In a world where practically anyone can now sound polished, being polished isn’t much of a differentiator. Personal branding means being the real you.
There’s something strange happening to professional communication. We’re getting better at sounding professional and worse at sounding like ourselves. AI can turn a few hastily written sentences into an eloquent email. It can make your LinkedIn profile sound impressive, transform your presentation into a masterpiece, and eliminate every grammatical error from your writing.
Wonderful. But there’s a catch. It can also eliminate much of what makes you interesting. And in a world where practically anyone can sound polished, being polished isn’t much of a differentiator. Personal branding means being the real you.
Personal branding is not about perfection
We’ve been conditioned to believe that professionalism means being polished, serious, and somewhat predictable. Show up looking the part. Say the right things. Avoid anything that might make you appear different. But differentiation is exactly what a strong personal brand requires.
Think about the people you find most memorable. Chances are, they aren’t perfect, and they have something distinctive about them. Maybe it’s their unusual sense of humor, their infectious enthusiasm, or the way they tell stories. Perhaps it’s their willingness to challenge conventional wisdom.
They’re memorable because they’re not interchangeable. AI makes it tempting to sand down our interesting edges and to try to behave like the most perfect person we know. To be more like everyone else. But when everyone uses similar tools to create similar messages in a similar voice, standing out becomes harder.
That’s the opposite of branding and it’s why the shift from polish to personality is one of the six new rules of personal branding.
Personality Is A Powerful Career Advantage
Personality isn’t something you add to your personal brand. It’s already part of it. Your sense of humour, communication style, passions, peculiarities, and even your imperfections help people understand who you are. And they give others something to connect with. A way to describe you and to engage with you.
You can be an accomplished professional and still be playful. You can be a serious thinker without taking yourself too seriously. And you can demonstrate credibility without sounding like you’ve swallowed a corporate communications manual. Differentiation is the key to personal branding. The more AI standardises professional communication, the more valuable authentic individuality becomes. As Oscar Wilde famously quipped, “Be yourself because everyone else is already taken.”
To advance your career, put more ‘you’ into your personal branding
1. Share your stories
Facts communicate information. Stories communicate who you are. Instead of simply describing a successful project, share what surprised you, what went wrong, or what you learned along the way. Those details make your experiences interesting and your expertise more relatable. And as a bonus, because of the way our brains process information, stories are much more powerful than lists of facts and accomplishments. They’re memorable.
Everyone has stories from their life experiences that help them communicate their values, passions, and superpowers. I call them signature stories. They’re powerful personal brand assets. Collect your stories and have them at the ready when you are connecting with others.
2. Show your passions
What excites you? What could you talk about for hours? What makes your eyes light up? You don’t need to turn your LinkedIn profile into a diary of your personal life. But letting people see some of your interests and enthusiasm makes you more three-dimensional. When you are talking about your passions, you’re energised and effusive, and that makes you interesting to those around you.
Often, those things that are unique to you and the unexpected details are the ones people remember. Even if people don’t share the things you’re most passionate about, they’re likely interested to hear more about them.
3. Speak in Your Own Voice
Read your LinkedIn About section or your latest newsletter or post aloud. Does it sound like something you would actually say? Or does it sound like it was written by a committee of exceptionally articulate strangers?
Replace the corporate jargon with words you’d use in a conversation. Remove anything from your career marketing tools that sounds like “Detail-oriented team player with a track record of delivering projects on time, within budget.” Keep the occasional unusual expression. Let your personality peek through everything you say and everything you write.
Effective personal branding is about using AI, not becoming AI
In today’s environment, no one would ever recommend that you abandon AI. Far from it. Use AI to research, organise, brainstorm, find resources and data, and improve your work. But start with your ideas. Then engage AI. But don’t automatically accept every change it recommends.
AI has a tendency to make writing smoother, more symmetrical, and often, that makes it less interesting. It may remove a quirky phrase because it sounds unusual. But that phrase could be the most memorable thing you wrote. It could be the thing that identifies it as coming from you and only you. Before accepting an AI-assisted revision, ask yourself these three questions:
- Does this sound like me?
- Does it express what I really believe?
- Does it make my message more “me” or just more polished?
Remember, authenticity doesn’t mean sharing everything about yourself. It means being intentional about revealing the qualities that make you, well, you. The goal isn’t to be unprofessional. It’s to be unmistakable. Unmistakably you! Polish makes you professional. Personality makes you memorable. Give yourself permission to exude your personality in everything you do.
This article is part of the series, The New Rules of Personal Branding.
William Arruda is a keynote speaker, bestselling author, and a leader in the field of personal branding. Watch his complimentary session, How to Be Seen as a Leader When You Don’t Have the Title, for actionable insights on how to demonstrate your leadership potential.
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