The epic post on how normal people can create a personal brand

Each of us have a personal brand — whether we pay attention to it or not. The question is whether or not we are doing anything to shape it.

It doesn’t matter if you are freelancer, solopreneur or serve as part of a larger firm, there are things you can take control of.

And it’s more doable than you might think.

WHAT IS YOUR PERSONAL BRAND?

Your personal brand is the image and ideas people associate with you.

While celebrities and politicians have used PR people to help them work on their personal images for years, the digital world has made it more essential for each of us to craft our own.

Why?

Because pragmatically, our personal brands are whatever a Google search turns up.

If you want to get a take on your current personal brand, you just have to Google yourself.

Pro tip: Open an incognito window in your browser [CTRL + SHIFT + n] before you search so that the results aren’t colored by your location and browsing history.

What came up in the search for your own name?

Was there anything about you on the front page of the search listing? Did you show up in the images? Does a celebrity share your name eclipsing you from the search entirely? (More on that in a minute.)

What would someone who didn’t know you think about you based on what they found?

Did you know you can shape this?

IMPROVE HOW YOU SHOW UP IN A GOOGLE SEARCH WITH 4 QUICK FIXES

If our personal brand is determined by what shows up when people search for us, then we need to do everything we can to influence it. Here are four quick-fix ways to improve what shows up when someone searches your name.