What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear Personal Branding?

If you ask me, I start thinking about the movie “Gabbar is Back“ and how an actor in that movie constantly said, “I am a brand”. That’s right, Personal Branding is self-packaging.

Meaning and effects

Personal branding is the conscious and intentional effort to create and influence public perception of an individual by positioning them as an authority in their industry, elevating their credibility, and differentiating themselves from the competition, to ultimately advance their career, increase their circle of influence, and have a larger impact.

Oprah Winfrey, Tata Birla,, Mukesh Ambani and many more people like them have put in so much effort that right now even if we use their name relating to a product, we will automatically start thinking highly about those goods or services and often choose it over any other available product in the market.

Recently, I read a news article where an emerging startup posted a picture with Ratan Tata, which lead to rumors that he was also investing in that startup. Even though there was no such proof backing that rumor, it still led people to believe that the startup was reliable due to Tata's brand name.

Importance in life

A personal brand is a unique combination of skills and experiences that make us who we are. It helps us to:

1. Present ourselves

2. Differentiate from the competition

3. Build trust

4. Influence a large community

We also need to understand that not only startups or businesses need personal branding but also people who are looking for jobs and want to influence their employers.

Let me tell you another one of my experiences. We were hiring interns for my company and there were two candidates: one was an IITian and another was a Non- IITian. As an experiment, we interchanged their colleges on their resumes and told them to apply in other places. Most of the people preferred the one with an IIT degree on his resume.

That’s how personal branding influences our mind to make decisions regarding brands which have a higher value. One of the important reasons why companies prefer candidates with a brand name is that it helps them to build a better image.

Conclusion

Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, is famously quoted as saying, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”

And in my opinion, this is the best quote to understand personal branding.

In this era where everything is dependent on the internet, it is very important for us to take care of our image in the eyes of others . Whether we are applying for a job or whether we are just trying to start a new company, it will help us not only with the promotion of our products but also with building trust among others.

And once the trust is there, we can emerge and people won’t question our actions.

So I will conclude by saying that branding is all about being the first and catching the wave before it explodes. If you can build a personal brand before the market explodes with entrepreneurs or other job seekers wanting to become the new unicorn, you will catch the wave before everyone else joins you.