Smartlife

Several months ago, Smartlife published a series of posts on personal branding. During that time, I was approached by a local professional who expressed interest in acquiring the services of a personal branding consultant, but needed some help in articulating what he needed. So I volunteered to produce a Statement of Work for him. Here’s how I did it:

1. I had him fill out the Career Vault. (I can’t believe no one’s offered me a billion to turn that into an app yet.)

Dan Schawbel is the expert on personal branding — not only is his new book out this month, but he’s also responsible for Personal Branding Magazine and Personal Branding TV. If you have questions about personal branding, Dan is the one you want to answer them.

Why do you need a personal brand?

On the surface, it can be hard to decide why you need to build a personal brand. We asked Dan why the average person needs to brand himself…

Decades ago, people didn’t talk about personal branding. If you wanted to think about how you could advance in your career back then, you focused on the benefits that you could provide to your company. These days, though, focusing on what you can do for the company won’t get you ahead. Instead, you need to build a personal brand. You need to package yourself so that you can take advantage of each and every opportunity that comes your way.

Comparing personal branding consultants can be a complicated procedure. Some offer what amount to the same services under different titles. Others have different credentials for the same services. A matrix offers a method of comparison that makes it a little easier to see how different consultants stack up. In this Excel-based matrix, personal branding consultants are listed across the top, while lists of services and certifications are on the side. As a starting point, I used the consultants from “50 Personal Branding Consultants Worth Working With.”

Creating a personal brand is rapidly becoming a necessity: both employers and customers are choosing whom they work with on the basis of a person’s personal brand just as much as their other qualifications. But developing your personal brand might not be as simple as you might hope: it’s not just a matter of buying a domain name and putting together a business card. Developing and managing your personal brand requires a unique combination of skill, knowledge, discipline, self-perspective….