Look closely at any wildly successful personal brand, and you’ll find one key differentiator — complete confidence and assuredness in who they are and, perhaps, even more important, who they are not. 

The natural question is then, “Do I need to be confident to build a personal brand? I see the benefits of building my brand, but I’m not sure who I am or where to start, so I don’t think I have ‘what it takes’ to be like other experts and creators I see.” 

The paradoxical answer I give people to this question is, “yes” and “no.”

Yes, you do need to be confident and clear in who you are and your unique position in the marketplace if you want to douse your personal brand in rocket fuel and monetize it. 

“No,” a lack of confidence won’t stand in your way if (big if) you know where to start in overcoming it.

This week, we’ll examine the top 3 limiting beliefs triggering your lack of confidence and how to overcome them so you can start providing value to the world through thoughtful brand positioning and content.

Those 3 beliefs are:

• Imposter Syndrome
• Shiny Object Syndrome
• Corporate Syndrome 

Let’s hold each one up to the light and examine how to bust through to the other side.

1. Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome, or the “unsubstantiated belief that you are underqualified at your profession,” is the great common denominator of most experts I have worked with. Whether it’s the head of one of the largest venture capital funds in the world (who had more advanced degrees than I have fingers on one hand), elite executive coaches, C-Suite superstars, heart surgeons, or FBI hostage negotiators, you’d be amazed at how quickly career competence turns to anxious Jell-o at the mere mention of online brand building. If that’s the experience for these superhumans, what in the world do us mere mortals do when confronted with that small voice taunting us with, “Who do you think you are to start preaching online?” 

First things first, understand you are not alone. That nasty little voice saying you have no right to share your unique strengths, talents, and experiences with the world is the universal chorus of the human psyche. Harvard Business Review reports that “Around one-third of young people suffer from [imposter syndrome], and 70% of everyone else is likely to experience it at some point in their lives.” 

Once you realize more folks than not suffer from Imposter Syndrome, you can exhale and then get to work on making it your friend, not your enemy. As a student of mindfulness, I stopped trying to fight my internal enemy and instead thanked it for its concern, and then just went ahead and shared my story anyway. Imposter Syndrome is really just an amalgam of thoughts and feelings from a biased and very-limited perspective. The good news? Thoughts and feelings aren’t facts. 

Second things second, stop thinking that you can only build a personal brand “once you’ve made it” or have become the Serena Williams of your industry. It’s this pressure to appear as “the best” that induces Imposter Syndrome. Remember, your audience will value and learn from story, not glory. Sharing your perspective, and not your perfection is actually the thing that connects with people. It makes you more relatable. So instead of focusing on keeping up appearances, focus on helping others through your unique experiences. 

2. Shiny Object Syndrome

Shiny Object Syndrome is really just a fancy way to say “inconsistent.” Does this sound familiar to you? You started building your brand online on Facebook, then heard you *needed* to pivot to Instagram, but perhaps Twitter threads will actually yield the highest return, but you put the breaks on developing those because you need to get that email list built. Listen, having an arsenal of personal branding tools is fantastic, but you need to see results and master one first before adding another to the stack. 

What’s the antidote to “Shiny Object Syndrome” when it comes to personal branding? Simplicity and clarity, which can be experienced by deploying the following equation:

Well-defined audience + Understanding of that audience’s issue + Your unique experience + Platform that the audience spends time on = Clarity and Consistency

Let’s break the formula down with a real life example. 

New moms + Trouble breastfeeding + Your career as a night nurse + TikTok = Expert at helping new moms 

Once you gain momentum and see results with that formula, then duplicate it, adding another channel to the mix. 

Remember, a bunch of steps in different directions doesn’t propel you forward, you just end up walking in circles.

3. Corporate Syndrome

Most of us build our personal brand online after working in corporate for a while. And while corporate experience can be invaluable to building your competence, confidence, and knowledge of a professional audience, the habits and language one accumulates from corporate is like a death knell for good brand building. Why is this?

Good personal branding hinges on being uniquely you and utterly human. By doing so, you build trust and rapport with your audience. However, most of us learned consciously or unconsciously to mask our full selves while in cubicle land. We become a reduction of ourselves, using terms like “circle back” and “per my last email” and writing like we are submitting a final dissertation for a doctorate program. In other words, we are boring. Intelligent sounding? Sure. Captivating? Meh.

In our effort to continue to placate a corporate crowd, we say safe and smart things online and then wonder why we hear crickets. Remember, people don’t want or need corporate you; they need you, full-on and full-stop. This doesn’t mean being provocative or lewd for the sake of it, it just means getting curious about what really lights you up, where your passion really lies, and not holding that against some imaginary corporate yardstick of acceptability or success.

The Recap:

• Confidence is at the heart of any successful personal brand.
• If you don’t have confidence when it comes to building your brand, you are likely suffering from Imposter Syndrome, Shiny Object Syndrome, or Corporate Syndrome.
• By identifying which limiting belief is running rampant, you can make a plan to overcome it.