Personal Branding - Infuse Your You-ness

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Personal Branding - Infuse Your You-ness

As featured in Working Women magazine

Others can’t see your value if you don’t show it. In simplistic terms, if you don’t ask, you don’t get, if you don’t show, you don’t get seen, and if you don’t act you don’t get results.​

Too many talented professional women continue to feel over-looked or invisible in their workplace or market. Their loss of momentum is evidenced by a stalled career, stalled finances or stalled business growth. To turn this around, three key contributors to address are:

Lack-lustre self-promotion - undervaluing what you do in your communication.
Lack of confidence - shows up in your body movement and gestures and undermines your credibility.
Lack of message impact - using predictable language in verbal and written messages which underwhelm the listener or reader.

Let’s expand on these three areas:

Lack-lustre self-promotion
When you undervalue what you do, it comes across in the way you pitch, share your thoughts in meetings, approach asking for a promotion, share your successes and if you’re in business, how you approach following up debtors and set your fees.

Be clear on your pitch and messaging and how you describe what you do. It might seem obvious, yet it’s something that’s not often done well. Infuse your messaging with your personality or essence e.g. quirky, witty, adventurous or focussed. And write the way you would speak, except for formal or legal documents.

This may turn away some people, but in the process, you will attract people who love you for your approach and more than that, you’ll experience a new level of confidence - because you’re communicating the real you, not a fabricated version. Imagine how wonderful it feels to know that the people who like you and your approach are liking the real you?

Lack of confidence
We’re wired to prioritise visual cues over auditory cues, so no matter what we say, anyone watching will believe what your body language is saying more than what your mouth is. A lack of congruence here will erode your personal brand.

You don’t need to have an outgoing personality to have a confident personal brand, but your body language needs to be congruent with your message.​

The best feedback is to watch yourself on video. Yes, I get that you don't like doing this, however it is a powerful way to fast track your results. Seek out and undertake training focussing on body language awareness to nip any credibility crushing habits you may be unaware of, in the bud.

Lack of message impact
Using safe predictable language in verbal and written messages is comfortable because you don't have to think. The issue with this is, your messages will either get lost in the noise or won’t be remembered.

When it comes to building a compelling personal brand, the best thing you can do is continue to invest in your personal and professional growth. It’s important to infuse your ‘you-ness’ into how you do what you do. This includes all customer touch points, both face-to-face and online.

Personal and professional growth are important for building and maintaining a compelling personal brand. Learn, grow and help colleagues, clients and customers to grow.

How much are you invisibly losing by not investing in yourself?​

Investing in yourself will provide the best return on investment you will ever experience, especially when it comes to building a confident personal brand. People buy you! Your value, your conviction and your ability to deliver.

Kerryn Gamble partners with organisations to drive profitability through diversity. She is the Author of UNSTOPPABLE - the professional woman’s guide to purpose, power & prosperity, and Founder of Woman of Worth.
On a mission to close the confidence and achievement gap for women, Kerryn up-skills female executives in the art of speakership to increase leadership participation by women. To have Kerryn speak at your next event, click here.