Episode adapted from live training in The Female Entrepreneur Insider Facebook Group.  Passion, Purpose, Perfection, Procrastination, and Paralysis will influence your ability to build a personal brand.

To build a personal brand you must start with identifying your values, visions, and passions to find clarity around your purpose. Once your purpose is discovered, it's time to differentiate yourself from all others in your area of expertise. This is personal branding.

I love alliterations and when you want to build a personal brand, it's easy to refer to the 5 Cs, 5 Ws, and now the 5 Ps.

The 5 Cs are:

clarity

cohesive

consistent

content

community.

The 5 Ws are:

Why

What

Who

When

Where

The 5 Ps are:

Passion

Purpose

Perfection

Procrastination

Paralysis

Let's dive into the 5 Ps. You can learn more about the 5 Cs here and the 5 Ws here.

What does passion have to do with your efforts to build a personal brand?

When taking the initiative to build a personal brand, it's important to start by asking yourself what fuels you. In other words, what lights you up? What makes you feel excited? Who makes you feel that way? What are you doing or talking about when you get the overwhelming feeling of joy, excitement, uncontrollable need to act?

Why is knowing your purpose important when you want to build a personal brand?

Your passion along with your values and visions for yourself and your future help determine your purpose. What are the values you will not waiver on? Are there certain activities that you envision yourself doing now or in the future? Who do you see yourself working with? Somewhere these three things overlap, your values, visions, and passions, to lead you to your purpose.

For example, when I was young, I loved to play school and I wanted to be the teacher. I liked to guide people and help them, to serve them and make life easier for them. Every job I've had since graduating college has had a teaching component. As a personal brand strategist and business coach, I am teaching and guiding my clients every day. That is what fuels me, excites me, and what I'm passionate about. It also aligns with my value of service.

Having clarity around your purpose when trying to build a personal brand will help you communicate and connect with your ideal audience to convert them to clients.

Perfection isn't necessary when you are trying to build a personal brand.

Once you discover your purpose and initiate work on your personal brand, there is a tendency to fall into the trap of perfectionism. We are all guilty of it. But it's not possible to be perfect and there is no perfect time. When you believe you have to be perfect or that everything has to be perfect in order to put yourself out in the world, fear and anxiety will arise. When fear and anxiety arise, you experience self-doubt and procrastination.

Procrastination will hold you back.

Once you hit the procrastination phase, your business momentum will shift. Things will stay as-is. The necessary action won't be taken to move the needle forward in your business. You will start spending time analyzing and comparing instead of taking intentional action. Endless scrolling on social media can influence comparison and analysis. If you feel yourself falling into a state of procrastination as a result of trying to be perfect, social media will be the last place you should spend time. To build a personal brand you must be genuinely you and not trying to do or be what other people exhibit on social media. You do not want to end up in a state of analysis paralysis.

Paralysis refers to a lack of intentional action when trying to build your personal brand.

Once paralysis hits, the cycle of fear and anxiety speeds up, self-doubt increases, clients stop coming in, and time spent on analysis reduces the time spent on action to produce positive results.

How to stop the negative cycle to build a personal brand and achieve business success?

It starts with your beliefs and accepting what you can control and what you can't control.

Your thoughts will create your results. How?

We know that our thoughts trigger our emotions, our beliefs about ourselves, and our businesses.

If you think you have to be perfect, how does that make you feel? Most likely, stressed, anxious, fearful, overwhelmed, confused, and unable to focus.

When you have these feelings and emotions, what happens to the level of action that you take in your business or life? It diminishes.

When you don't take action, you don't achieve results.

So when you are struggling with the thoughts that everything needs to be perfect, ask yourself, perfect for who? Who do you have to be perfect for? Is anyone other than you expecting you to be perfect? Chances are, no.

When you reflect on these questions you will inevitably come up with the answer that you yourself are putting the demand of perfection on yourself.

Read the full blog post and access all links. 

Download the free eBook on how to build a strong foundation for long-term success if you need help getting started.