STRATEGY 2: Develop Your Brand - 1. Lay a Solid Foundation

You have rolled up your sleeves and dug deep inside to find out what stuff you are made up of. You now know the substance that make you uniquely you. The next thing to do is to develop your brand.

In developing your brand:

1.  Lay a Solid Foundation

Learn the rudiments of your proposed brand. Master the basics. Cultivate the culture of discipline, delay in self-gratification, honesty and hard work. Imbibe sound principles and positive value systems. Don’t compromise on quality and excellence.

Brand Discovery: 8 - Obey the Law of Recognition

The law of recognition must be obeyed to discover your personal brand. You must be able to know, appreciate, and respect your strengths, God-given potentials, innate abilities, natural endowments, gifting, talents, and skills. This will go a long way in helping you to create the best personal brand for yourself.

Likewise, learn to recognize and appreciate the virtues in others that compliment yours, and then find creative avenues to tap into the grace that such people carry.

Brand Discovery: 7 - Find Your Destiny

Your destiny is the inevitable pathway to your destination in life. Locate and walk in the path of your destiny. This is what will guarantee your provision in life. Your location will determine your allocation in life. Walking at the center of God’s plan for your life requires that you specially package yourself. Your personal brand must therefore be a pointer to your destiny, or vice versa. There must be a harmony between your personal brand and destiny.

Brand Discovery: 6 - Identify Your Purpose

Man’s purpose is his assignment here on earth. It is what he was made for. Knowing our essence of existence is very crucial to the definition of our personal/individual brands. An individual’s personal mission should be in alignment with the kind of brand he/she carves for himself/herself. Apostle Tony Olukoyede said that the purpose of a man is his destination in life. Discover God’s Agenda for you.

Brand Discovery: 5 - Take Stock of Compliments

Your personal brand can also be discovered by taking stock and locating the constant feature in the compliments you receive from others. Over time, we can identify the common denominator of the compliments we receive from others. This is a clear pointer to the special ability we have that separates us from our counterparts.

Brand Discovery: 4 - Have a Sharpened Intuition

The voice of the spirit is occasionally received by a spirit that is not regenerated via intuition. Some people call it a hunch.  This is also referred to as the Inner Voice, the Sixth Sense, Premonition, Gut Feeling, Conscience, Perception, or clairvoyance.

This is made possible when a man’s spirit is alert in an environment the signal is high. A sharpened intuition will easily discover the voice of the Higher Power.

Brand Discovery: 3 - Hear the Voice of the Spirit

Man is a spirit being with a soul enclosed in a physical container called body. According to the Bible, God made man from the dust of the ground, and then breathed life into him. This life is the spirit of man that guides him until his death when it shall return back to God. See Genesis 2:7, Ecclesiastes 12:7. Our spirit man is also referred to as our heart, conscience, and inner man. Spirit has no gender.

Soul is that part of man that contains his mind, thoughts, emotions, senses, mindset, intellect, and feelings.

Man’s body houses the soul and the spirit. It is the tangible part of man that interfaces with the physical environment in the material world.

The Higher Power speaks to man via the voice of the spirit. A natural man is spiritually dead, and finds it hard to hear the voice of the spirit, except on few occasions when his mind is in tune with the signals of the spirit man.

The voice of the spirit is quiet and can’t be clearly heard in a noisy environment. In order to discover our personal brand, we need to have a regenerated spirit. The Holy Spirit of God awakens and renews our spirit man so that we can constantly hear what the Higher Power broadcasts per time.

Brand Discovery: 2 - Consult the Higher Power

To discover your personal brand, the factor of the Higher Power cannot be overlooked or over-emphasized. Every great and successful personal brand that ever lived on earth has always been those that recognized and depended on the supernatural.

Every great personality and entity recognizes and constantly relate with the Higher Power. They know that it is wise to have an intimacy with the one Who was, Who is, and Who is to come; the Creator of the Heavens and the earth; the Maker and Master of the entire Universe.

To know who you are, you need to seek your creator. He had a plan in mind before you were made. Every manufacturer always has a reason for the creation of each product that is made. Set yourself apart in prayers, and meditations of His words to discover His purpose for your life. Then, you will be able to journey on the right path to where He has destined you to be.

Brand Discovery: 1 - Look Inward: Personalities - Phlegmatic

A phlegmatic is an introvert who is passive, careful, thoughtful, peaceful, controlled, reliable, even tempered, and calm.

People with this temperament are secretive, reserved, sensible, patient, loving, quiet, committed, faithful, content, and forbearing.

Their awareness is aroused by experiencing others' interest in a matter. They appear uncertain or slow when speaking, and may seem rather cumbersome or awkward. The phlegmatic temperament is traditionally associated with water.

To define your brand, discover and master your temperament. Your personality and temperament type should be a core element of your intended brand image.

Brand Discovery: 1 - Look Inward: Personalities - Melancholic

A melancholic is an introvert who is moody, anxious, rigid, sober, pessimistic, reserved, unsociable, and quiet.

People with this temperament look serious, cautious/suspicious, worried, meticulous, focused, and vulnerable to despair.

They learn through arousing their compassion for others.

The melancholic temperament is traditionally associated with the element of earth.

Brand Discovery: 1 - Look Inward: Personalities - Choleric

A choleric is an extrovert who is touchy, restless, aggressive, excitable, changeable, impulsive, optimistic, ambitious, strong-willed, and active.

People with this temperament tend to be self-centered and loud. They are passionate, rash, impatient, prone to anger, energetic, and try to inculcate that in others. They love to be in control, show leadership, loves planning, create solutions, and practical.

A choleric believes in efficiency, tends to be job-focused with a "do it now" attitude; loves to be respected and admired for work done.

They learn through reciprocated admiration and suitable challenges that identify their abilities.

The choleric temperament is traditionally associated with fire.

Brand Discovery: 1 - Look Inward: Personalities - Sanguine

A sanguine is an extrovert who is a sociable, outgoing, talkative, responsive, easygoing, lively, carefree leader.

People with the sanguine temperament tend to be welcoming, joyful, conversational, and pleasure-seeking. They are pleasant, passionate, motivated, creative, and bursting with ideas. Their weaknesses include forgetfulness, chronic lateness, unreliability, unsentimental, and inconsistency in routines.

They learn through complimentary people and arousing their love for a topic.

Sanguine temperament is traditionally associated with air.

Brand Discovery: 1 - Look Inward: Personalities

A man’s personality is the sum of all his behaviors, dispositions, attitudes, interests, emotional reactions, social life, and other personal qualities that is sustained over a long time.

Tim and Beverly LaHaye wrote several books on temperaments and personalities, that reveals the different personalities of men.

There are four basic personality types, sanguine (fun-loving and outgoing), choleric (determined and natural leader), melancholic (thinker and dreamer), and phlegmatic (easy-going and quiet).

Brand Discovery: 1 - Look Inward

Personal branding is not a camouflage you put on to deceive others but a presentation of your actual image. It is an act of putting your candle on a bushel and displaying your strength and beauty on the mountain-top for others to see.

To discover your personal brand:

1.       Look Inward.

Your personal brand should be built around your personality. Self-discovery has to be made by you. To help you in this self-discovery phase, here are questions you may want to ask yourself? Consider these questions, reflect on them and take your time in responding to them.

You must ask yourself some important questions like: (Answer these questions and fill them in on the spaces provided below. If not sure now, come back to these pages later, after discovering them, to fill them)

What is my destiny? (Your destiny is your certain future: the seemingly programmed and unavoidable chains of events that will happen to you. It is the inner purpose of your life that can be discovered and realized. Your destiny is a force that predetermines what will happen to you.)

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What is my purpose here on earth? (Your purpose is the reason for your existence here on earth. It is your core assignment on earth. Your purpose is your essence of living on earth.)

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Where am I coming from? (Your background and past)

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Where am I? (Your current status and position.)

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Where am I going? (Your ending.)

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Who am I? (Your true identity.)

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To discover your personal brand, you may also start asking members of your family, friends, colleagues, clients, and acquaintances to tell you the qualities they know you have.

Now write them out:

My Strengths:

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My Weaknesses:

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Be sincere to yourself and take stock of the following; and then fill them in the table below.

	S/N	LIST
Natural / Innate Abilities	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Talents	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Habits	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Experiences (Good and Bad, Personal and Past)	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Skill Set	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Gifts (Spiritual)	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Extra-Curricular Activities	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Interests	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Hobbies	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Exposure	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Vocation	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
Avocation	1
	2
	3
	4
	5