One of my dear friends John Van Dinther of 2Hats Consulting wrote this amazing post about branding for small businesses.

One of the reasons I was loving it was that he also has a section about personal values. It looks like this:Personal Values:

Personal Values
Discover how you are seen now: Ask your community who they see you as now, what gifts you bring, and what style they see you presenting. Don’t focus on what they think your brand should look like, instead just find out what they see today.
Values: List 5 simple reasons WHY it is good for the world that you are in business.
Essence: What is the single MOST valuable thing you do as a business person?
Keywords: What 5 keywords best define your business identity, values, and essence?

I find that having key, core values is something that shows up all over. It’s how people know who we are, it’s how we know who are customers are, it’s how we can get good at what we do and it defines our relationship to community – whether that’s family, friends or work.

But that’s not all there is to it. John lays out his method for creating a solid brand. I’ve been through this material with him and he’s stellar at it. I highly recommend him.