Last week I was running a personal branding class for a corporate client. The participants were all senior executives, each one an expert in their field. However, when I asked how many of them posted regularly on social media or had more than 20 client testimonials on LinkedIn, only 10% of the class raised their hand.
LinkedIn testimonials are by no means the gold standard for measuring a personal brand, however for those of us that don’t have 100K+ followers on social media or qualify as an ‘influencer’, they are a good starting point to separate yourself from the crowd.
Building a personal brand requires putting yourself out there. You need to raise your head above the bunker and potentially take a few hits. One of my students approached me during one of the breaks and confessed “I have a lot of great ideas but I’m scared of being wrong, misquoted, or even worse giving advice that someone acts on and then it doesn’t work.” As he told me some of his ideas, there was no doubt in my mind that with backing and the correct application, they had merit. However, because of his lack of self-confidence and belief, his great ideas remain trapped in his imagination.
In NLP, this scenario is referred to as a “Limiting Decision”. A limiting decision usually takes the form of “I can’t”. Telling yourself “I can’t be an influencer” becomes self-fulfilling: if you feed your unconscious mind with negative thoughts, your chance of achieving great things will be close to zero.
However, the limiting decision is not actually this problem because all limiting decisions are preceded by a “Limiting Belief”. In this instance, the limiting belief would be something like “I’m not good enough to be a successful influencer”. It is the limiting belief that we need to address because once that has gone, the limiting decision will no longer be present.
Good personal branding comes from a place of deep and well considered values. If you believe in what you communicate, then you can respond to any challenge your posts or opinions receive and still look yourself in the mirror. This combination of personal values and a strong belief in your knowledge is what will overcome any limiting belief.
The more your personal brand develops and you break out from a small niche following, the more likely it is that you will fall onto the radar of the haters, the jealous and those that spend their time disagreeing because they have nothing better to do. Ignore them. As long as you are true to your values and believe in your message, you will find your following.
NOTE: Some NLP practitioners will state that the Limiting Decision precedes the Limiting Belief. Personally I think it is more logical that a belief drives a decision rather than the other way around, however the end concept is the same!
*** I am starting a new Instagram called “softskillsexpert” where I’ll be posting short form videos, quick tips, great quotations and other things related to soft skills. Please follow me on the following link!***
https://instagram.com/softskillsexpert?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==
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Lovely piece. For ideas :you are right we shouldnt trap it in our imagination, we should post about it , but choosing where to write it is the key, i believe making a personal blog is the way and sharing it on linked in is the push forward. However there is no way to guarantee that the text might be reshared without reference, which what am seeing in these days