How to Build a Personal Brand in 3 Easy Steps (Introvert & Beginner Friendly)

Some people think that personal branding is cringey and unnecessary. Others say it’s essential to your career growth.

Chances are, you already have a personal brand (unless you never work with other people). It’s most important to have a personal brand that you can shape and share with others vs. one that others create on your behalf over time.

Today’s blog post will define what personal branding really is and how you can easily start building one—even if you’re an introvert who someone who hates putting yourself out there.

What is personal branding?

It’s what people think about when they hear your name. In the workplace, it’s what kind of collaborator and communicator you are. A good personal brand is when what you believe you are aligns with how others see you. A great personal brand opens doors to new opportunities that you’d never even thought about.

For example, I would describe my personal brand as:

  • The person you go to for anything career development and job hunting related
  • The team member you ask to get things done quickly and efficiently

Step 1: Describe yourself in 10 words (pick one of the following or choose other ones)

Step 2: Ask your peers, friends, and family to describe you in 3-5 words

This is a good exercise to compare and contrast. Sometimes, you may be surprised to find that what you think of yourself is quite different from how others see you.

If there is alignment, then great. If not, think about whether you want to work on evolving your personal brand to align more with what you had in mind.

If you do want to evolve your personal brand, brainstorm top 3 habits and actions you can take that would make you more of those personal branding words. For example, if you want to be more known as someone who is organized and reliable, you may want to work consistently on building the following habits:

  • Helping your team organize data and information
  • Putting together structured and formatted reports and presentations
  • Responding to inquiries in a timely manner

Introvert-friendly tip: Create an anonymous form and send it out to people.

Hi XX, I am looking for ways to learn and grow in my career and would appreciate if you could share your thoughts and feedback about me as a team member/collaborator in this anonymous form. Totally optional, thanks so much!

Step 3: Put together a career walking deck “One Pager”

An easy way to get your personal brand out there is to tell people about it (e.g. when you meet people in coffee chats, join a new team, or kick off a presentation).

This is a super helpful tool for those of you who may be socially awkward or want an easy way to break the ice!

Start by creating a one-pager and then build out the rest of your career walking deck, which is a visual presentation that outlines your skills, experiences, and achievements in a concise and compelling way. See more examples here.

Find everything you need to get started with creating a career walking deck below:

More job hunting resources