people will resist your kindness. You can be trustworthy, but if your brand says“ manipulative,” people will doubt your sincerity. You can be a visionary, but if your brand says“ all talk, no substance,” no one will follow you.
This is not a fake it till you make it message. It is about making it so you do not have to fake it. This is about aligning perception with truth. This is about making sure that what is in you is not lost because of what people think is not in you.
I remember consulting for a government department once. There was a young lady in the room who was sharp, articulate and full of insight. But she rarely spoke. Her supervisor spoke over her. Others ignored her. Yet every time she did say something, the entire room leaned in. After the session, I pulled her aside and asked,“ Why do you stay in the background?” She shrugged.“ I don’ t want to look like I’ m showing off.” I shook my head.“ There’ s a difference between showing off and showing up. Your gift will open doors, but your brand is the key that turns the handle.”
Within weeks of intentionally stepping into her space and owning her voice, she was leading key project teams and got a recommendation for a fellowship program abroad. Nothing about her competence changed. What changed was the world finally seeing the version of her that had always been there. This is the power of brand awareness. And the tragedy of brand ignorance.
But I have good news. Even if this has been your story … even if you’ ve lived in the shadows, underestimated, overlooked, unseen … it’ s not too late. You can take back control. You can redefine the narrative. You can raise your brand to match your value. You can build a reputation that reflects your true worth. Because your future doesn’ t need your permission to be different. It just needs your active participation.
I need you to understand something. You are not powerless in this. You are not at the mercy of what people have thought about you in the past. You are not sentenced to a life of being misunderstood, underestimated, or ignored. You can take control of your brand starting now.
Think about it. Companies rebrand all the time. Nations rebrand. Products rebrand. Even cities rebrand. And what they’ re doing is not changing their identity but changing the story they’ re telling about themselves. They’ re reclaiming the power to define how they want to be seen and you can do the same.
One of the most liberating truths I discovered early in life is this: if people can change their minds about others, they can change their minds about me too. But I have to give them something new to see. I have to give them a reason.
That’ s what personal branding is about. It’ s not about being famous. It’ s not about hype. It’ s not even about creating an image. It’ s about revealing the substance. This is why I will emphatically say again that it is not faking it till you make it. It is making it buy building substance so you will never have to fake it. It’ s about ensuring that who you are and what you carry are no longer hidden behind noise, insecurity, or confusion.
In my book BRAND Control, I outline this process in simple steps. First, define your brand. This is the part where you ask yourself, What do I want people to think when they hear my name? Not what you hope they think, not what you wish they knew but what you want to deliberately project.
Next, project it. Once you know what you stand for, start putting it out there. Your words, your tone, your appearance, your online content, your interactions should all carry the same consistent message. If your brand is excellence, show up excellently. If it’ s compassion, let that tone speak through your emails, your social media, your body language.
Finally, feed the brand. This is where many people drop the ball. A brand is not built in a day but fed over time. Like a fire, if you stop feeding it, it dies. You feed your brand by living it. By sharpening your skills. By learning. By surrounding yourself with people who challenge you to grow. You feed it by consistently aligning who you are with how you show up.
Let me tell you, there’ s something beautiful about living in alignment with your brand. Doors open with less effort. Conversations start in your absence. Your name begins to carry a weight you didn’ t even know it could carry. You stop chasing opportunities and opportunities begin to chase you. And no, it’ s not too late.
31st of December 1983 was the day the military, led by a younger Muhammadu Buhari, toppled the government of Shehu Shagari who was then the democratically elected president of Nigeria. Those days, nearly every single person in power wore a uniform- ministers, governors, and heads of key government installations were all manned by the military. Buhari was head of state. Babangida was his chief of army staff and a coup specialist. Abacha was a member of the supreme military council.
Now fast forward a couple of decades. Abacha had died but he was in the process of transforming himself into a civilian president at the time of his death. Babangida became a presidential candidate and a key political figure in the country, while Buhari actually made it back again as the president.
How can a person who truncated a democratically elected administration position himself as a democrat?
In the same vein, how do people we know stole money suddenly return as anticorruption fighters- and somehow, we accept them?
If we explain all our stupidity away as spiritual, if we happily find someone from the village, some evil spirit as the fall guy for our lack of preparation or intentionality, we will never progress and sadly this is the reality for a lot of ignorant Africans.
We’ ve all heard the phrase,“ You only have one chance to make a first impression.” But think about it- how many people did you dislike when you first met them but later grew fond of? How many couples hated each other initially but ended up married?
First impressions aren’ t final. The most important impression is the last one- and you can reshape that at any time.
The Buhari’ s of this world simply hired brilliant minds to rebrand them. From
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