Never shelve your hopes, dreams and ideas...
"Becoming the go-to-person for personal branding"

Times they are a-changin’… In the past you had two options when it came to your professional life: money or inner fulfillment. You either pursued the practical goal of earning an income not really bothering about work joy, or you pursued inner creative satisfaction not expecting a lot of money in return. Nowadays we are longing for both complicated ambitions to coexist: being able to pay for our needs and lifestyle ánd at the same time tapping into our deepest self. This coexistence of ambitions is why I’ve personally chosen for solopreneurship instead of continuing a corporate career.

But starting on your own is one thing. The hardest thing is to define what you then specifically want to do as a solopreneur. A luxury position, you might say. And actually it is or it should be, because you can choose whatever direction you want and even do something totally different. But this proliferation of options might leave you behind with a sense of choosing is loosing.

Next to that, exiting your busy career puts you into the sound of silence: no meetings, no emails, no calls, no nothing… At my employer I’d built up a reputation amongst my colleagues, clients and partners. I was well-known and respected and the go-to-person for a variety of marketing topics and for personal advice. Now I needed to find out which go-to-person I wanted to become as a business owner. I even had the feeling I needed to start from ground zero…

But nothing could be further from the truth. A throwback towards a lovely sunny terrace in Sarasota, Florida, in September 2015 has opened my eyes and helped me in my decision. Sitting down with a refreshing drink I drafted on the back of a little plan of the surroundings my vision on personal branding. Yes, I still have that plan as you can see. And yes, I hear you thinking, there she is again with “It was 2015”… But it is strange that both my wish for entrepreneurship and my idea for personal branding were born then and there. Unfortunately I never gave it any further thought. Now I know, never shelve your hopes, dreams and ideas! After all those years I am finally pursuing my dream of unlocking the world's authenticity and knowledge through the power of personal branding...

Of course, when you take a professional decision, an Aha-Erlebnis alone isn’t enough. My own thinking process allowed me to gain some insights, which I am happy to share with you.

You need to understand the pleasure points that make you tick in your job and that determine your working identity. The pleasures I identified for myself are perfectly in line with being a personal brander. To name a few: the pleasure of beauty (loving things to be just a bit different to suit someone’s personality, the richness of vocabulary to tell the right story), the pleasure of creativity (writing strong texts, thinking out-of-the-box, making the untangible tangible), the pleasure of understanding (discovering an underlying pattern when confronted with an abundance of at first sight conflicting facts), the pleasure of self-expression (adding personality to something), the pleasure of helping other people (making a difference in the lives of others), the pleasure of teaching (equipping somebody else with your knowledge),…

You never start from zero! It is called the halo effect. Your status and knowledge are portable and transferable. If you were good in your job, people are convinced that you will be good at your next challenge as well. I realized I already gained a lot of experience in the different aspects of the personal branding space. In my role as a counselor I helped my precious counselees to find their spike and to increase their visibility. As a head of marketing I applied a content marketing and lead generation strategy and completed the rebranding of the consulting company. I guided numerous clients, ranging from the electro sector to the fast food branche, in their repositioning and branding and the marketing and go-to-market plans that came along with this. So all of my passions and experiences are coming together in personal branding: passion for people and marketing, the art of inspiration and the power of the word. (A lot of people don’t know that my initial master was one in literature and linguistics almost 20 years ago. Yes, I know, this number freaks me out as well, time flies…)

Drink your own champagne! My brand identity within the company was very clear, I’ve been putting corporate brands in the market for years and I adored coaching colleagues to help them gain visibility. But I forgot one thing: myself, my own personal branding. Although I wrote a lot of blog posts for example, I created these as “Karolien from ...”. So during the set-up of my own business I became aware of the fact that I need to start practicing what I preach. But isn’t it common that you often go the extra mile for others, forgetting yourself? Can’t you compare it with a really good cleaning professional who doesn’t have the time to clean his/her own house? This is about to change now, since I am starting my own personal branding journey. In that way my own working point will become an inspiration source for many.

In other words, my tips for you are to do what gives you pleasure, to never underestimate the experience you’ve already built up, to keep the halo effect in mind and to turn your own working point into an accelerator for others. Pursue your dreams! For me all the pieces of my puzzle have been falling into place. All the ingredients are now here to launch myself as a personal branding expert. The word is out, I’m happy to share this with you and I couldn’t be more excited!

How did you find out what you wanted to do as an entrepreneur? And what are your lessons learned looking back at your entrepreneurial start? Curious to hear your stories... Don't hesitate to send me a message at [email protected]