Whether or not you’ve ever set up a profile or written a bio, you already have a personal brand, and this webinar was all about learning to shape it on purpose. I delivered “Brand New You: Personal Branding Without the Noise” to a group of University of Chicago alumni to kick off their Networking in the New Year series. My goal was to make personal branding feel authentic and accessible, especially for those of us who don’t naturally love self-promotion.
You already have a brand
Every time you walk into a room, join a meeting, or send an email, people form impressions and associate certain things with your name. Branding isn’t about being loud or presenting yourself perfectly. It’s about intentional meaning, and those associations quietly shape who gets trusted, recommended, and invited into the conversations that matter.
Brand, reputation, and resume are different
People blend these three, but they’re distinct. Your resume is a concrete document that looks backward at your accomplishments, and your reputation is the abstract thing others believe and say about you. Your brand sits in between, and it’s the part you get to decide: which skills and qualities you want to highlight, and how you express them.
If you don’t pick it, someone else will
When people lack a clear sense of what you do, they default to guessing, filling in the blanks with assumptions and sometimes reading your silence as a signal. First impressions form in about a second, and recruiters spend only seconds scanning a resume, so you want the things you’d choose to elevate already working for you. The real question isn’t whether you have a brand, it’s whether you’re using it to your advantage.
Emphasize what makes you different
A strong brand highlights what’s unique, not what’s standard. I use a hotel metaphor for this: every hotel has beds, pillows, and bathrooms, but the Ritz-Carlton, Ace Hotel, Element by Westin, and Motel 6 never mention beds. They accentuate the few things that set them apart, from elite service to local flavor to sustainability to dependability. You don’t need to list everything you do, you need to choose what to emphasize.
Communicate both the what and the how
Your brand needs two dimensions. The “what” grounds you in professional credibility, your expertise or job title, but since hundreds of people share those titles, the what alone isn’t enough. The “how” is what sets you apart: the style, mindset, and values you bring to the work, whether that’s being collaborative, detail-oriented, or great at navigating ambiguity. If you’re not sure how you work, ask a trusted teammate or former manager for a few adjectives.
Aim for coherent, not perfect
An ineffective brand isn’t necessarily a bad one, it’s a confusing one, where people don’t know how to remember you. I point to Twitter’s overnight rebrand to X, which changed the name and logo with little explanation and left users unsure what it had become. Your brand doesn’t need to be flawless, but it does need to be coherent, so guide people to the highlights you want them to see, and revisit it every six to twelve months, focusing on alignment rather than reinvention.
Personal branding doesn’t require a website, a logo, or a full strategy deck. It just requires knowing how you’re being perceived and making a few intentional choices, because everyone has something worth claiming, and you get to decide what it is.
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