02 Dec Personal Branding is Essential, Here’s How to Do It Right
Building a personal brand
Many people aren’t aware of how important it is to build a personal brand. It will support you in your personal and professional lives, it will help determine and foster relationships with others, and it acts as the North Star in guiding your communication style.
It’s not just important to build a personal brand, it’s critical.
Everywhere you go, with every new person you meet, you get one shot. One shot at showcasing how people should perceive you as and determine your personal brand.
On average, it takes 7 seconds for someone to form an opinion about you from the moment they lay eyes on you, which means you have 7 seconds to make your best sales pitch and show your listener what you’re made of.
Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
All great questions to plan your pitch. Are you going to make a funny joke? Will you in all seriousness explain your current position in X company? Will you mention that small town you’re from of only 2000 people but is famous for its steak fries? Up to you.
Branding yourself is being able to set the personality, tone, and perception of who you are as a person in other people’s minds. It’s a skill that’s worth the investment both in your personal and private lives.
Opinions are sexy
When communicating, it’s important to stick with your opinions, values, and culture — but learning to adapt these to your audience is key.
It will serve you well in making new friendships, networking, dating, and nailing that interview you’ve been preparing for. If you’re able to express yourself while being mindful of who’s in front of you, being emotionally intelligent and humble, you’ll get very far in life.
Repeat after me: strong opinions that are not obnoxious or detrimental to others are sexy. If you stand by your values while also being open to other viewpoints, you’re both assertive and humble. You’re not afraid to voice what you think while also being open to being wrong.
Tailor your message to your audience, without losing the essence
Like every good tailor worth their salt, you have your own unique style in your trade. Clients will come to you for a chance to add your special touch to their treasured apparel. But, you also have to adapt your style to make room for clients’ preferences. Stitching together a beautiful mosaic of elements from your style and the clients’ tastes — creating a whole new work of art.
If you forfeited your brand completely to appease the client, you wouldn’t be offering anything unique anymore. So you should style your work to offer your distinguished look, packaged to fit your audience.
Similarly, companies build strong brands to distinguish themselves from competitors and cater to their diverse customer base. They develop personality and tone as recognizable elements.
How do you want people to think of you?
Are you playful? Fun? Extroverted?
Or are you more reserved? Introverted? Cynical?
You could be a combination of these.
Building your personal brand is also being able to tailor your personality to your audience, without losing your core values. Your audience comprises various backgrounds, cultures, and perspectives, so it’s important to package your message in a way that’s respectful and mindful of those you’re speaking to.
This way, you’ll communicate your personal brand while also being relatable and likable.
Don’t lose yourself in trying to please others though, it’s about staying true to yourself while being aware of who’s in front of you.
Personal branding is not all about content
The moment you open your mouth to speak about a topic, don’t just think about content, think about how you deliver it. What I noticed is that adding “in my opinion” or “I believe” before or after making a strong statement gives the listener some leeway to express their opinion on the subject while also emanating confidence through voicing your beliefs. Also, don’t say sorry too much, don’t be apologetic for being yourself — that’s rather a sign of being “too accommodating” and you may come across as a pushover.
At work, this is especially important. How you interact with peers and leadership can dictate how fast you’ll get a promotion or kicked out for not being a good culture fit (i.e. you were being a dick).
Some people are so socially adept that they get hired for the best jobs and glide up the corporate ladder while being average at their actual work. They’re not geniuses, just superb at reading others and shifting their brand’s tone to fit their audience.
It’s all about how you work it, baby!
Conclusion
Anyway, take a moment to think about how you would like people to perceive you as. Prepare different versions of your life story for the audiences you’re looking to target with your expert branding. Then work on your pitch. Exercise and train it with different people. It will take a while to master, but that’s branding, it’s A/B testing, trial and error. It won’t work for everyone, but that’s exactly the point. The ones it works with are the ones you want to win over and keep in your life.