Brand You 

In marketing circles, we talk a lot about “buy in.” It is that acceptance or support of an idea or decision we garner from others. If you are the team leader of a marketing campaign, at one point you will have to meet before your team and your potential client’s team to get their “buy in” and hopefully, the account.  We use it in other fashions as well: business development, sales, and even religion. But are we using it enough in our personal and leadership development? 

If you were to think of yourself as something being marketed, and you want to be marketable, then you have to take a good long look at what you, in fact, are marketing. People are always watching you and they are making judgments about you as soon as you leave the room. Their judgments may affect your promotion, a bonus, or something even bigger. So what are they thinking? What’s still in the room even after you have left?

What is your brand? What are you selling or marketing to those around you? If you don’t like what you discover when the spotlight shines on you, then ask, “what would I like my brand to be and how do I become that?” Here’s a hint. Your brand should be the promise of what is to be delivered.  Are you just like Apple, innovative, relatable, and popular with all types of people?  Are you like Starbucks, warm, inviting, and on the minds of the masses (especially in the morning)? You get my drift…you’re buying into the new concept of you as a brand. A walking billboard of whatever it is you want the world to perceive about you. Think about it, and then build it.