For those who take personal branding seriously and commit time, energy and resources to its successful deployment, your reward is just around the corner. Through branding:
1. You establish your value
2. You consistently deliver that value
3. As a result, you establish trust
4. Therefore, can now negotiate
You can now negotiate. While others have frittered away their time on meaningless Black Hole job searches, you have positioned yourself in a kind of job search “catbird seat” because you now have a very high level of market value credibility. That means when it’s time for an interview, you can look forward to having the leverage to ASK for a level of compensation that you believe is both fair and genuinely deserved instead of being forced to accept whatever is offered.
For those who land an interview but who have not adequately branded themselves, they are still – despite the success of landing an interview – still at the mercy of the decision-maker when it comes to negotiating a salary.
Critical is developing your value proposition, a way of attracting the employer to you by providing rock-solid, compelling evidence of your skills, talents, and abilities – especially with regard to how they match that employer’s specific needs for a particular position. If you are already well-branded before developing your value proposition, you are at the pinnacle of power with regard to the 21st century job search. All you have to do now is “make it happen.”
CEO of ME Exercise: THE POWER OF BRANDING
1. If your business (i.e., what you do better than anyone else) could be captured in a logo and tagline, what would it be? This is not a request to actually develop your logo, but just to describe it so that others could visualize it. Try to be as specific as you can and to have solid, defensible reasons for your ideas and selections.
Next week – PLAN BEFORE YOU BRAND
I'll see you on the radio this and every Sunday morning at 8am (EST) on Your Career Is Calling on 107.7 FM and online on www.1077TheBronc.com.
Best wishes and own your career,
Rod Colón