What is branding? In the common sense branding is recognition ... the Nike swoosh; the Brawny Man; the little blue box from Tiffany’s. The minute you mention a strong brand people would use the same words to describe it.

What if you could do that as a person? What if you were so recognizable that when people heard your name, they would describe you in the same positive light? You can learn to manage how you are perceived both inside and outside the company, take more control of your professional success, and know and live your personal brand. So what if you could hone your reputation as an intelligent, fair, hardworking business person with a good product or service and not only exude your brand but use your reputation as a marketing tool?

For instance, Oprah has a strong personal brand.The name “Oprah” conjures up similar thoughts of successful, smart, entrepreneurial, socially conscious and a mogul. Oprah delivers her messages in ways that are consistent with her brand. Most wouldn’t bat an eye if she started a retail line for plussized women or developed a restaurant with healthy food or was on a panel for women in the media. But it would be completely left field (“off-brand”) if she opened a chain of tire shops and was a judge at a monster car rally.

That’s branding.

According to Valerie Sokolosky, you don’t have to be Oprah to successfully brand yourself.

Sokolosky is one of the few certified personal branding coaches in the United States hired by the likes of Microsoft, IBM, Cisco and Morgan Stanley to help their employees embody their values, vision, purpose, goals and passions in order to enhance and enrich their careers or entrepreneurial success. According to Sokolosky, branding is the message you communicate in speech, writing, online presence and appearance.

And through her expertise you can learn this in three simple steps:extract,express and exude.

“When you think about a company that is a strong brand like Disney or Apple you would come up with the same words or phrases to describe it. So just like large companies do that, individual business owners should do the same things for themselves,” Sokolosky said. “Personal branding is a way of clarifying and communicating what makes you different and special and authentic.”

In the women’s business enterprise world, there are certain WBEs who have earned multimillion-dollar contracts over the years because they’ve branded themselves in a manner that exudes their authenticity. When you use your strengths and your authentic self in business — your values, passions and vision — to guide your actions and your team, you become an irresistible ”must have” resource to your clients.

”So one of the benefits of this is not only getting clear on your own personal brand as we’ve described, but then learning how to express it, learning who to express it to and expressing it regularly.”

On the opposite end of the branding spectrum is, say, a president of a company who is successful, but he keeps his head down, does not communicate with the employees and doesn’t always exude an accommodating personality. Soon enough the company is downsized and he is ousted.And although he was successful, he didn’t have a strong personal brand because within his company and the outside business world he was just known as the president of the division.

According to Sokolosky it’s not about just your performance; it’s about who you are.

”Your actions reflect who you are.The most successful executives are both self-assured AND self-aware.You need to understand what truly motivates you. Taking time to understand who you are and what drives you is an essential step in the executive branding process. It drives your actions and your behaviors. And we want people to see the real you, not the chameleon you that maybe puts on a hat and wears it because that’s your hat, that’s your job, that’s your role,”Sokolosky said. ”Research shows that 50 percent of the workforce is doing just that and only 9 percent are truly fulfilled in their job. Using your passions and staying true to your values drives inspiring leaders who attract personal success. Inspiring leaders take their companies to new levels of excellence.”

Sokolosky is definitely passionate about her work and shares that she currently is one of only five vetted personal brand coaches working with partners in one of the big 4 financial services firms. So success breeds success. That’s a strong personal brand for sure.