Successful professionals know skills and talent are not enough. It's all about visibility, credibility, strategic positioning, and self-marketing. In other words, in today's competitive workplace, it's a "brand you" day.

Regardless of where you work, what you do, when you started making your mark and why you chose the industry and role you are in, how you brand yourself is going to make or break your career success. Think of the job market as a "free agency" system. You're only as good as your last season so you want make sure your track record reads MVP.

Everyone can do this. Most people don't or won't. However, if you want to be paid more, you have to do everything in your power to be seen as being worth more. It's that simple.

What is a personal success brand?

In a nutshell, it's the promise of value your company will receive when they decide to hire you and, over time, keep you on the team.

Anyone can put themselves in expensive clothes, power up a top-of-the-line laptop, and craft (or pay someone else to craft) a slick résumé. Your personal success brand is more than that. It's what distinguishes you as being better than all the fancy packaging money can buy. It's what you stand for. It's who you are at your core. All the time. Not just when it suits your mood or is convenient. It's what defines you outside of your professional role and job description. Branding is what makes you stand out from the herd.

How do you create a personal brand?

Can you speak your unique value proposition in two sentences or less? Successful people can do that. Sure, they might have had to spend a day or two writing it all out, editing it down and honing the message. But they make the time to do that important work. And when opportunity presents itself, they are prepared and ready.

You can do it too. The easiest way to start is to write up what you've done lately to stand out - yesterday, this week, last month. Make a list of your professional assets. Note the words you think your co-workers would use to describe you if they were asked to prepare a one-sheet listing your unique features and benefits as a member of the team or your functional business unit. What are you known for? What is your reputation? Your company can pick anyone they want for project x; why should/would they pick you?

Start by identifying the qualities or characteristics that distinguish you from your competitors and colleagues. What have you done lately - this week - to make yourself stand out? What would your friends, family and co-workers say is your greatest and clearest strength? What is your most noteworthy personal trait?

What do you want to be known for?

The next step takes the question further. If all of the above represent "you" today, what have you done to market yourself in a way that capitalizes on it? At the end of the day, what do you want to be famous for? What is the legacy you plan to leave behind you?

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