  For the last couple of weeks the pages of our newspapers across the state have been filled with photos of 2024 graduates from area high schools as theyâve enjoyed honors nights, lock-ins, commencement ceremonies and a number of other end-of-school traditions.
âIn one community, our reporters shared about a local âadulting-dayâ hosted at the school that taught area students how to change a tire, do their taxes, prevent back injuries, find health insurance and more.
âAlong with graduation season comes what I call advice season. It seems every person, regardless of his or her own personal success or happiness, has a message to the graduating class. If memory serves me correctly, Iâve withheld from offering advice until now. When I saw the coverage of the âadulting day,â I realized I do have advice to 2024 graduates: Build your personal brand.
âA Harvard Business Review article describes your personal brand like this: âYour reputation is made up of the opinions and beliefs people form about you based on your collective actions and behaviors. Your personal brand, on the other hand, is much more intentional. It is how you want people to see you. Whereas reputation is about credibility, your personal brand is about visibility and the values that you outwardly represent.â
âMy advice might be better suited for college graduates, but youâre never too young to start thinking about this topic. If you are a recent grad â first of all, good for you for reading your community newspaper. Second, what follows are some tips on how to build your personal brand and why itâs important. If you arenât a recent grad and youâre reading this â first, good for you for reading your community newspaper. Second, hopefully youâre able to share this info with a recent grad in your life.
âWhen it comes to building your personal brand, I find it easiest to follow the same steps our team takes when building a brand for a business or nonprofit. Here are those steps and how you can tweak them to build your personal brand.
âStep 1: Brand Audit â Just as this step in a traditional branding process allows our team to get to know an organization better, this is where youâll get to know yourself better, or at least in a more organized way. Document your education, your experience, your achievements, your hobbies, your personal connections â to others and to organizations where youâve worked or volunteered. Write down key words and phrases you believe others currently associate with you. You can even be bold and ask others to do this step for you in the name of market research. Next, write down key words and phrases youâd like people to associate with you. I also like the idea â even if youâre not artistic â of drawing an image youâd like to come to mind when people think of you. Itâll help you visualize your brand.
âStep 2: Brand Identity â With your research done, now itâs time to build your personal brand identity. Keeping in mind your desired words and phrases, develop a personal mission statement that focuses on your beliefs and values and what you aim to offer to the world. Next, write a vision statement that defines where youâd like to be personally and professionally in five to 10 years. Finally, try your hand at writing a personal tagline â a short, memorable sentence that sums you up.
âStep 3: Communication â Once your personal brand is in place, itâs time to share it with the world. This can be done through your resume, your social media presence and, most importantly, in person. Networking events, interviews, even casual coffee meet ups or happy hours are where you should enact your personal brand.
âUltimately you build your personal brand the same way a business builds its brand â through frequency and consistency. You have to put yourself out there in as many channels as possible as often as possible, all while staying consistent. Stay true to the brand youâve built. This will be easiest when your personal brand truly reflects who you are. A personal brand doesnât have to be perfect. It has to be honest. I run late, I talk a lot, Iâm a perfectionist. I also work hard, Iâm an optimist and a problem solver. Good or bad, these qualities all make up my personal brand.
âWhether you graduated last week or last decade or the one before that, building your personal brand is always a worthwhile exercise.
Since I’m still working on mine, I’d love to hear your personal tagline. On another note, if you’re organizing an “adulting day,” I’d love to be involved and talk to students about their personal brand. Email me at ecaswell@mihomepaper.com.
âEmily Caswell is the Brand Manager for VIEW Group, the branding division of View Newspaper Group.
