The Importance of Personal Branding | Brian Tracy

Your job is to do your job really well. Continually think every day how you could be better than you were yesterday. Hello, I'm Brian Tracy and today I want to show you how your personal brand plays a crucial role to your success. One of the things I've learned over the years is that people may have tremendous potential, but because of the way they are perceived by others, the way other people look at value, think and talk about them, they never get a chance to use that potential. So I began to study what it is about branding. An image that sets you up to be successful and far faster than most other people. Let me define a brand. First, a brand is basically a promise. When you have a brand, it's a promise that you make and are known for keeping to the person who you are asking or trying to influence. Human beings decide emotionally and justify logically. If you have a good personal brand, people are willing to pay you more for your product or service and argue less. A brand always begins with your values. What do you stand for? Quality? Excellence. Responsiveness. Teamwork. Innovation. Leadership. Then when you're clear about these, you build a tremendous personal brand by starting with the principle of integrity. There's no better reputation you can have other than for people to say that when they do business with you, you always fulfill your promises. The answer for success is to do what you've been hired to do and do it now. This expands into every area of your interactions with others. Here's the rule. Everything counts. Everything that you do either creates and builds your brand or weakens and destroys your brand. Everything counts. So let's look at the eight laws of branding. The first law of branding is the law of specialization. It means that you have to focus your brand on one area of achievement. You cannot be all things to everyone. You can choose to specialize either in your line of work, your product, your company or industry, the media, your community, etc. But you have to be focused like a laser beam on one thing. People have to be able to describe you simply and clearly to others. The second law is the law of leadership. You have to be recognized and acknowledged as one of the most knowledgeable, respected or skilled people in your field. So one of the things you ask yourself is, where do I want to be a leader in my field? The third law of branding is the law of personality. Your brand must be built around your personality in all its aspects, including flaws. Now here's a question for you. What would be the best personality brand for you to have? Here's an the Australian who wrestles crocodiles if you wanted people to describe you in a particular way, what would be a good way for them to describe you? The next law is the law of distinctiveness. Once you have created your personal brand, you have to express it in a unique way. For example, I knew a woman who sends a thank you card with a dried flower inside. When you open it, it falls out. That little sort of thing is what makes people remember her for months and even years after meeting her. Maybe you will sign your name in a particular way or dress in a particular style. I know another person who always wears red. So how can you be distinctive and stand out from all of your competitors? The fifth law is the law of visibility. To be effective, your personal brand must be seen repeatedly and consistently. When you form a brand in a way, you're getting into show business. If you're not out there talking to people, networking, getting involved, it doesn't do you any good. So be out there where people see you all the time. Very often people will hire you, buy from you, recommend you for no other reason than they have seen you around a lot. The sixth law is the law of utility. Your behavior behind closed doors must match your public brand. It's completely destroying of a person's brand to find out that he or she is mean to people in private. One of the greatest brand claims you can get is that people say that you are always the same on the outside as you are on the inside. The next law of branding is the law of persistence. Once you've established your personal brand, give it time to grow, stick with your brand and ignore fads, trends, changes. In other words, be consistent all the time. The final law of branding is the law of goodwill. The more you are perceived as well intentioned or embodying valued ideals, the more influential your brand will be. Have a positive personal brand that people look up to and admire. Here's what you do. We call this back from the future thinking. Ask yourself if three years from now, if they were going to do a study on me and come back with a report on the kind of person I was, the way I treated other people, how people talked about me, my reputation and my position in the hearts and minds of others, what words would I want them to to use? Of all the words that they could use, what would be the one word that would help you more than anything else in your field? It's really a work of brilliance to pick a word that will be your leading attribute. What word should people use to describe your superb brand? The next step is asking yourself what could I do differently from now on so that people think of me like this all the time? Remember, a brand is a promise you make. It's saying that if you interact with me, get involved with me, buy from me, sell with me, go out with me, and so on. This is the kind of person that you will get. This is the kind of person that you will experience. Now, is it hard to develop a reputation for always doing what you say you will do no matter what? Yes, it is. But what difference does it make in your life? People who have a positive personal brand get jobs much easier. They are hired faster, they are paid more. They are promoted faster than people who don't because the first thing people do is check your reputation, your personal brand. Now if you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable if in teaching you about setting yourself up for success, share it with your friends or anyone else who might benefit from this information. Before we wrap up, I'd like to leave you with a thought to share with your friends and followers. Your job is to do your job really well. Continually think every day how you could be better than you were yesterday. Now I'd like to hear from you. So my question today is when people hear your name, what words do you want them to think about? What words do you want them to associate with you? Leave a comment below and I'll be sure to follow up with you. Thanks for watching. And remember, if you want to change your future, take action. And take action now. If you enjoyed this video and feel it was valuable in teaching you about setting yourself up for success, subscribe to my channel like this video and share this video with your friends and click the button on the screen for a free gift. Thank you again for watching.