What do you want to be when you grow up? That little question feels very big. In fact, many debate whether it’s even helpful to ask young people. It’s anxiety-inducing and asked way, way too early. Before I get into my suggestion of a better question you can ask yourself in refining your own personal brand, I want to share my answer to this big question.
While I may have had the occasional cowboy or astronaut answer at some point, the time I remember answering this question was in Mrs. Drake’s third-grade class. It came in the form of an assignment. Beyond identifying what we wanted to be when we grew up, we also had to draw a picture of what our future selves looked like.
I don’t have my picture, but I can still see it. Future Nick was reasonably tall, glasses (I didn’t wear them then — I guess I thought I would?), a stubble beard (it was the ‘80s, think: Indiana Jones, George Michael), and — wait for it — a beret (I beat John Travolta to this style piece). Future Nick was an art teacher, holding a palette and brush in front of a canvas.
Beret notwithstanding, the picture is pretty accurate (my face is all over this website). Moreover, whenever anyone asks me now what I wanted to be as a kid, I can honestly say my earliest memory was “teacher.” And while I don’t teach art, as a professor of communication and storytelling, I’m a teacher who helps people express themselves creatively in their work.
Not too bad for a third grader.
My Beret and Your Brand
Recently on the On Brand podcast, I chatted with Elizabeth Rosenberg on the subject of personal branding. During this conversation, she shared, “I’ve also found that your brand stems so much from who you are as a child.”
Growing up with a twin, Elizabeth’s mother said she was the spokesperson of the two. “I’ve been PRing since I was a child!” And it’s still a big part of who she is today. She also mentioned a friend with divorced parents who found herself mediating from an early age. She now works in HR.
“A lot of the time, that brand itself is the brand you innately are, but we forget who that is because of the norms corporate America has taught us,” Elizabeth adds. “You need to be the CEO. You need to show up this way. And that’s just not an interesting story to tell.”
Personal branding is the essential story we tell about who we are. Often, that story starts in childhood.
A Personal Branding Prompt for You
You might be saying, “But Nick. Your personal brand isn’t teacher.” And Elizabeth’s brand isn’t PR. But these core identity stories provide a breadcrumb trail for what that is.
Beyond the beret drawing, I also think of my time in the Boy Scouts. That was where I gained some of my first leadership experience as a patrol leader and eventually senior patrol leader. I was so hooked, I even led a youth leadership workshop for our council. A part of this included creating handouts. I could have just typed these up on some ancient word processor. Instead, I wrote them by hand and included my own illustrations (sound familiar?). This is another story of me teaching, but it’s also a story of me using humor (the drawings) and warmth (hand-written handouts) to reinforce this.
Today, I’d like to think that you can see these personal brand pillars in my work. I even made them alliterative to help me remember and live into them more fully — wit, wisdom, and warmth (extra points for using Ws — I guess my inner teacher gives extra credit).
A common mistake in brand-building is that it’s additive. We think we have to add something that’s not currently there. But often, the most powerful parts of our story have been there all along.
Story Strategy: Who Were You Then/Now
Instead of searching for your personal brand, consider the aspects of your personality that might be hiding in plain sight.
Apply it: What did people always say about you growing up? What’s a story that defined your character as a kid? Or, what skill or role from childhood do you find yourself still practicing today?
A version of this first appeared in Story Strategies—my monthly email newsletter designed to help you connect with your audience through the power of story. Get the next issue delivered to your inbox.
