by Early Jackson

On any given day, we expose our personal brand to people we may never have an actual conversation with. Whether you are a business owner, in a management position or a stay-home mother, you have a brand. Often we leave the task of ‘brand management’ to the large companies or professional athletes, but branding should be everyone’s concern.

Your brand is simply ‘the unwritten, unspoken promise of delivering excellence’. Who you are has little to do with what you say and more about what you do. All our lives we have been building a brand with our patterns of behavior and didn’t even know it. With the emergence of Google, people are now able to find out about you with a single ‘click’. Now more than ever it’s important to not only know your brand, but be the ultimate brand manager.

Here are a few branding tips to help you along:

* Know your own mission statement: Why are you here? What do you do? These are just a couple of questions that need to be answered about you. You have a small window of opportunity to express this to people as they hustle by in a busy society.

* Figure out who’s in your circle: We all have friends and associates we hang out with. But what we fail to do is assess who they are and how they benefit our lives. Without knowing it, you may have 3 to 4 people who have connections far beyond yours. If they are in your circle, you need to know who they know.

* Become a go-giver: What have you done for your community lately? To build a better brand for yourself, look for opportunities to serve others. We all have some time in our schedules to become active at a local shelter, a political cause or a hospital. Become known as a true giver.

* Make your word your bond: Your words reveal everything about you. You have to say what you mean, mean what you say and make yourself accountable for the difference. If your friends, family and business associates can’t trust your words, your brand is on life support. Learn to follow through on all your commitments.
People say it doesn’t matter what others think of them, but that’s just not true. We live in a world where decisions are made almost instantly about you. You have to care a little. That’s why protecting your brand has to become a high priority. After all, you never get a chance to make another first impression.

See you at the TOP!

*Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.