In this blog post I help you identify and communicate your uniqueness as you create or fix the best possible personal brand for yourself.
Uniqueness Cannot be Faked
If you ask skilled and talented professional actors, they can assure you that uniqueness cannot be faked. You must be authentic. You must be genuine. Even though actors get paid for pretending to be someone else than who they really are, the most successful actors are those who have a uniqueness that is deep and true no matter what a script may create for them.
Your personal brand must be as deep and true even if you are not paid to portray other characters than your own. Your personal brand must grow from within you even if you buy new clothes for yourself and color your hair. If you are anything but authentic and genuine, you will fail in creating your personal brand.
Do not believe anyone who says to you that you are person not a brand. Of course you are a person. But, developing one’s own personal brand certainly does not prevent you from being a true person. For anyone to tell you that you are only a person and that you therefore cannot create or fix your personal brand is wrong.
Your personal brand that you create (or fix) can be a powerful tool in your personal and professional success. Those who tell you to “be yourself” and doing so will be enough are giving you terribly stupid and completely worthless advice. Run away from them as though they were zombies out to eat your flesh.
Getting a New Job Demands Uniqueness
If you presently are seeking a new job, it is all the more vital that you understand and embrace the concept of developing your personal brand to show your uniqueness. The Great Recession has made if very difficult–particularly for workers over the age of 40–to land new jobs in what has become a highly competitive job search environment. Unless you can clearly identify your uniqueness and bring that uniqueness out in your personal brand, what reason is there for anyone to hire you?
I recently read a commentary that job seekers should wear bright colors, have their teeth whitened, and emphasize what are purely external factors. Do not pay attention to advice that you should emphasize external factors in yourself as you suffer through the painfully frustrating job search process. That will help you fail in your job search. Instead, you need to emphasize your uniqueness from within yourself regardless of your hair color, whether your wear white or blue, or any other superficial elements like those.
Finding Your Uniqueness
It might be a lonely process for you to find your uniqueness. But, finding your uniqueness is a must. I cannot advise anyone about specific factors to adopt. Each person must do an honest and genuine self-analysis of what elements of personal uniqueness he or she has. This can be daunting and scary. But, each person has the ability to identify his or her own uniqueness with careful and honest self-analysis. Believing that you have uniqueness is important. Just don’t fall into the trap of denying that you have something that makes you unique compared to everyone else. Believe first. Then, carefully define what it is that makes you unique compared to the job seeker who is competing with you for the job that you want and need.
Expressing Your Uniqueness
Identifying your own uniqueness is only part of this personal brand process. You will need to express your uniqueness so that you can compete with other job seekers effectively. My personal and professional experience has taught me something that I will share with you: Expressing your uniqueness does not mean you first should rewrite your resumé. Relying upon pages of paper for a hard-copy resumé that you bring with you to job interviews is to relying upon outmoded 20th century thinking. We are living in the second decade of the new century now, so it best to leave the old century in the past where it properly belongs. In my next blog post, I will explain how you can express your uniqueness in your job search beyond rewriting your paper resumé to help you create or fix the best possible personal brand for yourself.