I have been thinking a lot about our upcoming event - Your Personal Brand: How to be who you want to be – and what it really means to me.

What is my personal brand? Who am I and what do I do to show it? How do others perceive me? How do others perceive me, without even meeting me? Would people see my social media channels and make the correct assumptions about who I am as a person, and would they like who they think I am?

Why did I automatically think of my social media channels as a source of my personality? I guess they are instantly accessible and are a form of my consciousness, whether it’s a tweet about home-made tomato sauce I’m currently trying to perfect or a throwback photo of a holiday because let’s face it, I’m not doing anything interesting enough in the pandemic to post onto Instagram.

Which then made me start thinking about not posting – because I fear that people wouldn’t be interested in my post, they wouldn’t click that little heart button to like it and I would feel invalidated in my efforts to share a little slice of my day with you.

Social media has been leading to high, if not unachievable, expectations. A seemingly perfect life presented and lusted after but - you just never know what’s going on behind the camera.

I was chatting to a friend of mine, classed as a ‘micro-influencer’ due to the number of followers they have built on their Instagram page. She posts photos of her lounging by swimming pools in idyllic locations, wearing bright red lipstick that doesn’t smudge one tiny bit while sipping champagne in a bar that leads me to click through to the location and decide I can’t afford to go for a drink there until pay day.

I’d recently seen photos and videos of her apparent easy-going lockdown life in her beautiful west London flat, with her attentive boyfriend doting on her. I had mentioned how glamorous was still looking in comparison to my daily uniform of jogging bottoms and asked how she was managing it.

Her response surprised me. She hadn’t managed to get through a day without crying, she was stressed at the idea of losing her day job, was missing her family and being stuck in the same four walls day in day out a living nightmare.

Oh, she was exactly like the rest of us, just masking it very well.

This revelation led me to a pretty firm conclusion. Why don’t we share more realistic images?

Are we worried that someone may be watching and judging us? Sorry if this sounds harsh but you’re most probably not under as much scrutiny as you seem to think you are. You are your own worst critic, what you say about yourself and your own achievements are never as much praise as you’d give a friend.

Think of how it feels when you hear of one of your friends achieving their goals or sharing insecurities on life and how they are managing to overcome them – that’s how people will feel about you!

This event is for PWN London Members only, we will confirm members against our list and email you login details on the morning of the event. If you are not a member yet, check out our membership options HERE.

Author: FI KIEVENAAR