Why Every Modern-Day Career Woman Needs a Personal Brand

Spoiler alert: you already have one. Whether you manage it or not, you have a personal brand.

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And it’s not just on LinkedIn. It’s in every interaction, every meeting, every networking event, and especially what you wear (more on that in the upcoming weeks).

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Like your favourite consumer brand extends beyond its stores to include every customer touchpoint, your personal brand is in your every interaction.

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You are your brand.

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Empowering, no? YES.

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But here’s the teeny tiny challenge: as women, we’re conditioned to shy away from self-promotion.

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We wiggle out of every opportunity to speak about the amazing work we do, lest we be viewed as arrogant or self-absorbed.

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Many of us rely on hard work to speak for itself. And while that’s true to some extent, in today’s competitive world, it’s just not enough. If you’re not your own biggest cheerleader, who will be?

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But here’s the teeny tiny challenge: as women, we’re conditioned to shy away from self-promotion.

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I’m not much of a New Year’s resolution, girlie, but building my personal brand was high up on my list last year and will be at the top of my list again this year because it has immensely benefited my career.

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It has generated business and given me speaker opportunities and access to people I have admired from the sidelines for many years.

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Now, let’s get strategic.

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Building our personal brand allows us to manage how we are perceived.

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So, naturally, you want to manage what you are known for.

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I want to be known as the expert in helping the modern-day career woman build a mega personal brand that aligns with her higher purpose.

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How do I do that? I speak about it online, in meetings, in workshops. Heck, every opportunity I get, I talk about the importance of women building a brand for themselves.

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AND I live it.

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I walk the walk. Is it deeply uncomfortable, and do I prefer bragging about my amazing clients instead? Absolutely. So I do both.

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I like to split personal branding in two.

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First is the inner confidence work and then the audience facing. We can and should do both simultaneously because confidence building is a continuous cycle, and there will always be something else to work on.

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Inner Confidence: Building the Foundation

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• Embracing your authentic self: Authenticity can sound so woo-woo and overdone and buzzwordy, but I want you to think about what makes you YOU. Stop watching how everyone else shows up and copy that. Sit a minute in who you are and show that.

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• Know your worth: Urg, okay this one is a hard one. But if you struggle here, make a list of your accomplishments that you are super proud of. It shouldn’t only be career-related. You are a dynamic, multi-talented, incredible woman. What do you value?

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• Learn to accept failure: When we learn to shift our perspective of failure as good, we are not so scared of it. Will your first few posts be bad? Will you feel embarrassed and like everyone (including the barista at your local coffee shop) has seen your post? Yea. Okay, you’re going to feel like that a lot. You have to learn to move past those feelings. They are not fact. They are feelings.

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Outer Impact: Projecting Your Brand

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• Move a little beyond LinkedIn: While LinkedIn is a valuable tool, your personal brand extends far beyond your online profile. It’s every interaction that someone has with you. How you show up in meetings, networking events and what you wear.

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• Slow and steady: We’re in it for the long game here. You are not going to build a mega personal brand overnight. Know that you are in it for the long haul and that you have to show up even when you don’t want to.

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• Become a master communicator: Effective communication is crucial for building a strong personal brand. The way to get good at it? Do it. Post online, share your opinions, go to networking events, bag speaker slots.

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Now what?

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I like to end with an action step so that we can put these learnings into practice.

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It’s your turn: what is it that you are really good at? And what do you want to be known for? Write down a list of 3–5 topics you could speak to. This will form your “content pillars”. More on that soon.

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Did you find this useful? Let me know what you enjoyed most about the article and what you want to hear more of.

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