Personal Branding is Showing up... without Showing Off

Your personal brand is your ‘public persona’. Which is why, most often we view this effort of building our personal brand as a disingenuous effort. However, if we stay focussed on ‘who we are already’ the ‘values we embody’ and work towards building our personal brand, there is no room for discrepancy.

A brand built purely on ‘perception’ as the building bricks with no ‘reality’ to cement them together is not a sustainable approach

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Your personal brand, is your legacy which will stay long after you are gone. Here it becomes imperative to?follow the difference between?'visibility strategy' and 'personal branding'.?They both have their independent journeys, but merge at a point. It's like the rivers eventually flowing into the ocean and I couldn't think of a better analogy.

To context this further, your 'I WANT to be perceived a certain way,' so I am seen eligible for my next role or promotion or international assignment or collaboration or a guest feature or a speaking opportunity is your visibility strategy. Again, the anchor here is reality coupled with networking which is your relationship currency. While personal branding is definiteness of purpose-knowing ‘who you are at the core’. It is about the values that drive you and revisiting the ones that don’t serve you well. It is also about recognising your gifts-playing to your strengths, sharing it with the world and making a difference. While adding to the greater good you are well on your way to building your legacy.

In summation, your visibility strategy is the subset of your “Personal Branding’ journey. Well, why journey ? Because it’s on-going process, it’s evolutionary in nature.

Coming back to the subject that enjoys proximity when we speak ‘Personal Branding’ is?‘Thought Leadership’?where you are seen as the ‘go-to’ person in your field of expertise. So, if you are keen on being seen as a #Thoughtleader one can't undermine the essence of 'presence.' The?focus has to be on being a better communicator?and you become a better communicator when you become a better listener. Publishing great content alone won't make the cut. Building a community matters too and a community will gather around your brand and your content if you are human, helpful and heartfelt.

In all three scenarios which is Personal branding, Visibility Strategy and Thought Leadership you have a?clincher question to answer for yourself.

Is it based on reality? If it isn’t, then, you have work to better yourself and when you do that, instead of being questioned for your authenticity ‘you will be admired for your credibility’.

• To sum it up, in an age of online influence where we ourselves are the product, ‘personal branding’ has become an essential skill and a skill is learnable. It takes a lot to put yourself out there, to share your most powerful stories, to let people know your expertise can make a difference in their world, and then you can’t rush branding, even if you want to.

My purpose is to guide, provide you with the knowledge, the experience and the resources. Also, to challenge you to build or rebuild your personal brand.

#yougotthis #driveclaritywithkau