For better or worse, in today's world everyone is a brand. Whether you're applying for a job, asking for a promotion, or writing a dating profile, your success will depend on getting others to recognize your value. So you need to get comfortable marketing yourself. In this article a branding thought leader and a professional dating coach present a guide to creating your personal brand. It's an intentional, strategic practice in which you craft and express your own value proposition, and it involves seven steps: (1) Define your purpose by exploring your mission, passion, and strengths, and thinking about whom you want to make a difference to and how. (2) Audit your personal brand equity by cataloging your credentials, doing a self-assessment, and researching how other people view you. (3) Construct your personal narrative by identifying memorable, resonant stories that will best convey your brand. (4) Embody your brand by paying attention to the message you're sending in every social interaction. (5) Communicate your brand through speeches, social media, the press, and other channels. (6) Socialize your brand by getting influential people to share your stories. (7) Reevaluate and adjust your brand by doing an annual audit to find deficits to fix and strengths to build on. This process will not only allow you to better control your image and the impact you have on the world but also help you uncover and share the unique abilities you have to offer it.

Selling oneself is something that we have to do every day in both professional and personal settings. We face it when we apply for a job, advocate for a promotion or a raise, vie for a leadership position, attempt to land a new client, write a dating profile, or meet a new friend. In today's world driven by a sharing economy reliant on one's personal reputation as currency, populated by so-called influencers, and with all of our day-to-day lives captured, packaged, and shared on social media, we are all brands, and thus we need to understand how to market ourselves. This note is designed to help you better understand how to identify, clarify, communicate, embody, and strategically manage your personal brand so that it strongly and clearly signifies and signals the unique value you have to offer. Personal branding allows you to own and tell your story - empowering you to make the difference you wish to achieve in your life and in the greater world.