I want to be who I am. Genuine, authentic. Branding myself suggests I have to figure out who I should be. How do I present myself to attract followers? To impress others? Who do I want to identify with me?
I’m not criticizing the many wonderful people I know who have strong passions and the strength, energy and desire to create their personal brands. I admire many of them and follow quite a few, awed at their commitment and consistency. (I’m tempted to shout out and help them build their brands!!) But that’s not me. I can’t put myself in a box. I want to be spontaneous. Unpredictable. I want to rebel, laugh, and just be silly sometimes. I can’t brand that…where’s the credibility in a giggling professional woman?
That doesn’t mean I’m not good at what I do. I am.
I’m not a people person. I don’t do well at small talk. Which means I’m no good at all that political stuff that gets people jobs and business. But I am hardworking and truthful, and when I commit, I deliver. I am loyal. My clients and friends know that they can count on me.
Being good at what I do doesn’t make me a brand.
It makes me a good friend and a good business partner, but not a brand easy to promote. To be that, I have to package myself and I do not want to be packaged!!! I do not want to have to decide what I am and what I can’t be. I want to be free to be me. To be able to change and grow, and not fit in and not have to explain why.
Okay, yes – I write profiles and I make speeches. In the process I do like everyone else and attach labels to myself. But those “labels” aren’t etched in blood or concrete. They change, depending on who I’m talking to: I’m an entrepreneur to the innovators I meet at tech events, a mother to the lovely little woman next to me on a plane, and a gardener to the vendors at the Farmers’ Market.
Changing labels doesn’t make me a fake, any more than changing clothes makes me less or more feminine. They’re all images of me. Being open to who I am means I am flexible and respectful. I don’t have to be the expert in the room. I don’t want to be the person everyone turns to for an answer.
I don’t want to define myself. If I was forced to pick an image to aspire to, I’d probably pick a kaleidoscope: a chaos of ever-changing colors; joyful, unpredictable, visually playful and not overly commercially viable. Probably not a brand I could credibly build a business on.
I’ll stick to being the fluidity of Me – an adventurous introvert with a sense of humor, way too much curiosity and an instinct for seeing solutions. It’s not exactly a brand, but it’s worked for me for a couple decades.
