HOW TO BUILD YOUR

Personal
Brand
in 7 Days

Personal Branding Workbook to

rapidly establish your brand

songyknox.com.au
OVERVIEW
Build your Personal Brand in 7 Days

DAY 1 DAY 2
BRAND SNAPSHOT INTRODUCTION 101

Google yourself and your business How to ace your introduction

and find out how you're currently every time. It takes practice but
represented so that you have a you'll get there if you follow my
baseline to measure against in the formula!
future.

DAY 3 DAY 4
YOUR TRAITS & YOUR VALUES &
HOW OTHERS SIGNATURE
SEE YOU STRENGTHS

Know thyself! This could be the Your brand is based on your

most powerful exercise for you values and your key strengths.
establishing your brand. Getting Let's spend some time and
feedback from your supporters consider the values . that are
will be a great gift for yourself as most important to you.
well.

DAY 5 DAY 6
YOUR COLOURS YOUR STYLE

Knowing your personal colours Learn to be stylish. It's a skill you

could effectively change your life. develop by investigating what
No joke. That's often the feedback works for you. There is no
I get from clients. It doesn't have universal 'stylish'.
to be difficult. Have fun finding
your colours!

DAY 7 NOTE!
All client case
studies are re
YOUR BRAND al.
KEYWORDS However, nam
es
We put everything together to
have been
create a set of brand keywords changed for
that will be your guides going
forward so that you appear privacy purpo
consistent and professional!
ses.
WELCOME!
Any proper noun is a brand. You
are a brand. And if you want to be
truly successful in life, you should
consider yourself as a brand and
act accordingly.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding

- AL Ries & Laura Ries

You’ve worked too hard to have a weak brand.

Your brand is not what you wear or how you appear in the
mirror. It’s more about what others say about you when
you’re not in the room.

You, hopefully, already know the importance of brand

building for your career and business. Chances are you
don't know how and where to begin.

After helping hundreds of clients as a brand coach &

photographer, I’ve developed a process that can be used
by anyone to build an authentic brand.

This workbook is for you if you want to up-level your

business and career. While Personal Brand includes
personal aspects ‘about you’, ultimately the brand you get
to build is not about you. It’s about the people you seek to
serve.

Although it's titled as 'How to... in 7 Days', you can certainly

go through this in one sitting if you're in a hurry!

This workbook will set you up for a great start. I wish you a
great brand building journey!
DAY 1
YOUR PERSONAL BRAND SNAPSHOT
Let’s first look at the current state of your brand. You are, after all, what
Google says you are. Do a quick Google search of your name and your
project/business. Have a good look at the results across all areas - general
web search, image and video. Answer the following ten questions.
YES NO

1. When you Google your (business) name, are you easily

found?

2. Do you appear in image search? (if No, go to Q4)

3. Do you like what you see?

4. Do you appear in video search? (if No, go to Q6)

5. Do you like what you see?

Do you have a piece of content that represents you

6. (regardless of whoever created it)?

7. Do you like your current profile image?

Do you have a place where people can see what you do -

8. your online ecosystem?

9. In online spaces, do you think you are represented correctly?

Think about your ‘social handle’ and how others know you.
10.
Is the name/title easy to recognise and remember?

Out of these ten questions, how many Yes answers did you get?            out of 10.
You now have a personal brand baseline: this is where you are now. The right personal
brand will increase your standing and, over time, solidify your influence.
This is all good. Now it’s time to dig deeper.

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DAY 1
LET'S DEFINE YOUR PERSONAL BRAND

As a professional photographer who also worked in the corporate sector, I understand how
little time you have to convey the essence of who you are. To get your brand just right you
need to know yourself better.

Most importantly, the questions in this PDF have been developed to clarify your own
thinking on who you are and what you do.

This same workbook has been used for my clients so I know how powerful it is to actually
do the work of taking time out to think about things and answer these questions.

Day 1 was really a quick warm up. Real work starts from your introduction - Day 2.
Are you ready to tackle your introduction right now?

Disclaimer:
I’m not in any way affiliated with the 3rd party organisations mentioned in this workbook.

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DAY 2
HOW DO YOU INTRODUCE YOURSELF?

!TOP TIP
If you’re starting your intro with your role/title, we have a problem.
Here are a couple of different options to consider:

1. Define the problem and state your solution - you’re the person who has the
answer to THE problem. What is the typical problem your target audience faces?
Then you present a solution.

Photographer example 1 - with her audience's problem and her solution.

There are so many women who feel that they are not photogenic.
I help these women to see themselves in a totally different way.
They not only realise that they can look great in photos but also
feel empowered to show up as the face of their brand.

2. Start with WHO, WHAT then OUTCOME - Focus on the people you serve. Why do
they need you/what you offer in the first place? After working with you/using your
service, what happens as a result?

Photographer example 2 - with her audience, her offer and the result.

I work with women in business to create images representing who

they are and what they do so that they can grow their business.

Now your turn to formulate your introduction using one or both methods.

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DAY 3
YOUR TRAITS & HOW OTHERS SEE YOU

What three traits describe you?

How would you like your ideal client to describe you?

Take a personality strength test and write down what you find out below.
There are two options for you below: 
FREE DISC Test : https://www.truity.com/test/disc-personality-test

How do others see you? Go and ask at least 10 people to give you 3 words that describe you.
* Using Google Forms, you can collect keywords anonymously. Check out the accompanying email I sent to you that explains
how it works.

How do you want to be seen? Professional? You already are a professional.

Our goal is for you to be remarkable, i.e. worthy of remark.
What would you like people to say about you?

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DAY 3
YOUR TRAITS & HOW OTHERS SEE YOU

Now that you are clear on how others see you, and how you want to be seen, and
have a good idea about your traits and personality strengths, take a moment to go
back to Day 1 and 2 and see if that information is reflected in your current online
presence and in your introduction. Take a note of the gaps.

CASE STUDY
Perfectionist's Story of Transformation

My client, let's call her, Jane had a breakthrough right at this point because she got to
understand real reasons why she felt stuck in her career and relationships. You may find this
surprising given this is a 'personal branding' exercise and not some life coaching. The brand-
building process I designed has a transformative effect on people.

So how did Jane had her breakthrough? She didn't know how much of her behavioural style
(DISC personality test results) was influencing her day-to-day life. By understanding strengths
and differences between her and others with whom she interacts, she was able to let go of
stress and burden she felt about having to 'show up' and be 'the boss' all the time that hasn't
come naturally for her.

Also as a perfectionist, she's been making almost everything (and everyone around her) more
difficult. Now she sees all that as what they are (her default filter of everything having to be
perfect) and able to make positive changes in her life and business.

Another big surprise was finding out how she's been perceived by her 'people'. It gave her
huge confidence boost. She isn't perfect but it didn't matter because all is well and she is good
enough for her people and her audience.

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DAY 4
YOUR VALUES & SIGNATURE STRENGTHS

Great values are 1) reality-based, 2) socially constructive,

and 3) immediate and controllable.
…better values are process-orientated…and
an ongoing, lifelong process that defies completion.

- Mark Manson

Your values and strengths determine your personal brand. To create a powerful brand,
you need to know what matters to you. List your top three values below (refer to the
next page for a list of values).

Think about how these values play out in your day-to-day life and interactions with
your clients (and other people). What does it mean for you?

Character Strength Survey: This was developed as part of Martin Seligman’s research
on positive psychology. Look out for their FREE report in your inbox after the test.
https://www.viacharacter.org/survey/account/register
Write down your TOP 3 strengths

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DAY 4
LIST OF VALUES

Authenticity Effectiveness Purpose

Accountability Efficiency Professionalism
Accuracy Empathy Progress
Achievement Enthusiasm Reliability
Adventurousness Equality Resourcefulness
Authenticity Excellence Relationships

Ambition Excitement Security

Assertiveness Exploration Self Actualisation

Balance Expressiveness Self-control

Fairness Self Improvement
Belonging
Faith Sharing
Boldness
Freedom Significance
Carefulness
Fulfilment Selflessness
Certainty
Generosity Self-Worth
Challenge
Giving Spontaneity
Change
Growth Stability
Clear-Mindedness
Hard Work Teamwork
Commitment
Honesty Temperance
Community
Hope Thoroughness
Compassion
Humility Timeliness
Connection
Independence Tolerance
Consistency Ingenuity Traditionalism
Contentment Identity Trustworthiness
Contribution Justice Truth
Creativity Leadership Uncertainty
Decisiveness Legacy Understanding
Dependability Love Uniqueness
Determination Loyalty Unity
Diligence Openness Variety
Discipline Peace Vision
Diversity Mission Vitality

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DAY 4
CASE STUDY
Understanding who you really are

Like most of us, Mary had her self-esteem tied very much to her work and what she does
well. If things don't go well or if feedback from other people were not so good and worse
still if she fails at something, her self-esteem would plummet.

When she saw her natural strengths from the VIA Survey and saw what motivated her
through looking at her values, she got to understand 'doing' (well or not so well) doesn't
define who she is 'being'.

What defines her is who she is from her strengths. She is naturally kind, loving and
spiritual.Mary is now able to brand herself as that kind of person. No matter what happens
externally should not change her kind, loving and spiritual nature she has.

That is unless she forgets all that and goes down the self-esteem downwards spiral again.
That is why she continually reminds herself who she is. She says it helps her remain visible
consistently all through ups and downs of running a business.

Living truly by my values? That means I can be brave for

my clients. By owning my own power, I can show my
clients how to become who they truly are.

- My client, Sue

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DAY 5
YOUR COLOURS

What are your favourite colours? Is there a colour that could describe you? You may
know someone who is sunny in character or someone you’d describe as solidly and
securely dark navy. You don't have to wear a particular colour for your brand. If you
want to pick a brand colour you can do so but not before knowing your personal
colours. Reason? Whatever colour you pick that will have to go nicely with you (your
photos). Let's begin.

Wearing 'wrong' colours for your complexion and colour will (but not limited to:
- make you look ghostly and tired
- darken any under eye circles

HOW TO WORK OUT YOUR COLOURS

1. Cladwell Color Quiz - There are many simple online colour tools available. The one
I often use for my clients is at: https://cladwell.com/how-to-create-your-color-palette

As a freely available online tool, it can be quite temperamental so exercising patience is

recommended. Also, if you’re not so sure about certain steps just go through it a couple of times to get
a couple of different results and see which one is more ‘YOU’. When in doubt, always go for more
harmonious colours for your personality. It does not have to be all bold and loud.

2. Wardrobe check - a full length mirror, facing bright (diffused) natural light and a
pile of your clothes.

Sort your clothes in piles of different colours - reds, blues, greens etc. Put each item against your face.
If your eyes pop-out (brighter and clearer), that colour is your ideal colour. Anything less (e.g. darker
under eye) will be better donated or thrown away. Once you have a pile of 'good' colours, compare
them with the colour charts in the next page.

Remember that you can't 'fail' with this. It's not an exact science. For example, one of the colours that
look great on me is fuchsia pink but you'll not see me wearing that colour. I simply don't go for bright
pink. Also, just because you're a BRAND, it doesn't mean you have to wear a strong colour, either.
What makes you feel and look good is what you want to aim for!
Just remember that BLACK may not be your colour. But first, what are your colours?

What colour eyes do you have? What's your hair colour? How about your skin tone?

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DAY 5
COLOUR CHARTS

COOL & BRIGHT

If you suit cool and bright colours, your hair will go grey with salt/pepper colours
without the hint of ginger or yellow. You're likely to have contrasty colours - e.g.
alabaster white skin with deep blue eyes, olive skin with dark hair and dark eyes. You
look terrible with any rust or apricot, beige colours. You look great with bold & strong
colours. These strong colours are your friends.

WARM
If you suit warm colours, you have some 'reds' in your hair, from rich brown to auburn
or ginger. You might have darkish blue, brown or dull green eye colour. Your skin is
mid-brown with some freckles and generally darker tone. You really have to avoid
wearing black. Think autumn colours for your palette such as these.

TEMPERATE
You look great with muted bright colours. Too bright and it will be overwhelming. Too pale
pastel will wash you out. Your eyes are definitely green, aqua or blue. You want to avoid cold
bright colours. And beige, brown, or khaki colours will look 'dirty' on you. Wear similar tones with
coordinating colours. People will start commenting on how well you look with these colours

The colour information on this page is my summary of the colour section in the book:
What not to wear by Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine (2004)
Which palette would best suit you?

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DAY 6
YOUR STYLE

YOU ARE THIS... NOT THAT

This fun exercise is borrowed from the book Do More Great Work by Michael Bungay Stainer.
We are using the power of metaphors.
I’ll give you some examples based on my personal styles:

!TOP TIP
1. Recall a time when you were looking at your best and come up with words to describe your
style
2. Come up with as many words as possible for the ‘I’m this’ section
3. When considering “I’m not that”, you’re not looking for the absolute opposite but more words
that are ‘meh/that just ain’t me’ 
4. Looking at each pair, pick those that are most compelling for you.

This exercise can be more powerful if you're looking for your 'zone of genius' or
your BEST work as described by Michael, the author of the book.

I'm this ...not that

Once you narrowed down your style keywords, it's time to do some image searching.
Head over to Pinterest and start pinning images that meet your keywords set!

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DAY 7
YOUR BRAND KEYWORDS

Phew... for the past six days I asked you to look at different components of your brand
building. Well done on getting to this point.

On this final day, I'll show you how to put all of them together so that you can use this
PDF as your guide to:

1. keep your visual brand consistent

2. keep your message consistent and coherent
3. keep your style consistent (free up your time)
4. most importantly maintain your confidence level focusing on your strengths.

Review your words - refer to the previous sections and write down your 'words'.

Your strengths Your values 3 words from others

Decide on 3 - Look at the list above. Acting like a scientist, what you do notice? Any
pattern emerging? Narrow down to three words and write them down below.

Scrapbooking - Summarise your colour/style words and start collecting images in

Pinterest. Create a separate board for colour and style if you want to. Less is better in this
instance - be selective and only collect images that you LOVE.

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YAY
WHAT'S NEXT?

Wow, that was amazing. You know what? It took me years to work all this out and now
you've got it all worked out in seven days!

You might be wondering what to do with all this information you gathered. Here are my
recommendations for you:

Visual Assets - Your logo, photos you post in social media and your own photos should
ideally go well with the brand keywords and your style/colour.

Your website - More specifically, does your website represent what you're about
(discovered through this process)? If not, it's time to put your website through the
branding 'filter' in this PDF. Make necessary changes.

Captions and text content - Here's where your strengths and values play a key role.
Your vibe speaks louder (when people read your content) than how you look in your
photos. Are you leveraging your strengths? Focus solely on what you're about. For
example, I may get bored talking about the same thing but I won't stop talking/writing
about it in the context of brand building because I love helping others and I can naturally
'lead' people to better outcomes (e.g. leadership is my top strength). The interpretation of
how/when you'll use the information you gained is entirely up to you. There is no
prescription. The point is to use the information in this PDF to keep your brand
'Consistent'.

And your brand evolves - You may not want to believe this when you're just setting all
this up but your brand evolves as your business/career evolves. The important thing to
remember is to review and see where any deviations take place and if that warrants
revision/changes.

In the next page, I share a case study of Caro Monroy who went through the
process laid out in this PDF.

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CASE STUDY
CARO MONROY

You might be still wondering what all this work could look like in the end. I'll give you
real examples of how the strategies in the PDF could used in launching a brand.

1. INTRODUCTION
When Caro first began her branding process, she thought that her expertise could be good for
anyone. That 'anyone' trap usually means 'no one' will be attracted to her service. After much
investigation, she decided on 'Transition & Life Coach for Immigrants'. Much more compelling and she
is able to tailor her introduction based on specific challenges her audience faces in foreign countries.

2. BRAND KEYWORDS
Strengths Values 3 words from others

Zest Energy Adventurous

Love Spark Decisive
Kindness Colour Vivacious

Caro's chosen brand keywords

Zest Energy Adventurous

3. COLOURS & STYLE

Caro's personal colours overlap between cool/bright and warm.
She can wear dark bright colours as well as warm tones. Her
brand style is 'Marie Forleo from Colombia'. From that, you'll get
immediate sense of what she would look like.

Caro's brand colours were chosen based on the brand

keywords. A little colour research revealed the following
colours to be suitable. They also fall nice into her personal
colour palette.

There are more to brand than branding assets but for the sake of convenience in this small space
4. VISUAL ASSETS I'll show you how she was able to create her visual assets based on the information above.

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NEXT STEP!
Congratulations!
Seriously, not many people look into
building brand in any detail, let alone
actually doing the work of start building a
brand.

Contact Information
If you spent the last seven days working on
this, then you have what's known as 'bias DMs @songyknox
towards action' which is the most significant
Email [email protected]
indicator of all successful people.
Website songyknox.com.au
Since you're here, I invite you to connect
with me. Choose your fav social platform -
Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn.

What's next?
Your visibility is more important than your
ability, now more than ever.

That's why I wrote the book How Do You

Want to BE SEEN - so you'll have everything
you need to put yourself out there and grow
your business or career.

You absolutely have to show up & speak up to get what you want.
This book will show you exactly how to do that.

Free yourself from ridiculous & mind-numbing fear of judgement

Learn to put yourself out there for your ideal audience - they'll love
what you have to say
Become an expert at communicating your value and reap the many
rewards of promoting the unique you.

Isn't it time you stepped up to a better life? Your journey starts now. Are you with me?

Yes, I want the book!

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