Be B.R.A.V.E.: How to Boldly Own Your Personal Brand at Work

Your personal brand is how others see you – how you show up, the value you bring, and the impact you make – in and outside of the workplace. Personal branding, on the other hand, is how you create, position, and maintain people’s perception of you, allowing you to highlight your unique characteristics and present a narrative tailored to your target audience. If you don’t control that narrative and the story of who you are, you leave it up for interpretation.

Building a strong and memorable personal brand can help you establish credibility, gain recognition, open doors to new opportunities, and position yourself as a leader in your field. If you’re feeling lost or looking for ways to enhance your brand, let me introduce you to the B-R-A-V-E framework. 

B-R-A-V-E is a structured approach to boldly elevate your brand with authenticity and intention at work. Below is a step by step breakdown to help you stand out and thrive in your career. 

B – Brilliance: Own Your Unique Magic

To build an authentic personal brand, you need to first recognize your brilliance and embrace what makes you, you. It is your strengths, your perspective, and your experiences that set you apart. Rather than trying to fit a mold, lean into what makes you unique and use it to your advantage. Here’s a few ways of how to go about that:

• Align with Your Values: The most powerful personal brands are rooted in authenticity. Define the values that drive you and let them guide your work and interactions.
• Identify Your Superpowers: Reflect on what you do best. What comes naturally to you? What skills do colleagues consistently seek your help with or come to you with questions on? What compliments do you receive most often?
• Assess Your Past Experiences: Your career journey, challenges, and lessons have shaped your perspective and expertise. Identify the pivotal moments that have made an influence on you and how you approach your work. Use them to differentiate yourself.

R – Reputation: Clarify Your Vision

Your reputation is what people say about you when you’re not in the room. To shape it intentionally, you need understanding on how you’re currently perceived by others and how you want to be perceived ongoing. The best thing about a personal brand is that you get to intentionally define and shape the narrative of it. Here’s how:

• Seek Feedback: Ask your manager, colleagues, mentors, family and friends how they perceive you. To make it easily tangible, ask for their top 3 words they’d use to describe you. Identify common threads of what people share with you, as well as gaps between their responses and your ideal personal brand. 
• Define Your Professional Identity: Ask yourself: What do I want to be known for? What impact do I want to create in my workplace or my industry? Get clear in how you will use your superpowers to accomplish your goals and desired outcomes
• Develop Your Mission Statement: Create a clear, concise statement that summarizes who you are, what you do, and what makes you different. This can serve as your guiding principle when networking or positioning yourself for new opportunities. Think of this as your own unique value prop – your tagline or slogan to how you market yourself.  

You can use L&I’s personal brand plan worksheet as a way to document all of this in one place! 

A – Audience: Know Who You Serve

A personal brand isn’t just about you – it’s also about the people who benefit from your work and the value that you bring. Understanding your audience helps you tailor your messaging and create meaningful connections. Components of your brand may change based on the audience you’re speaking to, such as if you’re being interviewed for a new job, meeting someone at a networking event, or getting acquainted with others on a new team or a new company. Learn how with the below steps:

• Identify Key Stakeholders: Determine who the decision-makers, peers, or mentors (or anyone else) are that you interact with and influence your career. Think about the ways you can add value to them. For example, if you’re on a team all working toward a common goal and you create a new process for it, you can share it with your peers and position yourself as a leader.
• Understand Your Audience’s Needs: Listen actively in meetings, ask thoughtful questions, and pay attention to workplace challenges where you can contribute solutions. For example, if you are job searching, you’ll quickly be able to understand what the hiring manager needs from the job description so you can tailor your resume appropriately and have pointed responses to their interview questions.
• Engage Authentically: Build relationships by engaging in meaningful conversations, networking, and showing genuine interest in others’ success. The more connections you make, the more you can contribute to different arrays of conversation and begin to get your personal brand recognized. 

V – Visibility: Get Seen & Heard

Even if you’re doing great work, you won’t advance if no one knows about it. You must actively build visibility and focus on obtaining exposure within your team, organization, and industry. Below are ways you can intentionally and effectively market yourself:

• Deliver & Communicate Your Value: Whether through mentorship, knowledge sharing, or collaboration, consistently provide insights and support that benefit your colleagues. You can reinforce your expertise in team meetings, presentations, and written communication (i.e. through email and Slack/Teams). When you use your voice and put yourself out there, not only do people get to know you better, but you get a chance to exemplify what you want to be known for and the value that you bring. 
• Showcase Your Strengths: Seek out projects that allow you to apply your expertise. Volunteer for leadership roles in initiatives that align with your strengths. Volunteer to lead team discussions, present findings, or showcase completed projects.
• Leverage Online Platforms: Share achievements and insights internally like in company newsletters, Slack channels, or intranet forums or externally on social media channels or your own personal website or blog. Demonstrate your expertise and position yourself as a thought leader in your space. 
• Engage in Networking Opportunities: As you build your ideal personal brand, it’s important to also cultivate new relationships and build upon your existing relationships. Make an effort to grow your network and connect with peers and thought-leaders you are inspired by. Seek out 1:1 coffee chats, attend conferences and local events, and utilize the power of channels like LinkedIn to continually connect with others.

E – Evolution: Keep Growing & Refining

As you gain new experiences, develop new skills, and adapt to changing industries, your brand should evolve alongside you. Staying adaptable and continuously improving will ensure your long-term success. By consistently growing and refining your personal brand, you position yourself as a dynamic, forward-thinking professional who is always ready for new opportunities. Here are ways to go about doing so:

• Embrace Lifelong Learning: The most impactful professionals are those who commit to learning and staying ahead of industry trends. Invest in upskilling, attend relevant workshops, and seek out mentorship to refine your expertise.
• Gather Feedback & Iterate:  The way you tell your story matters. Regularly check in with colleagues, mentors, and even your audience to understand how your brand is resonating. Adjust your messaging, focus areas, or even your visual identity based on constructive feedback to reflect the most authentic and compelling version of you.
• Be Consistent: Even though your brand will evolve, the key to a strong reputation is reliability. Stay in tune with yourself and keep tabs that your work ethic, attitude, and messaging are consistently aligned with your vision. 
• Stay Open to New Opportunities: Be open-minded and proactive in seeking out projects, promotions, and experiences that challenge and grow your expertise.

Your personal brand at work isn’t something you build overnight; it’s a continuous process of refining your brilliance, strengthening your reputation, serving your audience, increasing visibility, and allowing it to evolve over time. But it starts with being BRAVE. Start small and implement one action from each step of the B-R-A-V-E framework, and watch your career grow as you build a brand that truly represents you.