My Personal Brand

How does a positioning statement go again? To (target segment and need) our (brand) is a (concept) that (point of difference). Ok, seems easy enough -- until you're trying to position yourself.

To me, traits like high self-awareness and skills such as self-reflection are fairly undervalued in today's world. But I think spending time thinking about yourself can actually help you better understand your relationship to others (see Daniel Kahneman's Emotional Intelligence).

My Branding of Me class has been a semester long exercise in developing self-awareness and self-reflection. Our homework? Stuff like meditating and watching influential graduation speeches. It's not the worst class i've ever taken...

So on Thursday afternoons from 3-5:30 I've spent a lot of time thinking about myself, wondering who I am and what my positioning statement is.

What about myself exists to serve other people? What about myself makes me valuable? If I had to summarize myself in a paragraph, what would it be? Here's what I came up with:

To globally minded, full-service, award winning advertising agencies in New York City, Madeline Stefan is a brainy, insightful strategist that combines creativity and critical thinking to anticipate need and solve problems before they're even problems. She's passionate about writing and works to cultivate empathy and resilience in her daily life. If she's being honest, she's a little type-A, but figures if she doesn't alphabetize the spice rack, nobody else will.