Female Voice Network: Authentic Impact, Building Your Brand

As part of our women-led initiative “The Female Voice”, our Manchester office recently hosted a panel of awe-inspiring women and attendees from across the professional services industry. The topic of the day: building and leveraging your personal brand.

Ros Bever, Irwin Mitchell’s Managing Partner for Private Client and Regional Managing Partner for Manchester, chaired the panel discussion between:

• Jen Shipley, Senior Associate Solicitor and top legal LinkedIn influencer;
• Sarah Bateman, CEO of Unify Energy and trustee of Smart Works; and
• Dr Sally Penni MBE, Criminal and Employment Barrister, founder of Women in Law UK and podcaster.

Starting with a discussion about each panellist’s personal brand, each speaker highlighted the importance of being your authentic self: whether it is being a “human lawyer” like Jen, having an analytic approach like Sarah or championing women and ethnic minorities like Sally, what is clear is that there is space for all different voices and that the only thing that will work for you is being yourself.

Indeed, being a “human lawyer” has been key for Jen who described how, through allowing herself to be more honest and emotional on LinkedIn, she has been able to build a brand as an approachable and relatable lawyer. This has led to clients contacting Jen directly to instruct her, something that she finds incredibly rewarding.

For Sarah, a pivotal moment for her personal brand was being made CEO of Unify Energy aged just 31. Having faced numerous constructive challenges in her life, Sarah discussed how this made her determined to have an impact as soon as possible. For her, being CEO is about having the authority to make the decisions that create a great workplace, and her personal brand is all about trusting her gut and empowering others to do the same. 

Turning to the personal, Sally cited having children as being a key point in her life, and one that also influenced her professional brand: on returning to work after maternity leave, Sally felt that the perception of her had changed and decided to make a conscious effort to become more visible in the profession. This led to the founding of Women in Law UK and the start of her podcast, which have undoubtably become cornerstones of Sally’s brand.

So, what are the key pieces of advice for someone aspiring to build their personal brand?

1. Trust your instincts: Sarah, who is a true polymath, (juggling being CEO of Unify Energy, trustee of Smart Works, running a restaurant business with her husband and being a mum), spoke about listening to your gut. Her advice: you cannot be 100% of everything, but if you trust your instincts, you can do a lot.
2. Find people to aspire to: for Sally, finding the correct role models is key to knowing yourself and what you want to aspire to.
3. Set your boundaries: Jen has worked on setting boundaries about what she will, and won’t, share online. It is important to remember that anything you post could go viral but that the correct boundaries will give you peace of mind that you are happy for anything you post to be shared.

The overarching message of the day was to be your authentic self; your brand is built from you being clear on who you are, what you do and why you are here. If you can work that out, you have made an excellent start to building and leveraging your personal brand.

To find out more about the Female voice and our next events visit: The Female Voice | Irwin Mitchell.