The Importance of Personal Branding for Women
An Interview with Karen Gamba on International Women’s Day 2021
The theme for International Women’s Day 2021 is “Choose To Challenge”. The challenge we choose is to build up other women and to celebrate their achievements. Together we can build a more inclusive world. At Oval Branding, one of our passions is helping women with their online personal branding because we want women to take control of their online reputation and shine. Personal branding is especially important for women in a world where glass ceilings are being shattered every day. We want women to have the confidence to share their accomplishments and promote themselves in the right way.
This year for #IWD21, we speak to a phenomenon woman and a friend of Oval’s, Karen Gamba, about the importance of personal branding for women.
About Karen Gamba
Karen Gamba the Co-Founder and CMO of the ExV Agency, a minority woman and LGBTQIA+ owned digital production company that focuses on short-term marketing strategies, online fundraising and socially impactful visibility initiatives for non-profits, Fortune 500 companies and small businesses. Karen is an International Public Speaker and Moderator and has an extensive corporate background in business development and marketing strategy and has worked with senior corporate executives across industries ranging from: Private Equity, BioPharma and Real Estate to Sports & Entertainment.
Karen is also the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Women Building Women, a nonprofit organization that supports transgender women of color, women of color who have been previously incarcerated (returning citizens) and women professionals who work with at-risk male youth through professional mentorship, entrepreneurial leadership and educational programs, that allow these individuals access to a promising career and business opportunities with built-in networks of senior women executives.
Why do you think it can be more challenging for women to work on their personal branding?
Fewer seats at the table. Personal branding for women is challenging because it has to be so unique. It is incredibly challenging to stand out in a sea of women who are vying for the same opportunities because there are still so few seats for women at the table.
Women need to team up and work together. An impactful way to elevate your personal brand is through the mentorship and support of other women. Women have been competing for the same, limited positions and it is through mentorship that we can create more opportunities and camaraderie that will allow our personal brands to shine through in their own unique way.
Stereotypes are still a factor. As a woman of color and expat, who is the Co-founder of an international company and the Executive Director of a nonprofit, dealing with cultural nuances in a professional realm due to age-old stereotypes continues to be a challenge, however, by having conversations and creating opportunities for women through my work, I am seeing shifts in how my personal brand is being much more positively perceived on a global scale.
Has pandemic challenged your approach to personal branding? Has online reputation become more important for you and your network?
Clear branding and messaging are key. The digital realm is a hypersensitive medium so messaging about your brand has to be very clear. During the 2020 pandemic, I found that having a clear message about who I am and what my core values are made the transition from in-person interactions to the digital world much more seamless and helped me connect with new clients and opportunities much more successfully.
Make sure your core values stand out. I was able to successfully recreate personal event experiences through a pivot to digital forums because my personal branding message remained clear. Digital forums are much more analyzed and you don’t have the opportunity to clarify yourself as you would in an in-person interaction, so be sure you have strong attention to detail in your messaging and that your online personal brand reflects who you are and what your core values are at all times.
Personal Branding Workshop for Women in Finance. A Women Building Women Event in New York. Sept 2019.
Why have you decided to run the personal branding workshop with Oval Branding for Women Building Women in New York? What was useful to you?
Create a personal brand no matter what. The advantage of being a smaller business and running a non-profit creates organic attention to detail where everything is thoroughly thought out and has a personal touch that connects me to every person in my company and organization. Through this hands-on experience, I realized early on that women tend to tie themselves to a company in their careers and live by that company ethos. By the time they are ready to shift careers or start their own businesses, their personal brand is non-existent and it is very hard for them to stand out and start creating unique spaces for themselves.
The workshop was very impactful. Kaitlin Zhang/Oval Branding’s personal branding workshop was an important part of sharing this message with some of the women in our network. Our organization, Women Building Women, focuses on bringing opportunities to transgender women of color, previously incarcerated women of color and at-risk male youth through a connection with women mentors. A personal brand with strong core values is exceptionally important when trying to connect and have an impact on the individuals in our organization who come from challenging circumstances. It is imperative that the mentors in our organization have a strong, personal brand. The workshop in New York really helped our attendees see the importance of creating personal brands outside of their companies so that they can personally grow as mentors and community leaders.
How can someone start to work on their personal branding?
Work with a professional when creating your personal brand to make sure your message and values are accurately reflected. We don’t often see ourselves how others see us and for many women, it is still incredibly hard to celebrate our achievements and successes. An outside perspective from a personal branding professional can help you get your messaging targeted and set you up for success.
Happy International Women's Day! If you found this interview useful, please kindly share it with your network.
