What’s Your Personal Brand?

How did you show up at your last networking event, business meeting, or social gathering? Did people see a confident, authoritative professional who couldn’t wait to meet them or an uncertain person who couldn’t wait to get out of there? How’s your website, LinkedIn page, and social media? Do they communicate what you want people to know about you?

These are the elements that show the world who you are. If they’re portraying someone even you don’t recognize, it could be time to update your brand.

Why Should You Create a Brand?

You’re probably familiar with commercial branding, the process of creating a distinct identity that sets a business, product, or service apart from its competitors and appeals to a chosen audience. One of the clearest examples is Apple’s “Get a Mac” ad campaign that ran from 2006 to 2009. It differentiated Apple from other computer companies by depicting itself as a hip young user and the PC as stodgy and out of touch. The message: Macs are cool! Who doesn’t want to be cool?

Whether you call it your brand or your image, if you don’t think about who you are and how to show your true self to the world, rest assured someone else will do it for you. And it may not be the self you think it is.

“You have to look at personal branding because people need to label you, and they will,” says Michelle Balaun, DTM, a branding strategist and former member of Boca Raton Advanced Toastmasters in Delray Beach, Florida. “They’ll look at you and immediately say, ‘Oh, this person’s an athlete’ or ‘This person’s an accountant’ or whatever, so they can easily position you in their mind. And if you don’t have a label, they’re going to look you up and down and say, ‘She’s dressed old-fashioned, so she must have old-fashioned thinking.’”

What people see is what they think they get. And in a world where perception is often confused with reality, personal branding is a critical exercise.

“Even when you are just a cog in a giant wheel at a big firm, you need a brand because you are not recognizable on your own,” Balaun says. “Unfortunately, our world is advertising. Everything is branded, so if you don’t brand yourself, you become one of the gray masses that no one pays attention to.”

What’s in a Brand?

Many people use technology and platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, and personal or business websites to help create their brand. Video and podcasts have also become popular brand-building tools. Like a company brand, yours should be carefully planned around five elements:

• Tagline or Mission Statement. Craft a concise statement that defines your purpose or unique value. Think of this as a summary of your elevator pitch.
• Brand Voice and Messaging. This includes the tone, language, and storytelling style that convey the brand’s personality and values. Decide how you want to sound (e.g., approachable, authoritative, witty) and use it in all your communications.
• Storytelling. Share personal experiences and lessons that highlight your journey and values.
• Visual Identity. This includes the logo, colors, typography, and overall design that represents the brand visually. Use a professional headshot and choose a consistent set of colors and fonts.
• Positioning. Think about how you want to be perceived and what makes you unique. What do you do better than others? Why should people choose you?

Each of these elements, taken together, forms a cohesive and memorable impression and shapes how you’re perceived by others.

Creating and Sharing Your Brand

Creating a personal brand helps you understand your values, strengths, and unique qualities. It influences how people perceive you in various situations, from social gatherings to community involvement, and enables you to present a coherent image of yourself across different platforms and contexts.

With so many other voices competing to be heard, effectively sharing your brand requires taking a strategic approach. Try these tactics to be heard above the noise:

Choose your best platform. You don’t have to be everywhere; go where your audience is and use the platforms that play to your strengths. For example, LinkedIn and Medium are best for writers, while Instagram is best for visual artists and YouTube is for video creators. Start small and expand as your audience and influence grow.

Be consistent across platforms. Use the same profile picture, tagline, bio, and color scheme everywhere to create a cohesive and memorable personal brand that stands out and attracts the right audience. Deliver consistent value in every interaction.

Be responsive. Reinforce trust and reliability in your engagements by delivering what your brand promises.

Be authentic. You’re enhancing what’s already there, not building an artificial image. Every façade falls eventually; start with the real you.

Refining Your Brand

Branding was critical for Lindsey Williams, DTM, President of Keystone Toastmasters Club #3139 and Vice President Public Relations for Friends of Greenwood Toastmasters Club, both in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He realized he needed to define himself more clearly after leaving active duty in the military and taking a management position at the U.S. Postal Service while serving in the active reserves.

“I started to realize that I could not be the same person in both careers,” he explains. “The military person had to carry himself and communicate one way. Working with civilians who had different skill sets, like IT teams and regular laborers, I learned that I had to be flexible, able to switch gears, and change my communication patterns. And I wanted to be more effective going into events to network.”

Williams drilled deep into branding himself for business encounters, starting with his appearance: white shirt, blue suit and tie (blue is his power color), and a briefcase. “When I walk in, within the first 30 seconds I’m influencing what you think about me already.”

As for the inner man, he didn’t seek to change himself but to discover the qualities he already had. He then worked to bring them out so others could see them.

“I determined I was a person who can be around intellectual people, who’s adaptable and resilient, and most of all can resolve situations quickly. My personal brand was what I wanted people to say about me when I wasn’t around.”

Toastmasters provided many of the tools Williams used to develop his brand. He shares these resources on his website where he offers public relations strategies for clubs. In his post “Rebrand Yourself Using Toastmasters,” Williams recommends 15 Pathways projects that can help you define your brand and develop skills for sharing it, including "Building a Social Media Presence," "Public Relations Strategies," and others.

Success Strategy

Crafting a strong personal brand will help you build trust and credibility, establish authority and influence, and attract new opportunities. It’s a critical step, whether you want to find a new job, build a speaking career, or expand your social network. Don’t shy away from it because it feels like self-promotion or puffing yourself up. It’s an intentional way to identify your strengths, values, and impact on the world, and then communicate them to the people who matter.

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