business

Personal Branding Steps

Ideas and Resources

Notes

Action Items/Goals

1. Identify your strengths and competencies. These are part of your brand

· Your combined skills, passions, competencies and overall strengths are what make up your brand. These are your unique assets that inform our career choices and influence others perceptions about who we are and what we “bring to the table.”

· View Identifying Your Strengths (LinkedIn Learning video, 3m 26s)

· For additional thoughts and identifying strengths, ask your friends, family, colleagues these questions. They can help describe strengths in you that you may or may not be aware of.

To identify your strengths, here are some questions to think about:

· What are the strengths that others acknowledge in me?

· When working in a team, what roles do I seek to fulfill?

· When faced with an obstacle, what are my go-to skills to overcome it?

· What was the most successful project I ever tackled and what made me successful?

· What was the most important team role I ever fulfilled and why?

To take a deeper dive into your strengths, here are some additional questions to think about:

· What strengths and skills come up over and over again?

· Which skills excite/motivate me the most?

· Which strengths and skills are going to be most helpful in achieving my career goals?

· What skills are missing that I need to build on?

Complete LinkedIn Learning Strengths video

Identify your top strengths and give a specific example of how you have used the strength within your work and/or academic experience(s).

Ex: Adaptability, handled department restructure adapting to new responsibilities, tasks, and expectations.

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2. Develop a strong elevator pitch

· First impressions are key. The first place to start in crafting your brand is developing your elevator pitch.

· Your elevator pitch is your 30 second introduction that highlights relevant facts about your competencies, accomplishments, strengths and/or experiences.

· Your elevator pitch is something that is fluid and should be adapted based on your audience.

· Learn more on Developing Power Elevator Pitches (LinkedIn Learning video, 4m 3s)

Ideas to help you build your elevator pitch. Here are some ideas of what to focus on:

· Greeting – the who you are

· Your Experience - accumulated experience in your specific industry and relevant academic work

· Areas of Expertise - your major skill categories

· Competencies - specific skills that you possess

· Your Professional Style - traits and characteristics that describe how you approach work

· Accomplishments - that emphasize your strengths

· Career Intentions - what you want to do with your experience to potentially include in your pitch

Develop a 30 second elevator pitch

3. Craft your brand story

· Combine your elevator pitch with your strengths to create your branding story.

· Watch Creating your Brand Story (LinkedIn Learning video, 3m 3s) *

Write your elevator pitch:

Add your strengths/competencies:

The conclusion or the what you are seeking:

Create your brand story.

Start practicing your elevator pitch combined with your selected strengths with your friends, mentor(s), course instructors, family, etc.

The more you can practice selling you and articulating your strengths the more familiar and ready you will be to do it for a current or future employer.

4. Identify the artifacts that showcase your competencies/strengths and build your portfolio

Artifacts are the tangible pieces that demonstrate your competencies, skills and strengths. These collective artifacts make up your career portfolio.

Watch how to develop a strong career portfolio here (Panopto video, 5min)

How to Select Academic & Professional Development Artifacts (pdf)

These artifacts or portfolio pieces change based on your audience. It is important to identify artifacts that align to your various strengths/competencies. Essentially, these portfolio pieces are the “proof” to the strengths that you say you have.

Identify 5 artifacts that align to the strengths you have mentioned in step 1.

Practice articulating how those strengths are shown through the tangible portfolio piece.