Building my own Personal Branding

One thing I wish I had discovered sooner…

is the importance of building a personal brand. Whenever we think of branding, we tend to think of business brands, big and commercial key players like Nike, Adidas, Coca Cola… but personal brands are just as powerful.

A personal brand is pretty similar to a business brand. However, instead of marketing the business, you market yourself. Think of people like Oprah Winfrey, Elon Musk, and Tony Robbins, they all set themselves apart from others by inspiring their audience with their uniqueness.

The Sports business is an extremely competitive industry with lots of offers in terms of people wishing to work in it, and limited demand and opportunities.

That’s why it’s crucial to differentiate yourself from the competition by standing out from the crowd and having a personal brand is a great way to do this.

Putting yourself out there is not always going to be comfortable. People might have opinions, you may not feel ready, and you may care too much about what others think, but eventually, it’s going to be worth it.

Why is Personal branding important in today’s world?

In essence, everyone is unique, so everyone is a brand, everyone is a logo, it’s just about sharing this with your audience and leveraging your uniqueness. When you think of it like that, it’s quite simple and all you need to do is be yourself (cliché but true!).

Having discovered your niche, the field you are enthusiastic about and could see yourself working in could greatly contribute to your motivation and success in building your brand. I wrote another article on the importance of finding your niche, which you can read here.

If you are reading this article, it’s because you found me online. You found me online because I position myself as a sports lawyer and industry professional with an interest in mentoring others to turn their passion into their profession; that’s my brand.

How to elevate your personal branding?

And personal brands can evolve, they are not static and can change directions or you can expand the scope of your brand.

Elon Musk is not just known as Tesla’s CEO, he is known as an innovative entrepreneur that is always at the forefront of technology and shares his thoughts and beliefs regularly.

Building a personal brand doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a long-term project, but I consider it to be my most sustainable and profitable investment.

Jobs come and go; you can get fired anyway. Your brand can’t be taken away from you and it will follow you throughout your entire professional career.

Even if you’re a student and haven’t gotten the “job of your dreams” or built the “business of your dreams” yet, just being an enthusiast of a specific field is a great starting point!

How to start building your brand? I address this topic in detail in my soon-to-be-launched Sports Career Guide, the blueprint to kickstart your career in Sports. You can sign up to get notified when the pre-sale starts and when the guide launches by clicking here!

Author Jessie Engelhart teaches in our Master in Sports Management. Learn more about the program here.