The other night over dinner Trevor and I had a very spirited debate over exactly that question. The reason I tend focus my personal branding posts on women is because over the years, most of the people I’ve done personal branding and image consulting for have been women. And, in my experience, women tend to struggle with packaging up all the greatness in themselves and find it even harder to put themselves into the light where the world can really see them.
I did a one-on-one fashion consult with my friend Jill several years ago. We went through her closet, did the requisite discarding and then went shopping. Jill’s smart and capable-she just needed a nudge. Every day, we all talk to our female friends and at least one of them is passionate about making a transition in some way. She has worked hard evolving and unpacking her emotional backpacks but when it comes to making that next step to “get out there” she are frozen with fear and stumped with by how exactly she should do it. This fear and confusion strikes the budding small business owner, the activist, the mother who wants to model appropriate self-promotion for her kids. But in each situation, the fear can be overcome, the confusion resolved, and each woman can find her personal brand by finding her true self.
And just like traditional marketing for a business, with personal branding once you uncover who you are and what it is you are promoting to the world, you will have identified the audience you want to reach and the exact message you want to convey. There are tools and tactics to launch your message out in to the world and directly to your target audience.
In the spirit of full disclosure I have had moments in my life where I have been the woman who had a great idea but was too afraid to move forward. I was the woman who was feeling old and out of touch and worst of all, irrelevant. I was almost one of the too many women who don’t see the gravity of not taking advantage of the digital explosion that has impacted the way we work, shop, relate, and play.
The final reason I am doing this work, early in the morning before my work day begins or after 7 when the dishes are done, is because the ability to coach people and move them to action is my greatest talent. At a conference in the Fall a Buddhist Master asked the audience to ponder the following questions, “How can the work I do free people from suffering?” At first I started to dismiss it because I’m not an activist trying to change the world, but then I realized in my own small way the information we share here at The Brand Counselors can help remove fear, increase self-esteem, move people to action, seek opportunity, and help them generate revenue or income.