This is our new program BUILD YOUR OWN BRAND designed for individuals to prepare their new journeys in 2019!
How did it start? Well one day, my client came to me and said "I need a session with you and I'm not sure what I want". That's it, and we started from there! We decided to begin with a topic "I want to sell myself!".
This program is not about how to market yourself on social media, but what you need to prepare before you market yourself. It is not about packaging yourself as a brand, but be your own brand. Once you know who you really are, what you are good at, how you actually make it, and why you love doing it, you will be very confident in being yourself and be able to find a pitch to "sell" yourself.
Day 1 - IDENTIFY YOUR BRAND
If you want to sell yourself, it's all about how special you are and what's your story about (in other words - why people want to hire you?). And that's what we did. I gave her a set of LEGO to start building:
A tower about yourself
Basically a foundation of your own story.
In this case, my client is movable, look after people, stable and strong, a big flower lover representing she is very positive, like to see the beauty of others, and she is very good at collaboration and coordination.
Next, build The strength(s) you bring to your work
Build as many as you can yet be realistic. It could be a skill, value, knowledge or culture that you bring to your work.
In this case, my client is a quick fixer, an initiator and a problem solver at work.
Add in your X-factor(s)
The best part of this exercise, that is to add in, based on what you have already built, your skills or hobbies that the others don't know about!
It could be a language you speak at home, you play violin, you are a swimmer, you are a Star War nerd, you plant all your vegetables or you simply do haircut for your kids. These X-factors that seem totally unrelated to your work, actually totally related.
In this case, my client finishes reading a book every week (wait, that is 52 books a year?) and she sometimes do multiple books at the same time. She uses music/song to label and track her memories (records). She is a game winner. How do you relate all these X-factors to your work?
As a coach here, it's not just about what she shared during the session, but what questions I asked in order to deepen the understanding of herself, have a reality check, and be a sounding board of her ideas. I always like the concept of Gold Circle by Simon Sinek and I love to work backwards from what you do, how do it and why you do it! Then people would realize that what they do everyday or what they are good at, there is always a reason. That's the WHY you can be very comfortable to sell in the market. Now it makes sense.
It was such a powerful 1.5-hour session and she had more than enough to start her pitch. Let's meet next time on:
Day 2 - Grow with your brand, and
Day 3 - Be your brand
Stay tuned! Set a goal for your special 2019. Happy holiday!
