This past weekend, Hajj Flemings of Brand Camp University hosted a private branding workshop for DYP and it was fantastic. Held at Grand Circus Co., attendees learned best practices to begin building their personal brands and walked away with professional headshots, courtesy of Shawn Lee Studios. Going into the seminar, Hajj spoke with DYP about what attendees could expect and why personal branding is so vital in today’s professional landscape. Hajj provided the group of enterprising young professionals with tools needed to personalize their digital footprint and invest in their personal brand by imploring attendees to ask themselves questions that drilled down to their professional core and guided them in defining their brand.

THE TAKEAWAYS:

Define Your Brand

What do you bring to the table that will make people want to work with you over the others? What do you do better than anyone else? What space can you dominate?

Determine what your value is and how you can be of service to your target audience and understand that, “if you try to be all things to all people, you’ll end up being nothing to nobody.” Whatever your lane is, dominate it, so that you can become the expert that everyone comes to for consultation.

Social Media and Digital Real Estate

Every person has to be a storyteller. Which medium works best for you to use to tell your story? Does what you present online align with your vision and goals?

While many young pros are already active on social media, only a select few are actually doing it right. Hajj directed attendees to reevaluate how they’re perceived, both on and off line, and to ensure consistency in those visions. Once you’ve decided on how you’ll brand your name, channel your inner Dan Gilbert and secure the digital real estate by buying the necessary domains.

Visual Appeal

Don’t put your creative vision completely in the hands of someone else.

Brand Camp University’s professional photographer, Shawn Lee, implored attendees to have the final say in the creative process. Your headshot should be consistent with your cause and he warned against using the same headshot for all of your projects. Also, when determining how long to keep your current headshot, Mr. Lee's advice was to update headshots approximately every 1.5 years.

All in all, attendees unanimously agreed that their time spent learning from Hajj was vital, beneficial, and well worth it. DYP looks forward to working with the Brand Builders team again in the future and we're excited to continue delivering these resources to our young professionals. If you’re interested in attending a Brand Camp University workshop, the next event is Saturday, April 25, 2015. Click HERE for more information.