I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of personal branding. Personal branding is the spoken and unspoken ways in which we portray ourselves. Whether or not we want to have personal brand or not, we have one. Personal branding is not only for business people or marketing purposes.
It is the perception that our interactions have of us. It is the first impression we make before even speaking. Personally I want to have a brand that has impact. I’ve been working on improving my brand and this has meant gathering honest feedbacks from those close to me and becoming more self aware of my core values.
I realise that in many cases people have great attributes that can be beneficial in attaining their goals but these good qualities are not portrayed in their brand. Not many people who cross our paths have the time to spend getting to know us on the level of discovering all our winning attributes, hence the importance of working on a personal brand that represents us favorably.
So how do we build a brand that fits?
To be authentic, personal branding should represent our core values and not portray who we are not. For me personally that would involve tapping into the good attributes I already have and finding ways to magnify these. For instance i like to add value in any space I occupy be it professionally or socially. So my personal brand should portray me as someone who can deliver and bring improvements.
Personal brand is built with consistency, the core values have to be a day to day practice. Who you are should be aligned to the brand. Whatever is different or unique about a person should be leveraged to form their personal brand.
“Personal branding begins the moment you discover yourself”
― Bernard Kelvin Clive
I wonder how many times we portray values that don’t represent who we really are by our words or actions. How many times our actions affect the opportunities life presents because we don’t have our best feet forward. Finding people who give honest feedback on how you are as a peer, leader and friend helps give an idea about how to start building a personal brand.
Who do I want to be defined as? How do I bring these out to show that’s who I am or that’s what I can do? This will be authentic because I can’t bring things out that were not there in the first place. A wise person said were always being interviewed for opportunities that do not exist yet.
As Christians I wonder if our brand is always a representative of the body of Christ. Can those around us by our words or actions identify with our faith? Do we carry a personal brand that represents the church favorably? By our brand do people want to be followers of Christ?
How many of our good values that shape our brand are anchored so strongly that during crisis these good attributes remain consistent? The brand won’t be perfect but something to be worked on and improved with time but eventually with consistency become a normalcy.
There is no destination with personal branding; this will be a continuous journey of self improvement.
“Your personal brand follows you wherever you go and sometimes even lingers behind when you leave a room.”
― Jackie Canton