Do you know how people perceive you? Do you know how you want to be perceived?
I talk a lot about branding with my writing and blogging clients and with attendees at writers’ conferences. In simple terms, this means I help them determine “how they want to be known or perceived.” The process involves thinking about the future, all the possible books they might write and who they want to become as authors. They have to think about what they stand for and what they want to be known for in the world and by their readers.
This is an interesting exercise on so many levels.
Your Brand is Becoming
First, we are all “becoming” more of ourselves all the time. This can make it feel quite difficult to imagine who you will “be” when you actual achieve your goals. You may think you know, but anything could change that trajectory.
I know people who have changed drastically over the years. In some ways they are the same people I knew when I met them, and in other ways they are not. I know people who have grown and transformed and, on the other hand, others who have stayed exactly the same.
Plus, you may have huge dreams for yourself but not have any idea how or if you can manifest them. Saying you “are that” now can seem awfully pie in the sky or risky given that you might never achieve your goals. Yet, creating that brand now, before you feel it’s really you, commits you to becoming it. It’s a public announcement that you will, indeed, become that.
Branding Helps You Become
Second, envisioning what you want to become helps you become it, helps you achieve that goal. Thus, conceiving your brand, or determining how you want to show up in the world and be known can help you become that person.
Positive psychology calls this the Best Positive Self exercise. You write about yourself three or five years into the future as if you have achieved all your goals and dreams. One of these easily could be that people perceive you a certain way. This helps your subconscious mind align with this potential future and helps you move positively and more confidently in the direction of your dreams. In other words, you take positive action toward your goals. You become your Best Positive Self. You become your brand.
You Are Your Brand
Third, there’s the old “fake it ‘till you make it” theory. When you create the image of yourself as what you want to become, and others believe that’s who you are—they believe in your brand, you must step up to the plate and “pretend” to be that person until you become that person. You behave “as if” you are that brand you have created. You must be, for example, the author you want to be known as and, in the process, you become her. The branding becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy of sorts.
At first this could feel fake, like you are not being authentic. It’s not. I don’t see this as much different than “dressing for the occasion.” If I put on make up, do my hair and wear a suit or a dress when I want to act the part of a professional, is that trickery? No. It’s effort made to ensure I look and feel the part of a professional. Plus, it allows others to perceive me as a professional. If I have professional ability, it’s all good. (If I don’t have that ability, that’s akin to false advertising!) And I might get some business in the process, which helps me to “make it” as I “fake it.”
I can just as easily dress in my one expensive outfit and sit in the most expensive restaurant in town sipping coffee to act as if I’m prosperous. Eventually I also will have to do something to become prosperous, of course. But, in the meantime, I will be perceived as prosperous by those who frequent the restaurant, and I’ll be exposed to prosperous people.
Or I can create a website that claims I am the “Such-and-such Expert.” Then daily when I sit down at my desk to work I can act as if I am that expert; I can publish blog posts offering my expert knowledge and write my book with the confidence that I have value to offer readers. Eventually, people will “get” that I am the authority I claim to be. And every day I will feel more confident that I am that expert, which will help me reach my goals and strengthen my brand, the perception people have of me as that expert.
The Branding Process
As time goes on, you grown into your brand. You also continue to become more of yourself, to move beyond your brand. Your brand then has to change as well. Maybe you want to be known for or as something different or more of what you already are. So you must rebrand…and so it goes.
Continue putting yourself out into the world authentically as yourself in this moment and as who you want to become. It’s a never ending process of self creation.
Have you ever branded yourself? What was your experience?
photo credit: Transguyjay via photopin cc
