Personal Branding

Who are you?

Whenever this question is posed to me these days, my reply is, “I am XYZ doing PhD in ABC university working with Prof. KLM.”

Is it really who I am? Is my affiliation to some popular brand like my university or my advisor, or my company defines me. As far as I remember, couple of years back my answer was different. But it was another definition of me affiliated to some other popular brand.

Even most of my friends would define themselves based on their job title in some reputated company like, Infosys, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Google, TCS, etc. I think it gives us some sense of personal accomplishment by associating ourselves with such popular brands.

For last couple of days, I have been reading about personal branding as proposed by Tom Peters and Rajesh Setty. According to them, everyone needs to think about making a mark for themselves and stand out in this world. It is not easy but it is not difficult too.

Identifying your strengths is the first step towards personal branding. What is it in you that distinguishes you from others? What makes you proud of yourself? When your colleagues talk about you, do they refer to you as some software engineer/project manager, or as a person with some unique qualities and characteristics who has something valuable to offer?

Second step is to make yourself visible to others. There are a number of ways to do that based on your interests. Join communities of like-minded people, do some voluntary project, offer free services to people in need, and atleast start writing an online blog. See how Steve Pavlina and Seth Godin (and many more) have made a brand of themselves. But they are popular not because they have a blog but because of what they offer. When you have something to offer that has some value to others you automatically get recognition for it.

It doesn’t matter what your current position is or what your interest is in? What matters is that whether you are passionate about anything to an extent to become the best in it. You can make your mark if you offer quality product like Ramit Sethi’s ‘I Will Teach You To Be Rich’. There are others, like the curious duo Jim and Steph, and Dave Cheong, who are making themselves visible in this online world.

The key is to live your passion. But then you’ll ask how to earn your bread and butter if you just follow your passion. Well that’s a valid argument. Many of my friends have the same argument. Definitely you need to be practical in this real world but also you need to be a visionary to be able to see yourself doing what you like most in next 5, 10, and 20 years. You don’t need to quit your current job or whatever you are doing right now. But try to get yourself out of the vicious loop of corporate ladder and redefine yourself. Don’t abandon your passion, live it side by side. If you are a SAP consultant but like to write short stories, why not become a writer too.

As Tom Peters said you are the CEO of Me Inc. It is upto you how you make a brand of yourself. You are responsible for what you offer. So it better be unique and the best available out there. And most of all: keep growing and become an educated being.

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