The term ‘Personal Brand‘ doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it means, but it is certainly important for career success. I used to think ‘Personal Brand’ was all about visual image, but in fact there’s a lot more too it than that. I also used to think that having a PB meant I had to use exactly the same photo of myself everywhere. Some personal branding experts do claim this is true, but I’ve found a little variation actually works fine. After all, we are all of us complex people with more than one face. If I want people to get a sense of the real me, then different photos will give them a much better of idea of what I am like.

First, a little story…

Late last week a friend texted me with a special last minute offer: to go for a photo pamper. £30 for a manicure, makeup done, hair done and a photo done by a professional photographer. Ah yes, and wine and nibbles thrown it. Seemed a cracking idea for a Friday afternoon, so I signed up with alacrity.

We had to take several outfits to be photographed in, and it’s extraordinary how different each one felt in front of the camera. Once we had been made over, we trouped in and out of the studio, into the changing room, quick slurp of wine, back in for more poses, different backgrounds and different seating arrangement. Then a wine-fortified wait while the photos were uploaded for our viewing and selection.

We knew we would be sold additional photos, and we were, but it was so nicely done, and the photos were so good, it was worth it. And they gave us more wine to facilitate the selection process.

It was fun, it was social, and the results were very pleasing. (I’ve included a few here so you can judge for yourself)

And I decided to count it as my weekly Creative Date (which I am doing as I follow Julia Cameron’s ideas for opening up the creative juices – see my post last week on Creative Dates and Creativity).

Anyway, back to personal branding.

I now have some cracking, recent photos I can use. Working for myself, I don’t need to look formal and staid. They are not qualities which people normally use to describe me anyway, and many of the photos I have had done in the past didn’t feel true for me because they didn’t show my fun side. They felt inauthentic, or as one friend said ‘creepy’.

Authenticity is a key part of your Personal Brand

If your Personal Brand isn’t authentic, if it doesn’t ring true for you, it won’t last.  Business Week recently published an article on the Personal Brand which made this very point. Being inauthentic drains your energy, because it’s hard work. The Business Week article also talked about ‘sharing yourself’ – making your gifts and expertise available to other people. I think this is a particularly important point for women. We do tend to hide our lights under the proverbial bushel, and one way of shining without seeming to boast is to show your talents in the service of others, so they can boast on your behalf. This then becomes part of your Personal Brand.

At the same time, you have to balance the need for authenticity against the culture and style of the organisation. In the long term, if there is a real mis-match between the two, you probably won’t enjoy working there. We get the greatest enjoyment at work when the organisation’s values are aligned with our own – something I wrote about in an article published recently in Changing Careers.   If the organisational dress code (implicit or explicit) is a dark suit and shirt, and these either don’t suit you, or don’t feel right, then you will need to be in a very powerful position to get away with anything less than a dark suit and shirt. If the organisation says its values are honesty and customer service, but they lie to customers and outsourced the customer service to a very cheap, rather poor call centre in the Far East years ago, you have to question whether this is the right working environment for you.

When you make living by your personal values a part of your Personal Brand, things start to flow. When you give up your own values for the sake of someone or something else, things become more of a struggle. Work feels like effort. The career feels like a weight upon your shoulders.

How To Find The Personal Brand That Supports Career Success

In my opinion there are two aspects to your Personal Brand: visual and behavioural. One way of dealing with the visual side is to go see an image consultant – someone like Sam Bell at Pixie Bell http://pixie-belle.co.uk A lot of image consultants focus on what they know from the book, without considering the inner you which wants to shine through, so if you do see an image consultant, which is well worth the money, then make sure they think about who you are, not just what the books say you should be.

The behavioural side is rather different. You need to go internal – spend some time thinking about who you are and what you stand for. Consider your talents and expertise, your dreams, and what it is that you love in life. How would you describe yourself? How do others describe you? Who are your role models, and why? What do you like to read, to do with your spare time, if you have any – and if you don’t have any how two you feel about that? The  best way to do this is ask yourself the questions and write down the answers. Although my ebook, How To Have A Career That Really Works For You wasn’t written with personal branding in mind, it actually gives you the questions you need to answer, with worksheets and exercises for you to follow.

December is a great time to do this thinking. The days are growing shorter in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly if you live in Northern Europe or Canada, and we naturally turn in towards hearth and home, as we prepare for the year to turn. Why not take the time now to decide how you want people to see you, feel about you and experience you, so that you start 2014 knowing exactly what it is you want to tell the world about yourself?

And if you need help with identifying your personal brand, feel free to get in touch.