Personal Branding and How to Stand Out in a Crowd

Personal Branding and How to Stand Out in a Crowd

This week I was extremely fortunate to secure an interview with the ever talented Ashley Knoote-Parke, author of Brand It Purple.  This week’s episode and blog post is all about Ashley’s book and her 6 tips to standing out in a crowd.  Her informative book covers everything from what the definition of a ‘Purple Poppy Personal Brand’ to clever little tips and tricks you can use to cultivate your own ‘Purple Poppy Status’.

So what is a personal brand/Purple Poppy?

Imagine a field of red poppy’s and in the middle there is one purple poppy. How quickly did that purple poppy get your attention?

If we believe people are constantly evolving then, as we age, we are learning more and more to trust our instincts.  In less than 4 seconds others make a decision about us, and if we are to make a favorable, lasting and memorable impression as a personal brand in those first 4 seconds, we need to learn to become a Powerful Purple Poppy.

Purple poppies are the people we remember, who leave a long and lasting impression. They are spheres of influence, who seem to know everyone, are powerful and very confident, a source of knowledge and inspiration, are generous with their time and share their networks.  They are the people we admire and with whom we want to do business with.  They always seem to be everywhere, their name always seems to be bandied around, everybody seems to know them and if they don’t they want to.

First impressions are not fair, but first impression matter because humans are incapable of not judging.  People will look, take us in, absorb, dissect, analyse, judge and consider whether or not we are worthy.

Personal branding is about perception, your perception of others and their perception of you.  Personal branding is something you can control and project; it’s there when you walk into a room and is instantly recognised.

The core function of a personal brand is to be PURRMaN, which stand for:

• Preferred
• Understood
• Relevant
• Referred
• Memorable and
• Noticed

Preferred

Sometimes picking up a new client is the easy bit; hanging onto the client is another story.  The proof lies in your actions and outcomes. You judge yourself by your intentions and clients judge you by your actions.  You need to make sure you’re indispensable and the company can’t survive without you.  The point of building a personal brand is to build a relationship based on trust. People buy from people whom they like, know and trust.  The longer you work with the same client, the more you get to know their business and by knowing the client well you can anticipate their needs and do more for them.

Understood

Being understood is critical to that first impression because it cements you in their mind.  By being understood there is a perceived value to the other party and once they understand you and your value to them, they are much more likely to remember you.

If you don’t understand others however, you may remember them for the wrong reason.  You can only be understood if you understand yourself and what value you can offer others.

Relevant

Being understood and being relevant go hand in hand. If you are relevant then you have purpose.  More often than not, we meet someone at a function and very quickly write them off, as they have no relevance to us.  Ashley urges you not to do that. What you don’t know is that maybe later down the track, they may become relevant OR better still relevant to somebody within in your network, or you may become relevant to someone in their network.

Referred

The goal of all this is to be referred.  This is how we profit from our brand.  In today’s tough competitive market, we don’t want to be cold calling or knocking on doors.  There is a much better way and that is through word of mouth which always has been the most effective way of doing business.

Remember, people who like each other, like each other! We have our network clusters or tribes and we do business with people we like.  Therefore it makes perfect sense to go within our network to source business suppliers.

Because we trust the source, we will happily do business with a referral and we don’t second guess or take chances.

Memorable

Once you’ve been noticed, you need to be memorable.  What can you do to make a lasting, positive impression on another?  Think about some events you’ve been to and try and remember who has left a lasting impression on you.  What did they say or do to leave an impression?  At a guess, it was something to do with you, it may have been some form of flattery, or a thoughtful postcard sent to you the next day, or an invitation to an event, or a paper clipping to do with your industry.

Noticed

When we walk into a room, whether it’s a networking function, a luncheon or business event, the first thing we want to do is be original and noticed.  That doesn’t necessarily mean wearing a feather boa or a ridiculous metre long clown tie.  It does mean that when people are scanning the room (because they do) they notice anything unusual.  Wearing black does not constitute unusual!

We gravitate towards interesting looking people and that is the first key to personal branding, you want people to gravitate to you and you want them to engage with you, because if they gravitate towards you (you are being magnetic) as you have pricked their curiosity first, they are much more likely to remember you because you have made a mental impact of some description.

Conclusion

I really hoped you’ve enjoyed this short snippet from Ashley’s book. If you’d like to learn more then buy this book, it’s jammed packed full of excellent tips and techniques on standing out in a crowd.  You can purchase the book by going to Ashley’s website: http://www.branditpurple.com. If you have any questions you’d like to ask Ashley or you’d like to find out how you can work with her, email Ashley at: Ashley@branditpurple.com.

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And until next week remember to keep struttin your stuff!!

Kylie Bartlett – The Web Celeb!

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