Ellevest cofounder and CEO Sallie Krawcheck says, “Every important decision about your career is made when you’re not in the room.” And that’s why having a strong personal brand is critical.
At the Most Powerful Women (MPW) conference’s “Bold Visions: The Intersection of Business and Personal Branding” panel, Krawcheck joined Stacey Kennedy, president of Americas and CEO of U.S. Business at Philip Morris International; and Joyce Russell, president of Adecco Group U.S. Foundation, to discuss actionable steps to create authentic, resilient personal brands that pave the way for career growth.
Whether you’re aiming for a boardroom position or just looking to make your next career move, the panelists agreed that personal branding isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a crucial tool for success. Here are five key takeaways from the leaders when considering your personal brand:
1. Monitor your “digital exhaust“
If you’re not sure where to start building your personal brand, Russell says a key place to begin is to look at your so-called “digital exhaust,” a.k.a. what’s out there about you online.
What do your social media profiles say about you? What does a quick Google search reveal? Some of the keywords that come to mind when completing this exercise could point you in the right direction for your brand.
In an exercise for the crowd, Russell looked at the social media accounts for moderator Allie Garfinkle, a Fortune reporter. Russell came up with the terms “curious” and “intelligent” as starting keywords based on Garfinkle’s digital exhaust. She said these exercises are great as a starting point for framing your expertise and branding, or at least understanding how you’re currently perceived.
2. Fill in the blank “I am the person who ___.”
Another exercise to build a strong personal brand is to identify what unique skills or offerings you bring to the table. It helps to ask what you want to be known for.
“She’s the person who—fill in the blank,” Krawcheck said.
All three panelists noted that your personal brand can, and probably will, change over your life. Early in her career, Krawcheck viewed herself as “the person you must speak to before you invest in this stock.” Now she’s “the person who helps women gain wealth” with Ellevest.
“If you can make it so they only say it about you, ‘you are the one who,’ then you have a very successful personal brand,” Krawcheck said.
3. Embrace the haters
When your branding is working, you’ll start to stand out. And when you start to stand out, you might notice you start getting haters or naysayers. Panelists on Monday said not to get too stuck on the hate, because it will always show up.
“I’ve been on the cover of Fortune twice, but I’m also the only person who has been fired on the front page of the newspaper twice,” Krawcheck said, discussing public attention—both positive and negative—before adding to laughs: “It was so fun the first time, I was like, let’s do it all over again.”
Krawcheck shrugged off the negativity joking about “living rent-free” in people’s brains. “Embrace the haters,” she said. “Pressure’s a privilege.”
4. Stay authentic
Authenticity is key to making sure your branding works for you.
“You have to be really authentic,” Russell said, adding that she leans on the PIE acronym for career advancement. PIE references performance, image, and exposure. That theory says a combination of your work performance, how people perceive you, and the learning opportunities you’re given are key to growing and advancing your career.
Russell emphasized that your image, the ‘I’, is your personal branding. That should be true to you regardless of the company you work at.
5. Say no to impostor syndrome
Impostor syndrome is easy to have, especially early on in your career. But Russell asked the audience, “if not you, then who?”
Kennedy also mentioned a white-sheet exercise she recommends where you write the best possible and worst possible outcomes of a scenario and any evidence you have for either outcome. Typically, she finds that a lot of what holds people back is a story they’ve created in their head, and a white paper will reveal that you’re more qualified and capable than you think. Visualizing the future, and choices you want to make, can also help set you up for success.
Krawcheck, on the other hand, said she just doesn’t allow herself to feel impostor syndrome. She mentioned that early on in her career, she worked with men who would leave photocopies of their genitals on her desk and actively sought to push women like her out of the financial world.
“But I was smarter than them,” Krawcheck said she realized. “They are no smarter than I am and they’re the masters of the universe. And I can outwork them.”
That mentality helped her move beyond any impostor syndrome she felt at the time. It also shaped her brand as she understood she had something valuable to offer even when up against toxicity.
