Having a personal brand is not only a great way to create trust for potential employers or clients, but it also helps to build relationships by showing braveness, self-awareness and authenticity. If we dare to tell our complete story and build our brand not just around our successes, but also our failures, struggles and how we grew from them, we can build full pictures that people can see and relate to. That’s how we can set ourselves up for success no matter the field or position that we want to pursue.

Code of Self-Branding was an Erasmus+ project created to empower young people pursuing their dream career and stimulate entrepreneurial learning. We started from ourselves – building self-branding from a personal perspective to higher the chances to find the right job and further went to entrepreneurship in more in depth. The idea behind this project was to create a safe space where participants could explore their core values, share their authentic stories and experiment creatively with their branding identity.

37 participants from UK, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Spain, Poland, Bulgaria gathered in the second part of Code of Self Branding youth exchange in Kennington, United Kingdom.

The outcome was a series of 5 tutorials related to self branding to disseminate the knowledge acquired and digital creations supporting local initiatives.

Self Branding Tutorials

1. How to develop your personal brand

2. Define your values

3. Tree of Values Technique

4. The Four Communication Styles

5. Generational Awareness – a philosophical tutorial about connection

See below how our project looked like.

Day 1 Introduction

On the first day we introduced ourselves to each other by name games first, than telling the stories of our shoes.

We formed cleaning groups for the common spaces and met the chefs to discuss about the eating and cleaning schedule.

We decided on what rules to follow during the project, and played a fun team-building game, called ‘Mission Impossible’.

In the evening we’ve set our objectives for the project, writing down and sharing the things we want to give and receive during these eight days.

We closed the day with some trust-building exercises.

Day 2 Defining Values and Goals

Today Our main goal was to find out more about our values, beliefs, strengths, and weaknesses. We did both individual and group activities to achieve this. We also had a session about ’embodiment’, which shed some light on our behavioral patterns.

Day 3 Communication

Our main focus today was on communication. We learned about visual and verbal communication in a theoretical way, and then had the chance to put our newly gained knowledge into practice in creative group activities.

We closed the day with an intercultural night, with participants from Poland presenting their country.

Day 4 Outdoor task

Today we had an outdoor task, so we had the chance to explore the area while also learning about branding. We formed smaller groups, each going to nearby cities to do their field tasks. We made a client report as a starting point, which later can be turned into an actual marketing pitch to our chosen client.

Day 5 Design Thinking and Marketing Pitch

We created the marketing materials today, for the clients we contacted yesterday during our outdoor mission. First, we received some additional information on Design Thinking and Visual Grammar, with this knowledge in mind, we created a prototype, peer-reviewed each other, finalized the product, and presented them at the Gala to the whole project, and also to the participants of the project ‘Young Clown’. We closed the day with the cultural night of Greece.

Day 6 Dragon Dreaming

Today we formed new working groups based on our shared values to create a startup. We reiterated the methods and techniques we learned previously and then started working on our ideas with a guided creative process called ‘Dragon Dreaming’. We went through the process of creating a startup to arrive at an ‘elevator pitch’ of our ideas to the other groups. Again we finished the day with an intercultural night, this time with Spain and Bulgaria.

Day 7 Sharing Knowledge

Today we had an activity about video making to gain more knowledge on hard skills regarding the topic, then we applied this information by creating tutorials in small groups about different aspects of Self-branding. By spreading the knowledge we acquired here, we deepened our understanding of Self-branding methods and tools, while practicing digital media creation.

Day 8 Opening the Future

Last day today, we had to close several processes we started during the project, both professional and personal, serious and fun. Once we concluded these processes, we got over the technicalities, like tickets, reimbursement, evaluation form, etc. After, we did some activities to open toward the future, both in a practical and theoretical aspect. Thus, the project ended, and we go home tomorrow in a bittersweet mood.