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Creating Your Personal Brand
When you hear the word “brand” do you think of websites and marketing materials? Or maybe Mad Men-style ad agencies creating campaigns for the Nikes and Coca-Colas of the world? Is there a whiff of something manufactured and inauthentic? A fake experience that’s purely created for advertising to get people to buy something?
The reality is that identifying your personal brand is a deeply energizing journey of introspection to focus on what matters most to you. Once you figure out your personal brand, you can choose to share it externally, or keep it as an internal touchstone for your leadership.
Many years ago, I worked as a brand strategist for a design agency, and through that process learned that most people are focused on the outcomes. Branding is typically done for a company and expressed with a concrete deliverable—a set of brand guidelines, a redesigned website, or a social media campaign. But actually, the core of branding is getting clear on who you are, the people you serve, and what you’re known for.
Let me share three examples to better contextualize where a personal brand (versus the brand for a business) comes into play:
- Celebrity / Creator / Influencer. This one likely makes the most sense. We can all understand how a celebrity-as-a-business has a personal brand whether it’s Oprah, Gwyneth Paltrow/Goop…
