WHY YOU NEED A PERSONAL BRAND NOW (NOT IN THE FUTURE)!
Tom Peters started the personal branding revolution.
His article, “The Brand Called You” published in the Fast Company issue of August/September 1997 was the trigger. The introduction of his piece encapsulated his drift, “Big companies understand the importance of brands. Today, in the Age of the Individual, you must be your own brand. Here's what it takes to be the CEO of Me Inc.”
Peters’ argument was succinct. Ordinary folks like you and I should think like big companies do - create our brands …because we are the CEOs of our companies. His advice is in sync with Geoffrey Chaucer’s Knight’s proverb published in 1386, “Every man for himself and God for us all”.
Personal branding is about taking control of your career as an employee or entrepreneur. It is a choice to stand out from the “noisy” crowd and make your voice heard. It is putting your destiny in your hands. It is seeing your job or business through a new pair of lenses. It is the realizing that you can make a difference in the world by creating “your own world”.
Hence, personal branding is strategic – a systematic and planned process of expressing your values – who you are and what you stand for. In any case, a brand is an amalgamation of emotional and functional values and beliefs.
Take out values and beliefs, a brand is nothing more than a shell on the seashore. It is empty. This is why a brand is more than a name, logo, or design. Firstly, a brand is an idea – the concept or the intangible and tangible values powering the brand. Secondly, the brand can find expression through the vehicle of a product, service or experience. Thirdly, it can be identified through a name, logo, mnemonics etc.
To build a strong and effective brand, you need to factor in these dimensions of a brand namely 1. concept 2. product/service/experience 3. name, logo, mnemonics (e.g. Nike’s swoosh symbol). Personal branding is “... the amalgamation of the associations, beliefs, feelings, attitudes and expectations that people collectively hold about you”.
Your brand is NOT what you think of yourself but how people FEEL about you. Marty Neumeier wrote in the Brand Gap, “A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service or company”.
It is a gut feeling because it is personal and intuitive. In other words, everyone creates their version of a brand. Similarly, what people perceive of you is who you are to them.? Said differently, people have conversations about who you are in their minds, it's your call to hop in and shape that conversation. This is what personal branding is all about.?
The Internet and Social Media
The internet and social media amplify the need to have a personal brand. These digital twins are redefining relationships and how people connect. Imagine. Roughly 3 billion people visit Facebook every month; 2 billion people visit Instagram monthly; LinkedIn boasts 950 million users; X has 556 million monthly users and an astonishing 6.1 billion monthly visits. So, if you are not in on the digital platforms, you are leaving tons of cash on the table.
I once asked my audience at a personal branding training I was facilitating what platforms they were on. I was stunned when someone responded by saying he would rather build a brand without being online. Possible. But extremely limited. My take is that your digital footprint is your Go-To reference point for people who want to either hire you for a job or consider you for a position. If you are absent, sorry, you miss out on their consideration lists.
As Cynthia Johnson noted in her book, Platform: The Art & Science of Personal Branding, “Having a personal brand is inescapable. In todays’ hyperconnected world, if you don’t build and manage your brand, the world around you will do it for you, and you will be putting your future in the hands of others.” (my emphasis).
Cynthia noted that building a personal brand is a MUST-HAVE, especially in a world where the influence of Artificial Intelligence is becoming pervasive. The implication of this is that these days, your qualification for a loan will be solely determined by the information some BOTs can scoop on you online.
This is why you can’t afford to leave your brand to chance. Like traditional brands, you need an audit of your current brand status, a clear strategy, and a well-articulated goal. Without saying much, your goal should be to define your identity in a way that can promote your successes and achievements, fetches you opportunities and speaks on your behalf even when you are not in the room.
Four Pillars of Personal Brand
Your brand has four pillars – personal proof, social proof, association and recognition. These pillars are like the four corners of a picture frame that hold the picture together. These pillars, combined tell your brand story.
Personal proof
This includes your academic qualifications, experiences, credentials, achievements etc. These are factors that tend to validate your sense of identity. Let’s face it, getting a B. Sc or an M. Sc, in certain climes, opens up a vista of limitless opportunities for you such as fat-paying jobs with perks such as travel, career advancement opportunities, international exposure etc.
But many have degrees they never used to job-hunt or negotiate a pay rise. They just wanted to prove they were smart enough to bag a degree. People from the Eastern part of Nigeria are poster children of this phenomenon. Many of them have business ideas flowing in their veins. So, they may attend the best universities, but they will end up doing their business.
That said, we all need some validation that we can do some things too – earn a degree even if we won’t use it; learn lateral skills such as design thinking, photography, and graphic designs because we think they may make us more productive; attend online courses to load up our profile. For instance, a stay-at-home mom may want to tick her bucket lists by going to school to bag an M. Sc or PhD. All these are ways we demonstrate personal proof. However, they impact our self-esteem, self-image and identity. These are victories that are personal to you and me and inspire us to reach new heights.
For instance, I was part of a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, Implementation and Training Team (MERITT) at a Non-Profit. The team had a former CEO of two Fortune 500 companies, a McKinsey partner, senior corporate executives of Blue-Chip companies, and others who were very successful in their spaces. All I had were my background in mathematical sciences, Membership of the Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR), Fate Foundation Alumnus (2006 set), and an entrepreneurial and diligent spirit. Plus, a determined will to succeed at whatever I set my heart to do.
I recall we were given a document to peruse and share our thoughts. I pored over the documents five times overnight and chiselled 10 questions. Though the director never got around to answering the question, he took notice. He later recommended me for a strategy and communication consulting at a non-profit.
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Social proof
Social proof is a concept that works on the assumption that something – an action, a behaviour, etc. must be good because we see others do it. So, once you have proven to yourself that “you know your stuff” – you earned a master’s degree in artificial intelligence, a diploma in digital marketing, a certificate in forex trading etc. These qualifications, and achievements which are your personal proof open certain doors for you where you are able to showcase your competence. Your “personal proof” comprising your academic qualification, experience (work or otherwise), credentials, and achievements etc. creates the platform for others to identify and recognize your skill and competencies.
Social proof is a chain. Someone spots your competence, recommends you to someone else, she in turn refers you to people in her network. It is well known that the careers of some entrepreneurs took off only after appearing on a TV show - CNN, CHANNELS TV, ARISE TV or speaking at a conference The Platform, Daystar Leadership Academy, etc. These are all platforms for social proofs built on the hard-earned credibility of the TV host or the media owner etc.?
Association
You are who you associate with. Birds of a feather, they say, flock together. One of the effective ways to build your personal brand is to be mindful of your association. Let’s face it, we define people by the companies they keep. We assume that millionaires have millionaire friends. Solomon penned a proverb to illustrate its importance of association: if you want to be wise then you have to make friends with wise people.
To build a solid reputation online, you must to be build relationship with the right people. Personal connections on social media such as LinkedIn can elevate your profile to blue-sky high. If your posts attract people who have made their marks in their chosen fields, this can rub off on the credibility of your personal brand.
Aside connection, you must be mindful of who you are following. It is no rocket science, people you follow share similar values with you. Following a strong brand like Elon Musk, Tony Elumelu, or Richard Branson says a lot about you - drive, entrepreneurial, can-do spirit, bold etc.
Opportunities for association
Without saying much, some organizations might look like a no-go area for you when you start to build your brand. One surefire way to undo that barrier is to volunteer. Offer to teach or consult on a pro bono basis. Most organizations won’t mind. These are real opportunities to prove your mettle and load up your profile.
Recognition
The icing on the cake for building your brand. Recognition drives visibility. Whether you are recognized as the “Best Marketer Of The Year”, “Best Copywriter” in your industry, either way, company or industry recognition burnishes your personal brand. It deepens your brand name awareness and creates more opportunities to build your personal brand.
?Recognitions include
Final words
Tom Peters’ article is 27 years old but still relevant now. The truth is, just like the marketplace is replete with conscious consumers, the workplace now boasts “conscious employees” – who want meaning and not just money. If the value proposition of the employer is only grounded in perks and not purpose, they might switch to one that is purpose-driven even with a pay cut.
The corollary is that, these days, employees are more invested in themselves than in any company. The average tenure of employees in the US is 4.1 years. In 2023, workers aged 55-64 years stayed at a job for an average of 9.9 years; while those in the 25-34 age band only worked for an average of 2.8 years. CEOs are not excluded, in 2013, CEOs spent an average of 7.6 years at their jobs. That number slipped to 7.2 years in 2022.
From the above, employees are more mobile now than in any time in history. They want to explore their options, and not become a rock of Gibraltar at any job. Some are even venturing out – starting new businesses. According to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, there are 582 million entrepreneurs in the world. That number will grow by 15% in 2024.
Therefore, personal branding is crucial at a time and age when people are seeking their self-autonomies. They seem to have taken Tom Peters’ advice hook, line and sinker …to be their own CEOs and build their brands. You should too. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur.
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