Why Personal Branding Is Essential To Career Success

Creating a strong personal brand for yourself establishes you as a natural leader and opens doors.

At this point, it’s established that personal branding is important for a number of reasons. It provides a clear focus for personal development while establishing yourself as a thought leader. It also works wonders for career success, allowing individuals to pursue whatever it is that they’re passionate about. The mutual relationship between career success and personal branding is a truly unique dynamic that, when understood, has the potential to launch a person to new heights.

They Build Off One Another

It’s something of a no-brainer, but there is a clear correlation between success and branding. Creating a strong brand establishes yourself as a natural leader, making people look up to you as a firm thought leader. The boost in image and direction opens doors and creates unique opportunities that would otherwise remain in the dark. Similarly, finding success throughout your career naturally pushes yourself to take a stronger stance on how you handle yourself and others. Leadership qualities naturally evolve as success and branding interact with one another, which can launch a career into exciting new directions.

Overall Standards Increase

As your brand improves and success becomes increasingly attainable, your standards for just about everything increase. The direction that people find through branding and success is conducive to a progressive mindset, one that raises expectations. The status quo is no longer acceptable; you have to move forward and think outside the box. It’s the mindset that characterizes the entrepreneur, and it’s an incredibly powerful state of mind. Leaders are never satisfied with the current state of affairs; their determination that comes from personal branding raises their standards and drives their team forward.

Stand In Front of the Pack

Establishing yourself without credentials is essentially impossible—no matter what you want to do, a degree in something is required. However, there’s one problem with this—everyone looking to establish themselves has that same degree to some extent. It’s unfortunate, but there’s nothing unique about a business degree when looking for, say, a cozy business job.

That’s where personal branding comes in. As Daniel Bliley of the parking app Passport says: “Branding today is as much about consistently delivering on your promise as it is about differentiation. You have to position yourself in unique ways in order to stand out from others. You have to meet all of the subconscious expectations and go beyond the mundane to truly impress.”

Everyone has that degree, but do they have a distinct personality? A unique personal and professional history that immediately stands out? A natural ability to enhance a company’s culture? Suddenly, you’re looking a lot better than a lot of people, whatever the situation may be.

We found this article by Barry S. Saltzman on www.fastcompany.com.