Your personal brand is (almost never) a priority

I was invited to talk about personal branding in connection with sustainability, and I gave my honest take on a term that has been massively overused in recent years.

I'll start here: in 99.9% of cases your personal brand is not a priority. Whether you're a professional, a company or a startup, your energy goes into the product or service you want to offer. It sounds obvious, but it isn't at all (I can hear you, building-in-public fans…).

If you've decided to do it

With that said, these are the rules I've set for myself:

• →Start from the why, otherwise don't start. A why made of values, not business.
• →No wasting time: you don't need to put in loads of hours, you need an organised activity, with a strategy and a content plan.
• →It's an asset: whether you like it or not, it changes how clients, your network and stakeholders see you.
• →Give yourself a goal that isn't necessarily sales. In sustainability, for example, a lot of education is needed.
• →It has to sit inside the marketing strategy, not next to it.
• →Be yourself: you don't have to represent the company, but tell how you personally experience the impact of what you do.