Why Your Personal Brand is the Key to Strategic Learning Leadership

Feb 16

I'm a big believer in the personal brand and how it can impact you and your career. I've seen it in my own life, both internally at organizations and as a consultant and a community builder. How others perceive us matters.

In this episode, I'm doing something unique, and I'm bringing you one of our sessions from the recent Nonprofit L&D Collective Career Week. This is a conversation about personal branding with Andy Storch, an author and keynote speaker who is familiar with our L&D world, where you'll learn about the importance of your personal brand and how to build it.

▶️ Key Points:

00:00 How a personal brand attracts opportunities

05:45 How a personal brand creates influence

07:45 Why having a strong personal brand matters

10:10 Exercises to intentionally build your brand

20:05 How you can leverage your LinkedIn presence

Shifting the Narrative from Training Factory to Change Agent

If you are working in nonprofit learning and development, you likely know the frustration of being treated like an order-taker. You are overwhelmed with projects, yet it feels like nobody respects that good training—the kind that actually changes behavior—takes time.

It is easy to feel like a training factory, expected to "just create what I say" overnight. I know what it feels like to be caught in that cycle of traditional training approaches that simply don't work. But there is a way to shift this narrative. To move from being a strained, sometimes undervalued resource to a confident strategic leader, you must look beyond the modules you build and start looking at the brand you are projecting.

On episode 173 of the Learning for Good podcast, I sat down with Andy Storch—co-author of Own Your Brand, Own Your Career—to discuss why your personal brand is the most powerful tool you have for driving mission impact.

What is a Personal Brand?

Many people hear the term "personal brand" and think of polished influencers or celebrity endorsements. While people like the Rock, Beyoncé, and Taylor Swift have massive global brands, a personal brand at its core is something much more fundamental: it is your reputation.

Andy defines your brand as what people think about you, what they say about you when you aren’t in the room, and the value they believe you bring to the table. It is the trust and credibility you have built within your organization and the broader marketplace.

Consider this: The Rock recently released a skincare and haircare line. As Andy pointed out, the Rock has such a strong brand that he can successfully sell haircare products even though he is completely bald. People don't buy the product because of the specific ingredients; they buy it because they are connected to him.

In the world of L&D, your brand works the same way. If you have a strong brand, your influence comes naturally. Your stakeholders don't just see a learning designer; they see a change agent who can help them solve their biggest problems.

Own the Narrative of Your Personal Brand

A common trap for nonprofit professionals is the belief that doing a good job is enough. We put our heads down, build the slide decks, and facilitate the workshops, hoping the results will speak for themselves. But in today’s marketplace, doing a good job is just table stakes.

It isn't just about the work you do; it's about who knows about the work you do. If your accomplishments are invisible to your leadership, your influence remains limited. A personal brand is what opens doors. It’s what attracts opportunities to you rather than you having to chase them.

As an L&D pro, you want your stakeholders to approach you and say, "We have a problem. Can you help?" That only happens when they see you as a strategic partner, not a training factory.

Building Your Brand Inside Your Nonprofit

Your brand is built on more than just your technical expertise. It is built on how you interact with others every single day. This is your internal brand.

To understand how this works, Andy suggests comparing two potential hires for a project:

John: 15 years of experience, knows his stuff, but is gruff, standoffish, and hard to work with.

Jennifer: 3 years of experience, highly eager, curious, collaborative, and fun to work with.

Most leaders would choose Jennifer because they know she will pick up the skills quickly and improve the team's dynamic while doing so.

You may be the smartest person in the room, but if you are perceived as arrogant or disrespectful, your brand will suffer, and people will avoid collaborating with you.

You may be thinking, “ok, but I’m not hard to work with.” Your brand is also shaped by small actions that we often overlook. Are you on time for meetings? Are you looking for ways to add value to others? Does your email signature look professional?

We cannot control what people think, but we can influence it by being intentional about how we show up.

What Is Your Personal Brand as a Nonprofit L&D Leader?

If you want to move from an order-taker to a strategic leader, you must be intentional about your brand. This starts with self-awareness—taking the time to reflect and truly understand yourself.

Most of us are intimately familiar with our weaknesses, but we rarely embrace our strengths.

To get intentional, you can ask:

What are my core strengths?
What do people consistently compliment me on?
What are my values and how do I want to show up for others?

You can perform this exercise for yourself as an individual or for your L&D department as a whole.

What is your department's reputation today?
Is it the people who make the slide decks or is it the team that drives performance?

The Identity Exercise: How to Define Your Personal Brand

To define your brand, start with a simple question: Who are you?

Write down the words "I am," and list every identity you associate with yourself—both professional and personal.

I am a trainer.

I am a strategist.
I am a father/mother.
I am a cancer survivor.
I am an athlete.

Once you know who you are, ask the aspirational question: What do you want to be known for?

Pick three to five words that define the reputation you want to build.

Do you want to be known as Strategic? Curious? Reliable? A Connector?

Once you have those words, audit your week. If you want to be known as "helpful and kind," but you ignored every request for help on Friday, you aren't showing up in alignment with your brand.

Consistency is the foundation of trust.

Building Your Personal Brand in the Nonprofit Sector

While your internal brand is about how you interact within your organization, your external brand is about how you are perceived in the broader marketplace. For nonprofit L&D professionals, there are two great places for you to be: LinkedIn and the Nonprofit L&D Collective.

Building an external brand does not require you to be a world-renowned expert; it simply requires you to be human and helpful.

Leveraging LinkedIn for Your Personal Brand

Andy shares three main pillars to leveraging LinkedIn effectively:

A Great Profile: Don't let LinkedIn default your headline to "Title at Company." Use that space to be creative and state the value you provide. Instead of "Learning Designer at Acme Corp," try something like, "Passionate about helping nonprofit leaders grow their careers."
Connecting with Others: Connect with everyone you have worked with and everyone you want to work with. Building a diverse network provides you with a sounding board and opens doors to new opportunities.
Sharing Content: You don't have to write a manifesto. Share what you are reading, what you are learning, or lessons from your personal adventures. Share inspiring stories or leave insightful comments on others' posts.

The goal of thought leadership is to define a narrative. If someone introduced you at a networking event, what would you want them to say? If you want to be known as a "leading voice in nonprofit development," you must start sharing the insights that prove you are one.

Building Your Influence inside a Nonprofit Network

A second way to create this external brand is to become an active member of the Nonprofit L&D Collective. Inside the Collective, we offer opportunities to meet other nonprofit L&D pros, ask questions, share your accomplishments, and lead sessions on topics you’re passionate about.

This is an effective way to build your brand inside the sector as an accomplished nonprofit L&D pro.

Owning Your Influence as a Strategic Learning Leader

Your brand already exists; whether you like it or not, people already have a perception of you. My philosophy—and Andy’s—is that you might as well own it and be intentional about it.

When you start owning your brand as a change agent, everything shifts. You move from strained capacity to confident strategic leadership.

By getting clear on your strengths, managing your reputation through small actions, and building a visible presence on LinkedIn and inside the Nonprofit L&D Collective, you create influence.

Influence is the power to change behavior—and that is exactly what we do in L&D. When your brand is strong, your stakeholders trust you. They stop telling you what to build and start asking you how to solve the organization’s performance gaps.

As a nonprofit leader, your mission is too important for you to remain an under-the-radar order-taker. The sector needs confident, capable leaders who know how to leverage development to drive real change.

So, what are you going to do today to build your personal brand?. Whether it’s updating your LinkedIn headline, joining a Nonprofit L&D Collective event, asking for feedback on your strengths, or simply making sure you are on time for your next meeting, every small action is a brick in the foundation of your reputation.

Start being the change agent your mission deserves. When you own your brand, you own your influence—and that is where true mission impact begins.

To learn more about creating your personal brand, tune into episode 173 of the Learning for Good podcast.

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