At New Years we often make resolutions, deciding to become a better version of ourselves.
That might be eating healthier, quitting sweets or smoking, activities that build us up, being around those who make us happier, starting the day more grateful or simply dropping a dress size.
These are all great personal goals.
Did you know there are simple ways you can also plan your goals for your personal brand for the year ahead too?
This will help you follow the same process instantly recognisable brands like Coca-Cola, MCDonalds and Nike use to stay relevant and recognised.
Here are the six focus areas you might want to consider for your personal brand this year:
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Physical
How do you want to show up in 2020?
How do you see yourself?
Did you know people are naturally attracted to attractive people?
I don't mean you need to look like an adonis, or a supermodel, but you need to consider your appearance, style, brand colours and the energy you bring into people's lives.
You could decide to focus on being more upbeat, positive, fun, authoritative, inclusive, or simply making more effort to ensure your personal brand is recognised instantly because you are more consistent with how you appear.
Perhaps have a chat to a stylist, review your brand colours and your wardrobe, look at your diet, physical health and motivators to set a routine that ensures you can maintain and sustain your personal brand ‘energy’ during the year.
Mental
When you grow your personal brand to stand out as the go-to expert or credible specialist in your industry, you can feel unsettled to be in the spotlight. You have to become your own best cheerleader, a raving fan for your own brand.
The ‘itty-bitty-shitty-committee’ speaks far worse to you that you would ever dream of talking to someone else, so be mindful of your self talk, mindset and mental motivators.
Write down your goals and tick off the things you get done each day, journal and celebrate your successes, take time to review your progress each week.
We tend to worry and doubt if we don’t feed our brains some love in the way of celebration. The Friday fist pump, happy dance or simple “what was my biggest achievement’ question will help.
Business
Are you happy with where you are headed?
This is the right time to be setting goals and looking at the future, but if you aren’t clear, and you don’t write it down, you can easily get distracted.
The entrepreneurial brain is amazingly innovative and tends to be more open to take risks. However your Achilles heel is bright-shiny-objectitis, which can distract and divert your attention away from your goals.
When I take clients through the single minded purpose for their brand, one of the questions is “what will your life look like in 3 years time”.
Where do you want to be spending your time, being located, working with, attracting to your business, affiliated to, collaborating with?
Go deep into what your business looks and feels like inthe future, set some clear goals and then litmus test each idea you have to see if it’s taking you closer or further away from your goals.
Money
It’s the outcome we want from being in business - doing what we love, and being well paid to do it.
What are your money goals for your personal brand, have you considered the multiple streams of income you can develop from it?
When you develop a, stand out personal brand it becomes a platform for making money from your expertise.
This might be a book, online program, speaking, podcast, webcast, blog, consultancy, webinars…there are so many ways you can share your skills and talents that deliver money back to your business, but you need to create you overarching brand strategy first.
Mind-mapping or brain dumping everything you know can help and it’s one of the stages we go through in the Maximum Velocity program with our clients.
maximising your monetary return is vital, especially if you sell a service, because you don’t want to be exchanging time for money. You want to exchange expertise for funds.
Relationships
The saying is that we become the sum of the people we spend our time with and it’s what I call branding by association.
Big brands do it really well - Apple & Nike (music and running), BMW & Louis Vuitton, Taco Bell and Doritos - and personal brands should do it more often.
Collaborating on an event, book, program, conference, offer.
The lawyer and the funeral director teaming up with the life coach and divorce expert joining to hold a webinar or a nutritionist, thyroid specialist, personal trainer and women's wellness expert holding an expo.
Who can you affiliate with? Who has the same clients and operates in a similar way, with shared values and beliefs, that you could team up with.
This is one of the fastest ways to grow your influence and impact (and grow your database). It’s like turbocharging your personal brand.
Spiritual
I often get asked why someone would want to work on their personal brand. Many assume it’s all about ego. Wanting to be ‘famous’, or trying to ‘spruik’ your business.
Personal branding is all about magnifying what you already are, highlighting your uniqueness and ensuring more people know about you, so you can help more people.
So what is at the core of your personal brand. What is your life goal?
What is the impact you want to have and the legacy you want to leave.
What is at the heart and soul of your brand?
Can you clearly explain why you do what you do, and what the purpose is for your brand?
Why should someone listen to you?
Focusing on what you will give back to those around you and the planet you live on can help you maintain humbleness and keep you grounded as you start to get noticed.
It’s vital that you don’t aim become perfect either, because then you become un-relatable. Be real instead and share what’s in your heart.
Great, you’ve set some clear goals, now what?
Focusing on these six areas will help you prioritise your actions and activity in the year ahead, especially when it all gets overwhelming.
And even now, if you are looking at this list and thinking there is no way you can work on all of these AND run a business, there is some good news.
We have systemised marketing your brand for the entire year in the Most Audacious Marketing Action Planner which you can grab HERE.
It helps you get clear on your personal brand, that single-minded purpose and your brand story so you can more easily explain what you do and why someone should choose you.
It also gives you theme and topic ideas for social media and blogging each month and a weekly action planner to get it done.
We hope it helps you get 2020 Vision for the year ahead.