The State of Personal Branding
Nearly 2 years ago, I wrote a LinkedIn article titled 10 Personal Branding Trends to Watch in 2025. That was a year after my article From CEO to MeEO. I could feel the growing need for defining our personal brand. The importance of fully understanding our strengths and unique differences we bring to our work.
Recently, Fast Company published two articles on personal branding that underline several of the points I made in the trends article. The first document, Personal Brand Special Report, focuses on individual brands and the second, How to Manage Personal Brands, discusses what this means for companies. Below are some key points I see in each article and how they tie back to what I published in my 10 trends.
1. Personal branding is becoming career insurance.
Fast Company describes a strong personal brand as a “career trampoline” that can help you bounce into your next opportunity when you need or want to.
This was also at the heart of my #1 trend in 2025: The Rise of the MeEO™ Mindset.
“Professionals are managing their careers like businesses, using personal branding as ‘career insurance’ to stay resilient and adaptable.”- Lori Sullivan
Nearly two years later, I think this idea is even more important.
Jobs change. Companies restructure. Skills evolve. AI is changing roles and industries. Our personal brand, including our reputation, relationships, expertise, and body of work, travels with us over time.
2. Being known for something matters.
Fast Company’s research repeatedly comes back to expertise, perspective, and knowing what you want to be known for. This connects to several of the trends identified in 2025, including Diversity of Thought and Values & Vision.
Personal branding is about creating an association in someone’s mind. When your name comes up, what do people associate with you? What do they think you know? What would they ask you about? What would they recommend you for?
Knowing what I refer to as your “special sauce” is a more meaningful measure of a personal brand than number of followers or impressions.
3. AI is making the human parts of our brands more important.
The Fast Company report suggests the human and AI aspects of our brand are becoming more intertwined. I saw this coming back in 2025:
“As AI-generated content grows, authenticity, transparency, and reliability will become even more important.” – Lori Sullivan
AI can help create articles, posts, videos, or presentations. However, the results can easily blend in. What stands out is expertise, unique perspectives, and a recognizable point of view. Those may become even more valuable as the amount of content around us continues to grow.
4. Personal branding is becoming part of career management.
Fast Company describes three ways people are using their personal brands: the inside game, the career trampoline, and the escape hatch.
A strong brand can help you grow within an organization, move between opportunities, or build something of your own. That feels like being a MeEO.
While a personal brand is important when job hunting, it doesn’t stop there. A strong, clear view of what you want and who you are enables you to take the reins of your career and life.
The Fast Company article suggests that opting out of personal branding isn’t really an option. I’ve always believed this. You have a personal brand whether you intentionally manage it or not. We need to recognize that managing our reputation is increasingly part of managing our career.
5. The company side of the story.
The final area I want to highlight comes from the second report that looked at personal branding from the company’s perspective. As employees build stronger professional identities, companies must decide how they will respond.
Three ideas stood out to me:
Employee brands can strengthen corporate brands. Employees with expertise, credibility, and relevant audiences can extend the reach and trust of the organization.
Employee and corporate brands can collide. Traditional policies weren’t necessarily designed for employees who have substantial professional identities and audiences outside the company.
The opportunity can be mutual. Companies can create guardrails while helping employees build their professional reputation. This approach creates value for both.
This may be one of the most interesting developments since I wrote my original trends. Personal branding is becoming a talent, leadership, and corporate brand topic. Those who create a strategy early can reap the benefits of a broader and more organic reach.
Summary
While there have been changes and evolutions since my trends post, the Fast Company reports seem to indicate that personal branding is becoming more prevalent, and companies are now also in the mix.
If you want to dive deeper into your personal brand, here are a few articles from my blog that might be helpful. Levels of Personal Branding, Fingerprints Personal Branding Method, 10 Personal Branding Actions Before Year End, and Fingerprints Brand Framework. And, as always, if you would like to talk about your personal brand or how to work with personal brands inside your company, please reach out.
End of Year Workshop
Speaking of personal brands, the end of year is a great time to reflect on the year past and set intentions for 2027. Maybe it’s the year you lean into your personal brand. Or tackle that goal that’s always been in the back of your mind. If you want more out of the year ahead, please join me in my 2027 Planning Workshop. To learn more, reach out or visit the registration page.
Posts This Week
Discovering Your Personal Brand Colors. Have you ever considered your signature color? This post will help do exactly what the title says and define the colors you can become associated with.
Creating a Visual Identity for Your Personal Brand. Building on the prior post about brand colors, this article helps define your overall style and articulate it through a Visual Identity Statement.
Tone of Voice Statement. In addition to our visual identity, our words – written and spoken – also play a role in our personal brand. This post explores how to create a tone of voice statement.
Your Meeting Brand Character. Our participation (or not) in a meeting can say a lot about us. This post ladders off a Forbes article on how our approach can impact how we are perceived.
It’s Strategy Season… What’s Your Personal Brand Strategy. This final post of the week suggests considering a strategic plan for your personal brand in 2027. If this is of interest, check out the 2027 Planning Workshop.
Podcasts and Articles That Caught My Attention
How to Structure Your To-Do List AND Back to the Basics. 10 minutes. Optimal Work Daily. This episode features two blog posts. The first talks about productivity systems that are focused on a defined place. The second provides organizing inspiration from a kindergarten classroom.
AI Brain Fry is Real. Here’s What Leaders Can Do. 11 minutes. TED Talks Daily. This podcast discusses new challenges with AI use. Specifically, what we can do to avoid “AI brain fry”.
Why We Want Things We Don’t Need. 22 minutes. The Next Big Idea Daily. This episode provides highlights from two books. The first is Saying No to New: Why New Things Are Stealing Your Time, Money, and Happiness—And How to Take Back Your Life by Eric Athas. The second is titled The Ugly History of Beautiful Things: Essays on Desire and Consumption by Katy Kelleher.
It’s Fall. Let’s Get Cozy! 18 minutes. Life Kit. I think the title of this one says it all. If you are looking for some ways to cozy in this season, this episode is for you.
What’s the Difference Between Retirement and Financial Independence. 11 minutes. Optimal Finance Daily. For anyone who’s wondered about how to achieve financial independence and what it means to do that before “retiring”, this episode give a simple explanation.
What Do You Think?
What do you see as the main headlines in personal branding right now?
Have you intentionally created your brand personality with colors and tone of voice?
What ideas did the posts & podcasts spark that you could implement in the week ahead?
Marketing Newsletter
This week, the Fingerprints Marketing newsletter focuses on what makes loveable brands. I highlight two research techniques I leveraged early in my career and then provide a fun brand integration that I ran across last weekend. It’s a great example of stepping out of the box and creating a loveable brand.