Personal branding has developed a bit of an image problem.
Mention the phrase and plenty of people immediately picture a loud real estate agent grinning from the side of a bus, somebody posting inspirational LinkedIn monologues before breakfast, or an aspiring guru who has apparently become a world authority on leadership overnight. There is a particular kind of personal brand that arrives in the room several minutes before its owner does.
Fair enough. That version exists.
Most personal branding is far less theatrical.
If people know you, work with you, recommend you, talk about you, follow you online or have ever had cause to remember your name, they already associate certain things with you. Perhaps they see you as brilliant with clients. Perhaps you are the person who understands the complicated stuff. Maybe you are known for getting things moving, calming down difficult situations, seeing opportunities early or knowing half of Auckland.
That collection of associations is already doing something.
You’re on the radar.
People already have a version of you in their heads
Think about the people you have worked with over the past ten years. Each of them probably carries a slightly different impression of you.
One person remembers the way you handled a difficult project. Someone else remembers that you asked excellent questions. Another thinks of you as the person who always knew who to call. A former manager may remember your strategic thinking, while somebody from another part of the business remembers that you could explain an idea without disappearing into three kilometres of PowerPoint.
Those impressions accumulate.
Over time, patterns start to form. When your name comes up, certain qualities, stories and areas of expertise travel with it. That matters because opportunities frequently begin with somebody thinking, I know someone who would be good at that.
Your job title only captures a small part of this.
Careers are messy. People pick up skills in strange places, become unexpectedly good at things that were never in the position description, develop networks across industries and gradually acquire a reputation that stretches well beyond whatever happens to be written under their name in an email signature.
For someone reaching a career crossroads, that is worth exploring.
There may be far more on the radar than you realise.
Do a personal brand radar sweep
Before you start trying to build a personal brand, have a decent look at what is already there.
Think of it as a radar sweep.
What do people repeatedly ask you for help with? Which projects seem to find their way to you? What kinds of people get introduced to you? What do former colleagues say when they recommend you? Which compliments have followed you from one workplace to another?
Look at the evidence too. LinkedIn recommendations are useful. Old testimonials can be surprisingly revealing. Performance reviews sometimes contain language worth revisiting years later. Emails from clients, messages from colleagues and introductions other people have written about you can all contain clues.
Then ask a few people who know your work a very simple question:
“If somebody asked what I’m particularly good at, what would you tell them?”
Do this with people from different parts of your professional life and see what comes back.
You may find the same words appearing again and again. You may also discover strengths other people see very clearly that you barely think about because they feel completely ordinary to you.
That’s useful information.
Your radar may be showing an old version of you
Professional reputations have a slight lag.
You change jobs. You learn new things. Your interests move. Your ambitions change direction. Meanwhile, half your network still thinks of you as the person who did that thing at that company seven years ago.
LinkedIn profiles are particularly good at revealing this.
Sometimes a profile becomes a kind of professional archaeological dig. There’s the headline from one career phase, an About section written during another, a collection of skills accumulated since approximately 2009 and a recent post pointing somewhere completely different.
Perfectly normal.
The problem appears when the version of you people can easily find has drifted too far away from the version of you that exists now.
Perhaps you have developed strong commercial expertise and your profile still makes you look primarily operational. Perhaps you have become an excellent facilitator while your online presence barely mentions it. Perhaps you are beginning to explore consulting and everybody still assumes you are firmly attached to an employer.
A small course correction can change what starts appearing on the radar.
LinkedIn taught me how slowly — and how powerfully — reputation builds
I’ve been on LinkedIn for years. I have close to 5,000 connections, I’ve been involved with LinkedInLocal Auckland, and a large part of my professional life has involved networking, conversations, introductions and connecting people.
One thing I’ve learned is that your reputation rarely comes from one brilliant post.
It builds gradually.
Someone sees you comment thoughtfully on something. You meet them at an event six months later. You introduce them to somebody useful. They hear you speak. They see how you behave in a room. A year later, a completely unrelated opportunity comes up and your name appears in their head.
That process is difficult to measure.
LinkedIn can tell you how many people viewed a post. It cannot easily tell you how many people now associate your name with a particular area of expertise, how many conversations happened because somebody mentioned you privately, or how many future opportunities are quietly forming somewhere else in your network.
Some of the most valuable professional visibility is almost invisible.
That is one reason I think personal branding deserves a better reputation of its own.
You do not have to carry on like a pork chop
There are plenty of capable people who dislike the idea of promoting themselves.
Some are naturally quiet. Some are private. Some simply have a healthy aversion to becoming the person who posts a selfie beside an inspirational quote every morning.
They can still have extremely strong personal brands.
A respected engineer who rarely posts online may be exceptionally well known inside a particular industry. A consultant might receive most of their work through referrals. An executive may have spent twenty years building a reputation for judgement, reliability and expertise without ever once thinking of themselves as having a “personal brand”.
Visibility can take many forms.
It might come from speaking at industry events, writing useful articles, helping people in your network, appearing on podcasts, contributing intelligently to discussions, doing memorable work or simply making it easier for people to understand what you are good at.
You can choose the version that suits you.
There is no requirement to become unbearable.
Decide what you want people to remember
Once you understand what is already showing up on the radar, you can start making deliberate choices about what deserves more attention.
Maybe you want people to know that you can consult independently. Perhaps you have spent years being known for one particular skill and now want to bring another part of your experience forward. Maybe you are starting a business. Maybe you want to become more visible in your industry. Maybe you simply want the description people give when your name comes up to be a little more accurate.
You can influence that over time.
Talk about the work you want more of. Share ideas connected to the expertise you want people to remember. Update the places where people are likely to look you up. Ask for recommendations from people who have seen you doing the work you want to be known for.
Choose projects that reinforce the direction you are heading.
The changes can be remarkably small.
A few new coordinates can shift the trajectory.
Your reputation travels into rooms before you do
This is the part of personal branding I find most interesting.
Your name goes places you never physically enter.
Somebody is sitting in a meeting discussing a project and another person says, “You should talk to Sarah.” A business owner asks a friend if they know somebody who can help. A former colleague hears about a role and thinks of you. Someone you met once at an event remembers a conversation from two years ago.
You have no control over most of those moments.
Your reputation is doing the travelling.
The stronger and more recognisable the associations around your name, the easier it becomes for somebody to connect you with the right opportunity.
That creates professional gravity.
Over time, particular kinds of conversations, people and opportunities can begin finding their way into your orbit because enough people understand what you are good at and where you might be useful.
That is a very different experience from shouting into the void and hoping somebody notices.
Find out what’s already on the radar
If you are thinking about your personal brand, start with discovery.
Google yourself. Look at your LinkedIn profile through somebody else’s eyes. Read your recommendations. Dig out old testimonials. Ask a handful of people what they think you are particularly good at.
Look for patterns.
Then ask yourself whether the version showing up on the radar matches where you want to go next.
You might find that your personal brand needs a few adjustments. You might discover whole parts of your professional identity that deserve more airtime. You may also realise that years of good work, relationships and experience have already built something far stronger than you gave yourself credit for.
You’re already on the radar.
It’s worth finding out what people are seeing.
