What makes you different?

As of this moment you should start thinking of yourself differently. You are not a staff, employee or worker belonging to some company or the other. You are not defined by your job title and you are not confined to your job description.

Start today: You are a brand

You are every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi or a body shop. To get yourself to think like your own brand manager, you can start by asking yourself the same questions brand managers  of Nike and Coke etc ask themselves. What is it that my product or service does that makes it different? Challenge yourself to define your answer in 15 words or less, take time to write it down. And then take time to read it to yourself several times.

Your answer needs to have one or all of three effects: light up the eyes of your prospective clients, command a vote of confidence from your satisfied past client or most importantly grab you. If it doesn’t then you are in a big problem.

It is time to give some serious thought and effort to imagining and developing yourself as a brand.

Identifying the qualities and characteristics that make you distinctive from others (your competitors and your colleagues) is one way to start that cannot be over emphasized. What have you done lately…this week…to make yourself stand out?

What would your colleagues or your customers say is your greatest and clearest strength? Your most noteworthy (as in worthy of note) personal trait?

Finally, after all ask yourself one more question to define your brand: What do you want to be famous for? Yeah … that’s right…famous for!