Just imagine if you owned an Italian restaurant in today’s competitive world?
You’d probably have to work hard at making your dishes stand out and your restaurant unique.
I mean, if you wanted to differentiate your pasta sauces and the various dishes on your menu, they would need to be both unique in taste and yet still consistent. Consistent in taste from one dish to the next. Consistent in taste and quality from one visit to the restaurant to the next.
To scale up the business (without compromising your uniqueness), you would need to be smart about the way to you made the pasta sauce and then adapted it to each dish (e.g. spaghetti, pizza, lasagna etc) and ensure it was consistent the next time eaters returned to your restaurant.
Not exactly rocket science – but a not all restaurants get this right as I mention in the video above.
But this very same principle applies to your personal brand too.
To ensure you are unique and able to stand out and create the right career opportunities, you need to invest time to become clear about your story, how that makes you different and what unique value you can therefore provide to employers, stakeholders and clients.
Once you have that clarity of message (i.e your personal brand), you’re then able to adapt the message to different situations and marketing platforms (e.g. networking conversations, interviews, bio’s, social media profiles etc) rather than do what most people do which is redefine how the describe themselves every time they to engage or interact with clients or employers. Or make it up as they go along every time they apply for a new job. All of which creates inconsistency in your message, dilutes their message and actually robs you of precious time.
What you should be doing is investing time at the outset in creating the message (your pasta sauce) properly to ensure consistency in the message (or taste) so as to yield the results you want (more customers to restaurant, stronger brand, more career opportunities).
Some questions for you:
How clear and consistent is your personal brand?
What are the key challenges you face in getting clear about your brand?
What’s your favourite Italian dish?
Feel free to share your answers in the comments section below!
By Sital Ruparelia from Career Management TV
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