Have you ever thought of yourself as a personal brand? Why is branding even important? Well to start, let me try to explain what is branding and why you should consider your self as a brand. Branding really is the emotional reaction you get when you hear or think about anything or anyone. This emotional reaction will distinguish you from the crowd and set you on your path to achieve greatness. Weather or not you like it, you're already a brand and you can choose to manage it effectively and reap the rewards or you can continue to play around the way you use to and get the same results. I am assuming you will choose the former rather than the latter because you're a leader and leaders "LEAD". Here are three reasons youth leaders should consider personal branding.
1) It forces you to create your very own value system -
Personal branding starts with knowing who you are internally (what you stand for) and what you want to be known for. By understanding who you are, you put your self in the position for people to value you and that's where the magic begins. You become valuable not because you know who you are, but because you practice who you are and what you want to be known for and it is consistently being applied across all the platforms you interact with. When all this comes together, then your brand brings value to peoples lives by the stories you create. By knowing who you are, you will create a value system whether consciously or unconsciously to guide you in your professional endeavors. You can live out your value system through your personal brand.
2) It sets you apart from the crowd at networking events -
As youth leaders, you will be at various events in which you will be required to present your best self. By steering your offline and online actions to be in lined with who you are way before you even go to your first networking event, you can genuinely be content meeting new people without feeling like you're deceitful or trying to make up a persona. Personal Branding will set you apart from the crowd and other youth leaders. Branding is synonyms with success and people like to associate with success.
3) It helps you to stay focus -
It is very disappointing to see youth leaders with so much potential being all over the place. Yesterday they were about helping the less fortunate kids, today its about starting ten different business to get rich quick and tomorrow its feeding homeless kids and teaching girls how to sing. Having a passion for business is good and so is helping the less fortunate, in fact they can be done together if that's what your personal brand is about. However, what is your true focus? whenever someone thinks about you as a specialist, what will come to mind? Personal branding will keep you in line once you fully understand it so you can tell an effective story. It will position you in the best light so your colleagues can refer you to amazing opportunities.
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