When I published The Most Powerful Woman in the Room Is You in 2019, I thought I was launching a book. I didn’t realize it at the time, but what I was actually building was a brand.
In my first meeting with a creative director to design a simple website, she laid out a range of color palettes. Without hesitation, I chose red and pink. She laughed at how quickly I decided, but that moment became the foundation of everything that followed, first for my book and then for my brand. That decision was not only about the way the colors looked together. It was intentional. I wanted the word “power” to live alongside colors that are not traditionally seen that way. Red and pink are used for things like Valentine’s Day or little girls’ birthday parties. But I wanted to change that and use them to denote power, the way I always feel when I wear those colors on stage as an auctioneer. My website kicked it off; it was red and pink, then we made the book cover red and pink. And when I went on tour, I wore red and pink at every single event for an entire year.
That consistency paid off in a major way. Six years later, people still send me photos of red and pink dresses. When Jessie Buckley won the Oscar for Hamnet this year and accepted her award in a custom red and pink Chanel gown, my inbox filled with messages asking if I had seen it. That is when I understood something critical: A personal brand, when done right, works for you when you are not in the room.
Who you are
I know a lot of people think personal branding is about self promotion. I disagree. Personal branding is about being crystal clear about who you are and what you stand for. It is about making it easy for people to understand you and, most importantly, talk about you in the way that YOU want. Most people are far more memorable than they realize; they just communicate too many things at once. The strongest brands are simple. Think about the people you immediately recognize in your industry. Chances are, you can instantly describe what they represent and what you would expect from them in a room. That is not accidental. It is built through repetition over time.
There are three specific decisions I made early on that built my brand, and I wish I could tell you they had all been intentional. But in hindsight I realize these are key to any brand trying to break through the clutter of the 24/7 media landscape today. Here are three questions you need to answer before you think about your personal brand.
- WHAT IS YOUR COLOR STORY? Choose your visual identity and never deviate from it. The red and pink palette I chose early on for my website became shorthand for everything I stood for. Even seven years after my book came out, the word “power” and the bold red and pink colors feel true to who I am, and how I show up in the world. Never forget that over time, people learn to trust who you are because you show up as the same person every single time. If you are constantly changing, you are forcing your audience to relearn you over and over again. If you remain consistent, it helps create recognition before you ever say a word.
- WHO ARE YOU? Is a question anyone should be able to answer for you in less than 10 seconds. Once I figured out that piece, I simplified how I describe myself to other people. It took me a long time to realize I don’t need to become someone new; I just need to make sure people understand who I am the first time they see me. I focused on making my positioning laser focused. If someone cannot describe you in one sentence, they cannot recommend you. People are busy. You need to make it incredibly easy for others to advocate for you when opportunities arise.
- WHAT COMES NEXT? I don’t show up only where I currently am in my career; I am always signaling where I want to go. Your personal brand is not just what you say. It is what people decide about you before you speak. This comes down to everything from the way you dress to the way you communicate. Long before I was speaking on stages regularly, I acted like someone who belonged there. The way you present yourself teaches people how to see you.
I like to think of personal branding as creating your own movie trailer and life story. To do that you need to spend time thinking about it: What do you look like? What do you stand for? What can people expect from you?
Every interaction is reinforcing something, whether you realize it or not. Nail your personal branding sales pitch and watch as the opportunities come your way.
