Self-branding is something that we all do, whether we are consciously thinking about it or not. Whether it's in your personal life or your professional life, self-branding is all about establishing who you are, what you stand for, and what other people think of you.

Self-branding can play a large role on your overall career path, as it helps to show off your skills, and can make other people want to work with you. It can also help you to create a professional image that will show others your best attributes.

If you want to learn more about self-branding and how it can benefit your career growth, you are in the right place. Read on to explore what some of the top business leaders have to say about how self-branding can benefit your career growth.

Become an Expert in Your Field

Noel Jones, PR Coordinator Brandon Blackwood

Self-branding is one of the best ways for you to gain exposure, experience, and connections in your chosen career field. Over the past few years, social media has quickly become one of the best avenues for professional self-branding, as it allows you to claim your name and make your existance known to a wide audience. Depending on which platform you choose, you can promote your personal brand with videos, photos, written posts, and even podcasts. This allows you to share your knowledge with others and in turn, position yourself as a thought leader and an expert in your field. Self-branding will help you to build up a niche audience, where you can then answer business questions, cover events, and most importantly, grow your career.  

Creating a Roadmap of Your Future

Umer Usman, Head of Growth AvantStay

One of the main reasons why self-branding is so important to your career growth is that you can use it to create a roadmap of your future career goals. When you create a self-brand that people know and respect, the more likely that will want to see you succeed, and will even want to help along the way. When you are building your personal brand, try to forecast where you want to be professionally in the next five to 10 years. This will help to show you, and others, exactly where you want to go, and what steps you need to take to get there. As you grow in your career, make sure that you reinvent your brand as you go, in order to show off all of the skills, values, and professional experience that you have gained thus far.

Show Off Your Unique Experiences

Brittany Dolin, Co-Founder Pocketbook Agency

One of the best ways that self-branding can benefit your career growth is that it allows you to show off your unique life experiences. Whether it is your impressive prior work experience, your notable network of connections, or your fun traveling opportunities, self-branding will let the people in your career field see all of the wonderful experiences that you have had throughout your life. For many people who start a new job with no personal branding, your boss and co-workers will most likely know very little about you, except maybe what they can find out from your LinkedIn page. However, if you are successful at self-branding, your new office peers will instantly find ways to connect with you, and will look forward to striking up interesting conversations with you about all of your unique experiences. This will help you to not only gain more friends at the office, but it could also help to show your employers how much value and life experience that you can bring to the table.

Learn What Others Think of You

Vincent R. Chan, Chief Financial Officer Christina

For the most part, self-branding is all about highlighting your strengths, but it can sometimes also be a way to understand your limitations. By having a strong online or even in-office presence, you are bound to learn what others think of you. Many industry leaders believe that personal branding is more about what others say about someone when they leave the room, then when they are actually in it. By practicing self-branding, you may be able to find small gaps in perception, and be able to close the gaps with your behaviors, so that you evolve your personal brand going forward with positive change. This will not only help you in your career growth, but with your personal relationships as well.

Knowing Your Worth

Matt Miller, Founder and CEO Embroker

If you are looking for ways to expedite your career growth, self-branding will be able to help you make a name for yourself, while also teaching you to know your worth. When it comes to business and growing in your career, knowing your self worth is important, as this will give you the confidence and ability to make smart career choices that benefit you. Instead of staying in the same monotonous job for years on end, self-branding can help to show you, and those around you, that you are up for the challenge, and that you are not afraid to move around if need be. Sometimes when it comes to career growth, you need to be willing to chase your goals and take some risks. Self-branding will be able to help you create a strong, professional image that can help you to catapult your career forward, as long as you know all of the fantastic qualities that you possess and can add to the right business.

Stepping Into a New Career Path

Adelle Archer, CEO and Co-Founder Eterneva

One of the ways that self-branding can benefit your career growth is that it can actually make it easier for you to change fields or step into a new career path. For example, when you are pursuing a career change, know that your personal brand will help to determine what your future employers think of you. This is why you want to make sure that your goals and messaging are consistent across all of your platforms, and that you show how your skills can be applied across different industries, especially relating to the new field that you want to step into. You can also make your own website to promote your personal brand and your current ambitions. Many skills are transferable and there are typically many overlaps when it comes to experience in the business world, so make sure that you relay this through your self-branding techniques, in order to help you step into a new career path with ease.

Gaining Confidence

William Arruda, Founder Reach Personal Branding

In the competitive work environment today where we seek to have impact, use our talents and support our life purpose, it's a no brainer that personal branding is an important career development initiative. Although effective personal branding is based in authenticity, there's an aspirational element. Your personal brand is aligned with and directed by your goals. Focusing your branding actions and effort toward your goals is one of the key elements of personal branding. Perhaps the biggest byproduct of building your personal brand is confidence. The self-awareness you gain from going through the personal branding process translates into self-assuredness. And as your brand begins to pay dividends-opportunities, power brokers, acknowledgement, accolades-you become more and more comfortable in your own shoes. And that's the best kind of wealth there is.

Boosting Your Perceived Value

Pete Kistler, Co-Founder BrandYourself

People often describe a strong personal brand as a magnet that attracts clients, job offers, and opportunities. That's because personal branding shows people you are the only solution to their problem. You are not just better than your competitors, you are the only choice for a certain group of people with a particular need. When people know the source of your career energy, they feel better about putting you in charge of their needs. As your personal brand develops, people will start thinking about you on an emotional level, not simply an intellectual level. People will connect more deeply with your brand, increasing your value to them and allowing you to charge more for your services. In addition, being actively involved in your niche and creating "credibility boosters", like original, useful on-brand content, establishes you as an expert, driving demand for you and allowing you to work less and make more. As your network grows, you'll find more and more people recognize your name before you meet them. Your prominence will grow and continue to keep you in a position of power in the workplace.

Remember that when it comes to building your own personal brand, the bottom line is that you want to catapult your career forward. Whether it's through social media, or simply making yourself known to the peers in your industry, self-branding can help you to reach all of your career goals, at top speed.