We all unknowingly spent extra on getting services and/or products from brands. How many of us have chosen a 5star or at least a 4star against a regular hotel for the vacation? How many of us want to get a premium university degree against a regular university? Most of us would agree that we have availed services, bought products at a bit higher cost.
Why did we do that? One word answer to this is – Brand. We invested in the brand.
Now whether it is a company or an individual, we all prefer brands against commodities. This is the era where branding has moved from product to people.
Think, how many of us are ready to wait to get an appointment from a specific doctor or a specific make-up artist or a hairstylist? How many of us book our birthday/anniversary cakes well in advance with our favourite baker? We do that because they have established themselves as s powerful brand. Being a brand has its own perks.
Your personal brand is the secret sauce that you and only you carry. It showcases your values, your abilities, your differentiators. What and how do people talk about you in your absence is your personal brand.
We all have our personal brands – either it is by default or we design it with effort. The choice is always ours to either take the charge or let it shape the way it does.
Personal Brand is one of the best investments
Why do we say it is one of the best investments? Let me give you two reasons for that.
1. Once you are established as a Personal Brand, people are ready to pay a premium for your services/products. The return-on-investment increases for you. In less time and energy, you are making bigger profits, just because you established yourself as a brand. Now you can demand a premium and people will happily pay.
2. This is the era of networking. People believe in networking more than ever before. If you are a brand, people will put effort to network with you. You will be sought after. People will reach out to you instead of you running after people. Establish your brand and you will see the rewards with increased visibility over and beyond just your own network.
One of the biggest fears around the concept of personal branding has been, “Building a Personal Brand is way too expensive?” Well, partially yes. One has to invest in terms of time, energy, a channelled thought process and of course a little amount of money in building themselves up as a brand. After all,
there is no free lunch!!
Looking at the benefits one reaps out of being a brand, it should be worth the efforts.
In conclusion: Personal branding is not expensive. The return on investment is much more than we anticipate. When you don’t want to get lost as one of the commodities, it is imperative to brand yourself. The way forward – whether to establish yourself as an entrepreneur or as an employee is Personal Branding. Invest in building your brand – it is worth it. Follow us on Instagram @meghavivyas for more.
