This is part 1 out of 4 posts regarding how I work with my personal brand. Follow this blog for the following Wednesdays to read all four posts. I will be covering “Who I Am,” “How I Communicate Who I Am,” “What I Do” and “How I Communicate What I Do.”

Selling, to me, is creating positive experiences for everyone involved. I get my money and the buyer gets something that he or she wants in return. That “something” can be a lot of things. It can be an actual product, it can be an experience, or it can even be an idea. I don’t necessarily part with anything, except maybe some of my time.

Let’s say I call a friend to have a coffee and catch up. I sell the idea of getting together over a coffee, and both of us get the satisfaction of sharing time with each other.

You might think that this is a harsh way of looking upon life, but I would argue that it is very positive as long as you are comfortable with the fact that the concept of selling is all about creating win-win situations (I recommend Stephen Covey’s “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People” for more info on win/win). Adopting this concept (I am selling it to you right now!) will not only make you a better sales person, but will also increase your empathy. Why do people treat you the way they do?  What might they be hoping to get out of it?  What do they think I’ll get out of it?  These are interesting questions to consider.

Even if this is a very important part of my life and how I function, it is not the main topic of this post, but an essential introduction to understanding how I work with my personal brand.

Who I Am

For the last 13 years, I have had a deep interest in finding who I really am, what are my values, my own ideas and my own way of thinking. This is in contrast to what I perceive as the values, ideas, etc. of those surrounding me, both today and in the past. These could be my parents’ ideas during my childhood, the values of society as a whole (locally nationally, or globally), or an idea presented in the news or a blog today. In personal branding the foundation is to define what the concept of YOU really contains.

Who Ola Rynge is consists of three parts: Past Ola, Present Ola, and Future Ola.  I describe these in three documents; my biography, my short term plans and my goals and visions. My personal branding is very much based on my personal development and this is the part where I am spending most of my time when working with my brand.

Every week I work with my short term plans (1 week, 1 month, 3 month) to review what activities I need to focus on more to get closer to achieving my goals and visions. I do not work with the goals and visions on a weekly basis, but they are always there as a guiding star. I try not to work with my day-to-day activities while planning, but leave these to the end of each working day. I have three  requirements for the planning. The plans must be aligned with my values and virtues, take me closer to my goals and visions, and be energizing.

The biography and my goals and visions are not documents that I feel the need to update on a weekly basis. Instead I do it every quarter (or when I feel like it). I normally update the biography every time I reach a goal that is worth putting in there. That way, I give myself recognition of achieving something great, which in turn energizes me to keep working hard to acheive more.

I would love to hear what you do to work with “Who You Are”. Please share thoughts and ideas by posting comments below!

Next week

Part 2: How I Communicate Who I Am