Personal Branding

Personal branding is inevitably the hottest topic right now, especially during the lockdown period. This is the least you can do to maximize your value, as internet visibility is virtually available to everyone.

Whether you are aware of it or not, you and I, and everybody else, we all have a brand we carry on all the time. But not everyone is equally good at marketing themselves and utilizing the potential of this personal brand.

Entrepreneurs, mentors, motivational speakers, online coaches alike (Richard Branson, Tony Robbins, Gary Vaynerchuk, Vince Tan, Dan Lok, Christiano Ronaldo), actors, and public figures have put in alot of effort to build a strong personal brand that replaces their business card. This personal brand allows them to reinforce their influence and popularity in the eye of public masses.

So, let me explain what is a Personal Brand.

Basically, day in day out, all that we do and say will eventually affect how others 'view' us. A personal brand is an impression of our character, skills, talents and passions in life and how they are seen by people around us.

The secrets of building a solid personal brand include concepts of uniqueness, excellence, and authenticity. This celebrates and enhances the aspects of our image that make us who we want to be.

Regardless of whether we're intentionally building that image we want the world to perceive, or let things take their own course, we all carry a personal brand. For example if you're recommended for a job by somebody you know, acquire new customer through a referral, or are invited to speak at an event, that is the 'consequence' of your personal brand.

People have naturally created a positive mental picture of your work, skills, talents, and is letting that mental picture influence their decisions. (That's why it's important to create values in society).

Your personal brand is something that you can project, but not entirely have control on. A single misstep could cause huge impact on your image and destroy your reputation. What this means is that your damaged reputation will destroy any chances of new opportunities even before they emerge.

The Potential of Good Visual

In the effort of building a successful personal brand, there are numerous elements involved. The first step in establishing a solid foundation for our personal brand is to tap into the genuine qualities from which our character and personality stem, such as our unique values and passions. When we have an image we want to project to the world, we can start outlining our personal branding strategy and taking advantage of the many tools available around us in this 21st century.

Let me give you some examples. It can be your creativity, credibility, professional visual representation (through photos, colors, design, email signature, etc.), a strong online presence, being memorable, and being consistent. It’s crucial to carefully plan out how you’re going to implement each element and then connect all of them into a coherent ‘story’. As a photographer, let's focus on one of the most important element. The importance of visual communication and, in particular, the impact of professional photography for your personal brand. So, a professionally done portrait is important!

Our brain is a complicated, genius, and highly technical visual instrument. Do you know, there are about 35,000 remotely conscious decisions we make everyday? These are mostly driven by visual cues – from the cloths we wear in the morning, to the lunch we eat, and the cars we purchase after receiving our bonus. Some of these decisions have become our natural habits, and that is why some decisions we make we may not even be aware of them. And decisions we make can also be influenced by past experiences, personal taste, trends or external factors, such as marketing and advertising. Do you know, why do we choose a Mercedes over Proton? Or have your portraiture photographed by Michael Boon, and not some other freelancer? This is because we, as human, instinctively, choose what to eat, buy, and use, with our eyes first. This is what we called, first impressions. Let's be honest, it takes us less than a minute to form an impression of someone. So, please take note that first impression matters ALOT, and your personal branding is the first impression in this modern era, where everything is available virtually and digitally.

LIKE IT OR NOT, Personal Brand IS The Future

To recap, personal brand is the first impression that represents a person, rather than a company. For example, when it comes to company brand, Golden Arch is the brand of...? McDonalds. And how would people associate with that? Cheap fast foods, delicious, high standards, best french fries, you name it.

So, the key to this is to think about how you want to be seen by people, and what associations you want to build around your name. If you're a private hospital doctor, you would want to be associated with good clinical practice, high standards, professionalism, tidy clinic, and etc.

With our professional personal branding portrait photography, we will make your portrait more engaging to your targeted audience. A good personal branding portrait should tell a story of your background, what business you are in, and how your business brings value to your clients. We will incorporate these good qualities into the mind of your audiences who view your portraits.

This blog post is written based on thenextweb.com.

Thanks and see you in the next blog post.