Getting on the road to employment can be really tough, so we’ve asked the experts what they think makes the big difference. The first part of our series is about personal branding.
What is personal branding?
Does it matter? How do I use it to my advantage? These are all questions that might come up for you. James Freemantle from Red Gum Communications has the answers! He recently shared his ideas, approaches and top tips in an engaging and dynamic workshop at NAB Village with a group of curious Year 10 UPP students.
So, let’s think about branding. The definition of a brand is the promise of providing a consistent experience to a consumer. Personal branding isn’t too dissimilar. James explains personal branding as the alignment of the way you present yourself with the way others experience you. There are three ways of communicating: visually, verbally and vocally. All are equally important in terms of defining an interaction, a relationship and in defining individuals. To demonstrate this, the students participated in an activity where they had to deliver a word with an action and correct voice tone in order to deliver the word with impact and sincerity.
James Freemantle, Red Gum Communications presentation; align your visual, vocal and verbal messages.
Does it matter?
In one word: YES! The choices we make with our body, face and voice have a big impact on those around us. How do you cause other people to feel when they meet you? How do they remember you? How can you take control of the impression people have of you? How do you WANT to be experienced?
How can I use it to my advantage?
When you’re meeting someone for the first time, think about your habits of communication that create an impression of who you are, make someone remember you or to take action as a result of interacting with you. Think about what you can do to make this a better experience. In addition to this, think about your default response to a particular situation. Pretty confronting hey? But really useful in order to hone your personal brand and create a good impression. Other tips that James was keen to highlight to the students for maximum effect were body language, breath and voice as these are all things that influence outcomes.
UPP participants, team leaders and staff at NAB Village with James Freemantle, July 2016
Action & feeling goals
We’re about to get serious and talk about goal setting but this is important. We’re going to think about action goals and feeling goals. So first things first, let’s get things clear: an action goal is something you want to achieve in the short term. A feeling goal is the emotional context of the action goal or how you will feel when your action goal has been reached.
Imagine if you were going for a job interview – your action goal might be to create a positive, memorable impression and your feeling goal would then be feeling connected to the interviewer and having your comments affirmed with body language.
Have a think about how YOU can put all these ideas into practice and refine your own personal branding and use it to achieve greatness and success.
