Personal brand and digital transformation – Arancha Ruiz
Arancha Ruiz is an expert in personal branding and talent management. She realized that she has potential to motivate people to get the best out of themselves while working at IE Business School and decided to take advantage of it when professional social networks began to enter the job market.
Arancha proposed herself to follow in the footsteps of Andrés Pérez Ortega and Neus Arqués and become the third Spanish author to write about personal branding and she succeeded.
She has currently written two books on the subject, the third is on the way. And she combines her work as a personal branding consultant with her talent management talks and regular publications on her blog, Historias de cracks, which is about to turn ten years old.
What were your first steps in talent management?
Working at the IE Business School as Deputy Director of the Legal and Tax Masters (LL.M.) one of my main tasks was to accompany the students in their development, facilitating their adaptation to the case methodology through group work in conditions of high demand and pressure.
I learned how to motivate high performance teams and give them support so that they could make the most of their learning experience.
How and why did you first get interested in the “personal brand”?
When I became a Headhunter, professional social networks began to enter the market. I understood that the talent market would become transparent and that professionals should learn to manage their image and personal brand.
It was the year 2007 and there were only two authors talking about this topic in Spain: Andrés Pérez Ortega and Neus Arqués. I proposed myself to be the third.
And, in that same line, when did you decide to share your knowledge with others to help them in their professional development and personal growth?
The birth of blogging platforms gave me the opportunity to do different blog tests. First I started with a personal one and shortly after I launched Historias de Cracks with the idea of writing my personal brand learnings and disseminating stories of talented people. Next year the blog will be 10 years old.
What does “personal brand” mean to you? How much does it have to do with traditional marketing?
I like to explain the personal brand in comparison with the reputation. Reputation is what others think of you, Personal Brand is what you want them to think.
Personal branding is the methodology used to bring both visions closer through the message and networking. A methodology that has taken many of its concepts and applications of traditional marketing as well as social psychology and the talent market works.
The main objective of the personal brand is that people get valued for their abilities (talent) in their context.
You are a personal brand teacher and also give lectures in large companies. In general, how are the people who are interested in your lessons?
High potential and high performance people motivated to continue growing and taking on new professional challenges. The profile closely resembles that one of business school students.
You emphasize that the vision you pursue is the digital transformation of talent through personal branding and innovation. Do you think that in general we realize that the digital presence is essential at this time?
The digital transformation of talent means adapting people’s talent to the needs of the new economy, and personal branding helps identify what that adaptation is specifically about and facilitates its process.
Personal branding does not necessarily require a digital trace. The forum for networking depends a lot on where the audiences are and they are not always in the online environment. That said, a good fingerprint helps to reinforce people’s reputation.
There is a lot of confusion and noise about what to do. Applying the methodology of the personal brand is really useful to clarify the professional strategy of the people as I have been able to verify during all these years seeing the evolution of my clients and their careers.
In that context, do you think that most people are managing their presence on the Internet well?
It’s hard. It requires a lot of time and be very up to date with the changes that occur in all online platforms. In recent years it has become very complex.
Could you give some examples of people with good personal brands?
I have many! Helena Torras, Anna Gener, Gemma Cernuda and Eva Abans are executives, entrepreneurs, consultants and senior executives who are great examples of personal branding.
Jose María Alvarez-Pallete, Ana Patricia Botín, Ana Pastor. Alex López, Teresa Niubó, Joan Clotet… and I could continue.
What are the most common personal brand problems ?
First, a poor definition of the relevance and difference of the professional taking into account his person, competence and context. After, the lack of clarity, focus and repetition.
What advice would you give to those who are beginning to study? Should they start creating their personal brand? How?
The first best time to create a personal brand is at the start of the race. The second is now.
The most important thing is to overcome the complex of “toxic modesty”. Students are embarrassed to openly explain their interests and ask for help. If they do not, how are they going to achieve special opportunities for their learning?
I’ll tell you an anecdote. The other day I was with the daughter of some friends who is studying medicine. Asking her about his interests, she told me that she would like to specialize in oncology and so I happened to have my review in a few days I invited her to come with me. Not only did she have the opportunity to visit the oncology plant with me and and meet my doctor, her good questions during my review made the oncologist propose her to join a visiting program of the entire unit that had just been launched.
Without having finalized her message and demonstrated her talent, this great opportunity would never have been presented to her. This is the magic that the personal brand manages to produce.
What advice would you give to a person who wants to improve his brand?
Keeping in mind that the personal brand does not speak of “I” but of “we”, the objective of the visibility of talent is to build a better future together.
And of course, to hire me! Hahaha 🙂
