What is your personal brand, and why should you even care?

You’ve probably heard the term ‘Personal Brand’ banded about. It’s one of those cringeworthy questions that Claude Littner and Mike Soutar like to ask on the interview episode of The Apprentice. You know, the one where they all get caught out for lying on their CV. The typical Apprentice response contains words like ‘passionate‘, ‘ambitions’ or world-class’ and other innocuous nonsense and erroneous claims. But what really is a personal brand?

There are variants on the concept, but most agree that it is the way you set yourself apart from others, and how you portray that to the outside world. It can be distilled down further to: what you symbolise.

Let’s have a couple of examples:

You can’t talk personal branding and not mention Oprah Winfrey. Worth over $2.5bn, Oprah is a household name the world over. But what does she represent? Here are three words that capture Oprah’s brand: honesty, inspiration and authenticity. Could this be why she is the go-to broadcaster for the ubiquitous celebrity tell-all interview? Think Tom Cruise, Whitney Houston, Fergie, and of course, Harry and Meghan. Would they ever want to be interviewed by Piers Morgan? No chance. And that’s because of his personal brand.

“The reason I’ve been able to be so financially successful is my focus has never, ever for one minute been money.” - Oprah

What about Greta Thunberg? Greta came to public attention in 2018 at the tender age of 15. Now just 3 years later, the environmental activist is known around the globe for her dedication to saving the planet. I doubt very much that she ever sat down and thought ‘now what is my personal brand?’ (as perhaps Oprah did) but that makes Greta’s brand even more authentic. Greta knows exactly who she is and what she stands for, and so does the rest of the world. Her personal brand is visible in everything she does; she lives it. Every. Single. Day.

“I see the world a bit different, from another perspective” - Greta

So, you might not in the public eye like the examples I have used, and you’re possibly questioning why you would ever need a personal brand. But guess what? You already have one and you have done for years. But what exactly is your brand and what does it say about you?

7 Steps to Personal Brand Heaven

If you want to be really academic about it and take an in-depth (and I mean really in-depth) look at your personal brand, PWC have created a workbook you can use to get right down to the nitty gritty. But, if like me, you have a reasonably good sense of who you are, what your values are and what you represent, here are 7 simple steps to understanding, defining and promoting your personal brand:

1.     Verbalise your brand vision. It’s a bit like a mission statement, but you think of it as something you have already accomplished. For example: ‘I help ___ do ___.’ 

2. Know your traits. Understanding the traits you were born with can help you to shape your brand. Don't know what your traits are? Truity's free personality test scores you on the Big Five Personality Traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism. Warning: it might be a bit of an eye-opener.

3.     Decide what you would like to be known for, and try to stick to it. What are your special skills? What sets you apart and what are you really an expert at?

4.     Work out who your audience is. You can’t be all things to all people – just accept it.  But you can be someone significant to a specific audience. Consider your ideal audience's persona.

5.     Be consistent. There’s no point putting out a message through one channel and something completely different elsewhere. This dilutes your brand and confuses your audience. And it's not just about what you say – it’s about how you tie everything together, for example with a logo or brand colours.

6.     Be real. Don’t create a brand you can’t truly represent – at some point the cracks will begin to show and then the whole thing will fall apart (remember Milli Vanilli?). Are you casual or serious? Corporate or quirky? Mixing your messages will do nothing but create confusion.

7.     Be visible. What’s the point of defining your brand if you don’t use it? Get out there! Maybe your audience is primarily on Facebook and Instagram, or they hang out on LinkedIn and Twitter. Wherever they are, that is where you need to be!

Identifying and embracing your personal brand is important to personal and professional development. Like I said before, you already have one, whether you are aware of it or not. So go on, get out there. Own your brand and be true to who you are. You’ll be surprised how good it feels.