You Are Allowed to Outgrow Your Own Brand

A table full of books

 When people begin building a career, consultancy or professional practice, it is quite common to look around and ask, What are people looking for? What services are in demand? What seems to be working for others? There is nothing wrong with understanding the market, but sometimes, in the eagerness to become visible and attract clients, professionals begin presenting services that reflect what they think people want rather than what they are genuinely skilled and prepared to provide.

This can create an uncomfortable gap between what we present and who we are actually becoming.

For instance, someone starts out offering a wide range of services because those are the things they see others offering, only to realise with time that some of them do not align with their training, interests or strengths. The challenge becomes even greater when the professional knows this internally, even though nobody else may recognise the gap.

Interestingly, this process is not necessarily unusual in professional development. Ibarra's (1999) concept of provisional selves explains how people often experiment with different versions of their professional identity as they move into new roles. We observe others, try different approaches, receive feedback and gradually discover what fits.

In other words, your first professional identity does not have to be your final one.



Sometimes, We Discover Our Niche by Becoming

Professional identity develops through experience. As people acquire knowledge, work with different populations, encounter new challenges and reflect on their practice, they often become clearer about what they do well and what they genuinely want to be known for.

This is why a professional brand that made sense five years ago may no longer accurately represent the person standing behind it today. That's not necessarily inconsisteñcy.

There is a difference between changing direction because we have no sense of purpose and refining our direction because experience has given us greater clarity.

A teacher may begin with a broad interest in education and eventually discover a passion for literacy intervention. A consultant may initially offer several services and later develop a clear speciality. A therapist may discover a particular population with whom they work especially well. The journey towards professional clarity is often gradual.



The Boundary We Should Not Ignore

It is about professional integrity!

Wanting to meet a market need does not give us permission to present ourselves as competent in areas where we are not adequately trained.

Professional competence involves more than knowing the right terminology or creating an attractive service package. Epstein and Hundert (2002) describe competence as the integration of knowledge, skills, judgement, communication and reflection within professional practice.

Sometimes professionalism means saying, "This is outside my area of competence", referring a client to another professional, going back to learn before offering a service, and removing a service from your brochure altogether. It also translates to professional maturity.


Your Brand Can Grow With You

You may look at something you created several years ago and realise that it no longer represents you. Your interests have changed, your skills have developed, your experience has expanded, and your understanding of the work has become much clearer.

You are allowed to update it, narrow your focus, change your message, become more specialised, and to say, "This is what I do now."

Ibarra's (1999) work reminds us that professional identity can develop through experimentation, while research on reflective professional development suggests that examining our practice can contribute to greater professional clarity and growth (Lunenberg et al., 2011).



🍀

So maybe, the goal is not to create a perfect professional identity from the beginning; it is to remain sufficiently self-aware to recognise when you have outgrown the one you started with.

Sometimes, after years of learning, practising, making mistakes and discovering your strengths, you eventually look at your work and realise: "This finally looks like me." 😉 ; That you are BECOMING 👑 



References

Epstein, R. M., & Hundert, E. M. (2002). Defining and assessing professional competence. JAMA, 287(2), 226–235. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.287.2.226

Ibarra, H. (1999). Provisional selves: Experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(4), 764–791. https://doi.org/10.2307/2667055

Lunenberg, M., Korthagen, F., & Zwart, R. (2011). Self-study research and the development of teacher educators' professional identities. European Educational Research Journal, 10(3), 407–420. https://doi.org/10.2304/eerj.2011.10.3.407








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