PERSONAL BRANDING & THE 3 C’S
The topic of Personal Branding is like walking a labyrinth for many. Layers upon layers of complexity. Through this blog I hope to clarify and awaken your consciousness to the 3 elements I believe are fundamental to a personal brand: Consistency, Cohesion & Charisma.
To begin I must first share my definitions for a persona and personal brand:
Persona: the aspect of someone’s character that is presented to or perceived by others. For example her public persona.
Personal Brand: the visual statement that reflects your iconic persona in your everyday presence. Including, but not limited to, your appearance, behavior, communication & digital foot print (or the ABC’s + D).
It is my belief that in order to unite one’s persona with their personal brand you must be conscious to The 3 C’s.
Consistency: is repetition & being dependable, reliable and trustworthy.
When I think of consistency, I think of the ability others have to make associations with you as a person, your brand and the product or services you provide. Allow me to use myself as an example:
- People often associate black & gold with my company because of my consistent branding.
- People associate cats with me on a person level, because as many know I am a huge cat lover and often meow when I am not sure what else to say.
- Lastly, I am often associated with passion and authenticity. I believe the association of authenticity is due to my transparency and self disclosing, both personally and professionally. I believe my work shows others how genuine I am and thus the association with passion.
Such consistency has allowed for others to follow me, look forward to upcoming events and know my process. The good part about being predictable is that it allows others to plan.
Cohesion is when your persona, message, brand and wardrobe are all in synchronicity.
This is the ability to have a consistent “vibe,” as one client calls it, across every access point others have to you. By access point I am referring to, again not limiting to, your appearance, behavior and communications (social media, marketing materials, profiles, in person, during speeches etc).
Finally, Charisma. Recently explained to me as authentic confidence.
I believe this “C” is the essence of your personal brand. The truth is, being ordinary is easy. Being unique, noticeable and memorable is the challenge. The irony and my favorite thing to explain to clients is to be iconic and memorable… people often just need to be themselves.
I know I set a high standard with this view point but the truth is the more I have embraced The 3 C’s the more I have found my voice, opportunity in alignment with my governing beliefs and true freedom.
Sincerely,
Persona Stylist, Ashley Roda
