Do These 2 things To Develop An Exquisite Personal Brand

Written By L. Michelle Smith, MS, ACC, CPEC

After wrapping up up my session at the BLACK ENTERPRISE Women of Power Summit in Las Vegas, Nevada, in March, I shared a little something with the hundreds of women who attended the Branding Boot Camp. This reinforced my hourlong talk about the mechanics and strategies behind creating a memorable experience for the people they want to impact. 

Some people call that intentional experience personal branding, but there is far more to it than that for leaders who want to establish trust, loyalty, and advocacy in the people they work with and beyond–-especially for those who experience life and work in the margins. These leaders want to create lasting connections beyond first, second, or third impressions. They want to be humanized and personalized, and that makes any grand gesture they make all the more authentic. This is the way to create rabid fans.

Before the attacks on affirmative action or even the more recent ones on diversity, equity, and inclusion, Black women leaders, often the “onlies” in the halls and boardrooms of corporate America, struggled with being seen or heard and so curating a personal brand that attracts the right opportunities inside an organization or externally can feel incredibly daunting.

A one-size-fits-all approach to personal branding typically leaves Black women leaders, who are already stretched beyond capacity, struggling to post more on social media, attempting to stay up on the algorithm shifts on business networking sites or other more tactical approaches. Some of these leaders–admitted introverts–squirm at the idea of mounting anyone’s stage to speak or might even question their ability or desire to do so.

But what if the way to stand out in a space that typically others Black women leaders or feels otherwise minimizing requires less effort to be seen or heard online or off and more effort focusing on one-to-one connections a leader can make each day with small gestures? This can be something that feels personal and far more meaningful than any speaking engagement or humble-brag post ever could. After all, the goal is brand loyalty, not simply brand awareness.

It’s a relief to many of the leaders I work with to hear that an extraordinary brand really only takes two things: 

• Emotional intelligence quotient (EQ)  
• The ability to identify, articulate, and deliver your value excellently.  

To put it plainly, you need to be self-aware, able to read a room, empathize, and give the people what they need consistently, unselfishly, and outstandingly.  

In consumer branding, you may hear marketing professionals call this “surprise and delight,” but this is why the best and most beloved consumer brands have dedicated teams that think about, dissect, and tweak their customer experiences each day. It takes that kind of thought, even for individual leaders.  

Interrogating two thoughts should be at the heart of your efforts:

• How do I want people to feel with each interaction they have with me?
• What’s in it for them?

Emotional literacy, the ability to recognize and name one’s own feelings as well as those of others, is essential in this process and is a key component of EQ.

Author and psychologist Daniel Goleman has said, “The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way: They all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but…they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions.”

So, not only is integrating emotional intelligence into your personal branding strategy important for loyalty and trust, but it’s also a boss move that can catapult you to the executive ranks and sustain your time there.

So, what small gesture did I extend to the hundreds of women in the room at the Branding Boot Camp at BEWPS? How did I surprise and delight them? How did I “put them in their feelings” to establish connection? I demonstrated thoughtfulness by seeking out a sponsor for my books for the book signing after the session so they wouldn’t have to pay for them. That sponsor was a beloved brand with which most of the women connected. They let out an audible gasp when I shared that former Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall of Marshalling Resources paid for the books. This freed us up to simply focus on connecting with each other one-on-one as they stood in line for more than an hour.   For some, that was a handshake and a few kind words. For others, it was a hug and sharing a learning or a breakthrough from the session. Still, for others, it was a huge smile and a photo together.  

Neuroscience says our brains and beings crave this kind of connection. It instantly demolishes feelings of isolation. It fires up the neurotransmitter oxytocin, “the love hormone,” which causes humans to bond. It’s the kind of bond that motivates and pushes you forward in life and leadership. Emotions help create memories, and that day, we each made a memory together over strategies, books, and tools that will impact their leadership journeys for the foreseeable future.

Curating an exquisite personal brand is not about you. It’s about the type of intentional personal experiences you create for colleagues, bosses, and stakeholders. It’s time we got out of our heads about personal branding and into our feelings to put the people who matter to our leadership trajectory in theirs.

L. Michelle Smith is the premier voice in leadership at the apex of science and culture. She is a neuroscience- and positive psychology-informed certified executive and personal coach and the author of Yes Please! 7 Ways to Say I’m Entitled to the C-Suite, the upcoming Call & Response: 10 Leadership Lessons from the Black Church (Amistad-HarperCollins/JVL Media, 2026), and other award-winning leadership books.