What do people say about you when you’re not in the room? If you don’t know, it’s probably time to pay attention and take a deeper dive into your personal brand.
Today, I want to talk about what personal branding is (and isn’t), how to define or develop your personal brand and why it’s so important to have one.
What is personal branding?
Personal branding is how we help other people see us, whether we’re on social media or not. I think of personal branding as the result of how we consistently show up in the world. How we act generally reflects our values, which lets other people get to know us. The stronger our commitment to our values, the more we act in alignment with them. The more aligned our values and behaviours are, the more authentic we are to ourselves and the people around us.
If you have a strong personal brand, you’ll notice that other people can describe you and your gifts accurately. It influences every decision, action or inaction that you take. For example, you’ll know your personal branding is working if your boss says (something like this) to you, “Stephanie, I know your goal is becoming a partner within the next five years, so I’d like you to join this new project working with the strategy team.” Now its decision time, do you take action or not?
Whether you’re an entrepreneur or in the corporate world, it’s essential to have a personal brand to help people around you know what you’re about and what you stand for.
What personal branding it not? It is not trying to be like everyone else. It is not comparing yourself. It is not about being inauthentic and denying the world of the real you and playing small by hiding your gifts and talents. So now that we have resolved that let’s dig into how we expand our personal brand story.
Personal branding versus brand colours
Question: How would you describe my brand? What colour is my brand? I’m positive you know it’s magenta. I was very intentional with using magenta, as it reflects feminine power, and it doesn’t just represent my company, but also me personally.
But using this colour (or any colour palette) only works if there’s something beyond the colours. I chose magenta to help people think of my values and what I do. When someone sees my colours on LinkedIn, it’s like a shortcut to what I do. The thought sequence is, “Magenta. Vicki. Empowering women and advocating for women.” While a great look or visual brand is helpful, it’s only powerful when it’s layered onto a strong foundation, which is your values and all that makes up your personal brand.
Great example of a strong personal brand
If I say Brené Brown, what words come to your mind immediately? Vulnerability and courage, right? She is known for these topics because that’s what she does. She writes about vulnerability, she gives presentations about it, and she talks to business leaders about the importance of vulnerability, including in the workplace. (If you don’t know Brené Brown, I recommend her TED Talk, The power of vulnerability.)
But we don’t have to be as famous as Brené Brown or Oprah Winfrey to have a helpful and authentic personal brand.
How to develop your personal brand
First, start thinking about what you want your personal brand to be and stand for. It should be reflective of who you are? What you value? What you want to be known for? What resonates with you?
Write down your top 3 values, once you have determined those top 3 then I would like to you spend some time writing about why those are your top 3 and how you would like those to influence your brand. Write all your thoughts down without thinking too much about grammar or mistakes. Once you’ve got your ideas down, you can refine them into your brand and personal statement.
Second, I also encourage you to create it as a vision board.
Good questions for the vision board process include:
- What would my personal brand look like?
- What does it sound like?
- How does it make me feel? Others feel?
- What words would I use?
- What quotes would I use?
- What kinds of pictures would I use to emulate me and my personal brand?
- What are my values?
If you’re stuck or you’d like some ideas before you get started, I recommend asking a couple trusted friends and/or colleagues:
- How would you describe me, personally?
- How would you describe me, professionally?
- If you were going to recommend me to a friend of yours, what would you tell her?
Once you’ve drafted your personal brand, let’s take it for a test drive.
Are you living your personal brand?
I believe an effective personal brand is values-based, which means it needs to align with how you’re showing up in the world. Take some time to see if your personal brand is in alignment with who you say you are. For example, if I say one of my values is kindness, and I keep losing my temper with people in meetings, that’s a good checkpoint. To bring myself back into alignment, either I start being kind to people in meetings or I take that element out of my personal brand and values. It might sound bad to remove kindness from a personal brand, but don’t worry about that. It’s far more important for your values and actions to be aligned than trying to project someone else’s values.
Storytime: From social media resister to podcast host (me!)
I was in the corporate world for three decades and I was known as a connector. (That’s one of my strengths in the CliftonStrengths assessment, which we do at WILEmpowered, by the way.) I definitely had and lived my personal brand, but I wasn’t out there. For example, I was on LinkedIn for many years while in corporate, but I would only comment and connect, never post. I just didn’t want to expose myself to the world. But then, as I shifted my career, I started wondering, how do I tell my story? How do I communicate with people? How do I show people how and why I’m advocating for them? I was still extremely resistant about getting on social media in a real way, but I did it anyway. After all, how can I achieve my purpose if nobody knows how I help? Fast forward to today; I post regularly on LinkedIn, I’ve hosted more than 150 episodes of the WIL Talk podcast and not too long ago, I was at a café in Ottawa and the barista said to me, “Are you the lady from WIL Empowered, Vicki Bradley?” All because of sharing my personal brand.
Are you ready to develop your personal brand?
In his book, Do the Work, Steven Pressfield says, “Start before you’re ready. Good things happen when we start before, we’re ready. For one thing, we show huevos. Our blood heats up. Courage begets more courage. The gods, witnessing our boldness, look on in approval.”
I agree. There are people who need your gifts and talents. Do they know you? Do they know how to find you? If no, why not develop and/or refine your personal brand this month? And if you’d like some support with a couple targeted coaching sessions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me for a meet-and-greet.
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Hi, I’m Vicki Bradley, an executive coach in Toronto and the Founder and CEO of Women in Leadership Empowered.
I work with women pursuing success in executive leadership roles and the presidents and CEOs who understand that strong businesses are built with strong, diverse leadership.
WIL Empowered is a group coaching program where we focus on all four aspects of leadership development through coaching, networking, peer to peer mentoring and developing soft skills. Our mission is to help women develop the skills, motivation and accountability required to succeed in their business and personal lives.
Take our five-minute leadership quiz to discover where your leadership skills are now and where you’d like them to be this time next year.
To learn more about WIL Empowered, visit our website at WILempowered.com or reach out to Vicki@wilempowered.com for a call to learn more.
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