Set Personal Brand Goals Like a Business Leader

Treat your personal brand goal-setting with the same diligence as your business goals.

The best business leaders are master goal-setters. Reverse engineering a business vision into their next steps.  As the business of You, your personal brand deserves the same treatment.

I always wanted an MBA. I loved business. A love story that started in my first lesson in high school. Where I finally felt like I had found a subject to call home.

What I didn’t know was when or how I was going to get one. It was on the life goal list with little strategy to support it.

I was already working full time plus on the weekends in another job. And had just completed my second tertiary qualification. So, the thought of completing an MBA seemed so overwhelming.

Knowing my goals, my then-manager said, “Why don’t you just fill out the information night registration form?” This baby step set into motion what would be a life-changing experience.

The four biggest mistakes in setting goals

Grant Cardone’s best seller, The 10x Rule, puts forward four key mistakes in setting goals. These are:

1. Setting goals too low

2. Underestimating the actions, resources, money and energy required

3. Competing not dominating

4. Underestimating the resilience required

The 10x Rule

The 10x Rule urges you to:

• 10x your initial goals

• 10x the action required

Proposing that it’s through goals set too low, that you lose your motivation.

So, this is the process I encourage my personal brand coaching clients to follow:

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Tip #1. Be guided by your personal brand bucket list

In the words of Stephen Covey, in his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People:

“Begin with the end in mind.”

Picture your own funeral.

I suggest once you’ve done this, create your ‘bucket list’. Everything you hope to do in this lifetime. What you want to be remembered for. As Covey suggests, this helps give you clarity on your values and definition of success.

Goal setting should begin with your personal brand vision - personally and professionally. Avoid a work-life separation mentality. Think work-life integration instead. There’s only one you, so the two worlds need to coexist.

You wouldn't set your departmental goals without a guiding business, strategic or master plan. Your personal brand should be no exception.

Tip #2. Reimagine the SMART formula for your personal brand

It’s one of the business world’s favourite formulas, SMART goals. Setting goals that are:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable

• Realistic

• Time-bound

But, with Cardone’s goal-setting mistakes in mind, this lacks inspiration. The reward of achieving your goal is likely the outcome of playing it safe.

Here’s my reimagined SMART formula:

• Specific

• Measurable

• Achievable Audacious

• Realistic Resilient

• Time-bound

Replace ‘achievable’ with ‘audacious’ to avoid the mistake of setting goals that are too low. And be inspired by a vision greater than your current circumstances.

Substitute ‘realistic’ for resilient. Underestimating resilience is another of The 10X Rule’s biggest goal-setting mistakes. The need for personal brand resilience cannot be underestimated.

I suggest your initial SMART goals have a mid-term focus, for example, 10-15 years.

Tip #3. Envision your next five years

Once you have your mid-term goals articulated, start to chunk down.

Patrick Bet-David’s Your Next Five Moves posits strategising like a Grandmaster of chess. Plan many moves ahead. Plan your next five moves.

I suggest planning your goal priority for each of the next five years. And sequence the timing of them to create value and synergy in each activity.

My favourite goal-setting suggestion comes from personal branding guru, Mike Kim. In his book, The Brand Called You, Kim suggests strategising ‘like a Chinese Zodiac’. Adding one big goal every year. For example, ‘2023 - The Year of Blogging’.

Work toward an overall vision without the overwhelm of trying to do it all at once. The success you see in others is likely the result of small efforts compounded over time.

Tip #4. Move with the seasons

Next, break down your goals to focus on just the next 12 months ahead. Consider aligning to natural starting points.

Move with the seasons. Consider the physical environment and mind states your personal brand is engaging with. Business activities nearly always take into account environmental factors and consumer sentiment. So, try evolving your own brand with the seasons. Prevent wasted energy and create powerful synergies.

Tip #5. Begin with a baby step

A friend once said to me, “Start before you think you’re ready because you’ll never feel ready.” The road to perfectionism is paved with good intentions. But, it can lead you down the path of procrastination. The breeding ground of fear. Action is the cure.

Take the next baby step toward your goal. What can you do this week? Today? Or in the next five minutes? Send that text, follow that aspirational personality or submit the enquiry you’ve delayed. A body in motion stays in motion.

Small steps signal to the world that you’re serious about where you’re going.

You weren’t born walking. You took small steps, stumbled, laughed it off and got back up again. So, take baby steps toward your vision. If you falter, pick yourself back up. Someday you’ll wake up and the life you once only imagined will be yours.

So, are you setting your personal brand goals like a business leader?