A quick glance at your bedroom closet, kitchen pantry or driveway will remind you--whether you like to admit it or not-- how much branding influences every aspect of your life.

Powerful brands stand out for many reasons: effectiveness, exclusivity, innovation or even social consciousness.

But don't think branding is reserved for large companies with unlimited ad budgets. It's an achievable reality for every business owner. And becoming a brand is one of the best ways to position your company and drive the growth of your business.

Few of us, however, know how to become our own brand. First, assess your business and identify the brand promise you want to deliver to your customers. Be realistic from the start. And then consider these six steps to branding yourself successfully:

1. Know what you stand for and be able to express it in one, simple sentence. Any great brand has a powerful and encompassing position statement attached to it that clearly identifies what it stands for. You need one, too.

Entrepreneurs often use their tag line to tell what they do rather than highlight the impact they create. My brand statement is simple: "Helping great women design great lives." While the tagline may not explain what I do, it does describe the impact.

Create a tagline for yourself that is both brief and powerful. It does not have to describe how you do what you do, but it does have to elicit a high degree of intrigue that drives inquiry about what you offer.

2. Become the expert in residence. Journalists always look for expert commentary and insightful, knowledgeable resources. Make yourself available for interviews, write articles, and become a source for quotes and on-camera commentary.

Being identified by the media as an expert in your field builds your credibility, increases your exposure and advances your brand's caché. A reputable PR firm can help pave the way for a relationship with the media. However, if you are more of a do-it-yourselfer, contacting news producers and business columnists on your own can open the doors to relationships and eventual requests for your help with or without commentary for a story, series or feature.

3. Write frequently and well. Whether you blog daily, distribute a monthly newsletter or write a column, make sure you are published somewhere at least once a month. If you're a born writer--great. If not, invest in an editor or someone who can translate your great ideas into highly readable, engaging content.

A series of columns can also produce another great branding opportunity: a book. More than 90 percent of business-owner authors say that having a book helped them grow their businesses.

4. Share the experience. What others say about you can be far more valuable to your brand than what you say about yourself. Have the courage to ask your clients to share--in writing--their experience of you and your product. Then post the testimonials on your website.

Also, create a platform for your clients and customers to share their experience of you online, on MySpace, Facebook or another social networking site. This, too, helps build your brand.

5. Speak up. Speak anywhere you can. Get the help you need to learn how to speak powerfully and effectively. Once you have become a high-impact speaker, turn your non-paid speaking engagements into paid honorariums and, eventually, keynote speaker fees. Being hired as a speaker--rather than being tolerated as a self-promoter--will elevate the quality of your message and the impact you need to grow your brand.

Tip: Never distribute materials on site at a speech. These often distract attendees. Instead, offer attendees the opportunity to request a recap of the highlights of your speech. This measures the interest level in your message, builds your brand and grows your database with qualified leads.

6. Seduce through sampling. Nothing sells a product better than a test drive. Create opportunities for potential customers to test drive your service or product. Find opportunities to position your brand without cheapening yourself or putting too much at risk.

I sometimes invite interested business owners over for a cup of coffee and a preview of the next course I'm writing. Their feedback is helpful for me to calibrate the interest in the course, refine content and promote my brand.

Do everything you can to deliver your brand message consistently, and you'll create a brand that differentiates your business and drives customer loyalty.