3 common misconceptions about your personal brand (so you can avoid them)
Last night I did a talk called ‘Discover the power of your personal brand’. I shared 5 tips to build your personal brand (and here’s my definition of a powerful personal brand).
But since I’ve talked about that on here before, I’m going to highlight some key misconceptions about personal brand. To believe these misconceptions may actually prevent you from building a powerful and authentic personal brand. Or at least distract you from it.
So here they are:
Myth 1. Building a personal brand is about creating an image
Nope. Sorry. That’s personal branding. I’ve talked about the difference between brand and branding before so I won’t go on about it. An authentic personal brand starts with you, not an image you create. It’s about truly understanding who you are, what you stand for and how you do it in your own unique way so that you can embed this into what you do. In a way that is authentic to you and allows you to be your best self. So that you stand out to the people who need what you do and/or be willing to support it.
Myth 2. It’s all about self promotion.
To build a powerful personal brand, you need to help people understand who you are and what you can do for them. But this is not about self-promotion or self-interest. People will inevitably see straight through this – or tire of you very quickly if that’s the case. The key here is that it’s about building your brand so that you can have an impact that’s bigger than yourself and your own desires. A positive impact on the wider world around you, whether that is on a global scale or within your neighbourhood (and everything in between). This Toni Morrison quote sums it up perfectly.
Myth 3. You need a huge following to have one
While it’s true that building a powerful personal brand will attract and engage like-minded people (and more of them), this shouldn’t be your aim. And you don’t necessarily need a following of thousands to have a strong personal brand. It is about attracting the right people. The people who you can really help. And the people who can help you do that. Depending on what you do and the impact you want to have, that might require 10 people. Or ten thousand people. The point here is that having a strong personal brand helps the right people find you (and makes easy to say no to the people who don’t get it. Or you).
So by sharing these myths, I hope it will help you understand, and more importantly UNLOCK the true power of your personal brand.
And if you need help with your personal brand, we’d love to hear from you.
