The Best Leakage to Your Personal Brand

I once had the privilege of learning from a body language expert who shared an interesting revelation – that body language is the best leakage in communication. This simply means that our body language speaks louder than words often revealing more about us than we consciously intend. Albert Mehrabian, a researcher in communication who transitioned from engineering introduced the 7-38-55 rule which emphasizes that a remarkable 55% of communication relies on non-verbal cues, 38% is vocal (tone of voice and intonation) while words account for a mere 7% .

According to MindTools, Body language is the unspoken part of communication that we use to reveal our true feelings and to give our message more impact. These unspoken cues come in the form of facial expressions, body movements, gestures, and body posture all of which play their part in reinforcing the message at hand.

Depending on one’s state of mind, there will be times when the words we speak will contradict what we communicate using our body language. When an outsider is faced with such mixed signals, the natural tendency is to believe what the body portrays, as body language is the more natural, unconscious language that broadcasts our true feelings and intentions. Thus, the statement from the body language guru that body language is indeed a form of leakage in the world of communication.

In the world of personal branding, a point of leakage can also be identified.

Your personal brand becomes rooted when you continuously engage with your audience using the quality of content you share. Content is to personal branding what body language is to communication. It indirectly reveals your value and acts as the gateway that allows those around you to truly experience what your brand truly stands for. This content comes in the form of the expertise you have, the knowledge you possess around a certain topic, and the experience you have gained over the years as you worked to perfect your craft.

To grow your personal brand, you must build on your content value by continuously building on your expertise and knowledge level.

You can do this by:

1. Creating an always-on learning road map Learning is a continuous journey, and you cannot display expertise without first becoming an expert. To become an expert, you must be an avid consumer of knowledge. This knowledge, however, must be relevant to the vision you have of your personal brand and to the industry needs that you seek to fulfill.
2. Minding the content you consumeThe saying ‘Garbage in, garbage out; is very apt when it comes to the type of content you consume. Ensure the content you consume positively adds to your knowledge and expertise. To get started on this, consider doing the simple things such as reviewing what you consume on social and mainstream media as this could easily influence your world and mindset.
3. Being open to sharing your knowledgeSharing what you know helps you to not only retain the knowledge gained, but to also perfect the known and unknown. Furthermore, putting yourself out there, in the position of ‘teacher’ forces you to be in a state of continuous learning, while identifying, and correcting any gaps in the skills and knowledge you hold.
4. Minding your spoken word In today’s world, the pressure to speak up to showcase one’s worth is tremendous. What this has done is it has created a set of people around us who are happy to say a lot of nothing or worse, say the wrong thing just to be heard. If what you are speaking about leaves more question marks than answers, then keep your words to yourself.
5. Minding your network (both online and offline)According to a man named Jim Rohn, “you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Keep a network of professionals that will challenge you to strengthen the value of your personal brand. Don’t waste your time hanging with or listening to the wrong people.

Build on your content value to enhance the credibility of your personal brand.

The kind of content you consume, and share can either complement or contradict your Personal Brand. The key to enhancing your Personal Brand is becoming the subject matter expert in your industry.

Back up your Personal Brand with the right content and #Standout4Growth.

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