Brands that get noticed are able to do hard things well. From Amazon, to Net–A-Porter you trust them to come up with the goods, on time and with professionalism and apparent ease. Personal branding is very similar. People who get noticed do the hard things in life simply and elegantly. That’s what makes you stand out from the crowd.

The “hard things” in work are usually the moments that scare you, whether it’s the conference speech or the job interview. Eleanor Roosevelt said that confidence and strength come from stopping to look fear in the face. I’m with her on the confidence question, you have to take a step out of comfort zone to really get yourself noticed in a competitive world.

So, how to do it? 

Help is at hand. As a voice and performance coach at Central School of Speech and Drama in London I spend much of my working life helping people to access more of the charisma, charm and ease that gives them impact. Working with a diverse client group from monarchs to actors and actuaries has taught me two big lessons. The first is that everyone doubts themselves, even Hollywood actors. I once used to think that there were confident people at the loftier levels of every field running things with sublime confidence. The more I work with leaders in their fields, the more I realised that everyone gets nervous and self critical. It’s normal.

The second lesson is that we all know how to have impact. Small children are great at personal impact. They are themselves. You will always have impact if you prepare enough to allow you to enjoy the occasion and to trust yourself so you are at ease and open to others. This principle is best summed up by the Oscar Wilde maxim “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken”. 

Jung said that most people walk round as if they are wearing shoes that are too small for them. The key to impact is taking up more space, being more yourself.  You already know how to do personal impact on the good days– when everything is going your way. It generates great energy in you and in others. You feel good in your skin.. If only life were always like that. 

So, how do you create impact when you need it?

There was a lot of personal impact wisdom in old-style deportment. Standing well is key to your personal impact. I once watched a panel of very senior women in finance at a Reuters event. I was so struck by the fact that they all sat so elegantly that I went to talk to them afterwards. Every single one of them either did Pilates or Ballet. Plies at the barre may not be your thing, and luckily anyone can work on their posture simply by becoming more aware of it.  

Posture

Good posture helps your voice, your breathing and gives you energy because your body doesn’t have to put extra effort into holding itself up. A simple trick is a Post-It on your computer screen to help remind you to sit up straight. Rolling your shoulders away from your neck can really help to relax you. Take a moment in the morning to shake out your shoulders, or to walk to work. It is a simple way to make you  more relaxed and confident, which in turn gives you personal impact.

How you stand also affects how you feel about yourself and how others feel about you. Would you rather be ‘depressed’ or ‘outstanding’? Our language gives us all the answers we need about how to use the body to help the mind, if we pay attention. Dark thoughts come much when you’re ‘down in the dumps’. 

Psychologists have discovered that the body is hugely important to our state of mind. Try slumping, head down. As you stare at your feet try really hard to feel happy. Hard isn’t it? Now sit up and notice how your mood shifts. When I worked on posture with a TV presenter client she found that her voice was much more open and richer. She also looked much more relaxed because all the effort that had been going into her head was allowed to circulate round the body. Suddenly the whole of her was communicating, not just her brain. 

Developing your skills

If you want to develop your impact in more profound ways then there are some fun things to try. An amateur theatre group will be a great way to expand your confidence and try a few things outside your comfort zone. Most Drama schools run evening acting courses which are both fun, and will teach you valuable skills for presence and personal impact.

You’ll learn how to stand, focus, breathe, and react to others fluently under pressure. You’ll learn new ways to express yourself.

And, acting’s most important lesson for personal impact is that the people who really stand out from the crowd are those who take the time to prepare and rehearse. The more it matters how you come across, the more time you need to give to preparing and practising.   

Communication skills

Ease comes out of knowing what you’re going to say so well that you can forget about it. If you want to be as good as Bill Clinton, like Bill, you’ll need to do the work! Great speakers from Cicero, via Gladstone and Churchill, all worked hard at their skills as communicators. My experience with my clients has proved to me that everyone can have powerful personal impact if they have the desire to focus and develop it. Introverts are often the greatest communicators when they learn how to unlock impact through acting skills.

At Central School of Speech and Drama (www.cssd.ac.uk) many different professionals, including barristers, civil servants, ad execs, coaches, doctors and psychotherapists come to us to learn how to make more of their personal impact. They discover that when you take that brave step out of comfort zone, and do the “hard thing” that scares you, that they grow in all sorts of ways.

I’ve seen many times over that growth recognised and rewarded by their employers in job promotion. Personal impact is something that all of us can develop, and in a competitive job climate, standing out from the crowd is increasingly valuable. Invest in the most expressive, interesting and unique brand in the world – YOU.