A few years ago, I met a senior professional with an impressive career. Global roles. Strong commercial results. Deep respect in his industry. On paper, everything was there.
Yet when I asked a simple question “What are you known for?” there was a long pause, followed by a generic answer he struggled to articulate.
This is a common theme I see people many professionals struggle with. They’ve never stopped to define the narrative that connected it all.
That’s where personal branding in fact begins. It’s less about ‘being everywhere’ and more about knowing how you want to be understood and the direction you are heading towards.
Over the years, through my work in marketing, growth and communications and increasingly through guiding leaders who feel unsure about their personal brand, I’ve seen the same pattern repeat. Highly capable people leave their professional stories to chance. They assume good work will naturally speak for itself. Sometimes it does. In most cases it doesn’t, especially in competitive markets where careers are non‑linear and opportunities come through networks rather than neat job ladders.
In that environment, the absence of a clear personal brand can quietly limit even the most accomplished professionals.
What personal branding really is
The term “personal brand” can feel uncomfortable. For many professionals, especially in technical, strategic or operational roles, it sounds like performance or self‑promotion.
At its core, it’s much simpler than that.
Personal branding is your ability to articulate:
- what you stand for
- the strengths you want to be recognised for
- how you create value for others
A strong personal brand creates alignment between your experience, your reputation and your direction. When those three line up, people know where to place you. They know when to think of you and can connect your skills to opportunities.
In conversations I’ve had with many high-profile leaders, this is often the turning point. Once someone can clearly describe their value, decisions become easier from what to say yes to, what to decline and what to share.
Clarity reduces mental noise. In a crowded professional landscape, clarity really does stand out.
Why it matters more now
The traditional idea of a career steady progression within one organisation or sector is fading. People move across roles, industries and ways of working from freelancing, portfolio careers, fractional roles, cross‑sector moves, first‑time leadership.
In this context:
- Visibility without a clear story creates confusion.
- Quiet excellence without any visibility creates missed chances.
Personal branding sits where story and visibility meet.
It means that when opportunities arise a role, a project, a collaboration, a speaking invitation, a board position people already have a sense of what you bring. Not just your skills, but your perspective and lived experience along with your way of working.
This is especially important for senior professionals. The more experience you have, the more layered your career becomes. Skills accumulate. Achievements multiply. Without a coherent narrative, it becomes hard for others to see the common thread.
For those in early stages of their career, it is having a system in place to capture these pivotal moments to support your decision-making process as you navigate throughout your career to intentionally define your path.
A clear personal brand makes your experience legible and interesting, rather than complicated and hard to place.
The LinkedIn effect
For many of us, LinkedIn has quietly become our most important professional archive. It shows your trajectory, your skills, your interests and, increasingly, your voice.
It signals to your network:
- what you care about = Values
- what you notice = Perspectives
- how you contribute to conversations = Knowledge
- what you’ve actually done = Experience
This doesn’t require constantly posting to have a strong presence, you want to establish a defined coherence.
When your profile, your comments, your posts and your conversations all reinforce a clear narrative, people begin to associate you with certain themes, capabilities and perspectives. Over time, this compounds:
- People reach out because something you said resonated.
- You are recommended because your positioning is easy to describe.
- Opportunities arrive because you are front of mind.
Without intention, LinkedIn is just a record of roles. With intention, it becomes a living reflection of your professional identity.
What people often get wrong
One common misconception is that personal branding starts with content. In reality, it starts with reflection.
Before thinking about what to share publicly, it’s worth asking yourself:
- What do I want to be known for?
- What kinds of problems do I enjoy solving?
- What do people consistently come to me for?
- What are my values and non‑negotiables?
Another trap is waiting until a moment of transition such as redundancy, job search, career pivot to think about this. By then, the stakes feel high and the timeline feels urgent. Building your brand with clarity and visibility signals more authority and gives you more options, allowing more control over your story.
There’s also the urge to copy what works for others. But the most effective personal brands aren’t necessarily the loudest or the most polished. They’re the ones that are consistent, grounded and recognisably “them” with real interests, real expertise, real values.
A simple framework
When I work with mentees on this, I focus on four areas:
- Clarity: Define what you stand for and where you add value. This becomes your anchor for decisions and communication.
- Consistency: Make sure your profile, conversations and contributions reinforce that narrative, rather than pulling in different directions.
- Contribution: Share insights, reflections or observations that connect to your expertise. This doesn’t have to be frequent, thoughtful is better than constant.
- Credibility: Let your work, results and the perspectives of others (recommendations, case examples, testimonials) reinforce your positioning.
You don’t need a perfectly crafted strategy. You need alignment and intention.
Where mentorship helps
It’s hard to read your own label from inside the jar.
We’re often too close to our own experience to see the patterns clearly, or we downplay what comes naturally to us. This is where mentoring can be particularly powerful.
A mentor can help you:
- articulate the thread that runs through your roles and projects
- identify your strengths in language that feels confident and honest
- spot opportunities to build visibility suitable to your personality
- challenge assumptions about what you believe
These subtle changes move someone from describing themselves through job titles to describing themselves through the impact they create. From passively reacting to opportunities to shaping the kind of opportunities that come their way.
What you may not realise is that you already have a personal brand.
It already exists in how people describe you when you’re not in the room. In what they associate you with. In whether they think of you when something relevant comes up.
It doesn’t come down to whether you, have a personal brand or not, it’s whether it reflects your story.
In a world of increasing choice and complexity, a clear personal brand becomes less about self‑promotion and more about helping others understand you better and it helps you align decisions with greater confidence.
And over time, that clarity compounds.
I know how daunting and uncomfortable this work can feel. If you’d like to explore how to articulate your own personal brand and how it can support your next chapter.
I’d be happy to help. You can book a session with me on MentorCruise, and we can start mapping the story you want the next part of your story to tell.
