3 Unexpected Ways Personal Branding Can Accelerate Your Business Growth

When we hear Spanx and PepsiCo, names like Sara Blakely and Indra Nooyi instantly come to mind. But why? Is personal branding a buzzword, or is there a deeper, often-overlooked significance, especially for entrepreneurs? It’s time to look beyond the surface and explore three compelling reasons why your personal brand could be your most powerful business asset, just as it has been for some of the biggest names in business.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” —Jeff Bezos

1. Embrace your Evolution

When working for a corporation, you represent or are represented by the company. However, when transitioning from corporate to entrepreneurship, you might feel lost, and personal branding may feel squirmish. But it’s not about you! Think about yourself as the channel or catalyst of the impact you want to make. You don’t necessarily have to create a logo with your name—there are various personal brand strategies. It all starts with knowing: what are your desired outcomes??

Your personal brand is yours to evolve with, as you evolve as a person (aren’t we so ever-evolving…), and your community will follow you wherever you go, and whoever you become. You may lose some people whether temporarily or permanently but you’ll gain a lot more along the way as you evolve.?

You may think personal branding feels very self-promotional or is all about promoting your business, but it’s more than that. You can launch new ideas and businesses under your brand. Think about yourself as the umbrella product with all that you do or are involved in below you.?

Many successful corporate leaders have strategically built their brand while in their roles, such as Sheryl Sandberg, laying the groundwork for future work and philanthropy. Similarly, entrepreneurs such as Tory Burch and Sara Blakely have leveraged their personal brands and stories to grow their business. It’s a strategic move to start building your thought leadership and presence… yesterday!?

Steer away from perfectionism and lean into authentic progress—your community would prefer to be part of your journey and relate to you also being human.??

2. Build your Authority and Visibility

Contrary to popular belief, in entrepreneurship, the leader behind the business holds equal if not more significance to the business itself. While many emphasize the importance of their offerings, a robust personal brand serves as the cornerstone of success. It’s all about the “who”, more so than the “what”. That’s why good investors invest in people, more than ideas.

Personal branding helps accelerate your growth trajectory. When you have a brand, you can start testing and building a community, putting things out there, and expanding visibility. It’s important to be clear on how you want to be known, and position yourself towards who you want to BECOME, not who you have BEEN.?

When using tools and platforms like LinkedIn, we need to stop thinking about it as a resume of our past, but rather see our profile as a clear first impression of where we are going. You’ll accelerate closer towards your vision and manifest opportunities through that clarity.

For example, if you’re an entrepreneur and your business is still pretty unknown unless you make it known, then having a personal brand will accelerate it being known. Imagine speaking to groups of people and creating content to a fast-growing audience instead of getting into tons of networking meetings, how much time you’ll not only save but all the people you’ll be able to reach. As a founder, you are essentially the chief salesperson, representing your trustworthiness and credibility. It’s about your social capital, not just the value of your product or financial capital. People invest in you because they trust you.?

3. Scale your Business

What happens when your business is flourishing, but your personal identity is not as well-known? You need to build a pipeline beyond just referrals and warm leads. Eventually, your network might dry up, and you need to be building new leads before you even need them. It’ll take awhile before these new leads trust and engage with you, so it’s important to be implementing a medium-term and long-term strategy at the same time. If you’re smart about it, you won’t need to run emergency short-term strategies as you won’t be in feast and famine cycles if you’re constantly growing and nurturing your audience.?

Building a personal brand is crucial even for successful businesses. It helps in continuously developing a new network. This is key in separating your identity from your business, allowing both to thrive independently yet symbiotically. For example, my personal brand, Saleema Vellani, has significantly contributed to the growth of my company, Ripple Impact, and vice versa. My book and speaking took my business to the next level early on. This synergy is essential for scaling and expanding your business's reach.

Your personal brand is an invaluable asset throughout your career. Whether navigating a corporate transition or trying to grow or scale your business, a strong personal brand opens doors to new opportunities and supports your long-term success.

Everything we do should be aligned with not just our business or career vision, but also the vision for ourselves.