when you are not in the room

If I learned anything in business school (emphasis on if), it’s that you should always start with the Why. So before we get into what personal branding is, let’s make my $30,000 of wasted tuition worth something and talk about why it’s important, shall we?

Personal branding is the key to getting you the connections you need to create the life you desire.

You may have heard the phrase “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” As a future educator and learning-enthusiast, it pains me to say that this is extremely accurate. Any business major can tell you the importance of networking. You see, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know, because who you know can teach you what you need to know. Enter personal branding.

Without a strong and positive personal brand, the “who you know” won’t get you too far.

The term personal branding is often interpreted in different ways. Some believe it is how you portray yourself through social media. Although that is a part of it, there is much more to personal branding than that. Other people believe personal branding is about impressing others for the advancement of your professional success. But an important point I feel the need to make here when discussing this topic is that personal branding is not self promotion. Did you hear me? I’ll say it louder for the people in the back.

PERSONAL BRANDING IS NOT SELF PROMOTION.

Okay. Now that we have established that, let’s talk about what it is. Tai Tran explained in his TED Talk Designing a Purposeful Personal Brand from Zero to Infinity ,

“A personal brand is the intersection of perception and reality.”

Okay sick. So what is it though?

Your personal brand is comprised of everything you say, do, believe, and reflect onto others. As Jeff Bezos explained, “Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room.”

We all have a personal brand already. It is not something that you need to create from scratch. It is also not something that solely exists in the business world. Your brand carries into every relationship you have, both in your work life and personal life. Further than that though, your brand is carried past your relationships to people you haven’t even met yet. Your brand is described when your significant other is telling his/her family about you. Your brand is described when your mom is talking to the neighbor about you. Your brand is described when your previous boss is recommending you (or not) to your potential new boss. And it all starts from the core of who you are.

For a long time, I thought personal branding looked like this:

It is what the world said and thought about you. But the critical error in this interpretation is that in this scenario, your personal brand is in the hands of the world. I’ve learned that this is an accurate depiction of a personal brand of someone who doesn’t make the conscious effort to create one. If you don’t create a message or image you want people to think of when they think of you, then they’ll create their own. And you might not always love it. As Tai Tran said, “A personal brand that is constructed purely on perception will tumble on its own weight.”

This is what a personal brand looks like when you take control:

You must start with yourself. Figure out what you believe in. What do you stand for? What are your core values? What are your interests? Think about not only who you are as a professional, but also as a person. You then must project who you are authentically through your relationships. If you are living true to yourself, values, and beliefs, you should be able to reflect these things onto others effortlessly, and as a result, it will be what people remember about you. You design your personal brand by acting through your values.

That is why I believe that personal branding and personal development go hand-in-hand. In order to have the “best” personal brand, you have to have the “best” you. I am using quotations for “best” because there’s no such thing as “best.” Only better. You will never reach your best because if you believe you are the best version of yourself, then you are complacent and missing opportunities to become even better than your so-called “best.”

There is no last level when you are leveling up in life.

This is why I have devoted myself to continual growth and development, and while at times it may seem like an endless black hole of madness and exhaustion, I believe it’s worth it.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Stay Stoked,

B