Recently I, Thuy, was speaking on a panel about your personal brand. I thought it would be useful to share some of the key points I discussed as well as what the other experts on the panel were saying.

I define your brand as "what you are known for." We talk about it in all three of our books so this is a concept that we view as extremely important whether you are a leader or individual contributor. When people think of you, what words, images, or ideas pop into their mind? For most people, their brand is unintentional. Meaning, you just go about your day and do your job without much thought to it. Well, if you don't label yourself intentionally, you will get labeled.

There are three major steps to having a solid personal brand: think it, say it, and show it.

First, think it. You have to be intentionally focused on the idea of creating a brand, not just now as you are naming your values and what you want to be known for, but especially after this exercise comes to an end. If you are thinking about creating your brand, then you'll see the opportunities to talk about your brand. These opportunities must be seized. So find a few key words that describe your values and what you contribute to the people around you and/or the work you do.For example, think about the Volvo brand. The first word that comes to mind is -- safety. Do you think maybe that word was intentionally used by the branding team?