Take Control of Your Personal Brand

“The world will ask who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.” – Carl Jung

Like many others, I found the concept of ‘personal branding’ pretentious. Until I had the opportunity to host Karthik Srinivasan and Shreya Krishnan for a webinar on Taking Control of Your Personal Brand. Watch the 1h5m webinar for the entire conversation.

Off the bat, Karthik made an important observation: whether or not you’re aware of it (and whether or not you like it), people have already formed an opinion about you.

How did they form their opinion?

Except those who know you personally, the rest have make up their mind about you primarily based on your online activity.

Can we change what people think of us?

Yes. By changing your online behavior.

How?

By making a conscious effort to shape your online persona, viz. Personal branding.

Let’s address a few apprehensions in this regard.

Am I good enough for this?

Many people freeze on their tracks with this thought.

A slight shift in how you see yourself can put you at ease. You’re bound to feel anxious if you see yourself as an “expert” pronouncing your final verdict.

Instead, see yourself as “explorers” sharing their findings along their learning path. This unburdens you from the ‘imposter syndrome’. Since you’re simply documenting your learnings in a public platform, you’re free to change your opinion in light of new facts.

Austin Kleon’s “Show Your Work” explores this subject at length. He writes: “Social media sites function a lot like public notebooks—they’re places where we think out loud, let other people think back at us, then hopefully think some more.”

Is personal branding pretentious?

If you write about how awesome you’re, it’s bound to sound boastful. But if your intent is to share a great idea/process that readers can benefit from, it will automatically infuse your writing with both insight and humility.

‘Be yourself’ is the worst personal branding advice if you are the former type!

Do I have to write original content each day?

Not necessary. You can lean on other news items/opinion pieces and provide curated content. Share such articles along with your perspective. Contextualize the article in reference to your experiences. Share it!

Will I become viral-famous?

Only a tiny fraction of us will ever be a familiar face to a street vendor.

But to borrow from Seth Godin 🌔 , you only need to be “famous to the family”; familiar to the people in your line of work, in your profession.

Karthik likens personal branding to fitness, where people eventually start noticing your effort. I would add: not all people can transform into a model-material; not all personal branding efforts are destined for virality.

Both in both cases, you’ll start punching above your weight where appearances and stamina matters. You’ll incrementally be a better version of yourself with each passing day.

You’ll be better than yesterday! Isn’t that all that matters?