Highlights on building an authentic personal brand
Your personal brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room. That was how Melini Moses opened the first in our new series of masterclasses for Unearthing Insights fellows and our wider community. Over an hour, Melini turned the usual training session on its head. Instead of lecturing, she asked questions and had participants answer in the chat, doing what she called a “forensic audit” on themselves.
Her starting point:
a personal brand is a promise of quality, consistency, competency and reliability. And, as she put it, if you are not branding yourself, then you can be sure that other people are branding you.
Below are some of the aspects we found most useful from the Masterclass.
Start with what you want to be known for
Melini asked everyone to name three words they want people to associate with them. The chat filled with answers like reliable, authentic, trustworthy, passionate, tenacious and kind. Then came the harder question: are you showing up as that person every day, even when life throws you a curveball?
Know your X factor, and be honest about your weaknesses
Your X factor is the strength that sets you apart. If you are not sure what yours is, Melini suggested asking what people come to you for: solving problems, organising an event at short notice, or simply listening. Weaknesses deserve the same honesty. Melini shared her own, once arriving late to meetings after years in radio, where every second counted. Naming a weakness is the first step; the second is finding a practical way to work on it, whether that is a breathing exercise, a public speaking course or a book on boundaries.
Find your why factor
What makes you get up in the morning and do what you do? Melini described her own why as empowering the next generation. A useful test: what would you keep doing even if you were never paid for it? When you live out your why, people see it in the passion you bring to your work.
Your brand lives in the small things
Melini then asked participants to score themselves from 1 to 10 on everyday habits: being yourself in every setting, speaking up in groups, keeping boundaries, apologising when you fall short, following through on promises and keeping confidences. She also covered the details people overlook, from professional email addresses and checking AI-written messages before sending, to asking whether a social media post is really necessary.
As she put it, you can break your brand in one sentence. To learn more about Melini’s work and continue learning about how to build your brand follow Express Yourself.
