Find the full transcript at yourfuturerealized.com/19.
In the complex realm of Operations, personal branding isn't just nice-to-have. It's a game-changer.
Take, for example, Matt, a seasoned operations VP I met a couple of years back. Despite a rockstar track record, he battled feelings of imposter syndrome. He said:
“I met the new Marketing VP on the elevator. Between floors, she said, “Tell me about yourself.” I just fumbled for words. I’ve been here for 8 years. I love what I do and I’m great at it. But I suck at communicating it. I second-guess myself constantly.”
So, Matt tackled the issue head-on. He built a personal brand that inspired him. It boosted his confidence and set him at ease showcasing his unique talents.
In this episode I’ll share how cultivating your personal brand helps you trust yourself, so you stop getting sidetracked by doubts.
In the complex realm of Operations, personal branding isn't just nice-to-have. It's a game-changer.
Take, for example, Matt, a seasoned operations VP I met a couple of years back. Despite a rockstar track record, he battled feelings of imposter syndrome. He said:
“I met the new Marketing VP on the elevator. Between floors, she said, “Tell me about yourself.” I just fumbled for words. I’ve been here for 8 years. I love what I do and I’m great at it. But I suck at communicating it. I second-guess myself constantly.”
So, Matt tackled the issue head-on. He built a personal brand that inspired him. It boosted his confidence and set him at ease showcasing his unique talents.
In this episode I’ll share how cultivating your personal brand helps you trust yourself, so you stop getting sidetracked by doubts.
Find the full transcript at yourfuturerealized.com/19.
Hey Ops Execs,
Spoiler Alert: You Already Have a Personal Brand
It’s easy to assume that personal branding just has to do with marketing yourself.
And with your packed schedule, you might be thinking: “I don’t have time to work on personal branding.”
For a moment consider, though, personal branding isn’t only about marketing yourself. It’s the sum of how others perceive you.
So, for a moment also consider that the reason you're so busy is that you don’t invest in personal branding.
And you do have a personal brand, even if you haven’t cultivated it intentionally. It's been shaped by default. When that's the case, you risk being known in ways that don’t align with your values, your expertise, or your goals.
No matter where you begin, you can establish your personal brand to reflect what matters most to you.
Sometimes it takes a wake-up call to tune in to your default personal brand.
Matt's wake-up call happened in that elevator when he couldn’t name his value succinctly. As I shared in Episode 2, my wake-up call was when someone called me "the drip pan". It may have been a joke, but it felt like my main value was seen as cleaning up messes.
At that moment, I realized how essential it is to take control of my narrative and showcase my contributions on purpose.
Double Impact: Understanding How Personal Branding Affects Self-Worth
The double whammy about personal branding is that it’s not just what others think of you. It’s what you think of yourself. It’s your sense of self-worth.
Consider this analogy: Your sense of self-worth is like your home’s thermostat. It regulates your internal temperature.
Let’s say you set your AC to 68 degrees, and the summer air heats your neighborhood hotter than that. Your thermostat automatically keeps your house temperature down to 68.
Your self-worth dial works the same way. If it's set to something like: ‘I’m not smart enough,’ or ‘I’m not doing enough,’ you’ll settle back into that thought. That's true even on days when you're crushing it and have tons of evidence to the contrary.
That’s because you can’t outperform your level of self-worth. Your subconscious mind thrives on familiarity and routine. It keeps you safe by sticking to the default level of what is known and comfortable.
The kicker is that thoughts aren’t even true. They’re just thoughts. The National Science Foundation says the average person has about 6,200 thoughts per day. That’s about 4 per minute.
Your mind constantly processes info, memories, and emotions to make decisions. Your environment and the people around you impact your thoughts. So do your physical and mental health.
Research also says that 70-80% of those 4 thoughts a minute are negative. It's called ‘negativity bias.' Our natural inclination is to think more about bad things than good things.
That’s a lot of data, but the TL; DR is that it pays to be mindful of your thoughts. To create a different thought pattern, you have to handle your thoughts differently. This is particularly important when it comes to thoughts about your self-worth because they impact everything else.
The Power of Perception: Maximizing Your Personal Brand
Building your personal brand can train your mind to think differently. It can help you recalibrate your self-worth dial toward a more constructive setting.
I want to be clear: Personal branding isn’t a fix. You’re already amazing exactly how you are. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be where you are. You have tons of strengths, skills, experience, great instincts, and passion.
Personal branding helps you figure out what to do with all that and your unique perspective. You uncover your hidden strengths, showcase them, and let them define your reputation.
Creating a personal brand statement is a strong first step down this path. A powerful personal brand statement fosters your self-awareness. It’s a great way to help you focus and avoid getting sidetracked by doubts.
It can help you align your thoughts, decisions, and actions with what matters most to you. An authentic personal brand statement recalibrates your thermostat in your desired direction. It fuels your resilience no matter what’s going on outside.
If you’d like to build a clear personal brand of your own, you don’t have to figure it out by yourself. Let’s put our heads together and establish a personal brand statement.
In a private personal branding session, we will discover your top 3 to 5 key strengths or values, essential qualities that bring out the best in you. We’ll brainstorm ways you can use them as a compass and elevate your level of self-awareness.
Let’s work together to craft a personal brand statement that brings out the best in you. It’s a fun and creative step toward mastering your mind. Visit https://yourfuturerealized.com/branding/ to learn more.
You can’t stop the chaos, but you can change the game.