{"id":3125,"date":"2022-08-22T09:00:50","date_gmt":"2022-08-22T09:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/isabelalbeldaros.com\/?p=3125"},"modified":"2022-11-04T14:27:41","modified_gmt":"2022-11-04T14:27:41","slug":"practical-personal-branding-the-origin-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/isabelalbeldaros.com\/es\/practical-personal-branding-the-origin-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Practical Personal Branding: The Origin Story"},"content":{"rendered":"
I studied two degrees and yet didn’t have a clue what I wanted to do when I finished university. Seven years later, I’m still figuring it out!<\/span><\/p> Funny thing about the Spanish university system is, you have to create a final project in order to graduate. Which meant I had to create two<\/strong> final projects. Ouch.<\/span><\/p> Thankfully the way things were set up meant I didn’t have to do them both at the same time, but let me tell you, by the time I had to choose my second one I was lost.<\/span><\/p> I’d already exhausted my brain trying to find a project for my first degree (I ended up creating The Perfect Gift<\/em>, a business plan for a concierge gift service with my friend, Ainhoa Boix<\/span><\/a>), and I didn’t really want to create an advertising campaign for my Advertising degree.<\/span><\/p> Figuring out what was under my nose all along: Personal Branding<\/strong><\/span><\/p> At the time, I’d started getting into Personal Branding (if you can call obsessively reading about it online, purchasing every book I could get my hands on, and attending any workshops I could find, “getting into”) and I often found myself annoyed that the books I was reading talked at length about how important it was to develop your personal brand, but none of them really taught me how<\/em>. The best one in that regard was Catherine Kaputa\u2019s You Are a Brand!<\/em> (still one of my favourites), which had some exercises, but I wanted something practical.<\/span><\/p> “I’ve bought the book, clearly I’m on board with the importance of Personal Branding<\/em>” – I reasoned. “I don’t need two thirds of the book to convince me of that. Just get to the good stuff!<\/em>“<\/span><\/p> (With the experience I now have, I understand the authors were directing the reader to coaches and workshops where a third party could help them with developing their personal brand, since it can be a bit of a daunting proposition. Definitely useful, but I don’t think it’s necessary, especially if the tools are provided freely.)<\/span><\/p> But the lightbulb had lit. I knew exactly what I would build for my final project: a practical <\/strong>guide to personal branding. I would flip it on its head – I’d stick with two pages of motivating the reader, and make the remaining book 90% exercises (I did need around 10% to explain the concepts the exercises explored, but no more). Because what use is personal branding if you can’t apply it to your life and see results?<\/span><\/p> The Practical Personal Branding Guide<\/strong><\/span><\/p> I was on fire. It was tough to put together – I had to explore exercises and concepts from personal branding, marketing, psychology, coaching, business management, and some I came up with by trying out my method with (mostly willing) friends and family – but it was so worth it.<\/span><\/p> I can’t remember defending my project, it’s all a blur (although my mother snuck in and insists it was fabulous) but I clearly remember meeting my mentor later that day. The university had proposed jointly publishing the project, and I wasn’t sure what to do. There was a whole foreword to explain the methodology, which I didn’t think anyone would find interesting, and it wasn’t quite yet what I knew it could be.<\/span><\/p> My mentor told me to hold off. “You’ve got something great here – make it yours and when it’s ready, get it published.” <\/span><\/p> Fewer people would have access if it was published as a final project, and I wanted as many people as possible to have access to it.<\/span><\/p> Personal Branding should be easily accessible to everyone. It should be taught in high school, in university, at work. You shouldn’t need a fancy coach, or a paid course, to get the tools to live your best life.<\/span><\/p> So I decided to follow her advice.<\/span><\/p> The Practical Personal Branding Book<\/strong><\/span><\/p> Seven years later, the book is almost finished, and it’s changed a lot – I’ve trimmed, rewritten and reorganized as I learned more and helped others with their personal brands, and I’ve enriched it with what my professional experience has taught me. I’ve led workshops, 1-2-1 coaching, and guest lectures that have helped me refine and expand the process. I’ve applied these principles to my career too – in five years I’ve gone from a new grad to a Lead role within IBM, and to Programme Manager in seven, in no small part thanks to Personal Branding.<\/span><\/p> I still have tweaks to make (a more-than-full-time job doesn’t leave much time for writing, especially when it competes with wedding planning, preparing workshops, travelling the world or surviving the pandemic with my sanity – but not my waistline – intact) and if you want to be notified when it comes out you can sign up la presentaci\u00f3n<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p> But I couldn’t wait that long to share Practical Personal Branding. That’s where this blog comes in!<\/span><\/p> The Practical Personal Branding Blog<\/strong><\/span><\/p> I’ve long shared exercises in my website, and offered guest lectures at universities, but this is a new level in sharing.<\/span><\/p> One of the things I don’t like about Personal Branding is that it’s filled with jargon and new sales-y names for the same old concepts. I get that in business we tend to use fancy terms (we leverage a best practice, instead of sharing and repeating what works best, because the former sounds a lot more impressive) but it just makes it harder to understand. Personal branding can be intimidating, and this doesn\u2019t help! While I may use ten words where two could have worked, I make sure to keep things as clear and simple as I can.<\/span><\/p>