2019 diaries - Personal Brand

Continuing my retrospection on the talks and workshops that I conducted in 2019, the next entry in my 2019 diaries, is on Personal Brand. After Networking, this was the topic which I got to speak on, multiple times last year.

I love the expert chat series that JobsForHer conducts regularly. There’s at least one happening every day. The diverse range of topics from industry experts is so impressive, I encourage everyone to sign up to the groups and attend them. I conducted an expert chat on “Enhancing your Personal brand for Career Success”. There were plenty of interesting questions that I answered, one of them being on how someone who has taken a career break and restarted her career, can project her experiences and learnings in the new workplace. There are ways to do it and it will slowly create the brand that one is looking to create! Watch the recording to know more

Continuing the series of webinars that I conducted for Mentorversion, I did one on Personal branding too. One of the big aspects of creating a personal brand is to create an online presence and identity. There are plenty of social media platforms today, one needs to have a strategy in place to use each of them to create and enhance their online personal brand.

There are many benefits of working out of a co-working space, one of them being the regular community events and programmes conducted there to facilitate its members to learn new skills. I had the opportunity to conduct the workshop on “Personal Branding” at one of the best co-working spaces in Bangalore called 91Springboard. Most of the people in the audience were entrepreneurs to whom I was able to emphasize the point that their personal brand should precede the brand of the company that they are building. 

One of the Sustainable Development goals(SDG5) that the UN member states have adopted is to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. Global Compact Network India, the Indian network of the UN Global Compact, has been organising a Women’s Leadership program across the country every year to support and enable this. This year, I had the opportunity to conduct the workshop on the importance of Personal Branding at their Kochi event. One of the easiest ways of creating and showcasing one’s personal brand inside their own organisations is by saying yes to opportunities that come their way. This will help them reshape their professional reputation by engaging in projects, roles or initiatives that strengthen their desired ability and demonstrate their brand in action. 

Sailaja Manacha’s flagship women’s leadership program called “Step Up” enables women to mobilise their strengths and realise their potential. The format of this online program is a combination of content delivery, interactive assignments, and discussion forums. As part of this program, Sai invited me to deliver the talk on Personal Branding to the participants of this program. The core of  “How to create a brand” is in the self reflection and introspection each individual does to realise what kind of a brand she is or wants to create and then, over a period of time, utilise every opportunity that comes her way to showcase it. 

Networking and Personal Branding are absolutely important to keep your career moving forward. It distinguishes you as a leader and showcases the value you can add and draws people to you. Invest well in these strategies.

To know about my 2019 sessions on Networking –