Taking Control Of Your Personal Brand

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” Dr Seuss

And dead or alive you know that you are going to be ‘Googled’. You may not be able to control what others say about you but you can take steps to tell your own story and actively manage your reputation.

‘Personal branding’ is simply how we market ourselves to others, we do it subconsciously every day in the way we dress, speak and act. Think about it as a way of framing your reputation. In the old days when we lived and worked in the village it was possible to do business and strengthen your reputation just by being the only butcher, baker or candlestick maker in town. That’s a little more difficult to pull off these days.

A Google search for ‘graphic designer’ turns up more than 25 million results and the designer David Airey shows up as one of the first. David has built a personal brand online and stellar reputation in his niche over six years with hard work and generosity.

He did this by:

1. Investing time in creating a reputation by choosing to define who he is and what he stands for with an online presence.

2. Deciding how he would like to be perceived in his niche and setting goals for what he wanted to achieve.

3. Leveraging his online platforms to communicate his ability and showcase his expertise.

4. Building a community and connections around his work and his passion using three blogs, David Airey, Logo Design Love and Identity Designed.

5. Evolving his brand as his reputation grew and authoring a book based on this.

6. Openly displaying his work, ethics and authenticity across all of these platforms in both posts and comments.

7. Giving people in his niche a place to come to stay up to date, interact, acquire and share knowledge.

8. Doing great work for clients he chooses to work with.

All the tools that were available to David six years ago and much more are available to you today.
If your story is going to be told you might as well be the one to tell it.

Image by Shawn Rossi

http://www.davidairey.com/ David Airey

Thank you very much, Bernadette. It was a real pleasure chatting with you recently.
Bernadette

Thanks for your time and insights David.
http://mydanart.com Dan

Over the past few weeks ive been doing a lot of reading getting ready for the 2011 Neographics Show, David’s blog is great! Because of it and a few other blogs, I’ve successfully began to brand myself. I’ve even made a sweet logo! Thanks again David.

http://www.davidairey.com/ David Airey

You’re more than welcome, Dan. Good luck with your site tweaks.

Bernadette

Thanks Dan,
I know David’s blog has helped many people in your position.
Good luck with your project!
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http://www.happymonday.biz Danilo Vargas

I love this post. Bernadette, you’ve put together an accessible blueprint for personal branding success. You can read a lot about personal branding but you’ve hit on the essential foundation that is often overlooked. Thank you very much because this is tremendously useful. And David your work is amazing. So glad to to have been acquainted with your work via Bernadette and The Story of Telling. Thank you both.
Bernadette

Hi Danilo,

Thanks!

I know, there is so much out there on the subject of personal branding and it can get confusing.
David would probably be the first to say that anyone could have done what he’s done. The thing is he recognised the opportunity and grabbed it with both hands.

We can all do the same by selling what Google can’t optimise.
http://www.logodesignlove.com/sell-what-google-cant-optimise