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Welcome to Personal Brand: Executive Perspective with Michelle Madziva, a weekly column dedicated to the art and strategy of personal branding.
People often talk about personal branding as though it is simply about being visible. From the photographs, speaking engagements, LinkedIn posts and media features. However, there is another side we rarely discuss.This other side is Rejection.
Behind many visible success stories are moments of being ignored, underestimated, told “no” and wondering whether you are actually on the right path. I know this because I have experienced it myself. There have been moments in my journey when I put an idea forward and the response was not what I hoped for. Moments when one person’s response was enough to make me temporarily question myself.Through all this, I have learnt something important which is, rejection is an event not an identity.
Consider an executive who applies for a board position and is unsuccessful. The immediate temptation is to think, “Perhaps I am not good enough.” Resilient leaders do not dwell on self doubt. They become curious and shift their mindset to thinking, perhaps another candidate had more board experience. Perhaps the timing was wrong or simply, the organisation was looking for something different. The rejection explains the outcome. It does not define your worth.It tells you what happened, not who you are.
The same applies to an entrepreneur who pitches to a major client and hears, “We are not interested.” One “no” can quickly become a story about our worth. Maybe my business is too small. Maybe they don’t see my value. Maybe I am not ready. Sometimes, however, the answer is simply no. Guess what you should do next, pitch again somewhere else until you win.
This is one of the uncomfortable truths about personal branding. You cannot build a strong reputation while allowing every response to determine your confidence. When you become visible, people will have opinions. Some will encourage you, some will question you and some might even ignore you.
Visibility is not about avoiding criticism. It is about developing enough clarity to continue despite it. Think about the executive who begins sharing insights about their industry. At first, five people may read the post. Then 20. Then 100. There may be no applause but something important is happening.Evidence is being created each time they show up.
Over time, people begin associating that person’s name with a particular area of expertise. That is how authority is built. Not through one viral post. Not through one conference. Not through one newspaper article. It is built through consistent evidence.
This column is part of my own journey. It sits on years of learning, studying, speaking, consulting, building Grand Curations and repeatedly choosing to show up. When you see someone on a stage, you may not see the unanswered emails that came before the invitation. When you see a successful business, you may not see the ideas that were rejected. When you see the confident executive, you may not see the moments when they had to rebuild their confidence privately.
So, if you are building your personal brand and it feels like nobody is noticing, do not be too quick to conclude that it is not working. Perhaps you are still building the evidence or even, your message needs refining.All you need to do is to simply keep going.
Your personal brand is not built by convincing everyone to believe in you. It is built by becoming clear about your value and continuing to demonstrate it until your reputation catches up with your vision. Your reputation is not built only in rooms where you are applauded, it is also built in the quiet moments when you decide to learn, improve, try again and show up anyway.
People may see the result, but they rarely see the resilience that produced it.That, too, is personal branding.
Michelle Madziva
Founder & CEO, Grand Curations
Corporate Strategist | Personal Branding Consultant
