Why Trying to Sound Professional Is Hurting Your Brand

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There’s a perception when you start your business that you need to suddenly become a ✨Business Owner✨ and sound in a particular way, or act in a certain way. It’s simply not true. You don’t have to change anything about yourself when you start a business, and to do so can seriously hurt your brand.

I say this because I did it. When I first started my business, I heard the phrase “treat your business like you’re an MD”, so I interpreted that as I needed to show up as this super-corporate persona. The trouble was, showing up that way every day was exhausting.

It was unnatural to me. It was like wearing someone else’s skin.

And worse than that, everyone could tell that it wasn’t truly me. It just didn’t match the person that they were meeting when out networking.

I also found it really difficult to keep the consistency up when I was putting on the mask of “sounding corporate”. It wasn’t me, so it was difficult to regularly show up as that person.

For those of you reading this who know my backstory, you know that living that corporate life and career killed me inside. My mental health was never worse than when I was pretending to be corporate. No wonder it almost killed my business to be back in that place, pretending to be something I’m not.

The truth is, you don’t need to be corporate to be professional.

That was a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Because when I decided to put myself through the coaching I take my clients through, I realised that I had done everything for my business that I tell my clients not to.

When I first start working with my coaching clients, I take them through an in-depth process to uncover their brand. We work deeply within the sense of self to really understand it. After all, a personal brand is not something you build; it’s something you uncover (see my last blog for more on this).

I worked with myself to uncover my brand and realised that my brand was far more quirky and personal than what I had been portraying on social media. So I needed to stop the awful habit I had developed in trying to sound super-corporate.

I started posting the stuff that I would say in networking meetings.

I started posting about my archery, my axe throwing and air rifle shooting…

I started posting about the beer festival and Scouting activities I do…

The real me. Showing up as me.

And do you know what happened?

My views and popularity on social media drastically improved. My engagement with my audience shot up. Not because of any algorithm hack, just by simply being my chaotic self.

I still have the old posts visible on my social media, and when I get stuck on what to post, I like to look back over them and see if any of the corporate tips and tricks are still relevant and I can say them again, only this time as me.

Of course, if you are a super corporate person, your social media pages should absolutely sound like that. Because that’s you. But if it’s not your style or way of talking, you absolutely need to cut that habit now before it destroys your brand and your business.

Doing it can damage your brand, and that’s not what we want. We want you to fly on social media, as your authentic self.

Need more help understanding where you are losing clients from your social media? Drop me a message and let’s see where you can improve and flourish online.

Why Pride Matters in Business and on Social Media

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Pride is more than changing your profile photo for June. I see it time and time again where businesses change their profile photos to a rainbow version for the month of June, but don’t actually show up as an ally when it matters.

Recently, I posted on my business and personal social media accounts about my strong feelings of support for the trans community in light of the EHRC legislation happening in Europe right now.

I reiterated my stance that I support the trans community against the oppression that is currently being forced upon them in “my” name – their rights are being taken away from them in the interest of caring for cisgender women. I don’t agree with it, and I made my thoughts known.

Sure enough, you can bet that this post attracted a troll.

Someone who went out of their way to be vicious, hurtful and spiteful to my trans friends who commented in support of my post and then the hate was directed at me. Both publicly and privately on social media through direct messages and comments.

It wasn’t a nice feeling to read those comments. I felt bad that I had attracted that hatred, and some of my trans friends had faced it on my supportive post. It left a bitter taste in my mouth.

But I didn’t take the post down. I didn’t back down in my support of the trans community because of the vitriol that was being spewed out by the troll. I went back with firmness, telling them that their hatred was not welcome on my page.

Because, when all is said and done, I wanted to show that my support was stronger than some unknown person’s hatred and that there would always be a space in my life and business for members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

I wanted to show it far stronger and more openly than simply changing my profile photos to have a pride flag in the background of them.

Changing your profile photo for the month of Pride (June) is great, but showing your support on social media for the LGBTQIA+ community is far stronger.

After dealing with the troll and putting out a subsequent post on social media about why I had posted in the first place, I also went on my podcast with the amazing Verity Curryer to talk about Values, Visibility and Difficult Conversations. We discussed at length what it means to be visible with our values when it comes to business.

Now, yes, I could have put a pride flag on my social media profiles to show my support and inclusivity of people from the LGBTQIA+ community, but words and actions will always be far more powerful.

Since I put the posts up, and since the podcast episode has come out, I have had more enquiries from the LGBTQIA+ community come through to my inbox. I have had messages that people are more willing to work and talk to me because they feel safe and included with me and my services.

Because I did more than follow a trend in saying that I support Pride. I embodied it and proved my support to the community.

Pride is about more than a rainbow flag.

Pride is about recognising the difficulties faced by those in the LGBTQIA+ community and showing that you stand with them.

If you are a business owner and reading this, thinking that to show your inclusion of the LGBTQIA+ community, you only need to put a rainbow on your social media pages this month, you need to do more to show your values.

Stop worrying about the people, it will put off working with you when you show your values and support of something. Because, yes, it will put off the people who don’t share your values, but did you really want to work with them anyway?

I don’t want to work with people like the troll my post attracted. I would far rather work with people who share my value set, and I am only going to find those people by openly talking about my values on social media and why they matter to me.

Posting about your values on social media will attract the customers you want to work with. So do it. Particularly when there is a prime opportunity to do so, like Pride Month.

And if you need more help in telling your story and showing your values on social media, book a call with me today and find out how I can help.