When you think about yourself and who you are, what are you considering? Are you thinking about style? Your education and professional expertise? How about your character traits and strengths? How about your goals, mission or where you want to be and how others see you in 5, 10 20 years?

One of the best places is to start is with your resume because it will give you a template to begin to flesh out those personal elements that define who you are and set you apart from others. For example, the objective portion will describe where you are right now and where you are headed. As an example, my objective on my resume reads: 

Promoting meaningful career and life choices, through intuitive and right-brained strategies for all ages and learners. EPICS is a visual literate assessment using imagery and the Holland themes (RAISEC) to help individuals discover a meaningful career. EPICS is used for career development, and realistic and achievable goals while exploring personal awareness and overcoming barriers.

From mulling over this statement, I realize I would like to be seen as innovative, and known as an expert in career/life development especially using EPICS.  With this knowledge, I would begin to think about how to brand myself and get the best exposure to obtain this in 5 years. What are my strengths and what image am I going to present to my audience. 

To start, begin with your strengths, by looking at your past accomplishments and ask yourself “what ones did I enjoy best.” Let’s face it, we might love what we do but that doesn’t mean every task. Weed out the least desirable and dig into the best tasks. Questions to ponder are why and what made the task/job good for you? How can I incorporate that quality of work to my next job/position?  What needs to change to have that fulfillment? So basically, where do you shine.

As for the image you want to project, I would suggest looking at magazines in your field and making a visual closet that will house clothes and environments by tearing out images you are attracted to. My education in art therapy has made me realize how important our dormant knowledge is and how to tap into it.  Dormant knowledge relating to our unconscious biases, acquired likes in style, persona and body language will bring insight on what we like and feel. 

Once you figure these things, you can start to brand yourself on social media, on a website or blog.