From Employee To Thought Leader

A tale is told of a brilliant but socially awkward tech pioneer who transformed his image. Now a sought-after CEO, his journey offers a blueprint for building a powerful personal brand. Lida Citroën, CEO and Founder of LIDA360, LLC, a personal branding and reputation management firm is the bridge to this magic. In her 16 years of experience, she’s worked with clients in the tech space and recalls, “One time, I worked with a client who had a resume that included being an early hire at Twitter, Yahoo!, and Netflix. As a deeply experienced security engineer and CTO, he was an expert in his domain. But socially, he was highly informal, and long-winded and his complicated storytelling didn’t resonate well with peers, company leaders and investors. They valued his technical expertise but dreaded being around him.”

Could he be course-corrected?

Building a personal brand is vital. From the moment your name is mentioned, a brand is evoked. Jeff Bezos is credited with the most common definition: “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.” Building a personal brand is strategic. It does not happen overnight. Perhaps this is why Tim Sanders said, “Your network is your net worth.” Collaborating with like-minded creators expands your audience reach from all parts of the internet. Remaining relevant is essential for your uniqueness.

Connie Aluoch, an award-winning fashion stylist starts us off with a clear vision. “Different brands have different target audiences. Understand, develop, and communicate a clear plan for your brand and be very mindful on your social media platform from the language you use to relate with people. Communicate very mindfully on social media,” Aluoch states.

From Wallflower To Self-Leading ‘Influencer’

Authenticity as the word du jour cannot be overlooked. It is the one thing that allows you to create your unique and individual profile. “Authenticity and storytelling are very crucial, especially when it comes to your posts. Understand how a platform works and the mode of communication level used in each platform,” Aluoch states. To which Derek Bbanga, Leadership Development Manager at Public Image and Genos Certified Emotional Intelligence Coach and Facilitator, emphasises that, “Living your brand and your target market identifying you with that brand to knowing you from that brand; that is part of being authentic. It is proof you are who you claim to be.”

Citroën agrees. “One of the most common mistakes I see clients in this space sharing is not being clear. When you are clear about who you are, what your values are, and what you have to offer you can articulate a vision, and help your audience know you. This builds rapport and then trust.”

Bbanga stresses the need for self-awareness in building a strong personal brand saying, “Identifying your strengths and your weaknesses and have self-management. Resilience allows you to capture a particular segment of the market and be an inspiration to your team or your audience because trust comes through inspiration.”

It does sound a whole lot like becoming an influencer, especially when you keep in mind that choosing a platform that resonates counts. Professionals choose LinkedIn, a platform with over 1 billion fellow ‘brands.’ As you can see, meeting your target audience where they are is key. Executives gravitate towards LinkedIn, while thought leaders and influencers tend to position themselves largely on X. Instagram and Facebook are less formal, attracting an exciting and interesting mix of text, videos, and images. TikTok is an up-and-comer with high risk, and high reward.

Bbanga reiterates this stating “Identify which platform speaks to your target market and then work towards becoming an expert in using that platform to connect with your target market. I always tell people you can’t be on every platform particularly if you want to build an effective personal brand. Pick and choose. I picked LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook and that’s where you will find me marshaling my efforts in terms of whom I am speaking to. Even those who have established themselves in a specific field should consider diversifying their presence on social media platforms. This might involve writing articles or participating in interviews to expand their reach and engagement.”

Follow The Leader

Done thoughtfully, personal branding can most certainly launch careers, open new avenues, and attract incredible collaborators. It shows the world what you stand for and why you’re worth knowing. How, though? “Build on your online presence. It needs to be significant. You gain followers, credibility and authenticity from consistency. Engage with your followers, networks and collaborations. Understand who you are, what your brand is and what is unique about your brand that no one else has what you’re offering. Once you understand your value proposition it will be your biggest selling point as a brand,” Aluoch says. There must be a little bit of a limelight flicker in you, admittedly. After all, you’re putting yourself in a position to be known for your expertise. Once you have fine-tuned your profile and defined your point of view, you can post, and repeat.

Bbanga has an acronym for it: KASH.

K for Knowledge: Share what you know from mastering the art of emotional intelligence to your industry know-how. Build that skill set by doubling down on it, and sharing that insight on platforms.
A for Attitude: Everything starts from within. When it comes to being effective, go forth with your confidence and credibility intact.
S for Skills: Work on the requisite ones, be it in networking, communication, public speaking, or writing.
H for Habit: Practice makes perfect so keep at it.

It’s Not Just What You Say …

You need a plan. Citroën has onet. Create content based on your work and ideas. “Use your knowledge, expertise, ideas, and success stories to communicate with your audience. You can create an article on LinkedIn on your area of expertise. From that article, you can create short-form posts. If you have an idea, record yourself and share it as a video. If the video is too long, create short clips off of it, and you’ll have different content to share.” In doing this you will “Build an online community, and, over time, you’ll build trust and credibility, opening your path to thought leadership.”

Tech content, even B2B such as ours, requires the two things most techies know to be required in their arsenal – adaptability and agility. Remember, though, that core principles and values remain unchanged. They, posits Citroën, may mature as we mature, but don’t fundamentally change. “Can adaptability and the steadfastness of your values co-mingle? Yes. They can be great partners for embracing new trends and building credibility for your brand.” Be constantly on your toes, primed for curiosity, adding your sense of wonder and open-mindedness. It will keep you included in new and dynamic conversations.

Here are her recommendations post-KASH.

Create a strategic networking strategy: Strategic networking takes the randomness out of connecting with people. If you’re a software engineer and strive to be a CTO, who do you need to know to get you there? Who has the connections, insight and willingness to guide you to your goal? Meet and develop a professional relationship with them. Find them on LinkedIn, read their blogs and articles, and look at who they’re connected to. Initiate a relationship and clarify why you see the connection as mutually rewarding. Be sure to offer value to them each time you make an ask.
Create an in-person networking strategy: Where are the people you need to know gathering? Which events or meetings do they attend? How do they participate (i.e. in leadership roles, as sponsors, as participants)? Become active and visible. Then, armed with a compelling and branded elevator pitch, begin introducing yourself to others. Seek to be curious, not judgmental. Learn and share and see where the connection goes.
Walk the talk: Consistency between your actions and values is critical. Particularly with the online community (which is extremely focused on authenticity). Be yourself. Online audiences can expose an impostor in very public ways. Protect your reputation by creating a real and engaging online presence that aligns with who you are in person.
Be authentic. This keeps coming up. To be seen as authentic means you make yourself real and approachable and resist scrubbing your social media of all personality. Speak in your voice, share your passion and concerns, and let your genuineness shine through. To be authentic means if you answer a question or address an issue, you’ll do so from your genuine position and voice. You’re not hiding who you are or refraining from participating in conversations that matter to you. I believe some things should remain private. You’re allowed to refrain from commenting, sharing, or disclosing things in your life or background that you choose to keep private.

What happened to that accomplished CTO? He grew from technical expert to the CEO of a new venture where he built influence to connect with his new target audiences – now including staff, networking contacts, and peers across multiple sectors, online and in person. “Through personal branding coaching, we put him in control of a narrative that told his story and shared his value in authentic, compelling, and relatable ways. With practice, he learned to communicate with passion and clarity, and his impact landed right with his target audiences.”

Now that’s the power of personal branding.