Personal Branding for Professional Success

 How to recognise and build a Personal Brand?

We have all come across the term "Personal Brand" on various social media platforms through influencers and thought leaders, specifically on LinkedIn. Oftentimes, the way the term sounds makes us feel like it's something big; something that only an influencer or thought leader can have. No doubt that they have a great personal brand but are they the only ones that have it? Weren't these influencers and thought leaders beginners at some point? Didn't they have to build upon their personality to make an impact and build a perception about them?

This brings me to the point that most of the attendees in one of my university workshops thought they didn't have a personal brand. The fact that we make it sound big within our mind makes it feel unattainable as a beginner and this is natural. But we all have a personal brand at all points in time whether we know it or not!

Very simply, a personal brand is what we're known for; what we are as a person or human being. We can all agree to the fact that we are something, right? Of course, we have our values, passions, and purpose and the first step towards building a personal brand is to realise that we already have one, but we need to sculpt it to make a better impact on the world.

Recognising values, passions, and purpose are the first step towards achieving a positive personal brand. Recognising these are not as easy as it seems at first and that's what makes building a brand for ourselves tricky in the initial stages. Self-awareness is the first step towards anything! Knowing what we are, what we're good at, what we can offer, what we love, and what kind of impact we want to have on the world is the first step.

3 Steps to recognising and achieving your Brand

Values: What we are

One of the aspects of building our brand is to recognise our values. Our values are the things we believe, the things we stand for, and want to share and spread in the world. What matters most to you? What would you like to see most in the world? What humane aspect makes you appreciate a person?

It can be honesty, integrity, empathy, courage, sympathy, care, among many others. We all have a few of these very important qualities to offer to the world.

Recognise what you stand for the most and be an ambassador of that quality. Spread that quality while you are being and representing it. These are the so-called soft skills or transferable skills in the professional world.

Passions: What we love

The second and probably tricky aspect of building a personal brand is finding what we love to do. Personally, I think this is easier to recognise than the other two aspects but still, somehow we all struggle the most to find it sometimes.

Passions can change over time. These are usually the hard skills or technical knowledge that the professional world has. We all naturally love doing something like mathematics, art, writing, design, or any niche skill that sets us apart from the other niches.

This is the unique skill you have to offer the world as a professional. Read this article: "How to find your passion and do what you love" for a detailed description of how to find your passions.

Purpose: What matters to us

Finding purpose can be an entire chapter or even an entire book for that matter; that's how vast the topic can be. But to keep things simple, it is something that you leave as a legacy.

What would you like to be known for when you're gone? What impact would you like to have had on this world?

The topic is very vast because as you observed, it can be highly philosophical. Let's keep things simple and professional. Purpose can be as shallow as having a vision for your organisation and its culture (which ironically doesn't seem shallow on an even simpler level). We need to have this long term vision for life and work on it for the longest duration.

Where vision, passion, and purpose meet thoughts, speech, and actions

After having asked these important questions and finding our answers (which are unique for each individual), we are ready for the action part of the process. Everything that happened until now was only in the mind, haha 😊

When our thoughts, actions, and speech echo our values, passions, and purpose both online and offline, we automatically build a perception about ourselves. Personal Branding is easy if you just be yourself.

Find your answers to these three aspects and you will build a brand both personally and professionally.

PS - All the content in this blog is inspired by the knowledge I gained through Monash University "Leap into Leadership (LiLo) Study Module: Personal Brand" that helps us learn about career development. Since the material is limited to Monash students only, I felt it is a good idea to share this valuable new knowledge through a blog. Have a great day ahead✨