Why Authentic Personal Branding Beats Perfection, with Dr. Denise Dudley

Now, one of the things that you've also been able to tie in with the personal branding.

So when it comes to this growth, what are your thoughts on how that all ties in? And whether you're in corporate or you're in your own business, we all have a personal brand.

Tell me a little bit about your thoughts on how that all ties in.

Absolutely.

So I think right now, and especially for women, we tend to chase things that may or may not be in our best interest in terms of who we are essentially or on a fundamental level.

I guess what I'm saying here is that I watch a lot of people, but I'm just gonna speak to women for a moment, looking at what seems to be working out there.

They, they watch perhaps a model, and modeling, by the way, is really good.

There's-- I, I'm a, a huge-- As a behavioral psychologist, I'm a huge advocate for choosing a model and observing what they do and then taking the best parts of whatev- whatever it is you saw in that person and incorporating it if it fits.

However, I think we sometimes get ourselves a little bit messed up in that we track somebody and decide we want to become them 100%, and I think that's where we lose our authenticity.

I'm a huge believer that, yes, studying other people, learning from other people, having a mentor, a real mentor who cares about you and wants you to move forward, those are important assets to have, but we need to filter it through who we are at our essence.

And who we are at our essence might, I guess I'll say, be in conflict.

Let's-- For an example, let's just say that I really admire somebody who's bright and bubbly and talks and makes jokes all the time, but I'm more of a quiet type, or I'm more of a measured type.

Then maybe trying to do that and trying to be that person is gonna come off as super fakey or, or super ingenuine, and that is a trait that most people do not wanna be around is ingenuineness.

We can tell that now, and I think, I think even more with the, what is it, the, the rise of AI, authenticity is really coming out.

And there's so many people.

None of us-- I mean, everyone has their uniqueness about them because they are themselves, but I don't-- haven't found anybody, and especially for myself, I'll use myself as an example, in branding and brand photography, there's so many of us out there.

The only differentiator that I really, really have is me.

And so when you're listening and you're talking, do you resonate with me? Can I pull something out of you that maybe someone else wouldn't have? But really that comes down to being comfortable.

And you mentioned if you're not loud and bubbly, man, I can be-- I call myself an introverted extrovert.

You know, I can walk-

Me too.

[laughs]

... into a room, and I can turn it on, right? I can turn it on for that networking meeting.

But when I leave, I wanna be quiet and calm, and I wanna go sit down and just kinda, like, relax because it requires a lot more effort than somebody who is a natural extrovert.

But knowing what that is and then really being free to lean into what makes you authentic is what is your differentiator? Tell your story.