Daryl Close, a business performance coach, discusses why freelancing success is not directly related to your specific freelancing talent. Whilst personal branding is not a new term, it is a term that has come back to the forefront of success as a professional freelancer. He explains that your actual talent is only a small part of the overall personal branding concept and freelancers need to refine and develop their professional brands in order to thrive in an ever increasingly competitive world.
In a world of virtual networking, both social and business, the perception the world already has of you begins way before any physical communication. Via all online mediums, including your personal website, Facebook or LinkedIn profiles, Twitter messages and now Google Buzz, the world has enough information to, rightly or wrongly, form an impression of you. That impression could make or break your ability to create a successful professional career as a freelancer. With access to personal data never being easier the freelancer must be more conscious then most to ensure that their personal brand is effectively supported online at all times.
There are many different facets to personal branding but the one key theme that I communicate to my clients as critical is that your online and physical appearance, communication and actions must clearly represent the values that you want the world (and potential employers) to see. It is of no use calling potential clients and telling them how professional and effective you are if your online identity shows otherwise, either through communication with friends or photos of events that are best kept private. What also must not be forgotten is that physical presence is critical when pitching and presenting for new business and to not support your claim of being the utmost professional with an appropriate physical appearance is an inexcusable error.
The management guru Tom Peters wrote an article in Fast Company Magazine back in December 2007 titled “the brand called you”. This article explained that the major purpose of branding is to distinguish you from the rest of the herd based on your skills, abilities and experience. Tom Peters suggested focusing on the following key areas when attempting to identify your own personal brand.
Defining your personal brand is only the start of the process to achieve an effective personal brand. You next have to market your brand, from a physical and online perspective and learn how to sell your brand – not only verbally but also through your everyday actions. Something else extremely critical to the success of personal branding is the ability to accept that you are a brand and to be able to change your approach to your professional career. If you don’t value brand ‘you’ then no one else will – then what is the basis for anyone to want to employ you? I’ll be addressing personal branding further next month but in the meantime see if you can get started on distinguishing what makes you the freelancer everyone should hire.
Pingback: Freelance Friday - Project Management Tools, Haggling, & Committment | Kristi Hines