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Who Am I? Personal Branding is about more than Business

Who Am I? This is a question I have been asking myself a lot lately, AND more importantly who I want to be. Over the last month, I have graduated college, moved into an apartment, and signed a full time offer. When coming into any time of huge changes it is important to have a sense of yourself, especially when you dive into the “real world”. One of my business professors, Kellie McElhaney, told us that now is the time to really figure out who you are, who you want to be, and what you stand for. It is so much harder to get down the road five, ten, or twenty years out and have to reinvent yourself.

One of her lectures that really struck home for me, and changed how I view the way I present myself, was our personal branding workshop where we dove deep into who we are and who others in our lives think we are. The workshop started with this quote from Jeff Bezos: “Personal Brand is what people say about you when you leave the room”. This quote has really resonated with me and is now in my day planner as a reminder to figure out who I am now as I graduate, instead of changing along the way. It’s also an important reminder on the difference between who you think you are and how others perceive you and how you present yourself. Another quote that has stuck with me is that “you are the average of the five people you spend most time with”. Who you surround yourself with changes and shapes who you are, how you act, and how you are perceived by others. As we all venture out into the “real world”, it’s important to take a good look at who we spend our time with and who we keep close.

We started the workshop by determining what three attributes we wanted our personal brand to be, and discussed how “if you don’t believe the messenger, you won’t believe the message”. The way you are perceived and the way you present yourself also determine how and whether someone else will take you in. This does not just apply to others: you will not believe what you are telling yourself if you do not believe in who you are. I chose my three words as Passionate, Committed, and Leader. Originally, I had put both caring and empathetic on my list, however, when it came down the final three I struggled to put either one. After sharing mine with my friend Lydia, she said that she had put empathetic down as one of hers because she feels like it is such a big part of her identity that she could not leave it out. So, we discussed how it can be taken as being gendered and why there may be a stigma around compassion, especially in the business world. Empathetic, caring, and thoughtful can be seen as being both feminine and a weaker leader.

I highly recommend asking five of the people who know you the best to describe you in three words. This exercise gives you a great sense of how they see you and it’s really eye opening on who you are. I went home from class and immediately texted my dad, my sister, my boyfriend, and my two best friends of 10+ years asking them to send me the three attributes they would use to describe me. I explained how we were working on personal branding in class and gave little further instruction.

AND guess what happened. Every single one of them listed some form of empathetic or kind when describing me. I was sent “Kind”; “Caring”; “Courteous (both very polite and you make sure to take into account other’s feelings and thoughts)”; “Generous - you going out of your way for everyone through the most thoughtful (that could be another one) ways”; and “Thoughtful-every gift you give, or advice you give your friends and family, comes from a caring, empathetic place. Just the right touch each time.”.

This hit me like a ton of bricks. I have thought so hard about trying not be stereotyped about leading to much with emotion, or being described as my least favorite word “sensitive”, that I covered for it and no longer saw it as my identity. I have officially added empathetic into my personal brand. I highly recommend trying this and seeing how your three words are similar to or different from the ways you described yourself.

In another class professor and advocate Nicole Sanchez came to talk to us about perceptions and how discrimination can lead to not embracing who we are and hiding, or covering for, our true selves. She left us with the line “our identity either confers or blocks power”. Who you are is the most important aspect of how much power you yield, and I was again reminded of who I am and that I like to be thoughtful and kind. I like caring for other people. I am the mom friend and that does not mean I can’t also be a badass (shout out to Jen Sincero and her book You are Badass). I have the power of connecting with people and being able to talk to anyone and make them feel comfortable. Which is a good thing for personal and professional relationships, and something I am proud of and will no longer hide (completely at least). As Jennifer Williams has said “Be yourself: be brave, be bold, be a good person”.

My personal story is still being written, and I will continue to work on my personal brand. One of the biggest lessons I learned throughout Professor McElhaney's Class The Business Case for Investing in Women is that women are judged quickly and mainly based on stereotypes that are seen as less than, yet that does not take anything from any of our traits that are female. They make us different, and bring a new skill set to the table. While writing this I found an article from Fast that shared how being empathetic is a good thing, and for me it really drove this point home: “While we’re still often cautioned to ‘leave emotions out of it,’ being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes is a hallmark of an emotionally intelligent leader and a good coworker".

Cheers to all of us who are empathetic.Embrace it. Embrace whoever you are.

Love & Laughter,

Kaitlin

 

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