Building a strong, recognizable personal brand creates many opportunities.

There are no real instructions on how to develop a personal brand but there are many benefits from branding yourself: better job opportunities, more contacts you will have, industry recognition, and other areas that will help your overall career grow.

If you have a career vision, you’re already on your way to creating a strong, personal brand. Use these tips to brand yourself.

Brand yourself, before you’re branded!

Whether you know it or not, you have a brand… it’s how people know you. It’s what they say behind your back, how you’re described to others, it’s what people think of you. So it’s pretty obvious you would at least like a little say in how people perceive you.

In order to feel confident in the way people perceive you, you need to brand yourself correctly. It should represent YOU as a person and the goals and accomplishments you’ve made. If you don’t create a brand for yourself, someone else will.

Stay true to you.

Don’t build yourself up to something you’re not… it can get exhausting trying to “keep up with the Joneses,” especially when people can usually see right through it.

Stay true to who you are and embrace yourself for all that you are! Building a brand shouldn’t be difficult, it should be a way for people to recognize you and your professionalism.

Embrace yourself, with no apologies. 

We all want to be liked, but not everyone will be on the same page. Create a brand you agree with and are proud of. Some people won’t like it, they might even hate it, but the people who really connect with you will LOVE you! They will feel comfortable connecting with someone who is completely honest about their brand.

Style yourself for your brand. 

Don’t just create a personal brand on paper, or the internet…. embrace your brand and incorporate it into every aspect of your life! Style, behavior, the way you live – use these areas to make yourself shine.

“Develop your personal dress style, appearance, and image that consistently screams what you are about,” writes Deborah Shane in her article, “How To Be Memorable: Develop Your Unique Brand Style.”

Live and breath your brand.