Cut through the Noise with Your Personal Brand
Can I be honest?
I didn’t know what a personal brand was until well after I’d built one. Growing up, my parents never missed a chance to remind me that reputation matters. My mom and dad, both children of Southern Black sharecroppers, always said…
“At the end of the day, your name and reputation are all you have.”
When you’re from a town as small as mine, it’s hard to go anywhere and not see someone you know, or better yet, someone who knows you. It’s your reputation that sets you apart. It’s your reputation that helps others remember you. I didn’t realize it then, but they were on to something. If you poll my parents today, I think they’d agree I did a pretty good job of maintaining my reputation.
Now, as a digital marketing leader with over a decade of experience, I know I wouldn’t be where I am without their advice. Reputation matters when it comes to building a life, and also when it comes to building a career.
It’s great to know people. It’s even better when people know you and want others to know you as well. Reputation is the foundation on which you build your personal brand, and it’s about time we stop making it so complicated.
You don’t have to be a marketer to understand personal branding. It’s not rocket science or advanced mathematics. All you need to understand is yourself.
The American Marketing Association defines personal branding as the act of promoting yourself as a brand by crafting a distinct identity, reputation, and online presence to showcase your skills, expertise, and personality. If you ask me, brands can be many things, but the best ones are unique, consistent, and memorable. This also applies to personal brands.
The great thing about building a personal brand is you don’t have to do a lot to be unique. After all, you are the only you on the planet. That is your competitive advantage.
Your strengths, your areas for growth, your knowledge, and lived experience all combine to give you a unique point of view. Don’t shy away from it.
And while consistency is a muscle some of us struggle to build, it’s really hard to consistently be something you’re not.
Comparison is a cage. When we attempt to be what we see versus who we are, we imprison ourselves. Being yourself is not only freeing, but it’s the way you blaze the trail you were destined to journey down. Your brand is yours for the making.
Memorability is a bit more subjective, but you have the power to decide how you want to be remembered. Your reputation doesn’t simply precede you. It also lingers. Having a personal brand helps you make the most of the moments you have so that long after you’ve left the room, the space you occupied remains.
Whether it’s time for a refresh or you’re still in draft mode, here are 4 tips to creating a personal brand that cuts through the noise and turns up the volume on your story.
Start with the end in mind.
To create a trifecta of uniqueness, consistency, and memorability, you should start with the end in mind.
What is your goal for building a personal brand?
Do you want to be an influencer in the tech space?
Are your eyes set on being a world-renowned entrepreneur with Ted Talks on-demand? Want recruiters flooding your DMs?
Perhaps, your answer is all of the above. Whatever your goal, write it down. Knowing where you want to go helps you make the right next step. Creating a well-defined personal brand is about strategy, so you should keep your goals close. They will guide your decision-making and ground you as you work toward building a brand.
Know thyself.
When these words were expressed, I doubt Socrates knew we’d be ruled by algorithms and counseled by artificial intelligence. However, the Greek axiom’s premise still holds weight. In a world where everyone wants to tell you what to eat, how to live, and who to be, it’s paramount to know yourself. Knowing yourself means knowing your strengths and your areas for growth.
When you can identify what you’re great at as well as what you’re not-so-great at, you allow yourself a level of humanity society sometimes overlooks. It’s not just our perfections that make us great. It’s also our imperfections and our willingness to learn and grow through them. Knowing yourself means accepting all that you are so that your offering to the world, or just your industry, is rooted in authenticity.
Find the right medium.
LinkedIn. Substack. TikTok. Oh my! It’s hard to know where to begin when it comes to finding the right channels to showcase your personal brand. All you have to do is find what works for you.
You don’t need an account on every social platform to build a personal brand. Learn how each platform responds to the content and information you want to share. Your “day in the life of a product manager” series may perform better on TikTok. Meanwhile, your SXSW 2026 recap could be a hit on LinkedIn.
Maybe you need to build your own network IRL instead of trying to construct a virtual one. For you, a monthly email to your fiercest advocates and closest mentors may be enough.
Don’t believe the hype. Social media isn’t the only place to build a personal brand. Get out there and explore. Just remember to keep your goal in mind.
Use your story.
Fairytales are more common in the library than they are in life. The beginning of my career was not easy. I graduated college into an economy that was tumultuous and unprecedented. It was hard to get an interview. It was even harder to get a job even with a degree. I had goals I have yet to achieve and dreams that have yet to come to fruition. I made it through that season of life by the skin of my teeth, and now I use it as a source of motivation and encouragement for myself and those I’m privileged to mentor.
In order to use your story for personal branding, you have to first accept it. Trust that all your experiences - good and bad - have brought you to this point. The very best parts of you are the result of all your successes, your failures and the valleys in-between. Find the pages of your story that are worth sharing and use them to your advantage.
Much like your reputation, your story is what people will remember. Your story is what fuels your personal brand.
If at the end of the day, all you had was your personal brand, what would that mean for you and your career? If you don’t know, it’s time to start building.
