by Vince Rogers
You graduate from a historic and prestigious university. You land your dream job in the glamorous entertainment industry. You work directly with a music legend and famous celebrities. You are regarded in your profession as a highly talented and extremely energetic “go-getter”. You become a Vice-President at one of the most iconic brand names in the entertainment industry. You are regarded as a real “Big Deal”. You have it all.
You are diagnosed with MultipleSclerosis (MS) at the age of 22. For years you manage to hide the debilitating limitations the condition imposes on you. Nevertheless, you devote 15 years to building an identity that is synonymous with confidence, competence and consistency. You accomplish all of this under the most challenging circumstances. But ultimately, the pressures of the fast paced, stressful world of the entertainment industry become too much to manage. This eventually leads to you being laid off from a job that has been your identity for more than a decade. You’ve lost it all. Now what?
Six years ago, Atlanta based Personal Brand Strategy coach Kelly Green was faced with this exact dilemma. The simultaneous challenges of managing her serious health condition and the loss of her high-status career seriously shook the core of her identity. She affirms that“When I got laid off, I was hurt, angry and embarrassed, but most of all I had no idea what I was going to do next!”
After no small amount of soul searching, she decided for the first time in her life to put a priority on her own personal well being. This was not easy for someone who was used to putting their career first. As she puts it, “My ego wanted to continue living the lifestyle I had been living for 15 years, but deep down I knew that I needed a mental and physical break from it all.”
This realization highlights the first stage of what "Coach Kelly" characterizes as the process of “Personal Re-Branding” Many people are currently facing the process of repositioning their lives after facing serious adversities. Home foreclosure, job loss, severe illness and other major challenges can send a persons life into a tailspin. Not only can such life altering adversities affect how the world sees your personal brand identity, but they can deeply alter your personal self-image as well. Kelly believes that the first question you have to ask yourself in this process of personal “re-branding” is
“What do I want to do with my life now and how does my new situation affect that?”
She realized that if she was going to continue pursuing her dreams, she would first have to address her health situation. During this process she met with a Holistic Nutrition Coach while still residing in New York City. Not only was this encounter beneficial to her health, it also helped her identify the path she should take towards “re-branding” herself professionally. Luckily for us, she also decided to relocate to Atlanta to pursue what she describes as a “better quality of life”.
Based on her experiences with wellness professionals, Kelly went on to become a Certified Wellness Coach herself. However in an “Aha Moment” she ascertained that her client’s needs went beyond their emotional and physical wellness. She realized that they also needed help “developing and clarifying their Brand”. Her years of experience in Marketing and her passion for helping people motivated her to combine these abilities to also become a Personal Branding Strategist.
The marketing of entertainers had been her job function in the fast-paced music industry. However, she realized that essentially her true passion was helping people realize their full potential. As she states it, she identified that there were other “People just like me who needed to “re-brand” and needed to build a new identity.”
Identifying your true passion and unique skills are essential to the “re-branding” process. This is true whether you find yourself facing the best of life’s good fortune or the hardest of life’s bad times. Some other key steps to follow in this process that Green has identified are:
- Position yourself as an expert regarding what you are passionate about.
- Identify a targeted niche population that needs your unique skills.
- Create a profile of an ideal client that needs your services. (Be Specific)
- Understand your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) that appeals to your ideal client.
Kelly emphasizes that understanding your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is the key to understanding how to convert your passion into an actual income generating enterprise. Having faced great adversity herself enabled Green to embrace one of the most essential components to developing your USP. You must be able to
“….Speak to a potential client’s “Pain Point” and demonstrate that you are uniquely qualified to solve their problem….”
An organization’s “Pain Point” is defined as an area in which they are having trouble fulfilling a consumer’s need. Green believes that her ability to empathize with people who are searching to establish or re-establish their identity is one of the keys to her success. “I’ve seen what it’s like when you don’t understand your brand and how things open up when you do” she says.
This process of “re-branding” has value not just for Green’s customers who are mostly entrepreneurs and “solo-service” professionals. Developing your Personal Brand and identifying your USP can be useful for job seekers, career changers and even for people making a decision about academic pursuits. This is especially true when facing adversity.
Green firmly believes that you “Don’t be afraid to take the first steps no matter what the outcome will be.” This process can be a totally individual effort, or it may require that you seek the guidance of a mentor or Branding Coach. In any event, Kelly believes that
“In order to communicate your value to other people, you have to know and understand your value first.”
To learn more about Kelly Green please visit www.insiderbrandingsecrets.com or contact her at kelly@insiderbrandingsecrets.com
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