Finding brand you

Pipa Unsworth, chair of the DMA's agencies council, spoke to some young agency and brand members about the importance of finding Brand You.

In a varied career, Pipa has spent much of her working life at DigitasLBi. She spoke about how to stand-out and develop your career, and will expand on these themes in a blogpost she will post shortly.

She said it's often difficult to separate who you are and what you are interested in from what you do. "In a professional environment we talk about which company you work for, what job we do. Then we talk about us. This is not a criticism - it is the language of business.

"To stand out and be memorable - you should develop your brand," she said.

As part of her journey to explain who she is, Unsworth has come up with a three-word summary: 'Fearless growth hacker'.

"I don't tell people 'Hi, I'm a fearless growth hacker', I'd be punched in the face, but it's important to convey what you do consistently, through channels like Twitter and LinkedIn.

"Everywhere you are online has to be consistent," she advises. "First impressions happen before you meet people face-to-face because you Google them."

She suggests being ambitious, but authentic. If you portray an image at odds with what you are really like, this would confuse people when you finally do meet them.

Beyond this, she said it's important to: "Be nice to people, arrive at meetings on time. These are matters of hygine, about being professional and a good person to work with," she said.

She outlined five steps to start your journey to being Brand You:

• Understand where you are and how you got there - are you happy?
• Make a structured assessment of your skillset,
• Reflect on your skills,
• Position yourself,
• Create your brand plan.

Look out for a post from Pipa that will expand on these ideas shortly, with more tips and some good ways to put your brand plan into action.