Episode Details

Here’s a question that keeps salespeople up at night: How do you build a powerful personal brand without stepping on your company’s toes?

That’s the question Taylor Deadrick asked me during a recent live event. Taylor works for Insperity (a fantastic company that handles all our HR and payroll at Sales Gravy, by the way), and she wanted to know how to establish her own brand while staying aligned with her employer.

If you’ve ever felt this tension, you’re not alone. The fear of conflicting with your company’s brand holds too many salespeople back from building the authority they need to win more deals.

Let me show you how to build a personal brand that actually amplifies your company’s message instead of competing with it.

The Only Real Conflict You Need to Worry About

Here’s the brutal truth: The only way you’ll conflict with your company’s brand is if you assert that your own opinion is that of your employer, or what you’re posting, saying, or writing conflicts with their core values, their marketing message, or the way they go to market.

That’s it. That’s the line.

If you start trying to speak for your company or post things that contradict their values, you’ve got a problem. But if everything you do supports those core values, you’re going to be just fine.

Think about it this way: Your company hired you because you aligned with their mission. Now your job is to amplify that mission through your own authentic voice and expertise.

The mistake most salespeople make is thinking their personal brand needs to be separate from or independent of their company. Wrong. Your personal brand should be the human face of your company’s value proposition.

Your Personal Brand Is Bigger Than Your Logo

Your personal brand isn’t just what you post on LinkedIn. It’s not your profile picture or your witty headline.

Your personal brand is the confidence you show when you hop on a microphone and ask a tough question. It’s your smile and the way you treat people. It’s whether you’re kind, whether you invest in yourself, whether you show up with expertise that actually helps people solve problems.

Your personal brand is the human being who walks into businesses every day and shows up for those businesses. That’s the most important part of your brand, and that’s the part that builds trust and causes people to buy you.

Everything else (your LinkedIn posts, your content, your online presence) is just an extension of that core identity.

Authority: The Secret Weapon of Personal Branding