Building a strong personal brand is very important. A great personal brand statement goes a long way in doing that. Similar to businesses that have statements associated with themselves, you must also have a strong personal statement that describes you and your values. In this post, we will go through the basics of a personal brand statement, give you some examples and then finish with some guidelines for writing a great personal brand statement for yourself. Let’s get started.

Personal Brand Statement Examples to Get Inspired By

What is a Personal Brand Statement?

Your personal brand statement is essentially a catchphrase that describes your expertise and what makes you unique. The personal brand statement provides people a glance into what you can do so that they can evaluate how you can benefit them. If your personal brand statement does that, and is very catchy, people will be able to recognize and remember you a lot easier. Sometimes, coming up with an ideal personal brand statement can be difficult. A good personal brand statement must be strong, descriptive, short, and catchy. People who read the statement must understand what is it that you do and what is your field of expertise. The personal brand statement should also be able to spark a potential client’s curiosity and implore them to learn more about what it is that you can offer them.

How to write a personal brand statement

Now that we know a little more about personal brand statements, let’s get into the process of writing one. The thing you must focus on is your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). That’s what will help you stand out from everyone else and make people notice you. Here are the steps you need to follow to write a personal brand statement. or the thing that makes you stand out from the crowd and the best at what you do. Just follow these steps to write your personal branding statement:

1. Write down all your skills.

Begin by creating a loose, free form list. You can narrow it down later. Make sure you mention all your strengths, areas you have a lot of experience, or even just personal qualities you like. 

Let’s say that you are a web developer, you should mention these things: UI Design, Javascript, Self-Driven, etc. On the other hand, if you are a digital marketer, you should talk about your expertise in SEO, Social Media Marketing etc.

2. Decide who you love to do those things for.

You might have a soft corner for a certain job you worked in the past, you might also have a client that you enjoy doing freelance work for. What do those people or companies have in common, and what work did you do for them that made you feel valued and fulfilled?

If you are a web developer, you might really like doing the front end development for sites that have a bigger humanitarian goal in mind, rather than just any other entertainment website.

3. Listen to what everyone else is saying.

Keep your finger on the pulse at networking events and keep browsing similar LinkedIn profiles. Find out what they are saying so that you can create something different. When you observe you will be able to figure out patterns in which people in your industry speak and describe what they do. You should ensure that you say something different.

4. What do you do differently?

Now that you have looked at your competition, go back to your list on #1 and pull out things from that list that make you unique from other people who work in your field.

Web developers can talk about the work they have done on languages that aren’t very popular. They can also talk about a more specialized skill set in one aspect of websites that they didn’t realize they had.

5. Who’s your target audience?

Let’s tread back to the second step, and decide what kind of people you want to be hired by. Now that you’ve thought about it all a little more, you  might think “I want to specialize in working with humanitarian brands.” This process isn’t instantaneous and you might have to go through it multiple times before you arrive at your Eureka moment. If you want to take a simpler path forward, you can also just select a particular age group or industry.

6. Put it together in a few sentences.

Now, you’re ready to actually draft some options for your personal brand statement. You’re going to start your sentence with your answer to step 4, “I do x”. After that, you can add your answer to step 5 and say “I do x for y.” At this stage, your personal brand statement should be simple. If you were a web developer, it might read something like “I do front end design for companies who have humanitarian goals.” It’s not extremely creative or clever, but it can form the foundation of a great personal brand statement.  

7. Add adjectives, and simplify.

Spend some time with the phrase you came up with during step #6. You will definitely be able to come up with some variations that will help you find better ways of saying what you want to convey. Keep it simple, too. Don’t overload your personal brand statement with technical jargon. Don’t just go with words that are limited to your niche, use simpler, more generalized versions to make sure it has a wider understanding. 

If a web developer just says “front end design”, it’s a very industry specific term and might not make much sense to everyone. Instead, we could say they “make beautiful websites.” The second half of the phrase could be snappier too, like, “I make beautiful websites for companies with a cause.”

8. Make people want more.

This step is a little abstract and can’t really be quantified. You need to use your branding statement in different situations to get a feel for it. You can put a call to action/challenge/a little bit of mystery to your statement. You want people to ask you more about what you do, or take a specific action (like hiring you) because of this little snippet.

Where to put your personal brand statement

Once you have decided upon your personal brand statement, you have to decide what to do with it. These statements are short and easy to understand. So you can use them on your LinkedIn profile and Twitter bio as well. It can make your resume stand out from the pile, so add it to the top near your name. If you have an online portfolio somewhere, you can use your personal brand statement as a great tagline. As you get used to using it, you may find it helpful to use variations on different social media platforms. Remember, it’s not your job description, so use it in places where you have to summarize your expertise and present it in an eye catching manner.

Once you go through some of the examples of great personal brand statements that we have for you, you will have a better idea of how to use the above mentioned steps to make a great personal brand statement.

Here are some great examples of personal brand statements

Ann Handley

Personal Brand Statement: “Empowering ridiculously good marketing.”

Ann Handley is an icon in the field of digital marketing. She is also a popular writer and speaker who works towards helping other marketers scale their marketing business up and delivering great results. In her own words, her tagline says that she empowers “ridiculously good marketing.”

This is a succinct and personal brand statement that gets to the point straightaway. It also uses casual, yet impactful language like “ridiculously good”.This makes her personal brand statement stand out. This shows how good she is at her job. Her personal brand statement provides a fair idea of how approachable and relatable Ann Handley is. The casual tone is a big plus.

Ann Handley aims to inspire other marketers to “create marketing magic.” 

Brian Fanzo

Personal Brand Statement: “Translating the geek speak & simplifying the complex!”

Brian Fanzo founded iSocialFanz, a popular social strategy consulting agency. From his personal brand statement, you can immediately tell that he is dedicated to simplifying complex ideas and concepts for everyone to understand. He is famous for making technical jargon easier for common folks to understand.

His choice of words adds a lot of individuality to his personal brand statement, making it extremely catchy and memorable.

Pam Moore

Personal Brand Statement: “Half geek – half marketing – 100% social nut!”

Pam Moore is a famous social media speaker and marketing consultant. She founded Marketing Nutz and currently serves as a CEO. Everything about her personal brand statement says that she’s a fun and dedicated expert in marketing and social media. Her half geek-half marketing brand statement makes her a 100% social nut.

She has a great choice of words and she puts them together very well. There’s a lot of individuality in the statement, which strengthens it and makes it unique. She stands out by embracing her inner geek and her inner nut. She is unapologetically herself.

Joe Pulizzi

Personal Brand Statement: “Content marketing evangelist.”

Joe Pulizzi has proclaimed himself as a “content marketing evangelist”. This is a very clear and concise self description and works wonderfully as a brand statement. The word, “evangelist” adds a lot of weight to his personal brand statement. It also adds a lot of intrigue. For the simplest reason that nobody has ever heard of a marketing “evangelist”. Experts? Yes. Pioneers? Yes. Icons? Yes. But who has heard of a marketing “evangelist”. This simple but powerful term helps set Joe Pulizzi apart. As per any dictionary, an evangelist is someone who tries to convert people to the Christian faith. However, a content marketing evangelist is someone different. This term says that Joe Pulizzi isn’t just an expert/enthusiast of the field, he seeks to help others develop a passion for content marketing, just like an evangelist would.

Sujan Patel

Personal Brand Statement: “I grow companies.”

Sujan Patel is a leading digital marketer who has claimed that he can grow companies. This is an incredibly powerful personal brand statement because he isn’t just a person claiming to “help” with a company’s growth, he is responsible for their growth completely. The boldness of the statement makes it extremely eye catching.

He goes on to explain that not only does his marketing agency help companies with their growth; he also builds and grows his own SaaS companies. He also talks about some firms whose digital marketing strategies have been developed by him. This is a great testament to his expertise and credibility.

Jessi Fearon

Personal Brand Statement: “Real life on a budget.”

Jessi Fearon is the brains behind jessifearon.com. This finance and budgeting blog features some great content that helps readers plan their budgets more effectively and understand how to pay off their debts. So her simple personal brand statement, “real life on a budget” has a strong and clear impact.

While the statement may be simple, it tells you exactly what you need to know. For anyone reading this statement, it gives a wonderful insight into the specialization of Jessi Fearson, which is living a realistic lifestyle using the money you have. Living on a limited budget doesn’t mean that you have to be mired in poverty. The words “real life,” give you an idea of how her advice takes all of the real life events, struggles, and possibilities under consideration.

Dave Nelson

Personal Brand Statement: “I believe in you… Now you must believe in yourself.”

Dave Nelson is a certified personal trainer who overcame obesity. His personal brand statement stems from that strong sense of self belief. It was his strong sense of self belief that helped him overcome his struggle with his weight. He worked his tail off to get to where he is in life and his strong self belief was critical in fuelling his growth.

Dave Nelson tells his audience about his belief in them and urges them to start believing in themselves if they want to attain their fitness goals. This is a simple but compelling statement, which fits perfectly with his brand’s goals. He is a person who has to motivate people and help his clients get a positive outlook on life, ultimately leading them to a healthier and fitter life.

Sofia Crokos

Personal Brand Statement: “Sophisticated. Authentic. Timeless.” 

Sofia Crokos is a celebrity event planner based in New York. She and her team have planned the weddings of famous celebrities such as Robert Downey Jr. and Marc Anthony. Three simple words make up her personal brand statement. Through her personal brand statement, she wants to convey that her personal brand stands for sophistication, authenticity, and timelessness.

Once you read the statement, you can immediately figure out that she specializes in putting together luxurious events for the rich crowd. Upon further reading of the description, you can also figure out that her company brings these events into fruition by building strong relationships with prestigious vendors on a global scale.

Her strong personal brand statement also allows potential clients to understand Sofia Crokos’ capabilities at organising high end events. It also provides an extremely clear idea of what she specializes in, helping clients decide if she would be good for what they have in mind or not.

So those were some of the best examples of personal brand statements. Whether they are crisp and brief or slightly more detailed, they do a great job of describing the person. These examples will definitely give you a clearer idea of how to write a smashing personal brand statement for yourself. Remember to make it clear, catchy and completely originally.