The Fascination Advantage Assessment: Building a Personal Brand
Successful companies have a vision that helps set them apart from the competition. A good vision aligns with who the company is and sets a goal for the future. A personal brand does the same for an individual in helping them know what their strengths are and based on these strengths how to better put themselves out there and set goals for the future.
In her Ted Talk, Sally Hogshead says that you could be the best at something and have the best ideas but it doesn’t matter unless you put your ideas out there for people to know. I find that the key to framing a personal brand is knowing one’s strengths and combining them with how the world sees you; which may change over a period of time. To build on the latter, I took the Fascination Advantage Assessment. Here is what I learned:
The Trendsetter: Innovation + Prestige
On completing the quiz, I was assigned an archetype of The Trendsetter. According to Hogshead, a Trendsetter has the ability to identify things others don’t, isn’t afraid to reinvent, has imaginative and progressive ideas, and is not inhibited by risk. The assessment gives three adjectives most suited to an archetype. Mine were cutting-edge, elite, and progressive. A Trendsetter would, according to Hogshead, reinvent the status quo and implement change with determination.
The Trendsetter archetype comes from a combination of innovation and prestige; these being one’s primary and secondary advantages, respectively, in how they best communicate with the world. An innovator is a creative and entrepreneurial visionary, while prestige makes one ambitious, competitive, and results-oriented. The advantage of being a Trendsetter is in creating rapid change while remembering to clearly illustrate their ideas as they tend to get ahead of themselves sometimes and need to take a step back.
What Do I Think
While I wouldn’t call myself a Trendsetter, I do align with a lot of the ideas it comes with. Being someone who always talks about inclusivity and intersectionality, I tend to talk about ideas within mental health, consent, communication, and queer culture that go against the grain. However, I am always considerate of doing so respectfully, while offering perspectives that may be different from mine.
While I do not align with the word prestige, per se, I hold myself to high standards when it comes to my work. This, however, would translate to me — while paying attention to details — trying not to be consumed by smaller things while trying to see the bigger picture. I agree with the archetype in the fact that I am ambitious and results-oriented.
What was interesting, however, is that, according to the assessment, power and passion were my number three and four communication advantages which were a close tie with prestige at second place. I believe the former closely aligns with my ambition, while the latter helps drive me as a Trendsetter archetype.
I have always believed my personal brand to be one of respectfully speaking up while being intersectional, inclusive, ambitious, and putting forward ideas through simplicity. I believe this is close to what my archetype is on the assessment.
In Conclusion
As a marketer, it is important to know a brand and its consumers well in order to be able to market products to them. In the same way, knowing what one’s personal brand is frames their interactions with people and helps one understand better why they do what they do.
While this is valuable insight for my personal interactions, I believe it would also aid me with identifying my strengths through the course of my career. The assessment provides valuable insight into helping me further build my personal brand. It states that at its highest level, an innovator delivers cutting-edge strategy. This is something I hope to take back into the workplace, now, at the start of my career.
