5 Personal Branding Tips and Why Your Hybridity is the Critical Factor to Use
Why does hybrid professional identity matter?
Because it unlocks your personal brand.
Not only that, it’s what makes your personal brand unique!
What’s a personal brand?
It’s the act of intentionally putting your professional identity in to the world
It’s your reputation.
It’s how you’re perceived by others.
It’s what they say about you when you’re not in the room.
It’s your values and beliefs.
It’s what appears in a google search about you.
It’s what you’re known for and good at.
Simply put, your personal brand is how the world sees you. And, if you don’t take charge of it, then others will define it for you, for better or for worse.
Personal brands matter in today’s professional landscape because you are more than your job title!
And, you want to be spotted from the thousands of talented and highly qualified people out there who are going after the same things you want!
Do you know what you want to be known for to attract the right opportunities, business deals, job prospects, and relationships into your life? People come to you for a reason. They know you for something, a certain kind of advice or expertise. Your brand is what draws them to you in the first place.
Job titles are weak signals of personal brands because they’re incomplete, so you can’t rely on this alone. Job titles don’t capture your skills, personality, or previous experiences. Your personal brand encompasses aspects of who you are in real life, what the media or internet says about you, and the impression people gain from you during webinars, conferences, or other public appearances.
“Your personal brand is how you promote yourself. It’s the unique combination of skills, experience, and personality that you want the world to see.” - Influencer Marketing Hub
Hybridity is a HUGE asset in crafting a strong personal brand easily and effectively, and here’s why:
First, I’ll save you some effort. If you google personal branding, typically, personal branding experts will give you tips like this:
“Build your personal brand by taking your passions, key attributes, and strengths and package that into a brief, clear, targeted message about you and how you’re different from everyone else.” - Personal Branding For Jobs Seekers 101
“The most significant step to developing your personal brand is determining what your brand represents. You core values are at the heart of your brand. What motivates you to get up in the morning and tackle the day? Why are you unique? What are you passionate about?” - How to Create a Personal Brand That Enhances Your Job Search
How easy is it for you to answer these questions?
I meet professionals who tell me they’re passionate about many things (multi-passionate) or they’re unsure of their passion. They can’t easily answer the passion question. Strike one.
I meet other professionals who tell me a list of their strengths (because they’ve done StrengthsFinders or another assessment), but they still can’t clarify what they’re really good at. Strike two.
And, I meet other professionals who tell me they don’t know how to narrow down their professional abilities, strengths, and experiences into a succinct, targeted message, which is why they sound longwinded and unclear. Strike three.
Now what?
Does that sound like you?
How the heck are you supposed to craft an elegant, attractive, highly enticing personal brand from that kind of advice? Eeeek.
I believe defining your hybrid professional identity is a revolutionary way of finding your personal brand because it takes the difficulty out of the old personal branding exercises.
I’ve helped countless professionals define their unique personal brand by backing into it from different angles, using different questions, and revealing their passion, purpose, and unique skills without asking for those items directly. In fact, I’ve found when you directly ask someone, “What are you passionate about?” they tend to freeze up and can’t give a solid answer. Instead, they give fairly average and unexceptional responses. That’s not very helpful, is it?
Personal Branding Tips and Why Hybridity Is Key
If you’re creating or updating your personal brand—and you’re a hybrid professional who has multiple work identities that need to be reflected in your brand—then here are five tips you should definitely use to create your personal brand easily and effectively.
These tips will ensure that your personal brand is 100% unique and shows your true value in the workforce.
Tip #1: Develop your personal brand by looking at your intersectionality
Intersectionality is the place where different things intersect and become one.
Draw a Venn diagram with a few circles (two, three or four circles).
Inside each circle, add one skill, strength, or job title you possess that you’re most proud of or love doing the most. (It’s hard to narrow these down, so try word and then swap it out. Keep doing this until you have just the few that you really feel are best).
Each time you try new words in the Venn diagram, consider how the two, three, or four parts of yourself intersect.
Can you describe the intersectionality between them? What does it look like?
The language you use to explain and pinpoint the intersections is the language you should use in your personal brand.
NOTE: If you find this tricky or confusing, grab a copy of my workbook or enroll in my 6-step guided journey.
Tip #2: Use your hybridity to easily highlight your uniqueness
Again and again, personal branding experts emphasize that your personal brand is about defining what makes you unique. For most people, they aren’t sure.
When you look at the intersections of your Venn diagram, those spaces reflect your uniqueness.
Dig into the intersections with specificity.
Can you give clear examples of how you use your two, three, or four circles at the same time in your work? Name the project. Describe the client. Examples will become the evidence that supports your unique capabilities. You’ll want to have a few of these to tout.
Checkout my hybrid identity elevator pitch mad lib to help you!
Tip #3: Develop an effective hybrid title as a tagline or catchphrase to summarize your personal brand
Which title stands out to you least?
Serial Edu-agitator
Spiritual Sparkplug
Managing Director
The first two are hybrid titles, and the last one isn’t. It’s likely the first two titles got your attention, made you wonder, and maybe made you chuckle. I bet you’d want to walk up to the first two people and ask them more about what they do, what their hybrid titles mean, and how they became that. I know I would, and that’s the point. Hybrid titles immediately capture attention and make you want to get to know a person more.
Create a hybrid title from the cool things you discovered about yourself in your intersections.
Use your hybrid title in public along with your formal job title. See what reactions you get.
Tip #4: Add your hybridity to your online presence and social media which supports your personal brand
If you have a website or blog, use your hybridity as an explicit asset. Talk about your multiple work interests, abilities and the intersections between them. Let people know about your nonlinear career path, and how your hybridity is a result of that. Make your hybridity something you own and celebrate.
Add being a hybrid professional to your LinkedIn header along with your other keywords.
Add being a hybrid professional to your professional bio, the one you use when you’re a panelist or a speaker.
Tip #5: As your hybridity evolves, update your personal brand to reflect the new hybrid you
It’s likely that you’ll accumulate new work experiences and skills, and your intersections will change.
Make sure to revisit your intersectionality regularly.
When you see new unique traits appearing in your intersections, update the language you use in your personal brand. These can be small tweaks or an entirely new catchphrase. You’ll know what’s right for you.
Even though we think corporate brands stay the same, they don’t. All brands get updated and refreshed.