A personal brand is a myth. Just do your job well, and customers will pass you from hand to hand. And if you work in the office, a personal brand, in general, is not needed. The salary will be paid, the coffee will be filled, it will be free at six in the evening, this place will get tired, there will be another. We once lived without this personal brand, and we will continue to live.
These words can be heard as often as advertising calls for training in building a personal brand. Who is right? Let’s see, and for this I suggest you dream.
If you work in an office
Imagine that you moved into the future twenty years ahead, and all this time you were working properly in the office, gained a lot of experience, perhaps even made a career. But your company has ceased to suit you, or completely closed, or you wanted to work in a corporation, with other niches, under other conditions. And you are still an unknown employee. What difficulties will you face if you want changes, or, even worse, will you be forced to go for them? You will not be eager to take a job if you have not made yourself a name. You will no longer be in the top, because there will be a huge mass of colleagues with experience, and young and brisk ones, who are often with technologies from the cradle, will often start pushing from below. Competition is growing every year. Who is in the black? The one who proved himself and brought to a wide audience of employers,
If you work in freelancing
And, maybe, you left for a long time for freelancing and you stopped worrying about age restrictions? You have been working with different customers for many years, they come, they leave, they become temporarily permanent, and you have enough life? Of course, you don’t need a personal brand if everything suits you, and you don’t plan to raise your check, create any agency, become a recognized expert, or you are not at all attracted by the prospect of speaking at conferences, conducting webinars, writing books. And if it attracts, or do you intend to go to stop working to wear and receive more money, then what will help to do this? Your popularity among customers, your proven expertise.
If you are an entrepreneur
You may not be up to a personal brand, because you have to close holes, grow a business. You are already investing in product promotion, what else is becoming a product for yourself? You can do without a personal brand, however, it is he who helps to gain the trust of the audience at the start. Promoting a product longer, more expensive and more difficult than yourself. It is a good decision to become another channel of promotion, not mediated, but alive, to which you can feel confident, sympathy With a personal brand, it is easier for an entrepreneur to search for investors, partners, employees. Sometimes they come themselves, because they know the principles, share them and want to work with you. And if you fantasize: it is a personal brand that will help prevent a raider seizure.
A personal brand is not a panacea
He will not help a layman. But for a specialist, he is a turbo button, which greatly accelerates development and takes a new level, which is not always possible without niche fame. It is not needed by those who absolutely do not want to crawl out of the cave and show themselves to the light or are engaged in illegal activities.
So, creating and promoting a personal brand is needed not by everyone, but only by those who have ambitious plans or goals — to protect their future.
Popular personal brand myths
However, there are many misconceptions and myths about personal branding. They are associated with the popularity of subjects. How not to make a mistake in choosing a direction? Remember a few rules.
A personal brand is not created in a week
And even more so in a few days. Adequate terms – from six months, if we are talking about increasing niche fame on a specific site, for example, on Facebook. Global work may take a year and a half, although not everyone needs global work on their image. As a rule, freelancers begin to get the effect faster – the tasks are of a different scale. You can write a scandalous post, go out naked to the square, get attention, haipanut, but this has nothing to do with personal branding.
Because personal branding is a strong association with your person. Stable associations do not occur in one day.
Many subscribers, likes and enthusiasm – this is not a personal brand.
Subscribers, likes and enthusiasm can also be, but you need to consider only their number among the target audience. Petya, Seryozha, and Ivan, who comment on each post of Masha’s specialist, because she likes them as a person and counts as a target audience only if Masha creates a personal brand to get married.
Because a personal brand always has a goal and a task.
I don’t like everyone
Your personality will surely find supporters and opponents. If everyone likes you, then your position is not clearly expressed. Lack of positioning is the main mistake in creating a personal brand. If specialist Masha seems sweet to everyone, then she is seriously doing something wrong.
Because positioning is one of the foundations on which a personal brand is built.
If you have no illusions, but there are goals: to raise a check, to adjust the work of a sundress, not to search, but to choose customers, not to seek, but to choose job offers, to become a recognized expert in a niche – work on creating and promoting a personal brand. This tool will greatly facilitate the process of achieving the goal.
