Why You’re Struggling to Build Your Personal Brand
By: Flora Bertin-Chay
Tags: Entrepreneurship, Personal Development, Social Media, Personal Branding, Self-awareness

Personal branding isn’t always easy. It entails a lot more than simply putting yourself out there. It’s a combination of many moving components to create an image that identifies you and differentiates you from others.

I have to be honest; I’ve struggled to get this post out. Personal branding is such a trendy topic nowadays that I’ve been wondering how to make my contribution meaningful at this point in time. But the more I thought about it the more I realized that many people are still struggling to get started with their brand and can’t figure out why.

I’ve spoken to a few entrepreneurs, working professionals, and students about building their personal brand and while many see the value immediately and understand its various moving parts, most get stuck when tasked with step 1: defining their personal and professional vision.

Why is that?

Lack of self-awareness

The truth is that we’re not as self-aware as we think we are.

In her book, Insight, organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich explains that that 95% of people think they’re self-aware, but only 10–15% truly are.

“Self-awareness is being able to accept your weaknesses while focusing all of your attention on your strengths.” — Gary Vee

A crucial step in developing your personal brand is being able to understand your strengths and weaknesses. Building a brand without it can be an exhausting, lengthy process and will put you at a disadvantage from the start. Many people avoid doing this altogether because it can be difficult to step outside of our self-perceptions and take a good look at ourselves.

A positive attitude towards personal development and a willingness to improve is an essential mindset to adopt before beginning your personal branding journey.

The good news is that self-awareness is a surprisingly developable skill! There are two aspects you should tackle:

internal & external self-awareness

Internal self-awareness is about understanding yourself; your passions, your aspirations, your values, what you believe in, etc. External self-awareness is about understanding how others perceive you.

Consider asking a close friend or colleague for genuine and supportive feedback about your strengths and weaknesses. The journey to external self-awareness can be quite difficult and sometimes uncomfortable (I don’t know anyone who enjoys receiving negative feedback) but the results will help with your personal growth and brand.

So before you jump the gun and start posting random things to ‘build’ your brand, stop and take some time to self-reflect. Explore your personal and professional aspirations and define a solid foundation for a brand that will be sustainable and authentic in the long-run.

I encourage you to try creating Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle for yourself; it will help you find your why, in other words, your purpose in life, a fundamental step in building your personal brand vision and statement.

Don’t panic if you can’t pinpoint your “why” and personal statement immediately, it’s not necessarily about finding your final destination but at least your sense of direction.