Leveraging the identity for your personal brand can be a tactful task to accomplish. Authenticity, individuality, and sincerity are a few elements that you should incorporate when you’re in the process of repurposing and redeveloping your brand and identity framework.
Utilizing your voice and curating your public image during the process can be beneficial because it resonates with your audience and communities, which in turn can expand your reach and build connections by being open to sharing your life, career, and/or personal journey.
What matters the most is making sure you define how you show up, stay true to yourself, and embrace the process.
Let me provide you with some gems that I’ve learned along the way that can help preserve ownership of your brand and identity below:
This interview has been condensed, rearranged, and edited for clarity.
What practices should creatives, professionals, and entrepreneurs follow to help them leverage or reinvent their brand?
Early in my career I was told, “You need to work on your communication skills,” “You need to improve your style of professional dress.”, and “You’re not ready for leadership.” That was the feedback I received without any offering of mentorship or a ready mark to achieve the arbitrary expectation of what leadership looked like. At times, it was demoralizing without the professional sponsorship to improve. But above all else, it ignited in me a commitment to myself – where I vowed to exceed every professional development goal that I believed I could. I chose to eviscerate self-doubt by choosing personal accountability in mapping out my desired career growth, and then selecting professional mentors and sponsors who I would empower with the details of my professional goals – with a request that they would help provide me the guidance to execute a game plan that I could follow at my own pace. Whenever I questioned whether I was being fully utilized in my work, being of service to community boards and mentorship organizations would always rejuvenate me. I would essentially carve out time to apply my value through my community engagement roles. The result was always a heightened confidence in my value contribution, which would be a confidence I would carry in my role at work.
Leadership at my job began to take notice, and my mentors were encouraging me to stand tall in my known values. This inspired me to continue planning out my desired career trajectory and believing in my growth in thought leadership, inspiring teams, and public speaking. And in my periodic moments of self-doubt (those moments continue to creep in), I choose to recall a trajectory-shifting quote by Maya Angelou, “If you don’t like your situation, change it. And if you can’t change it, then change your attitude.” It’s that personal accountability that fuels my tenacity through challenging times. And then, my self-discovery journey gradually shifted in 2007.
But it would be in 2009 when the trajectory shift would gain speed through intentional journaling. Something about the process of journaling with an abundance mindset cracked the code of opportunity wide open for me. I continued to journal like this for roughly 10 years. It proved to be a form of reconditioning for me that has become an everyday mindset of me in creating and maintaining positivity and abundance in my life. It’s the mindset that has led me to the evolution of being a corporate girl through and through to becoming a self-employed entrepreneur who put thought, vision, belief, and a fierce commitment into action to building my consulting business. And through every iteration of success, I’ll never forget the humble beginnings of my growth shift, the trajectory launch, and the personal accountability that has led to this current iteration of my brand.
How does publicizing personal evolution and growth aid in reinventing your brand story with authenticity?
I’d say the benefit of documenting my growth journey in a very public way has empowered me to reclaim ownership of my values. It’s led me down a path to explore the topics, platforms, and organizations that ignite a passion for contributing my value to the work I choose. I suppose that’s how the reinvention came about if you will. I began to discern where I would channel my focus, time, energy, and even dollars. This notion of reinvention has more so been a self-discovery in living a life of purpose and standing tall in my worth.
How timely in that the discovery of my life’s purpose and standing tall in my value would prove to be a steady source of strength in navigating the unexpected shifts of work throughout these past 18 months of the pandemic. Owning your brand story allows you to maintain your identity in defining the way you show up in the world.
How will it benefit followers?
I’ve heard so many people feel drawn to the story I share as my story has unfolded on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and any given speaking engagement that’s been in-person or virtual. I believe there is power in sharing our stories of facing obstacles, perseverance, and achievements. Again, our stories shape us, and they influence the way we choose to view and be open to the world. But I also take responsibility for owning how I decide to show up in this world. How I choose to embrace what I face in life, learn from experiences, discover the optimism at the moment, and outline a vision for the life I want to create personally and professionally. These iterations of my story are the messages I share. And the message I intend to spread is to honor your voice. Know your value. Stand tall in your worth.
Why is having confidence in yourself beneficial to reinventing your brand?
I’d spent so much time the first 10-15 years of my career trying to conform to others’ expectations in corporate culture. And I believe that in those moments of seeking favor and acceptance, I appeared uncertain. Conversely, when I began honing my understanding of the value I bring to the workplace and my community, I started exuding an assuredness of what I knew and believed I could contribute to my employer, the company, and the greater community.
How can other people inspire or contribute to you leveraging your brand?
I think people are fearful of living authentically for fear of being denied acceptance from others. I also believe some people envy others who are unapologetically living in their truth. And I think that type of envy comes from an inability to live in their authenticity. I want to celebrate and admire those living in their truth, not because they need to, simply because I think the world could use more honesty and meaningful connections that unite us as humans. We all have a choice. We don’t have to wait for others to tell us how to engage or how to conform. I want more people to know their value and align it with their passion area to drive impact. You will be surprised how it bears the potential to evolve into a life’s purpose—aligning your value, passion, and purpose as a way to direct how you choose to show up in the world. The payoff is that you create a reciprocal connection between yourself, your work, and your community. The whole of your authentic life! Ultimately, defining the way you do and the value you bring can have the most significant impact in some pretty inspiring ways.
How can you break down inhumanity and display our true selves?
We aren’t true to ourselves when we waste time conforming to what we think others want us to be. That’s a disservice to our authentic self, and we’re just limiting our ability to be free to live in our wholeness. I believe when we’re fulfilled and defining our happiness, we can fully show up for our family, our coworkers, our career, and our community. And I think that’s because we’re living as our authentic selves by only choosing what feels fulfilling and purposeful. To be authentic is to live in your truth, not someone else’s.
The state of being unapologetic, saying no to what doesn’t align with your values, and being clear about things you want are key stepping stones to reinventing and leveraging your brand story.
When we start saying yes to the things that we want to do, who we want to be, and how we want to show up, people begin to notice.
You have complete control over how you want to add value to your community instead of being defined by the work you do or the people you serve.
When I decided that there was no boundary for me and how I was going to show up in spaces, it elevated my consciousness and the energy of those around me.
Make sure you live the life you want, and the right people will support you, your brand, and your mission.
By doing so, success is inevitable.
