Your Personal Brand is Your Career Security
Your personal brand is your career insurance and investment strategy. Use it to protect yourself against the unexpected, and leverage opportunities to diversify your investments.
Many professionals only start thinking about their personal brand when they find they need it. They’ve lost their job, want a career change or want to start building their own business. But, the secret to leveraging the power of personal branding for your professional career is investing in it before you find you need it. Because your personal brand is your job security.
I recall hearing the financial advice that you make money when you buy, not when you sell. It means the moves you make up front dictate the level of your success later. Instead of waiting until you have to “sell yourself”, make yourself more valuable first.
One of my favourite definitions of what a personal brand is, is that your personal brand is:
What people think about you
How you make them feel
What they say about you (especially when you’re not in the room)
How they remember you
This means that whether you’re working on your personal brand or not, you have a personal brand. So it’s better to have a personal brand that proactively works for you and your career.
Instead of only thinking about your personal brand when you find you need it most, here’s why your personal brand matters for your career security:
1.Your reputation follows you
In his book, Diary of a CEO, Bartlett presents five buckets that are the sum of your professional potential:
What you know (your knowledge)
What you can do (your skills)
Who you know (your network)
What you have (your resources)
What the world thinks of you (your reputation)
No amount of talent and high performance guarantees that you will always have job security. As the last few years have taught us, always expect the unexpected. Even the most talented people aren’t protected by unprecedented changes in the economy or operating environment. You also can’t guarantee your employer will stay on its current course and strategy, especially through leadership changes. Businesses change, needs change. But your reputation can follow you wherever you go. Your personal brand is your career insurance.
Dorie Clark in Reinventing You highlights, “You can take it with you.”
No matter where your transition leads you, the reputation you have spent so much time building can follow you into new endeavours. Stanford professor Jeffrey Pfeffer calls this the psychological phenomenon known as the ‘halo effect’. Whereby if you’re talented in one domain, people assume you have the ability to be good in another.
Always protect your personal brand’s reputation. I don’t mean post a crisis. I mean, always act with integrity. Always deliver the highest standards of work. Build a positive reputation for your personal brand that can follow you anywhere.
2. Leverage a portfolio career
Research has shown that many Gen Zers happily have multiple career pursuits and side gigs and often don’t even consider applying for a traditional job. They have what’s called a portfolio career. Half of all Gen Zers are said to participate in freelance work.
Instead of focusing entirely on your traditional 9-5 job, build a portfolio career. This is like diversifying the investments you have so that if one career prospect doesn’t always go to plan, you are likely to have others you can optimise instead. Your personal brand is the glue that binds your portfolio career together. It is the through-line in your professional story. It allows you to leverage your different skills, interests and experiences so multiple parts can form a cohesive whole.
3. Leverage your personal brand to build business brands
If you build a community around your personal brand, you can commercialise your personal brand by converting your audience to your products or services.
This might be directly related to your professional brand. For example, you're a real estate agent who wants clients to sell real estate for, or to. However, this can also be less direct. So, for example, you’re an online creator and you sell merchandise related to your key messages or style. Or, you started a separate business brand altogether, but use your personal brand and understanding of your audience to connect your community with that product or service. For example, you're a self-development guru who sells your bespoke journals.
You may choose to build a business and sell it, and maybe even repeat this cycle. All the while leveraging your personal brand to power its success.
4. Show your work before you have to
Don’t wait for your job application process to build the portfolio of your personal brand. Start now.
In his book, Show Your Work, Austin Kleon says:
"Imagine if your next boss didn’t have to read your résumé because he already reads your blog. Imagine being a student and getting your first gig based on a school project you posted online. Imagine losing your job but having a social network of people familiar with your work and ready to help you find a new one.”
Don’t wait until it’s too late. Start building the personal brand that underpins your long-term career success now. Because your personal brand is your job security.
