What Is Personal Branding? (And How It Differs From Style)

I believe you already have a personal brand. You built it on purpose, or the room built it for you.

Every meeting, every video call and every first handshake adds a line to it. Most women in business never read what was written.

PERSONAL BRANDING is how the world perceives you, and you have full control over this.

You are either perceived by default, or by design. You do not want to be living by default.

That is the whole definition, friend. Everything else on this page is how you take the control back.

What is personal branding, in plain words?

Personal branding is the picture people carry of you when you leave the room. It decides who gets the call back, the referral and the raise.

It is not a logo, a color palette or a clever bio. Those help, and they come last.

People buy based on what they see. And they decide what they see in seconds, long before your results get a hearing.

Personal branding vs personal style: what is the difference?

Personal style is what you look like. Personal branding is how you present yourself.

One of the smartest ways to improve your image is through personal style, simply one component of personal branding.

I learned the difference the expensive way. I can look smartly dressed and still hide in the corner of the room.

A beautiful outfit on a woman who will not take up space is still a woman nobody remembers (ask me how I know).

The three parts of your personal brand

When I work with a client, I look at three things, in this order.

One, your personal style: what you look like, from the fit of your jacket to the color closest to your face. Your clothes walk into the room a second before you do.

Two, your body language: how you carry yourself, where your hands go and whether you hold the eye contact or drop it first. Your body speaks before your mouth does.

Three, how you communicate, persuade and negotiate: how you ask, how you get to yes and how you say no. This is the part most stylists never touch.

Miss any one of the three and the other two leak. A sharp suit cannot rescue an apologetic ask.

Why personal branding matters for women in business

Personal branding is the lowest hanging fruit and the easiest way to differentiate yourself from all the competition.

Your competitor has a proposal as good as yours, maybe better. The difference the client remembers is how you showed up.

Leave it on default and here is what it costs you. You get underestimated in the meeting, overlooked for the promotion and quietly priced lower than you are worth.

Get it right and the reverse happens. This all boosts confidence, which in turn boosts influence, and, often times, income.

How to build your personal brand by design

Start where it is cheapest and fastest. That is your personal style.

Name your style personality first, because you cannot design what you have never named. My free Style Profile tells you in about two minutes, with what to wear for it.

Then look at yourself the way a client does: in a photo, on a video call, walking into a room. Write down what a stranger would assume about you (honestly, friend, it stings a bit).

Then close the gap one part at a time. Your LinkedIn profile and your time on camera are the two places a stranger meets all three parts at once.

I set out the whole path on my page about personal branding for women in business, from the free profile to working with me.

Seen anyway, so let it be by design

You are being branded right now, in rooms you are not in. Make sure the story they tell is the one you designed.

Here’s to the REAL you getting up, dressing up and playing to win!