In short, the best way to differentiate oneself is by adding new skills. Kumar says an individual’s personal brand must not only be backed up by expertise - but that expertise must be constantly updated, and new competencies explored. How you implement that depends on how learning-oriented you are.”
#Embrace yourself how to#
“An MBA programme such as INSEAD helps you understand the concepts, the vocabulary, and outlines how to work with people. “You have to have uniqueness, relevance and credibility,” says Kumar. Simply baring yourself to the world, however, may not make your brand stand out. “I don't think you can have personal branding without disclosing your identity to some degree.” Personal branding inevitably involves “deciding which parts of your identity you want to make emergent”, says Zakhour. “Make them your obsession, because personal branding is not just about selling services, but defining your circle of comfort and expertise to your audience.” “Pick a theme, or two or three, that you really feel deeply about and make those the things that you talk about all the time,” says Zakhour.
A fledgling public figure, after all, needs a target audience, as well as a clearly defined area or areas of expertise. “And then comes implementation - what you want to do with that voice,” says Dubois. Cosmic Centaurs is the first moment when I said to myself, ‘I’m going to become a public person.’” “I had also been podcasting for many years. “I got my MBA at a time when I was responsible for a team of 60 people over three continents and 10 cities,” she says. Zakhour’s studies with INSEAD had given the businesswoman new confidence to reach a larger audience. INSEAD alumna Marilyn Zakhour, Chief Executive of consultancy Cosmic Centaurs, already had more than a decade of experience in developing start-ups and running digital businesses under her belt - and had moonlighted as a podcaster - when she launched her business last year. “It’s about finding the right voice, the right tone, and being comfortable with it,” he says. With expertise in data-driven marketing, digital transformation and luxury brand management, Dubois instructs INSEAD’s MBA students on how to create a personal brand with a voice that fits their personality - geeky, perhaps, or authoritative, or ironic. Your personal brand, he explains, should not only articulate your beliefs but also spell out what makes you unique - and relevant. “It’s about finding the sweet spot between a frame of reference and point of differentiation,” Dubois says. “The emergence of more specific, more granular and agile technologies and social media tools such as Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and TikTok has fuelled the trend,” he says.Īccording to Dubois, while personal branding is increasingly essential in the business world, to be effective it must not only differentiate a person from the crowd, but it must also be flexible to evolve with changing times. “This enables us to communicate directly to masses of people as brands ourselves, and with that comes the ability to monetise in a way that was never possible before,” he says.ĭavid Dubois, Associate Professor of Marketing at INSEAD Business School, also in Singapore, agrees with Kumar, saying that digital technology has “democratised” personal branding.
The concept of personal branding has gained traction in recent decades, with the online world opening up new possibilities for anyone with access to the internet, says Nirmalya Kumar, Professor of Marketing at Singapore’s Lee Kong Chian School of Business. “Be yourself, everyone else is taken!” So said the writer Oscar Wilde in the 19th century, though his witty one-liner remains true of personal branding today.
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