Things I’ve Learnt from Books on Personal Branding
Your Brand is Out There, Whether You Want it or Not
In the past weeks, I’ve read two great books, “I am my brand” by Kubi Springer and “Be: A No-Bullsh*t Guide to Increasing Your Self Worth and Net Worth by Simply Being Yourself” by Jessica Zweig.
Here are my main takeaways:
Just being on social media is NOT personal branding
Creating content for LinkedIn or Instagram itself is not a personal branding strategy.
Social media comes and goes. Don’t base your public image on a specific social network. It can become irrelevant overnight, and then what?
Reflect on what your personal brand is and how you are perceived by others.
You need to have the full clarity on your “why”, core beliefs and personal brand features. Only then can you focus on the strategy for any online (or offline) resource you will have public presence in.
Authenticity matters
Think about any personal brand that you resonate with, any personality that you follow or like.
For me, it’s Trevor Noah and Ali Wong.
Most likely, what makes you empathise with them is their openness and willingness to share who they are and what they’ve been through, unapologetically.
We crave human connection, and we find comfort in knowing that a person that you follow or admire went through something similar to us.
Without authenticity and sincerity, the world feels like a cold place.
Your personal brand is already out there. It is up to you to take control of it
Both Kubi and Jessica point out that you don’t need to “create” your personal brand for it to exist.
You are already out there (online and offline), people already have impressions and opinions about you.
It is up to you to do the homework, understand what makes you unique, and create the strategy based on what you want to showcase.
As Kubi Springer points out, “Know your “why”. If you don’t know your “why”, someone will set it for you.”
Generate content based on the core beliefs of your brand
If you are thinking about how to consistently create content which is true to your values (which is hard!), Jessica Zweig has a brilliant approach:
She suggests to analyse what the main elements of your brand are, what you want to be known for.
For me, it’s my advances in legal innovation industry. It’s books. It’s non-linear career path. It’s the future of work. It’s work-life balance.
Once you know the elements of your brand, Jessica suggests that you can easily generate content ideas based on endless combinations of these elements.
For me, it can be:
- book recommendations about the future of work
- my own experience of successfully changing my career path
- reflections on how experiencing burnout led me to be more mindful of the work life balance
The list can go on and on. Try it out for yourself!
Kubi Springer’s and Jessica Zweig’s books were really helpful and motivating. I can only recommend them if you are reflecting on your personal brand, or would like to have a more consistent public presence.
I don’t publish book recommendations without a beer rec. Today’s beer is one of my favourites ever, Belgian style wheat ale “Blue Moon”:
