I have been doing corporate workshops on personal branding since 2018. And while preparing myself for each session, and during the opening of each workshop, I encounter similar skepticism around the topic. I don’t begrudge the skepticism at all. Skepticism is good, and it helps me think deeper about the subject and produce a more convincing, persuasive, and credible response. And such responses are not rocket science; they are simply a different way to look at the topic of personal branding.
Here are the top five myths about personal branding that are most posed to me during my workshops by the skeptics, and my responses to each one of them. I hope the counterpoints would help shift the perspective of at least a few skeptics out there.
1. “I don’t need personal branding. My work is my brand”.
There are two aspects to this: people with a credible body of work/work experience, and people who do not (including students).
People with a credible body of work/work experience:
The first shift in perspective comes from understanding the audience for personal branding. It is not for people who already know you (or your body of work). It is for people who do not know you or your body of work. Those people are most likely to name search you online when they first come across your name (somewhere/anywhere). When they do, they are likely to find two kinds of information – what others say about you, and what you say about yourself. The former includes media interviews, podcasts with you as a guest, and so on. The latter is the very point of personal branding. If there is nothing/very limited information that you share about yourself online, your perception would be shaped only by one source, for people who do not know you. Why not use your own voice to shape your brand and offer strangers a more comprehensive outlook about yourself?
As for students, or even people with limited experience (early in their career), here’s a more detailed note: Personal brand and school/college students.
2. “Personal branding is a vanity project.”
The variants to this myth include, “I cannot talk about myself”, “How much can I talk about myself?”, “It feels vain to talk about myself”, and so on.
Instead of presuming that personal branding is about talking about yourself, here is a shift in perspective: personal branding IS NOT talking about yourself. Instead, it is about showcasing how you think. There is a significant difference between the two. “I led my team in implementing this project in my organization” is an example of the former. “Here is how we solved a challenge in our organization” is an example of the latter. There is a difference in both the tone and the framing. In the former, the takeaway is, “Hope you think highly of me”. In the latter, the takeaway is, “Hope this thought process was useful to you”.
When you frame everything you share with strangers by thinking about the value they could derive from it, personal branding would stop being a vanity project.
3. Personal branding is/makes one inauthentic.
The way this is usually articulated: “What people say on social media is severely exaggerated. People put up an image about themselves that is not true. And if you see handles like ‘Crap on LinkedIn’ (on Twitter/X), you see that people go totally overboard in deriving so-called lessons from even everyday events like buying a cup of coffee”.
Let me start with a basic question: what is authenticity? Is it being true to yourself when you are sharing something online? Of course.
Now, let me split that thought into two parts.
a. Being true to yourself does not mean you talk about anything and everything in the name of personal branding. Why? Because you are not talking to people who know you, but mainly to strangers. These are people who think they know you, while the only people who really know you are those who live with you and work with you. For strangers, since they lack the context who you really (and fully) are, you are merely presenting a curtailed view of your thoughts. It’s perhaps 5-10% of your overall self. I use the analogy of living in a house with 100 windows to explain this concept. If you open all 100 windows, the people outside the house could see you all through those 100 windows. But if you choose only 5-6 windows to open, the people outside see you only when you move past those windows and form a perception from that alone.
Authenticity does not mean being 100% yourself to strangers. You don’t need to, and you don’t owe them that either. With people you know (and they know you; that is, the people who live inside the house), you absolutely need to be 100% you.
I use a thumb rule to anything and everything I share online: what if a stranger who read what I wrote meets me and talks to me two hours later, by chance? Would they see a difference between the online me and the real me? They should not… that is my thumb rule.
b. Now, about the ‘exaggerations’ on social media. Yes, this is true, and this comes from assuming the opposite of my thumb rule above: “Who is going to see me in the real world? Only strangers see my post, right?”. This is not true. Your own family, colleagues, friends could also see what you write. And they would be the first to think how incongruous your real self is, to what you project online.
As for deriving totally pointless lessons from daily activities, the first question to ask yourself is this: did you gain something meaningful from the activity? If not, do not share it for others at all. If you did, then do share it ahead. If you did not, and still share it for others, there is a mismatch between your real self and your online projection. And the mismatch will show up, and blow up, sooner than later.
Related read: The stithapragya framework for personal branding
4. “Personal branding is just a popularity contest.”
This comes from the most common misunderstanding about personal branding where it is mixed with being an ‘influencer’. Not that there is anything wrong with being an influencer, but the basic concept is completely different.
An influencer’s primary role is to build an audience and pander to them, in the hope that they can influence the audience’s thinking. Personal branding’s primary intent is inward-looking; to help shape your perception to an audience of strangers. And this means, digital engagement metrics (Like, Share, Comment, etc.) are merely a means to an end, unlike the influencer model where they are crucial metrics to visibly build on.
The first audience to your effort towards building your personal branding is YOU! Did you gain from what you are about to share? That is the primary question. But, in the influencer model, the entire focus is on the audience: what would they like, what would engage them? what would they share/make viral? and so on.
I have a longer post on this topic already: Personal branding vs. Influencers
5. “I don’t have time for personal branding”.
Of course. We are all busy people. But like how you need to make time to manage your personal health, you also need to make time to curate and manage your personal brand.
Saying, ‘I don’t have time for personal branding’ is like saying, ‘I don’t have time to brush my teeth’. Unless you realize the long-term implications of your habits, you would continue to believe that you do not have time for them.
The operative word here is habit. Personal branding is a habit, not an occasional indulgence when you find some free time. And for habits, you need to build a system so that you can manage them over a longer period of time.
The best way to think about personal branding is to equate it with personal health. And I have 10 reasons why they are both exactly similar: Personal branding and personal health are surprisingly similar
PS: A bonus 6th myth— “In the name of personal branding, why share something online and get into trouble, huh?”. I busted this in a recent post: Think like your worst critic