Hey what's up consultant friends and colleagues? I hope you're all doing well.
Some time ago I was invited to a session with a group of professionals on the topic “How to Improve Your Personal Brand”. During the Q&A segment someone asked me this question.
How do I approach this personal brand thing if I’m an introvert?
I’m hungry to dig into this topic more, especially since my response had to be brief in the session. But first I should give my definition of a personal brand.
How I define a personal brand
For me a personal brand is a unique set of ideas or ideals associated with a person that generates value to that person.
That value is either an enrichment value - creating personal fulfilment or a commercial value - it makes money.
Overall, a brand helps people choose and your personal brand helps the right people choose you because they are attracted to your ideas and or ideals and they're willing to engage with them (listen to you) and or pay for them (buy from you).
Having put that out there, it’s well known that building a personal brand means you first have to get attention. That’s where it gets rough for an introvert; right from the start.
a personal brand is a unique set of ideas or ideals associated with a person that generates value to that person.
That value is either an enrichment value - creating personal fulfilment or a commercial value - it makes money.
Tackling your aversion to attention
Now I’m an introvert so I know the kind of internal conflict this person was having. We introverts would prefer to work in the background and not to draw too much attention to ourselves. And if we have to, we want to be sure it’s with good cause and that we’re being true to ourselves and to others.
We may not care too much for having our faces splashed across the pages of any media but we do want to make a tremendous positive impact. It drives us. We think about it.
So to build our personal brand as introverts, instead of thinking about drawing attention to ourselves we can focus on using ourselves as a vehicle to draw attention to the interests, causes, or initiatives we want to positively impact.
In fact, our tendency to treasure meaning and authenticity are powerful factors in building a strong brand. We’d be creating enrichment value for ourselves and others. And there’s no harm done if opportunities to make money come along with it.
Using the introvert gift of self-awareness is great for building a personal brand
We introverts spend a lot of time alone with our thoughts. We become very aware of what our strengths and preferences are. We also know many of our weaknesses well (although we may tend to amplify those). Nevertheless, that strong sense of self-awareness is critical in defining personal uniqueness - a winning ingredient to set ourselves apart.
Self-awareness also helps us pinpoint exactly how to and what to express to a community of people who we want to impact or who can help us create the impact we’d like to achieve.
Find, join or create a close knit community
Ok, all introverts raise your hand if this is true for you. You feel totally awkward trying to chime in to group conversations but you’re more than happy to have a deep one-on-one or small group discussion - I know right; it’s a signature introvert trait.
That’s why when we’re building our personal brands we should think of having conversations with a close knit community of people who we can share with on a deeper level. Ditch the idea of a mass audience.
We should determine who our people are; what characterises them; what we have in common with them; what they can learn from us and what we can learn from them. We should give a name to that community and speak directly with them - like a small group of friends we’re comfortable sharing with.
So, for instance, right now I’m writing to share with you, my consultant friends and colleagues. You’re my people (especially the introverts among you - wink)
Writing is a "safe" medium to start sharing your ideas as an introvert
Building a personal brand means your name and your face will be associated with a set of ideas/ideals that you will become known for. But if you’re shy about showing your face at first then share your ideas in writing first.
Starting a blog, writing articles on Linkedin, posting insightful graphics on social media with great captions are entry points to build your confidence. Video may be a medium that you have to work up to - although trust me, you’ll be great at it! Just know however, that writing is only the start because this next thing is true...
My introvert friends and colleagues the world needs your ideas and it’s ok for the world to see your face and hear your voice too!
Just try it.
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Thanks for reading. Did you find this useful? Are you an introvert or a consultant like me? Follow me on Instagram @diannensquires for more frequent updates.