Personality Test for Personal Branding: A Match Made in Marketing Heaven
Let’s rewind to my undergraduate years and my obsession with personality quizzes. Rather than studying as I should, I’m instead taking a personality test to see if I were an animal, which one I would be. I was really hoping for a lion or a tiger because big cats are some of my favorite animals; as fate would have it, I got pegged as a rat. Go figure.
Personality tests might sound absurd, but we’re attracted to them for a reason. We want to know who we are in this crazy, topsy-turvy world. Why am I special? What am I meant to do? Who the heck am I?
Why Marketers Should Take Personality Tests
Understanding your strengths as they relate to business, family, relationships, and your relationship with yourself enables you to grow confidence and hone in on what you’re all about. The way I see it, there’s nothing more important than really digging into what makes you, you to improve everything from self-talk to relationships to work.
Businesses and companies find personality assessments helpful, too — they can help them build successful and productive teams. Having a better understanding of who you are also helps you better understand how you work with others and what your personal brand is. A personal brand is the “unique combination of skills and experiences that make you who you are.” Good personal branding will differentiate you from others and help you build trust with prospective clients and employers. And as a marketer, you really should have one. After all, you’re in the business of branding and selling. Learn how to sell yourself.
In this blog, we’ll dive into the How to Fascinate personality test and how it can help you create your personal branding.
About the How to Fascinate Test
The How to Fascinate test by Sally Hogshead consists of 28 questions designed to help you discover how you are most likely to impress and influence people. From this test, you learn your archetype, primary and secondary advantages, and an anthem for your personal brand. You can watch her TedTalk to learn more and hear from the creator herself.
“The Fascinate® test doesn’t measure how you see the world…it measures how the world sees YOU.” — How to Fascinate
Let’s Break This Test Down, Shall We?
You may be thinking, “Hmm, another personality test? I’m not sure. I feel like I have a pretty good idea of who I am. I’ll figure out my personal branding later. Thanks, though!” But stop right there — allow me to give you my experience with this test and my results.
When I was first assigned to take this test, I was truthfully a bit skeptical about taking this test. I had gotten my obsession with personality quizzes out of my system years ago, and I had little intention of returning to them. I thought I had a pretty good idea of who I was and what I brought to the table. And then, when I opened the test, I was surprised by how few questions there were––especially for a test about personal branding and what makes you fascinating to others. There is a statement (28 in all) to which you respond on a scale from “Not Me” to “Totally Me” with four options to choose from. At the end of the test, I was sure that that wouldn’t be enough information to yield effective and reliable results. But boy, was I wrong.
An Archetype indicates how the world sees you. Mine is The Anchor. If you get this result when you take the test, you can read more about it, but what stood out were a few things. The first is that my peers look to me for advice in moments of crisis. Secondly, although I’m usually quiet, I have a distinct advantage because I can develop a workable solution when everyone else gets agitated.
Your Primary Advantage is how you add value and is your most effective mode of communication. When you communicate with this Advantage, you are your most fascinating and influential. My Primary Advantage is Trust.
Your Secondary Advantage describes your second-highest mode of communication. My Secondary Advantage is Mystique. These two advantages combine to form your Archetype.
These revelations felt very true and real to me, as I’ve known that I’m able to keep my cool under high pressure. I owe this trait to my dad (Thanks, Dad!), who got me into a philosophy that I live and breathe by: Stoicism. Stoicism is a school of philosophy that hails from ancient Greece and Rome. At its core, it’s an actionable and practical philosophy that reduces negative emotions and helps individuals to hone their virtues of character.
Being an Anchor, someone who is constant in their words and actions and is a dependable, grounded person is who I’ve always aspired to be. Having the tenacity, patience, and calmness to see clearly through challenging situations is one characteristic I highly value about myself. And that’s what Stoicism teaches: in any situation, don’t allow yourself to ride the wave of impulse and emotion––remember what is truly important and return to rational sense.
Will You Heed the Call?
When it comes to building a personal brand, this information is like gold. I’ve now uncovered more insights and — most importantly — a way to turn those results into a game plan. I can now use these results to amplify what I offer and measure how my personality adds unique value to future employers and clients. I can now uncover this synergy within myself: my dependable and observant personality; my interests in lifestyle, entertainment, and wellness; my strengths in creativity, collaboration, and storytelling; and my ambitions in brand management. All I have to do now is go to the drawing board and start connecting the dots.
“Your hidden talents, your highest worth, your unrealized potential — the best parts of you might not have been obvious to you before. But now they can be. And with that knowledge, you can use your Fascination Advantages to grow your life, your team and your career.” — How to Fascinate
Personal branding is how you present yourself to the world. If you’ve been looking for a way to connect with yourself, your team, or your loved ones on a deeper level, personality tests can seriously help with that. If you’ve also been looking for a way to revisit that obsession with quizzes, I promise this is the way to do it — and you’ll learn something really valuable in the process, too.
