The Value of ‘Trying On’ Executive Personal Branding

Reflecting on elements of your new—or refined—brand will help you talk about it with conviction.

Just like deciding which new suit to buy is aided by trying it on, trying on the results of each step in the executive personal branding process helps healthcare leaders formulate the first and subsequent versions of their powerful and authentic personal brands.

Here’s an insider’s glimpse into the time-proven Excavate-Tell-Affirm™ executive personal branding process from Revealing Genius, where leaders “try on” concepts during each step of their executive personal branding journeys.

Excavate: Try on the Answers to These Carefully Curated Key Questions for Executive Personal Branding

During the excavate step of the executive personal branding process from Revealing Genius, we offer healthcare leaders a variety of powerful exercises to do. One of them is to write out their answers to key questions designed to help them unlock their unique genius. They are encouraged to spend time reflecting on their responses and see which resonate most.

For example, here are five of the 10 questions:

1. If you had a minute to offer three to five bullet points that summarize your core strengths, what would you say?
2. What are one to three of your proudest accomplishments, and why?
3. What’s the big relevant change in the world that you are passionate about?
4. What’s your favorite quote or mantra that you live by?
5. What’s your extraordinary why?

Take a moment to answer each of these. Then, over the next few days, spend some time “trying them on.” Which of your responses seem to stick?

Tell: Use This Formula to Articulate Your Brand Narrative 

During the tell step of the executive personal branding process from Revealing Genius, healthcare leaders are supported in articulating their positioning statement for their brand in progress. 

Also called an “elevator pitch statement,” or “transformation statement,” it encapsulates the unwavering essence of what you do and you use it to tell others what you stand for and how you stand out.

Many people are modest about the life stories that stand out for them—but it turns out there are an incredible number of clues behind them, especially when you tell them out loud to someone. That’s why telling brand stories is a regular activity during the Revealing Genius 7-Day Summit and in our 1:1 executive coaching sessions.

Telling brand stories typically leads to an all-but-perfect transformation statement as this simple but effective formula gets filled in: 

I <action word> <my beloved avatar> how to <do what they want to accomplish> so that they can <have the result/transformation>.

To use the transformation statement of Revealing Genius as an example, this could be to guide healthcare leaders to purposefully identify and articulate their brand value so they become recognized experts and rapidly achieve the next milestone in their careers.

The transformation statement isn’t done, though, until the leader has time to try it on, saying it first to family and friends and later testing and refining it in professional settings until it clicks. When the try-on process is complete, leaders talk about their executive personal brand with conviction.

Affirm: Achieve the Pinnacle of ‘Trying It On‘

During the last step of the executive personal branding process from Revealing Genius, healthcare leaders dive into various ways to affirm their burgeoning brands. While “trying it on” is key to grounding the excavation and telling of your brand, the affirm step is all about confirming the fit of your brand.

A great thing to do during the affirm step of the process is to complete one or more science-based assessments. These tools give useful insights about who you are and how you approach your work.

Getting assessment results is always really interesting, but their real power lies in trying them on for a while. How do they feel? Do they fit? Answering these questions helps clarify a leader’s executive personal brand until they believe in it so strongly, they can feel it in their bones. That is my wish for you. 

Get Started With Trying It On

Clearly, doing the reflection required as you try on and evaluate key brand elements is a key part of the initial development of your executive personal brand. But “trying it on” is also an important step. Here’s a previous blog about how and when to revisit your brand to make sure it’s still on-purpose. 

If you’d like to try on the Excavate–Tell–Affirm™ process from Revealing Genius, check out our complimentary Excavate Your Brand webinar or our 7-Day Summit. If you’d like private sessions to create extra safety while you try on the various brand elements you’re developing, we’d be happy to provide that through our 1:1 executive coaching options. 

Mary E. Maloney, FACHE

An executive advisor, educator, speaker, author and producer, Mary E. Maloney is the founder of Revealing Genius and the expert that accomplished leaders trust for positioning, messaging and brand strategy for themselves, their teams and their organizations. A former CEO and CMO, Maloney guides healthcare C-suite leaders, founders, physicians and board directors to powerfully and strategically message their expertise and “why” so they lead with conviction and achieve their most coveted goals. She is a fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives (FACHE), one of only ~8,000 in the world to earn the credential, the benchmark for board certification in healthcare management.