Why Community is CRITICAL in Personal Branding
Whoa there Tracy. I’m already confused. Isn’t personal branding all about ME? And community all about other people?
It’s true.
Many people believe that personal branding is all about you and how you show up. BUT…if you’ve read any of my other blogs, you’ll know that, to me, your personal brand is the EXPERIENCE that other people have of you. Which means, by default, that a personal brand CANNOT exist without other people.
But just HAVING other people around doesn’t necessarily mean you have a COMMUNITY.
It’s the exact reason why you can feel alone surrounded by a bunch of people.
It’s not that the people are THERE. It’s what those people do to make you feel SEEN.
And that feeling, my friends is critical in developing an authentic personal brand.
Let’s dive a little deeper.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
If you don’t recall the hierarchy of needs laid out by Abraham Maslow, it theorizes that we need to meet certain needs before meeting other needs. The needs, in order of importance as outlined in the hierarchy are listed below.
Physiological Needs >>> Safety >>> Love & Belonging >>> Esteem >>> Self-Actualization
For the sake of this post, I’m going to be focusing on Love & Belonging, as well as Esteem.
First comes Love
According to Maslow, the Love & Belonging need focuses around feeling loved and accepted.
So, yes. It is important to love and accept ourselves. Which is a HUGE piece of personal branding. Re-discovering who you are and loving you for YOU - not someone else you should be - is the foundation for all personal brands.
But I would argue that love and acceptance of ourselves actually falls into the Esteem category.
Which means, here, we’re looking at feeling love and accepted BY others.
Which further means…we need other people.
I’m sure you can think of many instances - probably many at WORK - where other people were around and you did NOT feel accepted. Or loved. So, again, it’s not just about having people around.
A true community is a place where you FEEL accepted and loved for who you truly are. Where people have created a sort of fellowship to support you in where you’re going. Most importantly, because THEY want to. Not because they just happen to be there.
This is something I experience in the Your Business Peeps community all the time. A virtual space where people, whether or not they are actively loving themselves today, can show up and be loved by others.
Example #1 of why community is critical.
Then comes…more Love
Importantly, the Love & Belonging need encompasses both feeling loved and accepted BY others AND feeling love and acceptance TOWARDS others.
There are so many places in society where competition rules. Sports. Politics. The Education System. Closing Clients.
We are inundated with it.
But when we intentionally show up to GIVE love and acceptance to other people, that’s when we open the door to receive more ourselves.
So, where do you go to GIVE love and acceptance?
Well, I’m a big fan of bringing it wherever you go.
That takes practice.
And where is it best to practice new skills?
Surrounded by the people who already love and accept you 😉
How Community helps build Esteem
Our Esteem needs revolve around two main principles: 1) self-confidence and 2) feeling valued by others.
Let’s start with confidence.
In the last few years, “Imposter Syndrome” has become a huge “problem”. Personally, I hate the phrase, because if we were all just trying to be ourselves and measuring against the best version of us, we would know that it’s impossible to be an imposter at being ourselves. The “problem” itself has been created by society trying to convince us we need to be MORE this or LESS that, and when we inevitably fail, we feel like an imposter.
Because, in that scenario, we ARE.
What it really comes down to is a lack of confidence in ourselves.
So, how do we create confidence?
One critical component is surrounding yourself with other people who believe in you when you DON’T.
We ALL have moments, our entire lives, where we question ourselves. But when you are consistently surrounded by people who see the BEST in you, even when you don’t, it’s a whole lot easier to recover.
And I’m sure you can see how this plays into part 2) feeling valued by others. That is, feeling that our achievements and contributions have been recognized by other people.
Currently, we are ONE in 7.9 billion people on the planet. It’s easy to fly under the radar.
But your community? They don’t LET you do that.
They call out your wins for you. They ask you what you’re doing to celebrate. The celebrate your efforts even when you fail.
Because they celebrate YOU.
The receive value from you simply by YOU being YOU.
And they aren’t afraid to tell you.
Love, Belonging & Esteem in Personal Branding
Ok, bringing it back to your personal brand. The experience you leave other people with when you leave the room.
If you don’t love and accept YOURSELF, then you’re not building a PERSONAL brand.
If you can’t love and accept OTHERS, what type of experience are you really leaving others with?
If you don’t have self-confidence, best case scenario you’re building someone ELSE’s brand, not a personal brand.
If you don’t feel valued by others, it’s a lot more difficult to show up and use your voice; which is a HUGE piece of your experience.
So, although we might be include to build our personal brands “on our own”, it’s actually just NOT possible.
Having a community of people around you is a NECESSITY in building your personal brand.
Who’s in yours?
If you’re interested in learning more about how to build a community around you that will help you take your personal brand confidence to the next level, let’s chat!
