b'Personal Branding 101: Get Noticed. Be Remembered By Krista Clive-Smith, Featured Speaker at SEFAs recent SDLS YOURPERSONALIMAGE,THEONEYOUGREETTHEIn more recent times, marketers have co-opted the term to WORLDWITHEVERYDAY,SPEAKSVOLUMESABOUTdescribe the process of searing an image into the minds YOU. of consumers through the consistent use of a companys logo, slogan or tagline, marketing materials, and advertising Your clothes, your hairstyle, even the color of your homescopy.walls and the pictures you hang in your oce may seem insignicant,butareinfactquitetheopposite.EachButitsmorethanjustthat.Brandingisnotstrictlya contributesto,orcontaminatesyourpersonalbrand.function of the marketing department of a business. Think Togethertheyreectyourpersonalityandshapeothersofyourowndrycleaningbusiness.Thebrandmustbe perceptions of you. infused into every ber of the organizations being and must bechampionedbyeveryoneinvolved,regardlessofthe OprahWinfrey.Bono.EllenDeGeneres.Madonna.leveltheyworkatwithinthecompany.Theperson MahatmaGandhi.TaylorSwift.PrincessDiana.Motheransweringthephoneisasresponsibleforthewaythe Teresa. Lady Gaga. For better or worse, these people arebrand is perceived in the marketplace as are the glossy ads distinctly individual and easily recognized. They celebratepromoting the product.their uniqueness and understand both their strengths and their weaknesses. Highly self-aware, theyve designed andThus,brandingistrulyachievedthroughtheconsistent cultivated a personal image that consciously magnies theirexperienceconsumershavewithacompany,orits mostadmirableandidiosyncraticqualities.Theydontproducts or services. The denition of a brand varies from attempttohidetheirweaknesses,andtheresultistheirmarketer to marketer, but I dene it as:true selves shining through, without fear of exposure. No wonder we call these people stars: they sparkle and shineThe entire set of perceptions, whether true or untrue, that a with inner radiance and condence. personholdsaboutanindividual,company,productor service.Regardless of age, regardless of position, regardless of the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understandNotice whether true or untrue. Lets face it: were human theimportanceofbranding.WeareCEOsofourownbeings. While the old adage about not judging a book by its companies:Me,Inc.Tobeinbusinesstoday,ourmostcovermightsoundgoodintheory,inrealityitsrarely important job is to be head marketer for the brand calledapplied.You.When youre browsing through books, how do you decide - Tom Peters, in Fast Company whichonetobuy?Youmaybelookingforabookon branding, for example and nd several on the subject. You WHAT IS BRANDING? pick them up, one by one, and read the back cover. But In a traditional sense, branding refers to ranchers searing ayou dont pick up every single book in the section, do you? uniquesymbol(specictotheirranch)ontothehidesofChances are you only picked up the books that appealed to theircattle.Thestampisanidentier;itestablishesyou when you looked at the front cover.ownership and marks the ranchers territory to the outside world.PERSONAL BRANDINGPersonal branding is like designing the jacket for the Book When the ranchers cattle are shown to prospective buyersof You. The goal is to design a cover that accurately depicts or judges, the brand suddenly represents more than justthe content of the text, so that readers know what type of someones property: it symbolizes all of the quality controlbook theyre buying. Authentic personal branding works the standardsandranchingphilosophiesoftheowner.Oversame way, by externally reecting your true inner essence.time, the ranch builds a reputation based on the level ofWhile a brand is the entire set of perceptions that a person quality and value it consistently delivers. holds,theactofbrandingisaboutproactivelyshaping those perceptions.Midwest Drycleaning & Laundry Institutewww.MWDLI.org / 765-969-5745 4'