Some people think that personal branding is only beneficial if you’re a business owner. And that, as an employee, working for someone else, there’s no point in cultivating a personal brand. At Quirq, we actually think that everyone can benefit by creating a personal brand.
Back in September 2023, I was made redundant and was given a months notice with my previous company. I had one month before my main wage stopped, and as I lived on my own, I had no other income coming in at that time. It was scary. I have a mortgage to pay, I live miles away from my family and I have two dogs that rely on me. Luckily for me I had started working on my personal brand many years before this happened.
One of the things you’re doing when creating and cultivating a personal brand is expanding your network. You’ve heard the phrase “Your net-worth is directly related to your network.” We agree with this statement. The more people you know and who know you, the more opportunities will open up for you. That applies in the business world, and if you’re employed too.
When I was made redundant I let my network know, and they rallied round me. They sent me job opportunities, they kept my spirits high, they offered to help me in many ways. Two months after being made redundant I was sat in the office of Marketing Labs, talking to Matt, Tom and Francesca, the founders of Quirq. Quirq wasn’t a role I had ever considered for myself, because I didn’t know that a role like that existed. If I had solely relied on my own job finding skills, this opportunity would never have been presented to me, but because I had met Francesca and stayed in her online vortex via the power of my personal brand, I landed a dream role and opportunity.
But it’s not just in times of impact when a personal brand will come in handy. Imagine you are going for a next level position at your company, you want this promotion, you deserve this promotion you’ve worked hard for it. You sit in the hallway, waiting for an interview. It’s you and one other person interviewing for the promotion. You have worked hard, you’ve been loyal to the company, you’ve served your time. But so has the other person next to you, and the other person has also been creating a personal brand alongside their role. For an hour each evening the other person has created content, gone live on videos and shared lots of value for their audience. They’ve created a personal brand that positions themselves as an expert in your industry, which has meant they’ve won awards, given industry talks and gained some really great clients and connections for the company you both work for. Who do you think gets the promotion?
When you position yourself as an industry expert with your personal brand, you stand yourself ahead of your career competition. You are publicly adding to the value of the company that you work for, they are going to reward you for that.
But what about if you hate your industry, you actually don’t want to work there for the rest of your life? Well in that situation, creating a personal brand could set you free from the company, or from your industry entirely. If you position yourself as an expert out of your company or industry alongside what you do, as long as you’re doing this in your own time and your company doesn’t have any policies in place to stop you doing this, then you could create a personal brand that you eventually monetise. Creating an additional income stream might be great at first as the cost of living these days is high. But longer term, if the income from your personal brand becomes higher than your current income, what freedom and choices could that give you!
A personal brand can take a long time to monetise, so this isn’t a short term strategy, and it will take work and effort around your current career and life. But if you do it right and you have a long term plan in place, you could create an exit from your current employer. We wouldn’t recommend advertising this to them.
Creating a personal brand is also a personal development tool in disguise. Along the way of creating a personal brand you will learn more about yourself and have to do things that move you out of your comfort zone. It will absolutely boost your self-confidence as it grows, and a personal brand can help motivate you to stay on top of your career game. The fulfilment and purpose that you get from creating your personal brand will also beat anything you will do in your career. Through the value sharing you’ll give to your audience you have a real chance to give back to the world, and that is priceless.
If you are employed, don’t discount the benefits you could gain from creating and cultivating a personal brand. And don’t put yourself off of creating one because you don’t feel good enough to. You don’t have to have it all figured out at the start of your personal branding journey, nor do you have to be perfect. Just be you! Show up before you feel ready, and start your personal brand – Before you need one.
Working with us at Quirq does come at a cost, we can’t give our personal branding expertise and services out for free. When you’re employed, you might not have the funds to hire a personal branding agency to help. Start off by learning how to personal brand yourself from the Brand You podcast, this is what we’ve designed it to do, help those who can’t afford the help just yet:
Once you’ve built your personal brand up and are monetising it, then you could look into getting an agency to help you take it to the next level and manage it for you. Of course if you’re a lottery winner or very lucky trust fund kid and can afford our help, get in touch. You’ll save a lot of time instead of figuring all this out yourself.
