Your Iconic Image : Merging Your Personal & Professional Brand

Your Iconic Image

Rafat Fields is an international executive leader brand strategist and values-based sales performance coach for Fortune 100 companies. Leveraging her branding expertise, and almost two decades of experience generating 7-figure sales revenue, Rafat connects C-Suite executives to their consumers to generate long-term loyalty.

Founder of Powered to Rise Consulting, Rafat helps management align company, customer, and employee core values to grow sustainable results.

A National Academy of Sports Medicine CPT and USA Olympic Weightlifter, she applies her athletic discipline to coaching emerging leaders.

Through personalized coaching, workshops, and immersive strategy sessions, Rafat empowers corporate professionals to convert their relationships to revenue.

Your personal brand is who you are. It is a physical representation of the values and the things you believe in. The day to day of your life represented outwardly to the world. A corporate brand is far more about the company or the product.

Just like every company has a mission statement, a vision statement, a set of core values…so should every human being.

You really want to have clear definition between the two and where they overlap.

When we are in alignment with our values, we do our best work.

When you are out of alignment…you are going to have to work much harder at having…productive relationships.

At the core root of it all, I think it’s about living a shared story.

The best thing to do is to figure out what is the separation of each person’s unique mission and how can you blend it together to tell a cohesive story.

I think that every person should be building their own brand and here’s why…influence is really the new currency…to the degree that you have your own platform is the degree that you will be able to generate and create your own influence.

Influence is a two way currency. It helps advance your initiatives and purposes but it’s also a valuable asset to the company you work for when you find a way to share a story together.

In the case of a solopreneur, it’s so much simpler. You are the brand. Live your brand.

So many people think personal brand strategy is about creating something that doesn’t exist when really its about getting to the root of what makes you, you, what makes you go and bringing that to the surface for the world to see.

Until you break through that wall and become known, you should be the face of the brand. People connect best with people. Not products. Not things.

If you lead with…the person you serve and start with the why, that’s going to be the simplest entry point.

99% of the time, it’s a human connection point that really advances the relationship.

I would not be looking to flip and switch and make the cut in 60 days. A year…two…might be best case when look at leadership transition models.

The question is….how much preparation does your audience need?

Champion the customer. Get deep into the details of what does it take to affect change and transformation in your customer’s life?

The thing that you do or the product that you sell is a small component of the process.

When it comes to points of vulnerability it’s how closely connected do you want your customer to be with you?

You can build customer relationships without vulnerability, but…you are not doing your customer the best service because you’re limiting the depth of your relationship.

We can leverage it by….what are the unique challenges in your business that you are well positioned to serve?

A hip pocket skill.

It starts with deeply understanding what that problem is going to be and then it’s about cultivating the relationships and building that wealth of knowledge and getting it out into the industry in your own voice so that that build a sphere of influence around you.

When you are sharing information out into the industry, also remember…what is the lens of your company.

Your personal brand is not about you. It’s what you can do for them.

It’s facilitating relationships that are two way.

Customers have done roughly 60% of their research online before they ever reach out…when a customer is entering a consideration period, what are they going to find?

People are moving away from investing in a company brand. They connect so much better with a person. So CEOs that have active and robust social media profiles, you can see a correlation in the data between their sales revenue and growth.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Sir Richard Branson

Once you start looking intentionally, you’ll start finding clues. The things people come to you for over and over again are one of your areas of strength.

Where are the places in your day where the work doesn’t feel like work?

Where can you be an aspirin in their day?

Please show your flaws!

Gary V…unapologetically him at all times.

If you’re looking to sell a product good or service, it’s a commerce driven business model… Speak to the one….I’m going to bring you on the journey…still speaking to the One but far broader context…more building a following.

It’s far faster to monetize a personal brand that points to a product, good or service.

You have a personal brand whether you want to acknowledge it or not. The only question is, are you being intentional about telling your own story or are you allowing others to tell it for you?

Even in high school…if you have a social media account…you are running a media company….so think carefully about what you’re showing to the world.

Own your story. Hold the red pen. Edit ruthlessly and don’t be afraid of adding in recent plot twists.

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