A Brand New You -
Personal Branding for Coaches

by William Arruda

Since pre-industrial times, businesspeople have used branding to develop strong, enduring relationships with customers.  But branding isn’t just for giant corporations or products on the grocery-store shelf anymore.  In the new millennium, everything is a brand.  Silicon Valley is the California-centered locus of cutting-edge technology.  "Operation Enduring Freedom" is a the free world’s latest military operation. And Madonna, Richard Branson and Oprah.  Brand.  Brand.  Brand.  That’s right, branding is for people too.

And in this day of celebrity brands, branded highways and branded cities, it is not only becoming common, it is becoming essential, for all of us to build and communicate our personal Brands.  For coaches it is particularly important.  Even for highly specialized coaches, ensuring that your ideal clients know where and how to find you is a challenge.  In a recent study conducted by Reach, only 10% of coaches feel strongly that their differentiation was visible to their ideal clients.  And with the number of coaches growing rapidly and the internet enabling coaching relationships to happen all around the world, the challenge is only becoming greater.  

Personal branding is the solution.  By understanding, communicating and nurturing your brand, your differentiation becomes clear and you increase your visibility with your ideal clients.  Just as with corporate brands, your personal brand is your promise of value. It separates you from your peers and allows you to expand your success.  Personal Branding is not about building a special image for the outside world; it’s about understanding your unique combination of rational and emotional attributes – your strengths, skills, values and passions - and using this to differentiate yourself so that you can expand your practice and increase your satisfaction.  Coaches benefit from building their personal brands in two ways:

1. Differentiation
Clients seek out special coaches.  According to Thomas Leonard, clients say 'I want a coach who can do X and Y and Z for me!' more than saying: 'I need a coach.'  And their are 25,000 coaches in the world, many offering services that seem similar to yours.  Discovering, communicating and nurturing your personal brand will ensure that what makes you unique is clearly, consistently and constantly visible to your ideal set of clients.  

2. Additional Skills to Support Clients
Any coach that works with clients on career or business goals will gain an additional benefit from having undergone the personal branding process.  Personal branding is a major trend in the way people approach their careers.  Coaches who have a clear understanding of the process and how to apply it are able to integrate these concepts into their own offerings.  They will then be able to offer a richer set of services to assist their clients in achieving professional or business success.

So jump on the personal Brandwagon.  Uncover your personal brand and uncover new possibilities for your coaching practice.

> learn all about personal branding for coaches here

> put the Reach Personal Branding Methodology to work for you and your clients