a listen.

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