“Who are you? Who? Who? Who? Who?” (You know you just sang that.)

Ironic coming from a band called The Who.

In all seriousness, how many of us know who we are? I’ve been shocked to hear what some others (are willing to) say they’ve thought of me. Not bad stuff, just stuff.

One person said I’m intimidating because I am decisive. In truth, I was intimidated by her! And I’ve recently encountered that scenario in reverse.

Another said I’m easy to talk to because I’m very what-you-see-is-what-you-get.

These situations actually match my core values pretty well. I like to think about things, but I also want to act—and quickly. I can see where that might be intimidating, not to mention that I’m nearly six feet tall.

I also listen, mostly because I’m naturally an introvert but also because, as a recovering reporter, that’s what I was trained to do. Really listen to make sure you don’t miss the juicy bits or the follow-up questions. And I ask questions. It’s what I do.

My accidental personal brand

Early in my career, I didn’t know I had a personal brand. Didn’t know they existed. I was raised to work your ass off until you were better than you were yesterday. And I was raised to believe that your work would stand for itself. Now I know that’s BS.

Why?

Because I am not the center of everyone else’s universe, and neither are you. Your boss isn’t thinking about you when their boss is requiring budget cuts. Senior executives are thinking about growth and more strategic matters – not you or your career. Your next employer can’t get much of a glimpse into you at all…

…unless you’ve built a public personal brand.

In fact, if it weren’t for my chosen profession, I’m not sure I’d have a personal brand. I’d keep my head down and do my work, hoping to get noticed. But because of my various positions at Credit Union Times over 18 years, I built a network and a reputation – I’d like to think it leans toward being a good one – merely by virtue of my position in the industry as the head of the largest trade media outlet. I’d never have talked to a fraction of the thousands of people I’ve met if I hadn’t essentially been forced to because I wanted our team to be the best.

And that personal brand helped me launch my communications consulting firm, Cooke Consulting Solutions. People either knew me or felt they knew me because of the personal brand I’d built serendipitously. Building a strong and public personal brand is crucial in today’s remote world for finding that next position – or it finding you.

Building a personal brand with intentionality

Not everyone is lucky enough to have that kind of position to accidentally build a nationwide personal brand. However, one thing I’ve learned since I went out on my own is that I have to keep it up. It’s been seven years since I left CU Times. If I hadn’t kept building and even redirecting my brand very intentionally, you would not be reading this today because no one who’s entered credit unions in the last seven years would know who I am.

Let’s start with a basic definition:

A personal brand is not what you know about yourself. It’s what people think and say about you when you’re not around.

Consider the lasting impression you want to leave behind after you’ve met with someone. You want a prospect to see your confidence. You want a colleague to remember how you made them feel when they’ve hit a rough patch or are overwhelmed because they have too many plates spinning.

When considering your personal brand with intentionality, you should ask yourself five questions:

1.        Who are you?

2.        What are you good at?

3.        What are you passionate about?

4.        Is there a way to tie those together into something of value (something that people/companies will pay for)?

5.        How can I demonstrate that every day?

Making your personal brand known

A personal brand is not phony, as some may fear. In fact, it gets at the heart of who you are as a human and employee. What makes you tick? What can you do better than anyone else? What do you want to be known for?

When you’ve got all this down on paper, it’s time to consider how you can spread it as far and wide as possible. You can only shake hands with so many people, so it’s essential to think about other avenues that can deliver at scale.

LinkedIn: Ensure you have a complete and up-to-date LinkedIn profile, including your picture. Use keywords that are important in your industry and for the position you have or the type you might be seeking.

Do not stop there, which is very often what I see. Be sure to post content at least once a week aligned with the answers to the questions you answered earlier. For example, I often post about credit unions, PR or grammatical foibles. Not only do these three subjects fire me up, but they also demonstrate my expertise to prospective clients or serve as reminders for my existing clients or those I do sporadic projects for.

Respond to other people’s posts that grab your attention and are aligned. Engaging with others only amplifies your reach. And be sure to respond to those who comment on your posts, too! LinkedIn has many valuable tools for building your brand, from articles to live events to newsletters. Obviously, you only have so much time in a day, so figure out the most appropriate for your needs and go get ‘em.

Even if you aren’t looking for a job or your next client right now, you never know, and you can meet some interesting people you never would have otherwise. Chances are that whatever common interest piqued your respective attentions could serve each of you in the long run.

NOTE: I focus on LinkedIn because my clients and I serve B2B markets, which is on brand for me, but if Instagram or whatever other social media platform is appropriate to who you want to reach, the principles are the same.

Personal PR: While you might not be issuing any press releases about your newest suit (unless you’re in the fashion industry), there are a couple of other things you can do:

• Write thought leadership articles for media outlets that are relevant to your audience

• Some people have a personal website that you could use to post your thoughts, samples of your work, etc.

• Guest on a podcast focused on your particular areas of expertise

• Pen a letter to the editor or comment in response to an article that aligns with your brand

• Host a live stream with people who have complementary expertise so that you can leverage each other’s contacts

Volunteer: We all have our passion projects. Volunteering can be a great way to help a cause greater than yourself, learn new skills and meet new people. If you can find something along the lines of your career even better! For example, as the founding leader of Capital Region Sister Society of the Global Women’s Leadership Network, I helped create programming to provide educational and networking opportunities for our members, as well as promotional items for our events. I also volunteered at my credit union for more than 12 years, which gave me an entirely different perspective and provided invaluable insights.

Remember, your audience doesn’t have to be huge – they have to be the right people.

I started working with one client that couldn’t figure out why they weren’t getting leads into their website after they’d grown users tremendously. I helped them focus on longtail SEO keywords to better narrow who the company was attracting, and their audience shrank, but they started getting leads through their website. As with most everything, quality over quantity. You don’t need to reach everyone, just the right ones; you know who they are because you know who you are.

“Come on, tell me, who are you, you, you, ah, you?”