5 Ways to Kick-start Your Personal Brand Mr. Miyagi Style
Training for running a 10K or prepping for a karate tournament takes a ton of work. You have to create an exercise schedule, plan your meals, and survive the personal trainer you’re convinced is a sadist, who wants to run you down with his car. Just as you can’t participate in physical competitions without proper coaching, it is impossible to kick start your personal brand without a plan and a routine. Here are my 5 core exercises to high kick your brand into karate fighting form:
1. Launch a website under your brand name. Your name IS your brand. Pick your favorite domain name registration network (e.g. GoDaddy, Network Solutions) and buy the domain name. Build a simple site that outlines who you are right now. As a number of eastern philosophies teach – focus on the present and do you boo boo. Oh wait maybe that was Kevin Hart.
2. Wax On / Wax off: Take 40% of your time during the day and spend it making yourself more Visible. What better place to get the word out about your personal brand than your workplace? I know what you’re thinking – “Who has time for any of that nonsense? How am I supposed to actually Do My Job when you’re telling me that I’ve got to get out there and socialize? Think about it this way: spend about 60% of your day doing your actual job description (wax on). Spend the 40% left of your day chatting with your coworkers, backscratching, networking, and building your reputation (wax off). Once you get the hang of it your brand will be shiny and polished.
3. Create a personal advisory board. This board is your group of trusted mentors. A business mentor is a senior executive in or outside your company whom you ask, formally or informally, to guide you along your career path. Start slowly in building the relationship so that she wants to guide you and make sure you want to be guided by her! The dynamics are key to making it work for the both of you. Find a topic that you can jumpstart the relationship with and build from there. Maybe you both like the same MMA fighters, or watch the same TV show. You’d be amazed at how many strong business relationships start with, “Did you see the most recent episode of Chopped?” Quality over quantity is always the motto; you may have many mentors, but you need to make sure that each mentor is the absolute best for you and what you hope to accomplish and not just some crazy Asian man trying to get you to clean his car.
4. Have personal stationery so you can send handwritten notes. In a world of sloppy email communication, good stationery is a small investment for a long- term positive impression. It reflects your status as a classy, forward thinking, prepared, and a professional person. Handwritten notes are so rare in business exchanges. Sending one is a distinctive and elegant touch that will make you more memorable. Bonus points if you know how to write Chinese calligraphy but please don’t consider yourself a tattoo artist and make the wrong symbols permanent.
5. Take a class that will position you as an expert in something. Go to seminars, trade shows, and as many professional development classes as you possibly can. Get in those classes and sharpen those claws. Even if it is just a wise old man who wants you to redo his backyard in exchange for teaching you what turns out to be karate, it always pays off to have outside skills.
Follow this method, and I guarantee you’ll be whizzing past all those 10K runners and karate choppers on the expressway to personal branding title status.