Personal Branding: What it Means and How to Do it
To kick off our member workshops this year, we had the pleasure of hosting Katie Fitzgerald from Jobber to talk about all things personal branding. She provided a lot of insight to our members, and we feel as though our readers will find takeaways as well.
To begin, it’s important to understand what a personal brand is. In the simplest terms, a personal brand is the intersection of perception and reality. Your personal brand encompasses your flaws, triumphs, challenges, and successes. Everyone has adversity and challenges in their lives, and those are equally as important to your personal brand as your accomplishments. Your personal brand encompasses your entire story, not only the wins.
It is important to create your own personal brand because it guides the idea of what people say about you when you’re not in the room. A guiding question that can be helpful to ask yourself is “how do I want to convey myself to others?”. The process of creating your personal brand can help you establish goals for who you want to be, which in turn will promote self awareness, a positive mindset, and give you confidence.
When we asked our members why they felt personal branding was important, here is what they had to say! One individual said that personal branding encourages you to improve on yourself by looking at different aspects of your life. This includes focusing on your role models, understanding why they inspire you, and applying those values to yourself as we are role models as well. Another member mentioned that personal branding can help dictate which opportunities you take, and if that opportunity aligns with who you are and who you want to be, you should take it! Oftentimes we hold ourselves back and say ‘I wish’, but knowing who you are and pushing yourself can open the door for many opportunities.
Personal branding can exist in both the online and offline areas of one’s life. A simple but important example of personal branding being conveyed online is email etiquette. Email etiquette is an integral part of your personal brand because any email that you send is a reflection of yourself, in the same way that when you talk to someone in person that’s a reflection of yourself. When you present a neat and professional email, it makes you come across as trustworthy and composed, adding to your personal brand.
Personal branding also exists in the offline areas of one’s life as well, one of the most significant ways being in how you perceive yourself. A major contributor to this is positive self talk, which is incredibly important because it enables people to live up to their full potential when they aren’t holding themselves back with thoughts of self-doubt. Personal branding is a journey, and it’s important to not lose sight of positive self talk in the process. Some tangible resources you can use to work on positive self talk include:
Try reframing negative thoughts! A great example is thinking “I haven’t done that yet” instead of “I can’t do that.”
Talk to yourself as if you were your own best friend. As you wouldn’t say negative things about your best friend, treating yourself as your own best friend can help reinforce positive self talk.
Do not over apologize! It is very easy to over apologize which can heighten negative feelings and guilt, so try using sayings such as “Thank you for waiting for me” instead of “Sorry I’m late.”
Try writing positive attributes about yourself in a journal. It is proven to increase your optimism and help boost your sense of gratitude
Try a self script! If you’re not sure what this is, here is a great resource: https://unc.live/3zffSmM
When it comes to personal branding in general, it can be challenging to know where to start.
Here are some tips that I found helpful!
To begin, think about what makes you unique! Ask yourself questions like “how do I want to be known” for guidance. Also, don’t be afraid to ask others what their perceptions of your personal brand are!
Focus on the 50/20/30 approach! This means that you should try to spend 50% of your time with leaders, role models, and people you aspire to be, 30% of your time with your peers, specifically those who are a support system for yourself, and 20% of your time paying it forward! You can easily do this by reaching out to younger individuals, sharing on LinkedIn that you’d like to have a networking coffee, or sharing your experience with new students!
Focus on goal setting. Personal branding without goals keeps you at a standstill, so it’s important to be working towards those goals. Try the ‘BEST’ approach! The BEST approach recommends that goals should be:
Bold - Look to set your goals outside of your comfort zone!
Enriching - Your brand is a representation of you so it’s important for your goals to enrich your story.
Supported - Look to create a support system that can hold you accountable!
Targets - Make sure to have targets because goals without deadlines tend to remain in the clouds.
Create your personal brand statement! Make sure to include your values and what you’re passionate about, and be authentic.
Don’t worry about everyone liking you though, that is simply impossible. Just make sure you portray yourself the way you want to be portrayed - be your best self and be confident. Creating and growing into your personal brand takes time, so don’t be too hard on yourself and trust the process!