In a packed room at this year's #Apartmentalize, Barbara Savona, CEO & Co-Founder of Sprout Marketing, and Stephanie Graves, Co-Founder and CEO at Q10 Property Advisors, LLC, dove into what it means to have a personal brand, and how to proactively take charge of that presence.  Personal branding is your reputation, how you are perceived by others, and as Barbara said, "personal branding is what comes to mind when people think of you. It's a collection of your skills, experiences, personality and values".  Further, "Personal branding is an inside out job. It's more about expression than creation. It's a vehicle that allows you to reach both personal and professional goals while making an impact on your network." 

Just as importantly, "you have a personal brand, even if it is not intentional."  In other words, people will make assessments of you regardless, so taking control of your personal brand means being proactive in defining how you are perceived by others.  In this session, Barbara and Stephanie shared how to take charge of your personal brand, how to define what it actually entails, and pitfalls to avoid.

To kick things off, they stressed that you do not need to know a full vision of what your personal brand is or could be.  Personal branding is a vehicle that can go as fast or slow as you want, and you don't need to know your final destination.  As you think about how you want to be perceived and known for, what you initially define may vary drastically to where you end up down the road.  For example, Barbara shared:

My mission has always been to champion property managers. That's where my roots lie. Over the years that network has extended to all the roles that impact the property manager. When I'm having a conversation with a CEO of a company, I'm always looking to connect the dots on how this ties back to the property manager. How can I help the c-suite understand their challenges and their goals a little better? And at the same time, how can I help the property manager understand the expectations of the c-suite. My goal is to be a bridge for those conversations.

How does one being to define their own personal brand?  Stephanie and Barbara suggested asking those closest to you what they think your gifts are.  What do they feel are your personal strengths, as that may actually differ from what you perceive about yourself. Another approach is to consider what people come to you for help with.

On a personal note, in my role at Multifamily Insiders, I'm often working with aspiring authors, and the most common challenge they face is that they "don't know what they know."  In other words, we tend to look at our own knowledge as commonplace and not valuable to other people.  But in reality, we are treasure troves of unique experiences and perspectives, so what I often do with these aspiring authors is to simply brainstorm with them, teasing out nuggets of information and topics that they feel may be boring but are actually quite enlightening.  So I would recommend find someone outside of your immediate sphere who can help tease out some of those brilliant gems locked in your brain.

Stephanie and Barbara also shared some thoughts about building that brand:

• Think about your "tone".  Sometimes picturing a specific person can help clarify how you want to "speak" to your tribe.  Are you looking to be supportive, motivational, challenging?
• What is your purpose?  Knowing what impact you want to make can make your communications much more intentional.
• Being authentic means sharing some of your struggles, as people relate to vulnerability.
• Consistency doesn't necessarily mean every day.  It means consistent at your comfortable timeline.

Similarly, I've personally found that by sharing knowledge through speaking, writing blogs like this, or on social media forces the individual to reflect on their own knowledge, honing and sharpening it.  When you are tasked (or task yourself) with sharing knowledge, it forces you to examine that topic at a higher level in order to convey your message.  For example, let's say I'm going to share best practices of running a Facebook Group – The process of gathering all those thoughts and experience force me to reexamine everything so that my lesson is as impactful as possible.  So by taking the time to share thoughts with others, you end up improving your own understanding of the core concepts.

Lastly, and maybe most importantly, Barbara stressed that it is important to live your brand.  If you are authentic, your brand will follow your true self.

How focused is the multifamily community on developing their personal brand?  We asked the Multifamily Insiders community on LinkedIn:

How do you define your own personal brand?  What are you doing to develop it?  Share your journey, tips, and experiences below!