Leveraging Your Strengths: An Interview with Personal Branding Expert Dan Schawbel

Strengths are the specific, task-based activities that we excel in and that make us feel strong. Awakening to and capitalizing on one's strengths is a lifelong process. As Jenifer Fox says in her outstanding book, Your Child's Strengths: Discover Them, Develop Them, Use Them, it necessitates "peeling back the layers of preferences until you arrive at an understanding." But of course, the results are worth it. As Marcus Buckingham, the leading strengths-based expert has revealed, those who play to their strengths at least 75% of the time do the best work and have the greatest levels of professional and personal satisfaction. Unfortunately, only 2 out of 10 people have discovered how to play to their strengths on this regular of a basis.

I recently had the opportunity to interview personal branding expert Dan Schawbel about how, at a time when many millennials are worried about their futures and having quarter-life crises, he is playing to his strengths on a daily basis, making a tremendous impact, and enjoying life.

Dan, how does your work as a personal branding expert enable you to play to your strengths?

My strengths are focused on personal branding using social media tools, which also allows me to do my day job at EMC Corporation because the same branding strategies that work for people also work for corporate and product brands. I understand what works and what doesn't work because I used to make a lot of mistakes and now I can implement branding strategies that make a business impact. Being a personal branding expert, I've become a go-to-person for these skills, so that people seek me out, instead of me having to write sales pitches.

You discovered how to live your passion at an early age. What experiences and relationships helped you to awaken to your strengths?

I've been practicing personal branding for years, not understanding that there was a concept behind it. I learned graphic design and website development in middle school and then marketed myself to get eight internships between the end of high school and college and finally, went through eight months of hell to get a product marketing job when I graduated. All of this was without understanding or using my network. I had a personal branding toolkit, which included a business card, website, custom cover letter and resume and a CD portfolio. They all helped me stand out. I had an awakening on March 14, 2007 after I read Tom Peter's "Brand Called You" article. I realized that Tom's words were nearly identical to what I had been preaching all along. In that moment, I noticed that no one my age was talking about this great concept, so I claimed the niche and still own it today.

Have you ever had or undertaken work where you learned that you were not playing to your strengths? If so, what did that feel like? How did you use that information to make choices that supported you better in the future?

I took an internship in sales, yet had no interest in sales or any skills to help me be successful at it. I think it was a good experience because it made me tougher and helped me decide that I didn't want that type of position later in life.

Can you share 3 questions you muse on when deciding if a professional or personal opportunity supports your strengths and is worth taking?

1. Am I truly passionate about that opportunity or am I doing it for the money?
2. Will this opportunity help advance my career?
3. Does this opportunity fit into my overall long-term brand strategy?
   

What are 3 strategies/tips you recommend for incorporating one's strengths into a personal brand?

1. Figure out what your strengths are.
2. Highlight them on your website, blog and on social networks.
3. In interviews, always talk about your strengths as much as you can and how they help fulfill the job you're applying for

You just finished writing Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success, the comprehensive, go-to book for all things personal branding. How has writing the book, getting it published, and ensuring it gets into the hands of those who can benefit from it enabled you to play to your strengths?

Most authors don't sell books they write because they rely on the publisher to market the book for them, which isn't reality. Since I've been building my blog readership, my mailing lists and my social networks for over two years, marketing the book wasn't that difficult. Branding is about having a long-term strategy. I built relationships, because marketing exists through people, with journalists and bloggers for a few years and then asked them to write about the book when it was released. Also, I ensured that I owned the Google results for Me 2.0, because I knew people would be googling it when the book came out to find out more information.

What are your top 3 recommendations for emerging leaders looking to figure out their strengths and harness them in their careers?

1. Write down a list of what you enjoy doing and what you don't enjoy doing.
2. Get feedback from your network as to what your strengths are.
3. Do some research online.

Want to know more about Dan and how to adapt his personal branding advice for your career or company? Pick up a copy of Me 2.0. I just finished it this weekend and it's a spectacular read, cram packed with action-oriented strategies that, when implemented, will enable you to capitalize on your expertise and share it with those who need it most.

About Dan
Dan Schawbel is the leading personal branding expert for Gen-Y. He is the author of the bestselling career book, “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success (Kaplan, April 2009).” With over 150,000 results for his name in Google, Fast Company calls Dan a “personal branding force of nature.” He is the founder of the Personal Branding Blog®,which was the #1 job blog by Careerbuilder in 2008, is an AdAge top 100 marketing blog and is syndicated by Reuters, Forbes, Fox Business and other major networks. Dan is also the publisher of Personal Branding Magazine®, head judge for the Personal Brand Awards® and director of Personal Branding TV®.