The ACE method is a great tool for using your personal brand in job searches and identifying potential employers and customers. Here are the steps it entails:
Assess all your career and personal assets:
Personal brand
Motivated skills (the skills you are good at and enjoy using)
Talents and aptitudes
Passions and interests
Personality type
Work and life values
Career and personal goals
Education and training
Licenses and certifications
Work/business experience
Industry knowledge
Career and business network (relationships)
Clarify what’s important:
Your top three motivated skills/leadership competencies
Your top three passions and interests
Your top three personal brand attributes
Your unique promise of value (see Chapter 7)
Evaluate the best fit for what’s important to you:
Your preferred career target (job function) or business target — your dream job or dream client
Your preferred work environment: which sectors, industries, companies? (The five sectors are corporate [for-profit], nonprofit, education, government, and self-employment.)
Your preferred projects or solutions to problems (results)
Golden opportunities will come more easily if you are clear about what you want and able to articulate your value, if you determine what you want to offer and recognize which target audience is attracted to what you have to offer, and if you proactively pursue your target audience.
