Is Your Personal Brand Spicy or Bland?

Last week I did my first keynote to a room full of first generation students and alumni about the importance of building a personal brand identity. I could just feel the brilliance of a new generation in the room. These young minds are our future y’all! As someone who was the first to graduate college and hold a degree in her family, I understand the gravity of this accomplishment and as a Black woman, with Caribbean roots there are nuances to my cultural experience that are not often shared in predominantly white spaces.?

The truth is having a multicultural identity working in majority white spaces meant having to minimize aspects of ourselves to fit in.? From shortening our names to suit the palate of corporate America or the decision of whether to wear our hair in its natural state was often choices we had to make in order to feel safe. During my keynote, I discussed the ways being a first gen student meant leaning into our origin stories to create powerful, professional narratives. That our strengths, interests, passions, how we solve problems, which are key pieces to building a solid personal brand, are largely influenced by our cultural upbringing and the events that shaped us. You may find that being a child of immigrants helped develop your skills as a community builder and now it’s your superpower. Your brand becomes the asset that can truly propel your career.?

Today, I want to talk about the intersections of our identity as Black women and how we can use them intentionally and mindfully to cultivate a personal brand that celebrates our whole selves. Here are few places we can examine:

Using our cultural upbringing as an asset

When you’re dropped into majority white spaces, the tendency might be to hide or water down certain parts of your identity. Influences of a dominant culture can often overshadow your own. In a conversation once with a dear friend of mine and mentor, a woman from Central Africa, shares how often people would make insensitive remarks about her home country upon first meeting her. In these instances she could either choose to brush it off (microagressions win again) or educate others on their ignorant comments. But for her, the fact that she is African born has been widely helpful for her career and personal brand. From the way she dresses (stylish African prints!) to the? relationships she’s built with diplomats, she uses her cultural roots as an asset to build influence and open doors to projects in her career. Constantly minimizing parts of who you are that are uncomfortable for everybody else gets exhausting after a while. It’s not the best use of your energy. Tapping into what makes you unique even when it flies in the face of cultural norms requires self introspection and the ability to affirm all parts of your identity as worthy and valuable. Because they are.

Remember our name

For years black women have been criticized and downright dismissed in the professional world because of our names.? In 2018, a St. Louis woman was rejected after applying to a customer service job. The employer had this to say: “Unfortunately, we do not consider candidates that have suggestive ghetto names.” Creative naming inspired by pro-black movements of the ‘60s and ‘70s gave rise to naming practices that veered away from common European sounding names. While the goal was to take pride in our heritage, what ensued was the inability of mass media and social entities to embrace our true identities. Black women have been made to feel ashamed of our names from our white peers and even those within our own race calling people with black names foolish.

In terms of your personal brand, our names hold weight; they represent our reputation, our heritage, and our legacy — in short, our name is quite literally, who we are. When you hear the name Uzo Aduba, you think of an Emmy-winning Nigerian actress. She tells her story of when she was a kid, asking her mother if she could go by the name “Zoe” because no one could pronounce her actual name. Uzo’s mom responded, “If they can learn to say Tchaikovsky and Michelangelo and Dostoyevsky, they can learn to say Uzoamaka.” Periodt.

Don’t Touch My Hair

I knew my hair was an asset the moment someone recognized me from a few blocks away just by the way I wore my hair; big and free. They commented: I saw the hair and knew that was you. The Crown Act; a law that bans any form of racial discrimination based on targeting hairstyles, marked significant progress for us. For many years, Black women have been told that our hair is “unruly” and “unprofessional” in its natural state and therefore a distraction or not conducive to the workplace. Imagine being told that a part of who you are is seen by others as unacceptable or not appropriate. There are still Black women who continue to wear straight hair straight because we fear the backlash at work. Corporate assimilation is real y’all.

In the black community, especially for women, hair in all its forms has always been the centerpiece of identity. From natural curls, afro puffs, sew in weaves to dreadlocks our hair is an attribute that helps define who we are and shapes the narrative of what it means to be a black woman. In 2006, musician India Arie released, “I Am Not My Hair,” an anthem to reinstill pride in our hair. The way we wear our hair is just a small piece of what makes us who we are. In many ways, our hair is also how we make a statement, our statement.

What about you? What are some ways your multicultural identity has helped your career? What ways has it hurt your career? When it comes to your personal brand, how can you turn your cultural upbringing into an asset? Leave your thoughts in the comments!

PS: The Career Support Group for Black women who know they need to quit their toxic jobs but need a little encouragement/accountability meets monthly. This month we’ve been discussing healing from burnout and walking away from unhealthy work cultures as Black women. I’m hosting an Info Session for all interested in joining the next one on Tuesday, May 16th @ 5pm ET. DM me to be added to the invitation.