Personal Branding

"The conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact."

Personal Brand (Website accessed 09 Aug 2022)

This definition is offered by the website . An important aspect of this definition to highlight is that branding requires action, it is something that you do.

A "personal brand" however is defined differently, it is something that already is:

Personal Brand

"A personal brand is a widely-recognized and largely-uniform perception or impression of an individual based on their experience, expertise, competencies, actions and/or achievements within a community, industry, or the marketplace at large."

Personal Brand (Website accessed 09 Aug 2022)

Does Everyone Have A Personal Brand?

Marty Neumeier elucidates that "Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is." https://www.martyneumeier.com/

One may argue that everyone has a brand because even your family and friends would have something to say about you, e.g. she is kind, thoughtful, sweet, etc. That could be seen as a kind of personal brand. From a Family Constellation perspective, or through Systems Theory (Broderick 1993), one's role or "brand" within a family or system can be quite limiting - any attempt to operate outside of the brand disrupts the functioning of the system and this triggers homeostatic type mechanisms to redress the imbalance to bring about system functioning once more.

"Personal Branding" as is being referred to by the definitions above relates specifically to work or professional environment. It is interesting however to reflect on Systems Theory and how this is applicable to the workplace. (Chambers 2009) There is a whole branch of Psychology dedicated to the work place, i.e. "Industrial Psychology".

Activities of Personal Branding

Activities of personal branding include:

• Creating and promoting social media profiles, e.g. Linkedin;
• Designing and building a portfolio website;
• Advertising;
• Networking within relevant communities, e.g. attending conferences.

Job searching can be extremely useful for understanding what is required in industry markets, which in turn provides useful guidelines on what skills need to be acquired and highlighted. Going through the job interview process is also useful insight into job requirements, don't forget to ask pertinent questions. Being turned down after a job interview it is always important to request feedback. This again provides valuable feedback and areas of personal development.

Aversions to Personal Branding

There are a couple of aversions that I can think of when it comes to creating and/or promoting a personal brand.

Introversion

Carl Jung first coined the terms Introvert and Extrovert in his book "Psychological Types" (1916). According to Jung, extraverts direct their energy outwards towards other people, while introverts focus their energy inwards, towards more solitary and thoughtful activities. Introverts often feel drained in the company of others, especially crowds. An introvert is generally a person who does not want to "put themselves out there", to seek limelight, or even to be noticed. They would much prefer to operate from the shadows.

I would consider myself more as an introverted person. Just because I do not seek notice it does not mean that I do not like, want or need recognition in my work. I'd be content however with receiving recognition behind a persona or pseudonym. Partly for this reason I present my work through this site "My Urban Tribe".

I do feel however that I "should" put myself out a little more. Much as this makes me feel uncomfortable, I realise that this has many benefits, for example, it allows me to connect, collaborate, and receive feedback from peers who are in the same field of interest, as well as being able to better present myself to potential employers or clients.

Anonymity

Sometimes a degree of anonymity or privacy is required. For example, a psychotherapist could feel it important for their private life to remain completely out of view. It could be counterproductive for clients to be able to stalk or troll a therapist online through social media. A school teacher would be another example, it may be tempting for some pupils to harass their teacher online.

Employment Opportunity

The activities of Personal Branding, as defined above, is ultimately about career advancement. For this weeks challenge I undertook the "Pulse Assessment" which helps to identify areas of development to make myself employable as possible, to visualise progress as skills are strengthened, hopefully making the difference in career success.

This activity highlighted areas for me to work on: Job-hunting, CV's & applications, and interviews & offers. Looking forward, it would be good to set up SMART goals in these areas, re-take the assessment and monitor my progress.

References

‘Defininition - What Is a Personal Brand?’ n.d. PersonalBrand.com [online]. Available at: https://personalbrand.com/definition/ [accessed 09 Aug 2022].

‘MARTY NEUMEIER’. 2022. MARTY NEUMEIER [online]. Available at: https://www.martyneumeier.com [accessed 09 Aug 2022].

BRODERICK, Carlfred B. 1993. Understanding Family Process: Basics of Family Systems Theory. Newbury Park, Calif: Sage Publications.

Chambers, M. F. (2009) “Nothing is as Practical as a Good Theory: Bowen Theory and the Workplace — a Personal Application,” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy. Cambridge University Press, 30(4), pp. 235–246. doi: 10.1375/anft.30.4.235.

JUNG, C. G. 2017. Psychological Types. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge.