People think when they hear “personal branding” that it’s not for them anyway. They often have in the back of their minds that it’s all about putting themselves in the spotlight and promoting themselves. Or that it’s reserved for personalities who want to make headlines and become famous. But that’s not the case.
Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, once said that your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. Personal branding is about making a conscious decision about what you stand for. It’s about getting to know ourselves better – getting clear about our uniqueness, but also about our areas of weakness. And it’s about understanding how we can best help our customers, and also knowing who exactly those people are.
Actually, it’s also about humility. Humility to recognize that we are not made for everyone and everything. We’re not here for everyone, but for the people who value what we offer, who can benefit from us helping them. And with personal branding, we manage to attract those very people. In other words, with branding, we actually provide a wonderful service to our customers, as it allows them to find what they need most. We make it easier for them to find something that will work for them.
Actually, it’s also about humility. Humility to recognize that we are not made for everyone and everything. We’re not here for everyone, but for the people who value what we offer, who can benefit from us helping them. And with personal branding, we manage to attract those very people. In other words, with branding, we actually provide a wonderful service to our customers, as it allows them to find what they need most. We make it easier for them to find something that will work for them.
Don’t you feel this also suddenly makes the negative connotation we may have associated with personal branding disappear? Thus, brand building is not something selfish, it’s something we do as a favor to our customers. If we think like that, then it’s actually much more selfish to keep ourselves small and stay invisible, as this way customers can’t find what’s actually helping them. After all, remember, even though there may already be others in our field, we are all unique and bring certain gifts that don’t exist in the same combination in any other part of the world. Therefore, it’s okay for us to be bolder and get started building our our own brand. Because YOU, your gifts and your creative work make a difference in this world!
