I would recommend building a STRONG LinkedIn network, boosting up your profile, recommendations, endorsements, ask to join relevant groups, etc. In the meantime, I would also develop a simple WP site and start pushing quality content on a regular basis. Would even explore trying to hop on a few trending podcasts for credibility & re-purposing. Check out Viveka von Rosen, she's the Queen of LinkedIn for business.

I'd invest in a strong domain name – something memorable, relevant, authoritative. That should translate to leads, repaying your trouble over time with higher conversion rates and higher lead quality. And whatever you build might be sellable later on.

Depending on accidents of parentage, your given name may not be suitable or may already be in use. Or you may prefer to separate personal life from business. I'd advise that, actually, because selling a business that bears your own full name gets complicated and risky.

Naming and domain consulting are what I do full time. So if you'd like to tell me more about yourself, I can give more specific recommendations.

The best thing to do is to get clear on how you see the marketplace differently and what you offer. This is your viewpoint which, as a thought leader, IS your value proposition.

The best way to determine this is to take your work to the streets.

Start finding ways to work with people in that space both paid (freelance) and unpaid (speaking, writing).

All of these require you to communicate/sell yourself, why you're different and what you can do for them.

Your personal brand = all of those things listed above.

Personal brands exist today because we have universal access to media. Media exists because of the tension that lay between multiple ways of the seeing the world (or an industry).

Thus, you need to see the world in a unique way and share your ideas over and over again, in a useful, generous way, for anyone to feel like you have a personal brand.

Without media, we'd be mostly known as sales people, artists, and entrepreneurs.

And we are those things, but with media, something only big brands once had access to, we now get to act like big brands with big budgets and publicize ourselves all over the internet.

Go sell your services and ideas.

And make your ideas public.

This, today, is part of your value proposition.

The more you do this, the more you will have the personal brand you seek.