Your story is not just for LinkedIn

Unless you've been living under a rock here on Linkedin you will have heard that building your Personal Brand is critical for career progression and actually business growth, where the founder remains the voice of the brand

I have a love/hate relationship with the term Personal Branding largely because it is an overused and hackneyed phrase that can sound disingenuous

I prefer to frame it in a commercial advertising context.....where branding usually refers to a product or a company, with Personal Branding, the brand is a person or in my case, a woman

Way back when, in agency land, we would create brand mood boards, word associations, and segmentations to depict brands, all informed by research. But with a Personal Brand you can dispense with most of that because it is what it says on the can...Personal and no-one knows you, better than you

You’ve probably also read that creating a personal brand story helps you position yourself and your authority. Stories are a way to connect with your target audience and helps demonstrate 'authenticity'.

Whilst the marketer in me would acknowledge that to be true your Personal Brand story serves a much higher purpose....it's a way to remind yourself how damn brilliant you are, of all the challenges you've overcome and the achievements you've forgotten and relegated to the 'just doing my job' bin

Everyone's story has multiple chapters 

No two stories are the same

When your career started, no doubt everything felt fresh, new and exciting, the world is your oyster and you are told you can achieve anything and have it all

Back then, you probably thought progression would come naturally. You’d succeed if you kept your head down, worked hard, and did as you were told: After all it worked when you were in school.

You'll have since discovered that is a myth, for women at any rate and perhaps over the years, the things you used to value so dearly – like approval, reassurance and feeling like you have to accommodate others all the time might have been replaced with a steely reserve, and desire for change

There's no question the starry eyed grad is not the woman who is sitting typing this and trying not appear cynical

Like any journal, some times you’re at the top of your game

Other periods might be less positive; you might have lost your way, made a few mistakes, headed down a rabbit hole or two

You lose your job, or in my case walk out of a couple. Maybe experience a toxic work culture, bullying even

And this will have had an impact. I don't know any woman who has gone through her entire career feeling 100% powerful, confident, and focussed all the time

But one thing is for sure - you’ll be a different person now than you were, and that's the only comparison worth making

So how can you can uncover your Personal Brand story?

I've unashamedly stolen this idea from my unofficial business mentor Nick Smith

When I left EDF I was struggling to decide which direction to take. I'd set up FirstWoman but I figured I could probably earn more, at least initially by taking interim marketing contracts with corporates. But I really didn't want to. I was sick to death of all that. And if I was going to maintain the freedom and flexibility I craved (one of the reasons I jacked in my full-time role in the first place) I couldn't do both.

Nick encouraged me to reflect on my entire career journey to find my purpose and key drivers, and to write it down: How I'd got to where I was, the key decisions I'd made at different crossroads and why I'd made them, what were the motivations. Then to divide the story into themes

Ingredients of your Personal Brand story

1. Time

Take time to reflect. Don't rush the process and try to engineer the solution. Compare where you are now to where you were last week, 6 months, a year, 10 years ago, right back to the beginning. See how far you've come!

You can start chronologically or you might prefer to look at your different career stages. My path squiggled between in house, Agencies, freelance and back again

2. Honesty

Don't bullshit yourself or make excuses. Be brutally honest as to your motivations for your decisions, good and bad

3. Dig deep

For each chapter or theme ask yourself

• Why did I do that
• What did I want
• What did I learn
• What does it tell me about myself

Before long you'll have unpacked some deep insights about who you are, your values, your motivations, strengths and qualities......everything you need to build your Personal Brand and your story

4. Then write a summary paragraph in the third person

"Once upon a time there was a woman called Mel who was tired of lining the pockets of others, selling shit to people who neither wanted nor could afford it and being treated like a second class citizen versus men (and some women) who were lacking by comparison but seemed to have the ear of those who mattered. So at the height of her career she quit, to start a business from scratch, with a mission to advance women; finally she had something to believe in. This didn't pay anywhere near as much, but her priorities and definition of success had changed, so she traded selling her soul to fulfil a long-held need to kick-ass, be answerable to no-one and free to take risks and make mistakes without vilification"

Of course you can use your Personal Brand story to enhance your LinkedIn profile 'About' section and I'd definitely encourage you to do that.

But moreover having an unadulterated narrative that is yours and reminds you of how far you've come is the perfect gift to yourself.

#personalbranding #womenleaders #womeninbusiness #linkedinprofile