What comes first, your personal or company brand?
A joint newsletter post ft. Tejaswi Gautam of Future of Work, Future of You on the power of investing in your personal brand to ensure you future proof your career.
Illustration: Swarnima Jain x The Ask
This week we are joined by a special guest Tejaswi Gautam who writes The Future of Work The Future of You on Substack. With our shared missions to help ambitious professionals thrive in their work, I was grateful we got the chance to connect over an important topic. Read on for Tejaswi’s take on personal branding in the future of work and then stay put for my own commentary below. In the meantime you can subscribe to his publication here:
Future of Work, Future of You - Insights & ideas to build a better future workplace. For dreamers, leaders & entrepreneurs By Tejaswi Gautam
Start investing in yourself. Future of work will belong to personal brands.
What does it take for employees to step outside the shadow of their employer & build a personal brand? By Tejaswi Gauta.
There was a time when individual fame & recognition was deeply tied to your professional position. Heads of State (Presidents/Premiers), Chief Executives all carried their brand purely reflecting the power of the position, authority & institution. No one knew the real person behind these positions & yet the brand endured till the time individual & position were the same.
How many presidents or prime ministers of global countries have endured their personal brand beyond tenure?
How many Chief Executive Officers have remained relevant post retirement?
Carrying a personal brand was deemed frivolous, appeasing & petty. It was best left to more flashy professions such as sports, entertainment & art. Any individual in a more preeminent position felt skittish to even attempt to build a personal label of sorts. Within corporate parlance, most leaders were gun shy to express their personality risking rebuke & criticism from others.
Fast forward to 2022, the world is littered with personal brands. Barack Obama signed a multi million $ Netflix deal five years after he left office. Bill Gates’ technology leadership is in the rear view mirror & he is known more as the most definitive philanthropist leader of our generation. Elon Musk sells out flamethrowers faster than a Tesla. Solopreneurs, freelancers, creator brands are now worth millions of dollars & followers while corporate leaders remain unknown to their own employees.
But why does this all matter?
Are you not good enough with all the incredible skills, knowledge & abilities to succeed in today's world?
The blunt answer: Resounding No
Without a robust & compelling brand,
Your ideas may get ahead but won’t stand out
Your career may grow but will likely never peak
Your success, though may happen, will be fleeting & transient
Right throughout our corporate existence, we were told that people buy from people. Today, citizens, consumers & customers buy just stories.
Not a product. Not position. Not skills. Not capabilities. Not even people.
Just stories.
While these are all crucial & indispensable to growth & advancement, they quickly become utilities. And if you are thinking about whether the world has become a popularity contest where skills & abilities don’t matter. Not yet. But the role of brands, labels & stories around individuals is playing a vital role in creating opportunities & driving success. The world is dominated by capitalistic selling today where the objective is to sell at the highest possible price in the shortest time to the most number of users. Hence the role of people as “brands backed by stories” is the only way to offer a unique proposition to the end user. Influencers are a great example of a personal brand.
So what exactly is a personal brand? How is it different from a business brand, say a shampoo or sneakers? And how does an individual manage their loyalty towards their institution in addition to building their own brand?
Well, it isn’t that different.
In an age where people check facts more often than grammar, they want to know the real you. Where you came from, what drives you & where you are going. They are looking for the purpose, mission, failings & struggles of your journey. To build an authentic image is to accurately portray your flawed personality that others can relate to as if it was their own story. I outline 2 examples of what a personal brand should & should not look like
Brand Example 1: ATM Machine (How not to build a brand)
An ATM machine is a technological wonder that we rarely talk about. It’s like mobile banking at every corner of your city. It is always accurate, consistent & reliable.
Think about it. It never makes an error in counting your bills. Absolutely never.
Yet users never ever distinguish one from another. It is the most lifeless & boring piece of technology we interact with in our daily life.
No soul. No identity. Nothing unique.
Most employees & working professionals behave like ATM machines all their lives. They think their skills & abilities are their superpowers but it rarely matters to people outside.
Brand Example 2: Diamonds (How to build a brand)
There isn’t a better example of an object that carries a premium, unique & personalized brand image. Every piece of rock, no matter how imperfect, creates a compelling story for its existence & desired outcome. The brand of the diamond manufacturer has secondary utility to confirm authenticity & reliability.
Every diamond reflects soul, purpose & prestige. Diamond is the best example of a natural brand that people relate to.
With this given understanding of dos & don’ts of building a brand, here is a 4P recipe that you can follow.
Pain: A Larger than life problem that is in need of a solution
Purpose: A relatable story about your origins & purpose
Path: A promised path to a positive change
Proof: Social proof & validation of your outcome
Once you have created a decent personal brand, it is time to protect it from employer brand expectations & completely own it.
Your company’s brand is not your brand: Most of us associate our skills, abilities & motivations to what we can accomplish inside our jobs. Stop doing that. Your brand identity is so much more than what your employer makes you think. It is rare for an organization or job to reflect your core values, beliefs & purpose all of which are highly personal.
Know & define your brand space: Choose the real estate where your brand will operate. LinkedIn & Twitter are great examples of personal billboards. Your website & blogs are like personality products.
Step outside your employer brand: Sorry but tweeting a product launch or posting pictures from your team dinner don’t count towards your personal brand. Piggybacking on your employer brand is still Ok if it gives you social proof or a well laid-out path. Otherwise, create content that is unique to you & your opinions.
Find your power adopters or believers: Connect with people who share your values, beliefs & passion for the mission. Cocreate ideas, content & solutions that help solve real problems to further your mission.
Your personal brand is what gives you identity, meaning & lasts a lifetime. It’s your personal journal that people behind you can access to have hope, aspirations & be in a better place than you.
A strong brand will likely make you incredibly successful both personally and professionally. But the biggest impact is your legacy which will live through your brand long after you are gone. Your purpose & story will continue to inspire a few people every once in a while & that will be your biggest achievement.
Start building your personal brand today - Good luck!
Nuances to investing in your personal brand to future-proof your career.
— Ellen’s perspective.
Long-time readers will know that I am no stranger to the topic of personal branding when it comes to carving your own career path.
Specifically, I have gone into deep rabbit holes about the question of how much time entrepreneurs should spend working on their public image…. to try and get to the bottom of the question of whether it is harmful or additive to their work.
The result? I bring a nuanced perspective which depends on different factors such as the type of business they are building (one in which THEY are the product v if they have a product to sell), whether they are pursuing the creator v founder path, or their gender. Intrigued? If this topic interests you you can check out my previous posts here:
How the desire to maintain a personal brand may be harming your business.
A deep-dive into the darker sides of having an online presence as a business owner: distraction, burnout, cancel culture especially for female founders and the tricks that followers and algorithms play on you.
Why entrepreneurs should be wary of calling themselves 'creators'.
In a content-driven world we are all creators to an extent. But entrepreneurs who see themselves first and foremost as a 'creator' could have it the wrong way round.
My comments on Tejaswi’s post build on my original thinking above, which is that he right to see the huge value comes from developing a powerful personal brand in today’s world. Positioning your career independently of your employer or own business safeguards you against the (let’s face it) likely reality that one of these ventures doesn’t work out. You can transfer your personal brand anywhere.
Tejaswi and I bring different perspectives to this question, however.
His career path being largely forged in behemoth global brands and businesses, and mine, in small startups or working for myself. Not to mention our age, location and experiences. This is to say that our readers are likely different audiences, too.
His audience may need to hear this perspective in a big way. There are still many people who are unaware that their lack of focus on developing a personal brand could be impacting their career path.
But in my world and this audience, I know more of you are aware of the need for a personal brand. In younger generations, entire careers (creators) are being forged from their personality alone. Stars like podcasters, YouTubers, famous chefs and TikTok influencers litter their newsfeeds more than the Chief Executive of Fortune 500 companies will ever do. The fact this post is called Will Joe Rogan ever IPO? is pretty telling of the sheer power of the culture of personality that has pervaded our view of career and business success.
So that’s why I am pleased to have another perspective on this topic.
As in my world and people I meet there has been almost too much focus on personal brand in some people’s career decisions. It can feel like a competition of who shouts the loudest, has the best headshots or is the most consistent on social media platforms that dictates where success lies.
And whilst the perspective of whether or not this is a good thing depends on which path you are pursuing in your career, but either way, we should never forget that our work itself should (and will ultimately) determine career success.
Employee OR founder OR creator… Let your quality and standard of your craft be the thing that gets you noticed.
Sure, update your bio and have a pithy way of talking about how your work is shaping the world, but don’t forget that should be the icing on the cake of a gorgeous five-layered red velvet cake with strong foundations at its core. (Hungry right now so forgive the metaphor).
For example, Barack Obama CAN become a content creator and entertainer with his Netflix show because of the graft he put into his time in office before now.
In office, his focus was on the politics not carving his personal brand — else the States would have been in disarray. We have seen how this looks differently with other, ahem, Presidents.
So yes — please consider that your personal brand outlasts you and go to the right lengths to develop it carefully.
But also remember your best business card is your results you produce (whether for your own business or your employer) and that people thinking highly of you should be built on more than good marketing.
The extent to which you develop your own brand whilst running your own business is an ongoing question of this newsletter and one you need to answer for yourself.
Come spend an hour with me next month to make a plan.
Define your business model when it comes to entrepreneurship v being a content creator
Make sure you understand the rules of the path you are pursuing and how measure progress
Generate new ideas for making money from your talents in a saturated market
When you are creating content or a brand you can learn how to survive the silence when it feels like you’re shouting into the abyss starting out
Work out how to feel more confident you have designed the right path for your unique passions, goals, strengths and talents
Thanks for reading.
