Course Syllabus

Lesson 1: Intro & Discovery

 What a brand is and what branding is
 The difference between branding vs. marketing & platform vs. body of
work
 The Writer Brand–what it’s made up of
 Discovering Your Brand’s Story:

Your Brand Values

Your Brandstrengths™

Your Personal Vision of Success

Lesson 2: Digging Deeper

 The Whole Writer: Deciding WHAT to Brand
 Writer Brand Archetypes

Lesson 3: Your Ideal Market (Readers)

 Defining Your Ideal Market(s)/Reader(s)
 Create Your Ideal Reader Profile
 How to Find Them

Lesson 4: Words Matter, Part 1: Your Brand

Statement(s)
 What a Brand Statement is
  What Makes You Unique
 Types of Brand Statements
 Practicing Your Own Brand Statements

Lesson 5: Words Matter, Part II: Taglines & Keywords

 What Taglines Are, and Best Uses
 The Makeup of a Good Tagline
 Creating Your Own Tagline
 Beyond Search: The Value of Keywords

Lesson 6: Visual Branding

 What You Need. What You Don’t
 Websites, social media, logos, etc.

 How to Choose the BEST Designer

 How to Get the BEST from Your Designer
 DIY Design Tips
 Taking Stock, What You Have & What You Need: Logos,
graphics, websites, blogs, headshots, etc.

Lesson 7: Bringing it All Together

 Your Brand Story, In Brief
 Your Brand Story, Writing the Future Narrative
 The Important Pursuit of Vision

Lesson 8: Sharing Your Brand’s Story

 Creating Branding and Marketing Plans
 Content Marketing Planning
 Where to Find Quality Content
  Building an Engaged Audience
 Shortcuts and Tools
 Together, We Rise.

PLUS:

Every lesson includes an FAQ and Q & A section where you can read
other’s questions and answers as well as ask your own questions.

In addition to the BONUS Resources at the end of nearly every

lesson, you’ll also get VIP access to my Exclusive Resource
Guide, which is chock full of recommended apps, services, methods,
articles, etc.

Building your executive brand is both an art and a science.

Showcasing your uniqueness and creativity is an art, but showcasing it
in a way that positions you as an industry leader is a science.

Traditionally, career advancement often involves obtaining advanced

degrees and specialized training. Now, it involves having an executive
brand that conveys the added value you can bring to an organization.
A brand that has all the signs of a large network of potential customers,
clients, partners, and sponsors. A brand that embodies the
organization’s culture, vision, and mission.

When brand messages are shared by employees on social

media, they get 561 percent more reach than the same
messages shared by the brand’s social media channels.

An executive brand verifies your value and creates a familiarity that

enhances trust between you and potential customers. In the B2B
space, most buyers engage with a sales rep once they are half-way
through the purchase process.
As a result, a strong executive brand will enhance the connection with
the executive’s organization long before the first point of contact.
If you’re looking to advance your career by becoming more marketable,
you should consider building your executive brand now. Download our
Digital Branding Checklist for Business Executives to get started.

A strong executive brand will differentiate you from others by

showcasing the good-fit qualities and value you offer potential
employers.

By aligning your key areas of expertise, strengths, passions, and

relevant personal attributes with your target employers current needs,
your executive brand makes you stand out from the crowd.

How To Build Your Executive Brand

An executive brand encompasses

personal branding attributes but does not account for converting an
organization’s prospects. Conversion is the key difference between
digital branding and personal branding.

SEE ALSO: Personal Branding vs. Digital Branding

In many cases, a strong executive brand will help the executive and
organization reach business objectives. The executive can acquire a
position by differentiating herself with a great executive brand and
begin converting prospects with a simple status update during her first
day in the office.

Building a strong executive brand involves conveying your personal

and business attributes. This may be difficult for some executives as
they may be unaware or uncomfortable with incorporating their
personal and professional lives.

Opening up and being more personal on social media will benefit your
executive brand building. The notion that people like to do business
with people they know, like, and trust holds true and is evident in your
career. Now, you must apply that same principle when building your
executive brand.

Building your executive brand is both an art and a science.

Showcasing your uniqueness and creativity is an art, but showcasing it
in a way that positions you as an industry leader is a science.

Traditionally, career advancement often involves obtaining advanced

degrees and specialized training. Now, it involves having an executive
brand that conveys the added value you can bring to an organization.
A brand that has all the signs of a large network of potential customers,
clients, partners, and sponsors. A brand that embodies the
organization’s culture, vision, and mission.

When brand messages are shared by employees on social

media, they get 561 percent more reach than the same
messages shared by the brand’s social media channels.

An executive brand verifies your value and creates a familiarity that

enhances trust between you and potential customers. In the B2B
space, most buyers engage with a sales rep once they are half-way
through the purchase process.
As a result, a strong executive brand will enhance the connection with
the executive’s organization long before the first point of contact.
If you’re looking to advance your career by becoming more marketable,
you should consider building your executive brand now. Download our
Digital Branding Checklist for Business Executives to get started.

A strong executive brand will differentiate you from others by

showcasing the good-fit qualities and value you offer potential
employers.

By aligning your key areas of expertise, strengths, passions, and

relevant personal attributes with your target employers current needs,
your executive brand makes you stand out from the crowd.

How To Build Your Executive Brand

An executive brand encompasses

personal branding attributes but does not account for converting an
organization’s prospects. Conversion is the key difference between
digital branding and personal branding.

SEE ALSO: Personal Branding vs. Digital Branding

In many cases, a strong executive brand will help the executive and
organization reach business objectives. The executive can acquire a
position by differentiating herself with a great executive brand and
begin converting prospects with a simple status update during her first
day in the office.

Building a strong executive brand involves conveying your personal

and business attributes. This may be difficult for some executives as
they may be unaware or uncomfortable with incorporating their
personal and professional lives.

Opening up and being more personal on social media will benefit your
executive brand building. The notion that people like to do business
with people they know, like, and trust holds true and is evident in your
career. Now, you must apply that same principle when building your
executive brand.
Here’s the first step…
Finding Your Executive Brand Voice

Your executive brand voice is separate from your organization’s voice

or communication. When your organization is tweeting, blogging, or
sharing news, it’s important that you add your own narrative to the
content. You should avoid working from a script or simply repeating
the same information.

It’s important to let your personality shine through while expressing

core corporate values, brand personality and your philosophy for doing
business.

Four Components of An Executive Brand Voice

 Character – This is the human aspect of your executive brand
voice. It conveys that a message is not a robot but has all the attributes
of human emotion.
 Purpose – This conveys your executive brand’s value
proposition. It’s the reason why prospects should listen, follow, and
engage with your brand.
 Language – This is the language used to describe your
products and services. Southwest Airline’s “Transfarecy” is a good
example.

 Tone – It’s not what you say but how you say it. An executive
brand’s tone of voice involves the order, and pace of words while
communicating.

DBI TIP: Use your executive brand voice to enhance the

organization’s communications by adding your personal insight or
experience as a status update.

The importance of listening in business outweighs talking on any level.

We have one mouth and two ears for a reason. The next section
details why listening is important when building your executive brand.

Keep Your Ears to The Streets

Listening to what your customers are saying is as important to your

executive brand as speaking. The objective is to serve your target
audience better than your competitors can.
A great tactic is to set up Google Alerts to discover what is being said
across the Internet. This involves alerts from your name to the
products and services your organization offers.
DBI TIP: Since Google Alerts do not cover social media, try using
Social Mention to monitor social media mentions of your brand.

SEE ALSO: How To Use Social Listening To Keep Tabs On The

Competition

Show Your Executive Brand Value

The best way to show your brand value is by sharing, not selling.

Your Organization

By adding value to your followers, your company will be perceived as

adopting the same principles. This perception increases the
organization’s brand equity.

This equity increase can be attributed to a quantifiable increase in

revenue and, in turn, can be linked to the added value your brand
brings the organization.
DBI TIP: Showcase past accomplishments influenced by your
executive brand. Linking your brand to the company’s bottom-line will
quantify your brand value.

Your Followers

Showcase the value of your brand by sharing information that your

customers and prospects need—even if it’s not directly related to your
product or service. In fact, you will build more trust by sharing
information outside of your organization’s offerings.

DBI TIP: The objective is you create a community among your

followers and encourage them to engage each other as well as your
company.

SEE ALSO: How to Use Content Marketing to Build Your Digital

Brand

Executive Brand Essential Content

Building a valuable brand involves creating content that will position

yourself effectively. Here are a few ways you can use content to
position yourself as an industry leader.

Executive brand positioning statement

Every large corporation has a mission statement.

For Google, it’s “to organize the world’s information and make it
universally accessible and useful.”

Your executive brand positioning statement should link your areas of

expertise (using the most relevant keywords you’ve identified) with
your key personal attributes, in content that will resonate with your
target audience.

Here’s an example of a brand statement for Denise Morrison, CEO of

Campbell Soup Company:
“To serve as a leader, live a balanced life, and apply ethical principles
to make a significant difference.”

Promoting Your Brand

An effective way to promote your executive brand is by communicating
and engaging on social media. Social media is where executive
recruiters and hiring managers hang out and search for candidates.

There are many social media destinations to promote your brand.

Here are just a few of the best ones:

LinkedIn Groups

Join LinkedIn Groups where hiring decision makers and prospects are
active. The objective is to demonstrate your subject matter expertise
by starting discussions, contributing content, and providing your
though-leadership.

DBI TIP: Look at a prospect’s profile and join the groups they belong
to.

Twitter

Leverage Twitter to position your brand as a thought-leader in your

industry. Participate in #TwitterChats, respond to industry topics, and
post your original content to take advantage of all Twitter has to offer.

If done correctly, you can convey value to your prospects and

organization.

DBI TIP: Retweet prospects and hiring decision makers at your target
companies, and thought leaders in your industry.
Here’s an example of Carolyn Miles, CEO of Save the Children:

Carolyn is both active on her organization’s blog, Logging Miles or on

her appropriately named Twitter account @carolynsave.

Personal Blogs

Starting and maintaining your own blog is the best option but, if that’s
not a realistic commitment for you, try guest blogging and/or
commenting on relevant blogs.
Here’s an example of Dr. Eric Dickson, President and CEO of the
UMass Health Care:

Dr. Dickson contributes to the blog for UMass Memorial, Everyday

Innovators. Dr. Dickson invites both physicians and patients to join in
the conversation around innovation and health care.

In Conclusion
Building a valuable executive brand is easy when you have the right
guidelines. Once your brand is established, you can reap the rewards
of positively differencing yourself from other executives in your field.

You can convey the value you’ll bring any organization if an offer is
extended and use your brand as leverage when negotiating
compensation.

No need to worry about the time needed to properly build an executive

brand. Even the hardest working executives find time to post and
comment on social media as well as blog.

As an executive, you have the opportunity to reach and engage with a

devoted audience that appeals to your personal story and may be
more willing to work with you and your organization as a result.