3 reasons why you should develop your Personal Brand

This quote is from a client I worked with a few years ago.? Nata?a Obermajer is an oncology researcher who leads a team of highly-skilled scientists doing work that ultimately saves lives. Together, we worked on elevating her communication skills and establishing her personal brand.

While most of us aren’t working on curing cancer, we can relate to the need to have our projects and initiatives recognized and valued. We need to establish credibility.

One of the best ways to do this is to develop your personal brand.

There are two main reasons why people do NOT develop their personal brand:

• It doesn’t feel urgent. Your to-do list is long enough already, so personal branding gets moved down and down while other items jump up
• They’re not sure how to do so.

Through my work, I’ve identified three main 3 reasons why you should focus on your personal brand:

1. Personal Branding provides you with the opportunity to CREATE YOUR OWN NARRATIVE
2. Establishing your Personal Brand will BOOST YOUR CONFIDENCE
3. Your Personal Brand provides you with FOCUS AND DIRECTION

1. Create Your Own Narrative

What if you don’t control your own narrative?

Well, you’ll miss out on some opportunities. Or worse - others will write your narrative for you.? Think about everyone you know – and even people you don’t know. You have a narrative for everyone.? So why wouldn’t we strategically manage our own narrative?

This Harvard Business Review article illustrates the difference in the narrative you have about yourself and the narrative OTHERS have about you.? Establishing your personal brand helps make sure they are one and the same.

One caveat - your personal brand has to be authentic. Creating a false narrative will only implode at some point, completely destroying any credibility you’ve built up to date.

And remember, it’s not the loudest voice… it’s the voice with credibility.

2. Boost Your Confidence

If you have a fully articulated Personal Brand, then on those occasions when you’re in over your head or you’re experiencing imposter syndrome, you can just remind yourself of your Personal Brand. Focus on your superpowers and boost your confidence!

We go back to credibility again.? If you KNOW your expertise and the value you bring to the table, you can be confident in your ability to add value to pretty much any discussion.

For me, I remember being in board meetings when they started talking technicalities and I found myself feeling like an imposter.? Maybe I don’t belong here. Is someone going to call me on this?? But then I reminded myself of my personal brand, including my expertise in marketing and strategy, and my confidence was elevated.? I could raise my hand and say, “from a strategic perspective...” I could add value, reinforce my personal brand AND feel confident.? Bam.

3. Focus and Direction

Here’s a a fantastic example of how articulating your personal brand can provide you with focus and direction

I once attended a Harvard Business School conference for leaders. One of the keynote speeches was delivered by an impressive managing director of one of the big investment banks in Manhattan.

She told us the story of her realization that her happy place is building relationships with clients. She never used the word personal brand, but she realized that building relationships was her superpower. Her career was going very well, and she was offered a promotion to be the chief of staff for the CEO.

She surprised a lot of people when she? turned down the promotion. She explained that she knew her superpower was building relationships with clients, and if she took this job, she wouldn't be able to leverage her strength and her passion.??

Fast forward to today: she’s the managing director!

Imagine having that kind of insight into what fulfils you and makes you great at what you do and to be able to articulate it!

Certainly, your passion and your expertise, perhaps even your superpowers will evolve over time. But when you’ve taken the time to develop your personal brand, decisions about your future direction are much simpler. You have focus and direction.

Homework

This week, I have 3 things for you to do:

• Try the exercise in the? Harvard Business Review article and find out how others perceive you
• Write down (yes, literally write - by hand.? On paper.) three things you want to be known for and a way for you to demonstrate that.? Post that somewhere that only you can see it every day.
• Reinforce at least one of those things in a meeting this week.

Every little step you take to develop your personal brand will help you to control your narrative, boost your confeineca dn provide you with focus and direction.? You got this!

Talk soon,

Andrea

Dr. Andrea Wojnicki is a Harvard-educated executive communication coach. She founded "Talk About Talk " to help ambitious executives communicate with confidence and clarity. Focusing on topics such as personal branding, overcoming imposter syndrome, listening, demonstrating leadership and formal presentation skills, Andrea provides 1:1 coaching, workshops, keynote speeches, online courses. She also serves as a columnist at Inc. magazine and she hosts the Talk About Talk podcast, with over 140 episodes and counting.