A Soaring Personal Brand

I love to fly! There is something about taking off (smoothly!) and flying into the wild blue yonder that has always excited me. Whether it’s a weekend trip across the mountains or over the border, I try and reserve a window seat, because I love getting lost in the clouds.

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As a matter of fact, most of this column was composed while I was flying home from a recent conference. I find the clouds are a great visual for me and it led me to reflect upon the many soaring personal brands I have encountered over the past five years.

I’d like to dedicate this column to one person who has a soaring personal brand that I have come to personally know and always trust. As a coach I encourage you to try not to focus on who she is, but on the branding ingredients she has developed over her career and how you can work these into your own 2015 personal branding strategy.

The Promise: This particular woman, a senior cruise line executive, stands out from the rest. She is a survivor, has broken the glass ceiling several times over, and continues to innovate unlike any other in her field. She not only soars but also commands air space.

She carries herself with conviction and confidence, and continues to lift others up around her—a true eagle! We can all take a lesson from her personal branding book, because she makes it look so easy and natural.

As I’ve outlined in my previous columns, all great brands have three to five power words (descriptors) that can be associated with their name. These are words that everyone has in common with the brand because they are so congruent, delivering consistent messaging online and offline. An example of a power word that easily comes to mind for me is “loyalty.”

In this case, this woman’s promise since she began in the cruise business more than 30 years ago has always been that she loves travel agents. Her new simple and relevant message is “I am loyal to you always!”

The Tools: This woman’s promise has always been very personal, professional and full of value. As you read this, I hope you also reflect on your own 2015 personal branding strategy and ask yourself how it can be tailor-made to fit your audience.

A key tool to all top-performing personal brands is time management. You need to maximize on your ROA (return on attention). You should plan to see and be seen by the right audience at the right time.

Last month, I was once again amazed and convinced that this particular person is super woman because she personally welcomed and shook hands with more than 2,000 travel professionals as they boarded her latest and greatest smart ship. I could not stop thinking about the impact she made on every travel agent whom she met and how easy she made it look.

As a coach, let me ask you a simple question: How do you personally welcome, embrace and greet prospects, customers and loyal clients? I hope you meet and greet them with great eye contact and a firm handshake. My takeaway is that it’s our choice to demonstrate how personal, professional and valuable we can be to our customers. Remember, perception is reality, and the world is always watching us, evaluating us and providing us with the opportunity to show up.

The Delivery: Since this woman’s promise resonates so well online and offline, the tools she uses reflect the same message to her audience of travel agent professionals. Her delivery is personal in nature when you meet her, as well as when you interact with her online.

The takeaway here is to be yourself both online and offline, because people can smell the difference. In this case, this woman’s personal and dedicated website (another key to success) for travel professionals easily positions her brand. Diving deeper, I love one of her well-known sayings: “Start with a great impression. Then make yourself memorable with every interaction!” She also delivers on her promise through her well-branded and professional Facebook page (7,679 likes but who is really counting anyway?).

A little tool called Google helps us and our clients determine our own brand’s net worth all the time. Don’t think for a second that a future prospect is not Googling you before deciding to do business with you. This soaring super woman’s brand did not disappoint when I did a recent search and her brand easily reinforces why she delivers excellence 100 percent of the time. I’ll let you guess just who this woman is, though you probably already know!