The Personal Brand Values Discovery Workshop: 60-Minute Exercise

Your personal brand is only as strong as the values that anchor it. Yet most creators, entrepreneurs, and professionals struggle to articulate what they actually stand for beyond generic terms like "authenticity" and "excellence." The result? Bland messaging that fails to attract the right audience or repel the wrong one.

The solution lies in a structured discovery process that moves beyond surface-level brainstorming to uncover your genuine core values — the non-negotiable principles that drive your decisions and define your unique perspective. This 60-minute workshop provides a systematic approach to identifying, refining, and prioritizing the 3-5 values that will become the foundation of your personal brand¹.

Why Most Values Discovery Fails

Traditional values exercises often produce lists of aspirational qualities rather than authentic drivers. The problem stems from focusing on what sounds good rather than what actually governs behavior. When you claim values you don't consistently demonstrate, your audience senses the disconnect, eroding trust and clarity².

Effective values discovery requires examining your actual patterns — the beliefs that show up repeatedly in your peak experiences, deepest frustrations, and daily choices. This workshop focuses on behavioral evidence rather than wishful thinking, ensuring your identified values can withstand scrutiny and guide real decisions.

Pre-Workshop Preparation (5 Minutes)

Before diving into discovery, create the right environment for honest self-reflection. Find a quiet space with minimal distractions and gather the following materials:

• Timer — Essential for maintaining pace and preventing overthinking
• Sticky notes or index cards — For rapid capture and easy reorganization
• Large surface — Wall or table space for arranging ideas
• Notebook — For capturing final insights and next steps

Set an intention to be brutally honest with yourself. The goal isn't to identify impressive-sounding values, but to uncover the principles that actually drive your behavior and decisions.

Exercise 1: Peak Experience Audit (15 Minutes)

The Process

Start by identifying moments when you felt most energized, fulfilled, or proud in your work or personal life. These peak experiences reveal your values in action — times when your core principles were fully honored and expressed³.

Step 1: Rapid Listing (5 minutes)
Write down 8-10 peak experiences without filtering. Include:

• Professional achievements — Projects, presentations, or collaborations that energized you
• Personal moments — Interactions, decisions, or experiences that felt deeply satisfying
• Creative breakthroughs — Times when you felt most authentic and innovative

Step 2: Pattern Analysis (10 minutes)
For each experience, identify what made it meaningful. Ask:

• What values were being honored in this moment?
• What was I able to express or demonstrate?
• What conditions allowed me to thrive?

Look for recurring themes across multiple experiences. Common patterns might include autonomy, impact, mastery, connection, or innovation.

Exercise 2: Frustration Flip Technique (15 Minutes)

Your deepest irritations often reveal violated values. This exercise transforms negative reactions into positive value statements, providing another angle for discovery⁴.

The Process

Step 1: Irritation Inventory (7 minutes)
List situations, behaviors, or industry practices that consistently frustrate or anger you. Be specific:

• Professional irritants — Poor communication, lack of preparation, cutting corners
• Industry pet peeves — Misleading marketing, lack of transparency, surface-level content
• Personal triggers — Disrespect, inefficiency, broken commitments

Step 2: Value Translation (8 minutes)
For each frustration, identify the underlying violated value and flip it into a positive statement:

• Frustration: "People who don't prepare for meetings"
  Underlying value: Respect for others' time
  Positive statement: "I value thorough preparation and honoring commitments"
• Frustration: "Generic, one-size-fits-all advice"
  Underlying value: Nuanced, personalized solutions
  Positive statement: "I believe in tailored approaches that honor individual context"

Exercise 3: Daily Energy Mapping (10 Minutes)

Your energy patterns reveal values alignment. Activities that consistently energize you likely honor your core values, while those that drain you may violate them⁵.

The Process

Step 1: Energy Inventory (5 minutes)
Create two columns and rapidly list activities:

• Energizing Activities — Tasks, interactions, or projects that give you energy
• Draining Activities — Responsibilities that consistently deplete you

Step 2: Value Extraction (5 minutes)
For your most energizing activities, identify what values they honor. For draining activities, consider what values they violate or prevent you from expressing.

This mapping often reveals subtle value preferences — perhaps you're energized by teaching (sharing knowledge) but drained by repetitive execution (need for variety), or excited by collaboration (connection) but depleted by excessive meetings (efficiency).

Exercise 4: Values Clustering and Refinement (10 Minutes)

Now synthesize insights from all three exercises into a coherent set of core values.

The Process

Step 1: Value Collection (3 minutes)
Gather all value-related insights from the previous exercises. You should have 15-25 different value statements or themes.

Step 2: Thematic Clustering (4 minutes)
Group similar values together. Look for overarching themes that encompass multiple specific values:

• Growth cluster: Learning, curiosity, continuous improvement, mastery
• Impact cluster: Helping others, meaningful work, lasting change
• Integrity cluster: Honesty, authenticity, keeping commitments

Step 3: Priority Ranking (3 minutes)
Identify your top 3-5 value clusters. Use this criteria: Which values, if violated, would cause you the deepest regret or dissatisfaction? These are your non-negotiables⁶.

Exercise 5: Values Articulation and Testing (5 Minutes)

Transform your identified values into clear, actionable statements that can guide brand decisions.

The Process

Step 1: Statement Creation (3 minutes)
For each core value, write a specific statement that explains how it shows up in your work. Use this format: "I value [principle] by [specific behavior/approach]."

Examples:

• "I value deep expertise by investing time in thorough research and continuous learning"
• "I value authentic connection by sharing both successes and struggles in my content"
• "I value efficient progress by focusing on high-impact activities and eliminating busy work"

Step 2: Reality Test (2 minutes)
For each value statement, ask: "Do my current actions and decisions consistently reflect this value?" If not, either adjust the statement to match your actual behavior or acknowledge it as an aspirational value you're working toward.

Analogy: Values as Brand GPS

Think of your core values as a GPS system for your personal brand. Just as a GPS uses multiple satellites to triangulate your exact location and provide turn-by-turn directions, your 3-5 core values work together to pinpoint your unique position in the market and guide every brand decision.

When you encounter a choice — whether to take on a client, create certain content, or partner with an organization — your values act as waypoints. They help you navigate toward opportunities that align with who you are and away from those that would take you off course. Without this internal navigation system, you're likely to wander aimlessly or follow someone else's route, never arriving at your intended destination.

The strongest personal brands have crystal-clear values that serve as both a compass for the brand owner and a signal to the audience about what they can expect from the relationship.

Conclusion

This 60-minute workshop provides a systematic approach to uncovering the values that will differentiate your personal brand. By examining peak experiences, transforming frustrations, mapping energy patterns, and clustering themes, you move beyond generic aspirations to identify authentic drivers that can guide real decisions.

The key insight is that effective values discovery focuses on behavioral evidence rather than wishful thinking. Your core values should reflect principles you already demonstrate consistently, not qualities you hope to develop someday. This authenticity becomes the foundation for building trust and attracting the right audience to your personal brand.

Remember that values discovery is not a one-time exercise. As you grow and evolve, periodically revisiting this process ensures your brand remains aligned with your authentic self. The 60 minutes invested in this workshop will provide clarity for countless brand decisions ahead, making it one of the highest-leverage activities for any personal brand builder.

References

1. Studio Layer One. "Personal Values Framework." SL1 Creator Operating System, 2025.
2. Thompson, Jennifer. "Your Core Values: A Fun Exercise to Uncover the Heart of Your Brand." Jennifer Thompson, 2024.
3. Jeffrey, Scott. "Personal Core Values Exercise: 7 Easy Steps to Discovery." Scott Jeffrey, 2024.
4. My Best Self 101. "Exercises for defining and living your values." My Best Self 101, 2024.
5. Think2Perform. "Values Cards Exercise." Think2Perform, 2024.
6. Personal Values. "Core Values Assessment – Discover Your Personal Values Online." PersonalValu.es, 2024.