Struggling to stand out while pitching for business? Learn how to build a personal brand that gets you noticed in 2025 - without buzzwords or awkward self-promotion.

Buzzwords, Bragging, and Building a Powerful Personal Brand

I’ve been talking about the power of building a strong personal brand since beginning my career coaching business eight years ago. 

From then to now - and through the shifts of the post-pandemic job market - I’d say that learning how to build a personal brand that makes you shine has never been more relevant. Whether you’re looking to grow your business, develop your career or elevate your leadership, your personal brand is what sets you apart.

If you’ve landed on this page, you’re probably asking yourself

• How do I stand out in a competitive job market? 
• What’s the best way to grow my personal brand? 
• How do I identify and market my strengths while pitching for work in 2025? 
• How can I use LinkedIn to strengthen my personal brand?

Keep reading on!

What Is A Personal Brand?

According to The Muse, “your personal brand is all about who you are and what you want to be known for. This means your personal brand doesn’t just relate to having a slick, carefully-crafted profile on LinkedIn and social media. 

Instead, your personal brand is about two things: what you have to offer people (including whether you can deliver on your offer) and the values that you stand for. 

To put it bluntly, it’s about your reputation. 

These days, it’s easier than ever for people to assess your reputation online, before engaging your services. Whether you like it or not, you are being Googled—a lot—by clients, colleagues, through to casual acquaintances. Surely, that’s reason enough to pay attention to your personal brand. 

But more proactively, building a powerful personal brand can help you get known by the right people for the right reasons, in order to open doors, opportunities and much, much more.

Why Building A Personal Brand Matters More Than Ever In 2025

The working world has massively changed. Not only are the days of working for one or two companies for forty years long gone, but the nature of work has changed, too. Portfolio careers, or what is now being hailed as “polyworking”, is becoming a growing - and I’d go as far to say necessary - trend across all industry sectors.

For individuals, it allows flexibility, variety, more opportunity, the development of diverse skills, and surprisingly, more stability. No longer are you putting all of your eggs in one job basket.

Companies, too, have started shifting towards a contingent workforce, meaning professionals need to market themselves well to stand out. Having a strong personal brand helps you communicate your unique skills, talents and values whether you’re looking to become a polyworker in 2025, start or grow your own business, or continue to move up the ranks in your current company. 

Your personal brand is what is going to play a big part in the success of your chosen path.

Common Mistakes When Building A Personal Brand

If we know that your personal brand is based on your reputation, how can you create a reputation that helps you get known for the right reasons by the right people? A reputation that means people would jump at the chance to work with you?

As a human potential and personal branding coach, I have worked with hundreds of creative professionals looking to reach the next level in their business or career. Time and again, I see two red flags in profiles that people think will help build successful personal brands. 

1. The Buzzword Bingo Profile

This is the one that’s packed with how “ambitious” and “motivated” they are, with a ten-year strong history in their chosen profession, showcasing that they are “results-driven” with “great communication skills”.  

That doesn’t suffice as a pitch and value proposition. That sounds more like an egotistical ChatGPT output. 

It doesn’t connect as it’s a bunch of generic buzzwords, and lacks concrete, tangible, personalised evidence to back it up. It promises a lot while not really delivering anything of real value.

2. The Don’t Want to Blow My Own Trumpet Profile

On the other hand, there’s the camp that really don’t want to (or don’t know how to) sell their skills and strengths, so end up with a wishy-washy string of words that don’t tell the reader anything, and definitely don’t entice the reader as a prospective employee, colleague, or boss.

 

How To Build A Personal Brand That Stands Out: Finding The Balance

I know from writing my own pitch, profile and bio, that there’s a fine line between underselling yourself and sounding like you’re an insufferable braggart.

How is that balance struck? By understanding yourself, valuing the unique qualities you have to offer, and then sharing them with pride.

I know it can feel pretty uncomfortable to put yourself out there. Some of this is based in the respective cultures we have been shaped by. Some of it is simply the discomfort of being vulnerable. But trust me when I say that within our vulnerability lies the key not only to your general wellbeing, but to aligning yourself with the professional connections that will supercharge your success. 

Here are some essential ingredients for starting this process.

1. Get to know yourself, and then own it

I’ve said it time and again, but it starts with the inner work first—to build a personal brand that sings, you need to get to know yourself beyond your job title and your professional duties.

This means digging deeper to uncover and understand your innate talents, those unique qualities that make you, you, and also make you bloody good at what you do.

Once you know what they are, it’s about owning what you bring to the table, as well as letting go of what you don’t. It’s much better to sell yourself with exactly what you’re great at, rather than trying to be everything to everyone. Otherwise, you end up being nothing to nobody.

2. Understand why you’re building your personal brand, and who it’s for

You need to have clarity on why you’re building your personal brand, and who it's for. 

This means knowing what your target market is, what you hope to achieve, and where you are looking to make an impact.  

This will help you to define who needs to know you and what they need to know you for. This is the cornerstone of building a stellar reputation.

Are You Building a Personal Brand That Reflects You?

With all that said, it begs the question: is your personal brand an authentic reflection of who you are? Or is it just a collection of buzzwords and bragging? 

To find out more about what kind of brand you’re building, check out another piece of mine on the subject.

And if you’re interested to find out more about how to develop your personal brand, grab my free workbook here, or let’s jump on a call.

^{Written by: Adele Leah  |  Images: Unsplash  |  Last Updated: 20 April 2025}