Scrolling through LinkedIn recently, you can find no shortage of posts about “Personal Brand Optimization” — including some articles I, The Fool, have compiled myself on my own LinkedIn page.
In that article, I also laid out my view on the 3 “Reals” in building a personal brand on personal platforms: Personal “Real,” Patient “Real,” and “Real” Value.
However, in practice, the second “Real” seems the simplest, since you just need to act “Personal” and provide “Value” consistently along a specific path.
So where does the key to those other two “Reals” actually come from? This article will give you the answer to that question.
U1 “Understanding Yourself” and applying it to optimize your personal brand
“Understanding Yourself” — the phrase itself already tells you its meaning. Remember the story The Fool once told through the film “Eyes of Innocence”? Understanding and positioning yourself clearly is very important.
Back to that film: if Ngạn had positioned himself correctly, he might have realized Hà Lan simply wasn’t the right match for him, and from there could have made wiser choices about a life partner, sparing himself the heartbreak he ended up in — especially since, clearly, he had plenty of other options besides Hà Lan.
That’s just The Fool talking, of course — outsiders are always the wise ones, and only after watching the movie does it become obvious 😁. But in real life, it’s genuinely hard to “Understand Yourself,” and sometimes it takes other people’s perspectives, or going through the “upheavals” of the “Life Cycle,” before we finally see the issue clearly.
Some recent podcast series and great articles related to “Understanding Yourself”
Luckily, browsing LinkedIn recently, we can find some great articles on this topic from people who’ve truly succeeded in developing their personal brand, as The Fool mentioned above.
There’s also a wonderful podcast series by Maggie Maggie, including one particularly helpful final episode on finding and positioning yourself, alongside Sophie, presented in detail by Anh Cuc Pham Thi.
The Fool’s own journey of “Understanding Himself”
I, The Fool, once wrestled with Anxiety Disorder after a forex-market failure, as shared in episode 1 of the “One Cigarette” series, later “One Journey.” I once again found myself lost in uncertainty about myself, not knowing whether I truly understood…
So from there, I began a journey of rediscovering myself through tools like the DISC test or MBTI, alongside researching and reading books on personal positioning, like “Building Your Personal Brand,” “Positioning,” and more.
Then I started applying what I’d learned, and found some interesting results from the personal brand I’d given myself, “The Fool from Easy Knowledge Channel,” which brought unexpected results across social platforms:
- After 1 year of rebuilding my YouTube channel, I hit my first 1,000 subscribers.
- After 3 months of writing seriously again, I attracted over 2,000 followers on LinkedIn, and now sit at over 3,300 followers.
While these results aren’t anything to be overly proud of, and are just a small milestone on the next stretch of building my own personal brand, they still show me that my efforts have paid off, at least in part.
U2 “Understanding Customers” and applying it to optimize your personal brand
In their first podcast on building a personal brand, Ms. Maggie Maggie and Ms. Anh-Minh Tran discussed a fairly great point:
“When building your personal brand, you should know who your target audience is, then find a way to expand that audience once you’ve hit a certain milestone.”
That’s similar to U2 in marketing, which The Fool once analyzed through the story of Ngạn and Hà Lan in “Eyes of Innocence.” Ngạn had no idea what Hà Lan (his “customer”) actually wanted, which would have let him build a better courting strategy, like Dũng did 😁.
U3 “Understanding Your Competitors” applied to personal branding — though here, it’s better renamed “Understanding Your Network”
Carefully analyzing and studying the strategies of people you consider successful in your field, or in a related one, then expanding your network with those people, actively engaging with them through methods like:
- Asking questions related to the story they’re sharing
- Sharing your own perspective respectfully on their post
- Possibly asking for their contact info or messaging them directly to ask for advice on your own personal-brand journey
A great case study of personal-brand building comes from Anh Cuc Pham Thi, who worked hard to connect and put together quality recap posts about Ms. Maggie’s series.
U4 “Understanding Your Targets and Goals” applied to optimizing your personal brand
Building a personal brand also means setting the right targets and goals for yourself to measure progress, along with regularly updating and optimizing your personal-positioning strategy, or your “Life Plan.”
A Life Plan chart to help sustainably position your personal brand and build your own career path
Why do you need a Life Plan?
To build a long-term personal brand position, beyond applying the methods from the articles and podcasts I shared above, we also need to lay out a long-term plan for that brand and its execution strategy — much like laying out a marketing strategy for a business.
— “Um, does building a personal brand really need a strategy too? I figure I’ll just do whatever suits me!” — “Then let me ask you this: if you keep doing what suits you for a while, and still don’t see results on any platform, would that discourage you?” — “Well, um…” — “You can’t answer, can you? Because it’s just like a busin…
That conversation above is a classic exchange The Fool once had with Ms. Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Uyên, a mentor of mine at FPT Polytechnic and later Founder and CEO of Go Digital — a Digital Edu franchise chain aiming to develop 1,000 locations with over 15% EBIT by 2030.
The project has signed MOUs with over 10 schools nationwide, sponsoring scholarships and creating learning opportunities for thousands of students. Go Digital aims to boost trainees’ performance and income by over 150% within 3 to 24 months.
The Fool thinks that, for most of us, when we start building a personal brand, we mostly just follow a bit of advice without actually having a concrete strategy to apply for ourselves.
So what does this Life Plan actually include? Let’s find out with The Fool!
Steps to build your Life Plan
A personal SWOT analysis
Just like analyzing a business’s SWOT, as covered for Indomie in a recent video clip on “The Marketing Cycle.”
A personal SWOT analysis includes the same 4 parts:
- Strengths: the standout, distinctive, unique factors about yourself compared to your competitors.
- Weaknesses: the factors holding you back from executing your personal-positioning plan in the best way possible.
- Opportunities: outside factors working in your favor, giving you a chance to grow and build a competitive strategy in the market.
- Threats: current and future factors that could negatively affect your personal image.
You can also check out a personal SWOT analysis from Christine Dung Nguyen’s article on Peer Pressure.
You can also download the SWOT analysis chart here.
The Fool himself had to carefully research and analyze his own SWOT before stepping into the role of “The Fool learning to be wise,” in order to bring you technical knowledge that might otherwise feel distant and academic, making it more approachable through real personal stories and knowledge learned from experts…
Network Analysis
List out people in your field, or in a related field, so you can carry out the right engagement tactics as in U3 “Understanding Your Network” above.
The Fool himself has had to research, learn, and reach out to seniors in the field, engaging with them on social platforms to learn more and continue this “Fool learning to be wise” journey.
Along that journey, The Fool has learned an enormous amount not just from women who’ve gone before me in my own field, like Ms. Maggie, Ms. Adele, Ms. Anh-Minh Tran, Mr. Bui Quang Tinh Tu, Mr. Phi Văn Anh, and Ms. Nguyễn Thị Cẩm Uyên.
Beyond that, The Fool has also had the chance to connect with people in other fields, like business administration with Mr. David Le, HR management with Mr. Thang Huynh, and sales skills with Mr. Thắng (TAS – Thang Advanced Softskills) Nguyễn Quang, along with a few others.
That’s reflected in The Fool’s own LinkedIn “About” description, as shown below.
Setting the right targets and goals for yourself
As mentioned, a Life Plan doesn’t just help you develop and position your personal brand — it can also support your career development when you know how to set the right targets and goals to grow yourself further each day, learning more useful knowledge…
The Fool himself sets specific goals with monthly, quarterly, and yearly milestones, to reflect on what hasn’t been achieved yet, work on improving it, and further build on what’s already been going well.
Conclusion on sustainable personal brand optimization
Optimizing your personal brand is an important strategy that helps you raise your own value and presence in the eyes of your community and the market.
By building a strong personal brand through a “Life Plan,” you can create real differentiation, boost your credibility, and expand your professional network.
This requires consistency in the image, content, and values you present across social media channels and online platforms.
At the same time, continuous learning, staying updated with new knowledge, and maintaining authenticity in your communication will help strengthen and sustainably grow your personal brand.
A well-optimized personal brand doesn’t just help you reach your career goals — it also opens up plenty of future growth opportunities.
THE FOOL — EASY KNOWLEDGE CHANNEL