Ep. 14 - Personal Branding
Building a personal brand creates antifragility
Let me first preface this article with the following.
- I’m not an expert on this - far from it. I’m just sharing my experiences.
- Everyone’s ‘brand’ is different, and I believe execution can occur in very different forms.
So, with that being said, this week I wanted to touch on the importance of a personal brand. It’s short and actionable, and I think will provide a fresh perspective from someone who was (and still is) quite 'anti social media'.
So, why build a personal brand?
As I alluded to before, it makes you antifragile. Antifragile is defined by Nassim Taleb as a convex response to a stressor or harm, leading to a positive sensitivity to increase in volatility. For example, lifting weights (stressor) leads to positive results (increased muscle mass) the more you expose yourself to lifting weights. So, muscles are antifragile.
Take a step back and think if you could withstand volatility with your career. If your industry crashed what would you do? If your organization ran out of money, where would you go? If these questions make you nervous, then building a personal brand will provide comfort in the chaos. It provides immense value for your network, exposes you to new opportunities, and it also opened my eyes to what’s possible.
Second, everything we do has a digital footprint. Whether we like it or not, our names are plastered everywhere on the internet. It’s a scary feeling, and one which I personally wanted to get ahead of. By building a personal brand it creates an opportunity to control the narrative. The content you produce, whether it be written or visual, will follow you. So, you may as well pick which content follows you. Get ahead of the curve and hedge your risk, because the first thing anyone does when they meet/are introduced to you, is google you.
Third, income. Income kind of goes hand in hand with the first two points, as it can create new opportunities and open doors that were previously closed. And if you’re running your own business, no matter what it may be, it has potential to drive leads from a different angle. Selfishly, this is why I started. I wanted another avenue for people to connect with me, and ultimately my business. I’ve now landed 30% of my clients through LinkedIn. However, one caveat to this is it doesn’t happen overnight. Creating content is 100% the long-game. It takes immense consistency and discipline, but is well worth it in the long-run.
Where do we start?
First, don’t overthink it. The issue I had when I first started is I worried way too much about what other people would think. Would there be judgement? Would there be chatter in the background? The answer to this is yes. I know for a fact there is. But to that I say f*ck’em. Those who truly support you will continue to do so, and those that whisper in the background can continue to do so. Let it slide off your back.
Second, find your why. Building in public can be daunting, but it helps you explore your why. You won’t be able to create content or posts about something you’re not passionate about. I ran into this issue myself. I started posting about accounting, and to be honest, I’m not passionate about accounting. I’m good at it. I have a business around it. But my passion lies in personal finance and sovereignty (freedom). The business is a mechanism to feed this passion. So, I had to stop posting about it because I was bored of it. Since transitioning to this avenue, I’ve found myself more invigorated and motivated to produce content. Building my brand ultimately led me down a path to finding my passion.
Final thoughts
I’ve finally convinced myself that building a personal brand will be crucial moving forward. I believe companies will move away from the typical resume and begin to look at someone's brand. It’s easier, and allows them to know you on a deeper level before hiring you. Hedge your risk and start today.
And remember - just do it and ignore the chatter.