Personal Branding Master Class 101 With Sir. Eric Seyram A. ( Differentiate Your Self)

Don’t think about yourself as a job title; and as one of them. Think about yourself as a unique selling brand.

Are you a lawyer, an accountant, a banker, a doctor, a teacher, a musician, or an entrepreneur? Are you just one of them? And you are thinking, oh I have a career that will last me a life time and make me all the money I need. Think again. Well am sure you will realize that you are not the only one in that profession. Perhaps there are, and will be many more new entrants into your profession and area of work.

If you are a student, or a graduate looking for a job, you will know that, there is a high rate of Graduate Unemployment: In Ghana for instance, the public sector employs less than a million of the over 20 million population and it’s the same phenomenon across the world.

There is also a high level of Academic Cloning: and for each course or subject area of study, thousands of students come out of different universities every year with the same knowledge base and certificates, with no differentiating factor. What guarantees your success beyond the certificates?

The bar will keep getting raised high and higher: this is evidenced from the Glut of post graduate qualifications available on offer from all universities these days,

We are witnessing International competition for jobs, where people travel from different countries with variety of qualifications, backgrounds and experiences to come look for that same job u looking for.

Need I say? Start differentiating yourself today. Look apart and stand tall, if you want to secure your future success, happiness and security.

One of the most important elements of your personal brand is differentiation. What makes you stand out from everyone else who seemingly does what you do?

If you think of yourself as a job title then there are lots of people who do exactly what you do. So what will make someone chose you over others? If who you are, what you have and offer is the same as everyone else, then your potential client or employer will choose the next person who will accept the least salary or fee to come work for them.

But when you offer something that is uniquely available only from you, many will be willing to pay you a premium for that.

They will need to go out of their way to work on your terms, because they need what it is that you have. You need to start thinking of differentiation as a key element of your personal brand.

We see this all the time in product brands. Many people are willing to pay a premium for a well differentiated brand with added values than for an ordinary product.

Remember that today, most people buy brands but not just the core product.

Think about yourself as a brand and in the same terms as those product brands you, your family and friends love with passion and always ready to pay hugely for.

A great way off getting to that differentiation is to undertake a personal brand audit.

Take a sheet of paper, draw a line through it, write same on the top left and different on the top right. And then think about your friends, colleagues and your peers, all those people who have the same goals as you.

And For all those things that are the same with you as them, write them down. It may be that you have the same number of qualifications; you went to the same schools. And perhaps you all are looking for that well-paying job

When that is done, please go ahead and then write those things that differentiate you from all of them.

Chances are that your differentiation will be more of personality characteristics and attributes, talents, skills, life experiences and more. Perhaps, you speak three languages, you lived in four countries, you always like to make things fun.

Know that talent pays but talent is not enough. Nature it, hone it to blossom.

Identify those things that make you different. Know your Strengths and weaknesses in order to convert the threats around you into opportunities.

And once you know those differentiators, you need to ask yourself, out of all these, what is compelling to your target audience. What will make them wanting to work with you, get them interested in who you are?

Those will be elements of your brand that you would have to highlight as the core of your personal brand architecture and integrate into every personal brand activity and communication that you do.

So remember today that Personal Brand differentiation is absolutely key as a winning formula.

Don’t think about yourself as a job title; and as one of them. Think about yourself as a unique selling brand ready to create value.