Personal Branding (or, My Journey of Further Self-Discovery)

I recently decided to undertake a personal branding project. Basically, it's a great chance to look at yourself, as objectively as possible, with the help of whomever you'd like to help. You take that gathered knowledge, apply a bunch of marketing tools to it, and sit down to make yourself the human version of Tide. Or Kleenex. Or Sony. Or any major brand. But, as any brand, what sets you apart from everyone else is the key.

In any case, it's not necessarily a journey filled with sunshine and rainbows. Pretty early in the endeavor, you have to do a SWOT analysis (Strengths/Weaknesses/Opportunities/Threats). Strengths are great for self-esteem, while weaknesses are not. However, these two are both the easier part of the process, at least in theory. As Kleenex knows that it is the strongest tissue or the softest, it also knows it's not the cheapest. When becoming a brand (or realizing the brand you already are), you should know about yourself.

Weaknesses are not necessarily something to be fixed. Part of the Kleenex brand is that not everyone will want to spend the money for the product. That's acceptable. Although I've not worked through my SWOT analysis completely yet, I'd bet that deciphering which weaknesses should be ameliorated or not is the bigger challenge. Since I'm also of the mind that these traits are weaknesses for a reason and it's perhaps a much more worthwhile use of your time to improve strengths, you also need to decide which warrant the time and energy, which will have the greatest return for you.

Luckily, you get to write the "threats" off completely. It's basically the unknown out there that challenges your brand. If you know about an external challenge to your brand, then it's an opportunity.

Ergo, of the 100% of energy that you'll spend on this project after conducting your SWOT analysis, it's nice to know that you only have to spread that energy whole over three of the four areas.

It appears that I'm not the only one I know on a significant self-discovery journey these days either. It appears that my youngest sis is also on a journey, at least that's the way it appears from her blog. (Sorry - no link here. She keeps it "invitation only.") Wish us luck.

And here's a little insight into me, rediscovered during this process: I recently found a recording on the web of my favorite children's song (forgive the particularly horrible keyboard-ish quality). What's particularly interesting is that I'd forgotten almost all of the words. I remembered the tune and the alliteration in the song, but that's it.