Your Personal Brand Statement IS NOT a JOB TITLE

March 26, 2008 at 11:13 am | In Career Development, Personal Branding, Success Methodologies |

When I ask college students “what do you want to do when you graduate,” they always respond the same Personal Brand Statementway. They dictate a job title that is somewhat reflective of their current interest area or topic of study. A job title is what corporations want you to be, not what you want you to be. “I want to be an account executive at an advertising age” is not forward thinking, nor differentiates you from thousands of others who have the same short-term aspirations. Please take a step back and realize that you will just become a number if you promote yourself and set your objective on your resume to a job title.

Job Title vs Personal Brand Statement

  • Job Title: What corporations want you to be, to fill their organizational hierarchy.
  • Personal Brand Statement: What you want to be in a single sentence that answers two questions: what are you the best at and who do you serve (audience)

Job Titles are Over-ratedOrg Chart

Do you really care if you are the “Associate Product Marketing Manager”? If you do, then you are seriously at a competitive disadvantage, relative to your peers. A title is constructed by human resources to position people who have more years of experience, more political power and influence, as well as for compensation purposes. Although you may believe that a title of “executive vice president” or “chief financial officer” will help you build your brand, give you visibility or more money, let’s move away from titles and onto your personal brand. Your brand is forward thinking, whereas a title can change up to a certain level and then stays stationary. You can’t have a title stronger than “chairman” or “CEO”, but you can have your own title that you make for yourself, such as “the common sense guy.”

When you start out at the bottom of the ladder, you are given titles that are not attractive, which in some way forces you to push yourself to the limits in order to get promotions for the next highest title. Obviously you can’t stop an organization from giving you a title, but you need your own title as well. A title that carries and is held inside your head, regardless of the corporation you reside in. You are the chief marketer for the brand called you and your own CEO of You Inc. If you get caught up in job titles, you will lose focus from what is really important: your personal brand.

Personal Brand Statements

In order to build a very high profile personal brand, you need what is called a personal brand statement. It is a statement of positioning and targeting. In order to be remarkable and the one called upon for opportunities, you need to be the best at something to a certain group of people. There are billions of people in the world and of course there will always be competition in your field, maybe even some that are more talented or have stronger networks than you. In order to survive and thrive in the digital world, you have to choose a topic and master it.

Do not say that you are the best marketer or accountant in the world because you most likely aren’t even close. You need a more specific and concise niche topic and audience. It needs to align with your passions and goals in order for it to be reflective and hold up. If you are successful in establishing this statement, then you are setting yourself up for success, where others have failed.

My personal brand statement is “I’m the leading personal branding expert (niche topic) for gen-y (audience served).”

Others

  • Natasha Vincent - Business Ideas Catalyst for Salon and Spa Owners
  • James Seay - Providing imaginative solutions for selling problems

Your turn: What is your personal brand statement? Write it in the comments section and I’ll put it in this post.

19 Comments »

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  1. Great stuff, Dan. Still working on how to say this “just so” but essentially I am the business ideas catalyst for salon and spa owners.

    Comment by Natasha — March 26, 2008 #

  2. My personal brand statement

    “Providing imaginative solutions for selling problems”

    Comment by James Seay — March 26, 2008 #

  3. @James - getting close with that one. Who is your audience?

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — March 26, 2008 #

  4. Can you tell us more about where you would use the brand statement? (E.g., blog, resume?…)

    Comment by Tracey — March 26, 2008 #

  5. @Tracey - thanks for asking. A personal brand statement should be spread across your ebrand presence.

    + Blog
    + Website
    + Articles you write (guest posts on blogs/traditional media outlets)
    + Your social network accounts (Facebook, LinkedIn.com)
    + In your email

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — March 26, 2008 #

  6. It’s interesting because a personal brand statement must have focus and audience, but what scares most people about that is the exclusivity this seems to imply. People tend to get the mentality of, “Yikes, if I say I’m an expert in THIS ONE THING to THIS ONE AUDIENCE, I am leaving a whole bunch of people - the rest of the world! -out of my reach. That can’t possibly be a good move, can it?”

    What people don’t see is that chosing specifially what you’re about, and who you’re marketing yourself as that expert to, you actually become more inclusive. People who are not in Gen Y read this blog, for example. It actually helps you expand your horizons and increase your success by carefully defining this.

    Comment by Tiffany Monhollon — March 26, 2008 #

  7. Do you think that you actually never to say what your personal brand statement is? i.e. If you truely master a niche, the niche concerned should know who you are and what your brand is anyway?

    Internally, a personal brand statement is a great idea. Externally, I suspect i’d keep mine to myself and let others decide if i’m achieving it.

    Comment by Richard Millington — March 26, 2008 #

  8. @Richard - I see where your going with your comment, but you do want people to know what you stand for. If I visit 100 web pages with no brand statements, how am I going to remember what each person is an expert in and who they serve? Our lives are beginning to be more micro and we only have a few seconds to get to know people.

    @Tiffany - That is the best comment I’ve read on my blog ever I think. I think you’ve nailed it.

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — March 26, 2008 #

  9. Purposeful branding takes courage, that’s why so many organizations won’t do it and why some people may think as Tiffany suggested. Being all things to all people isn’t a very effective strategy.

    I’m a brand warrior: I help organizations define their brand, refine it if necessary and use it to drive every decision they make. I’ve helped a few individuals do the same along the way, too.

    “Brand warrior” is on my card, and it almost always creates the question: “What’s a brand warrior?” and I’m able to quickly recite my brand statement and begin to ask questions about their brand.

    Just like tag lines, headlines, advertising and other conventional brand management (communication) tools, sometimes you’ll have to actually use the words of a personal brand statement. Other times, it’ll be evident in your actions.

    Great discussion, Dan.

    - Mark True

    Comment by Mark True — March 28, 2008 #

  10. Dan,
    I agree with Tiffany - the mentality of scarcity is very prevalent. That’s what I believe “sets the stage or state of mind” regarding the whole niche discussion and why it becomes so challenging for many.

    For me, I’m even working deeper into my niche and further defining in visual language of who I help - to illicit the response “Yes, I can see that.”

    For example, my niche is minority professionals, taken deeper it’s high performing minority professionals who’ve experienced some success in their life - now further - “The true spirit of personal branding for high performing minority professionals is the spirit of possibility and the centering balance that comes from connecting to what makes them best and tapping the strength of their unmistakable identity”.

    Or, more succinctly and to follow your helpful format. “Possibility and centered balance for the high performing minority professional”.

    Great discussion - always, Dan - thanks!

    Comment by Maria Elena — March 29, 2008 #

  11. “A happy and healthy family man challenging leaders with the most important personal, professional and business development tools and events in the world so people are confident to be independent and integrated to succeed in their area of passion.”

    Comment by David Sandusky — March 29, 2008 #

  12. @Tiffany. Nice comment! I think you captured that a brand and a personal brand are a collection of values.

    My statement (straight above) helps me make decisions to my brand because I am an entrepreneur married to an entrepreneur and we both like shiny things. So businesses we start, my clients and customers, talks I give, organizations (profit and non-profit) where I am a leader on the board and who knows what else privately can expect to be challenged to be their best with integrity and passion.

    I LOVE THIS TOPIC, Dan

    Comment by David Sandusky — March 29, 2008 #

  13. David - I can tell. There may be a follow-up at some point.

    Comment by Dan Schawbel — March 30, 2008 #

  14. Dan,

    This is by far one of your best posts. The reason I find it so great is because it challenges people to focus on how they can serve others through time…and having to boil it down to one statement. By having a personal branding statement you are able to, like you say, “Set yourself apart from everyone else” thereby making you that much more visible and valuable over a long period of time.

    Comment by Scott Bradley — April 9, 2008 #

  15. [...] company has a great “brand statement” and I just posted about how every individual needs a “personal brand statement.” What I tell everyone is that you need to be the best at something to a specific audience. Can [...]

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  16. [...] Personal Brand Statement: What you want to be in a single sentence that answers two questions: what are you the best at and who do you serve (audience).  For more information, please see my original post. [...]

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  17. That’s a great point, and I think it varies based on who you are talking to.

    With my mates at uni I’m the ‘web guy’ to talk to about anything web - websites, blogs, social media, etc.

    Online that doesn’t say much though. I’ve got a few different sites (linked from my name above) and I’ve got a few followers on twitter - I wonder what they would say.

    Comment by Ross Hill — August 9, 2008 #

  18. [...] Personal brand statement [...]

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