By Myriam Munezero
Most of us have heard about Personal branding and we probably all have our own understanding of it. Before attending the Personal branding workshopthat we at Think Africa in collaboration with The Shortcut, amplaffy, and Careal organized earlier in August, I understood personal branding as akin to being able to sell oneself and one’s value. But there are many perspectives to it as pointed out by the expert speakers we had at the workshops/weekend. The weekend aimed to develop skills and connect the audience to opportunities — something that is an objective of all the organizers.
In today’s competitive world, taking the time to create a personal brand, gives one several advantages. All the speakers agreed that building a personal brand enables you to find opportunities, new resources, and partners, among many other things. As Marko Klemetti (CTO at Eficode) put it “personal branding spawns further than just getting a good job, finding your occupation, or searching for it. It is something that you carry with yourself throughout your working career and naturally after that”.
Personal branding as explained by the speakers can be seen from different perspectives. But at the core of it is knowing yourself. “There is something powerful and immediately recognizable in a person when that person knows themselves and knows what they want,” Joppe Quaedvlieg (Chief of Happiness at ArcticStartup) highlighted. Joppe’s workshop focused on getting to know yourself and asking that so important question ‘What do I want?’. This question is similar to the advice given by Jukka Niittymaa (Writer, vlogger, and marketer) which was to ‘Find out your why’? i.e., find your purpose, to put in another way, or as Tuomas Toivonen (Co-founder at Holvi) phrased it, ‘Ask yourself what makes you special?’ Reaching these answers is not easy. Joppe likened the process of reaching these answers to peeling layers of an onion. The layers resembling, societal, family opinions, damaging beliefs, fears and expectations that have been put on you for years but are not yours.
Jukka Niittymaa speaking in one of the workshops.
Joppe Quaedvlieg explains that once you have figured out what you want or need, then you will be able to create a mission with that, perhaps a product or service. Jukka Niittymaa agrees by seeing personal branding as a tool to go in the direction you want to go. Joppe although emphasizes that money should always be secondary to figuring out what you want — that once you have identified your mission, then you can figure a way to make money with that. Similarly, Elisabet Miheludaki (Founder at amplaffy) also advised, once you have identified what you like and what you are good at, and aligned it with something people are prepared to pay for, you have your answer. Of course the need for money sometimes overwhelms the need to go through this process.
However, the process is essential. “When you brand yourself you create an image of yourself and this defines what other people feel about you.” Vesa-Matti Ruottinen (Co-founder at Creativity Squads and Tribe Tampere). It creates a message and opportunities can come to you based on this message or feeling that you create. As Maria Fodor (Entrepreneur and Life coach) also emphasized, “personal branding is not about who you know, but who knows you.”
There is no faster way nowadays to spread you message or brand than online. Marko Klemetti elaborated on this by dividing people in the current world, in 2018, in two categories, the physical world and the digital world. For that digital person, Marko explains that we have different personalities. Personal branding then is making appearance of that digital person known to everybody else. “Having a good digital presence gives you more options, more connections, maybe a better occupation, by doing it properly.” The importance of a digital personal brand is also the reason why a few of the workshops focused on the digital brand, what we show online from your CV, LinkedIn profile, github, etc.
Regardless of the medium used to communicate the brand or process used to create the brand, one advice that stood out from all the speakers was to make sure that your brand is genuine and authentic, as this creates trust — and if there is no trust, there is no sales. Accomplishing this goes back to the point of knowing yourself and what you want. “A personal brand is who you are” says Maria Fodor.
As can naturally be gathered, personal branding is something that will take time and require you to actively work on it. It requires that you “go from a dreamer to a doer” as Jukka Niittymaa put it. Knowing that this process will be difficult, Lily Chan (Founder at Paths Intersect) advises “to try and take a deep breath and enjoy the process.” The rewards will be worth it.
