Belinda Enoma: Building Personal Brands for Visibility

Belinda Enoma, US-based Global Empowerment Speaker and Cybersecurity Executive, is one powerful force propelling individuals to build their personal brands, attain recognition, visibility and income. At the ISACA Abuja 14th Annual General Conference in Abuja, she deliberately awakened participants to the power of personal brand and its fringe benefits. She shared more insights in this chat with Rebecca Ejifoma

When the trending Nigerian epic movie, Aníkúlápó hit Netflix on September 30 and spread its fever to the globe, the potential of the lead actor Saró played by Kunle Remi aligned seamlessly with the mandate of Belinda Enoma, a Global Speaker and Tech Privacy and Cybersecurity Executive every time he said, “gbérá dídé!”

.While the actor’s mandate was to resuscitate the souls of the dead, a gift that earned him more accolades and income, Enoma’s gift is positively awakening the consciousness of personal brands of individuals and organisations home and abroad to attract the right audience and some income.

Thus, from the elevated podium to the back roll of the Seun Musa Yar’Adua square hall on Tuesday, November 1, Enoma’s voice reverberated; it was powerful and stimulating. Her stimulating words captivated the audience into utter silence. This was in her presentation on ‘Personal Branding and How to Leverage Your Personal Branding to Elevate Your Career’. According to her, it was to help individuals have a well-defined and endearing presence online and offline.

One of the insights she shared in creating a compelling personal brand is the power of harnessing her voice to raise people’s core values at the ISACA Abuja 14th Annual General Meeting in Abuja. “Don’t neglect your personal brand because you are an employee or you desire to work in a certain corporation.

“A lot of times we tend to forget ourselves, who we are. We don’t prioritise ourselves either because we are working or because we are seeking work. In personal branding, you should start from he very beginning because you get into a job you exist and if that job should end you are going to exist so you have to figure out what people can identify about you if you.

Some of the thought-provoking questions are what can people see about you or say about you if you’re not in the room? What is that this that attracts people?  The life coach reemphasised, “You have to strategically position yourself and then lean to be visible in what you do. Because visibility will attract the people that need what you carry if not they won’t know what you carry if not people won’t know that you exist. You have to shine your light. if it’s your skills, your expertise, your knowledge and all the things you know how to do because that’s what people are going to hear and see and they will know you carry what you need and they will pursue you and get you to solve their problems and pay you.”

One of the tools to champion personal brand, according to Enoma, is social media. “A lot of people are on social media from morning till night. I tell people that if they spend such a time on social media then they should be making some money,” she pointed out.

She recommended, however, that rather than while away time browsing and looking at people’s pictures and reading whatever posts that has no value to their lives how about “You utilise that time to create an online course. Do some tutorials that will help your life and your career. You have to learn something. If you don’t know anything about technology there are a lot of free courses that you could do”.

With the wave of technology sweeping through every sphere, the cybersecurity executive said this is the age where “We have to help ourselves. A lot of times we are blaming people didn’t do this or that for us. But what did you do for yourself?”

Therefore, Enoma resounded the significance of leveraging one’s personal brand. She described, “Your personal brand is your gateway to your true worth. When your job ends today, how will you be addressed? If your job ends today, will you exist or will exist in frustration? Let people see your skills and talent and they will know that you carry something valuable that they need. You have to stop and do it yourself. Then connect it to your career”.