Authentic Personal Branding Aid: Know Your Beloved Hero

Why you choose the people and characters you look up to speaks volumes about your personal brand.

Authentic personal branding is aided by knowing where to look for clues about what you stand for. One place to look is to the heroes that you admire—and, more specifically, why you admire them.

First, let’s walk through three steps for using your favorite hero to help with your efforts to do personal branding. Next, I’ll connect you with some tools to help you excavate your personal brand using what you have learned.

Personal Branding Using Real or Fictional Heroes

People look up to heroes that are real, either living or dead, or fictitious. First, take a minute to write down several people or characters that you admire. As examples, all these heroes would be fair game: Batman, Oprah and your mom. Think broadly.

Knowing ‘Why’ Aids Personal Branding

Now, look at your list. The question you want to answer is, “Why do you admire these people or characters?” Your answer will say a great deal about what is important to you—and about your “personal why”—your reason for being. That “why” undergirds everything about you and what you do. It points the way to your brand.

Affirming Your Personal Brand With ‘X’ Hero

Finally, let the reasons you’ve chosen your favorite hero support your personal branding efforts.

One of my clients came to Revealing Genius because she wanted to be able to convey with conviction what she stood for if she were called for a job interview.

My client tested with her audience the two-word purpose statement, “inspiring hope” in the context of her heroes. Her personal branding concept was that she was a public servant who inspired hope during times of trial, just like her heroes do. This statement was met with an outpouring of positive responses from my client’s community.

Supporting Your Branding in Other Ways

Using the time-proven ETA™ (Excavate-Tell Affirm) process, Revealing Genius offers people nine questions—in addition to the one about heroes—designed to help them have an “aha” moment about their personal brand. Check out these additional blogs about these questions:

• What Mantra or Quote Resonates Most With You?
• ‘That’ Question That Showed You What You Stand For
• Five (of 10) Questions That Can Help You Identify Your Brand

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For more tools for excavating and expressing your personal brand, sign up for the Revealing Genius signature 7-Day Summit.

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.

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