Ooh na na, what’s my name”
So what can we learn from her when it comes to personal branding?
It’s just one thing baby: Personality matters.
Rihanna has such an authentic personality it is too damn hard to copy. She is a music star, a fashionista and my personal favorite, a Queen (with a capital Q) in entrepreneurship. This woman owns her brand. And when I mean own, I am not talking about the legal parts here, but more like the supermodel from the nineties strutting down a Versace catwalk.
What have I learned from her personality? First of all she can do it across every genre and every business. She does not get pigeonholed. From pop music, to dance to R&B but also from fashion to beauty she does it all with an ease as if it was meant for her. But you know what? I know that she has been working on her brand for over a decade. And unlike some pop artist, she has allowed herself to grow into a brand with longevity. What I love most about Rihanna is that she is unapologetic about her Caribbean background. She still talks with an Barbadian accent and does the dirty dancing, but that doesn’t mean that we can underestimate her business skills. She has learned a lot from her former mentor in this, Jay-Z. Just like his business ventures she has her own.
So how do you show your personality?
1. Stick with your own passions and interest. Fashion and beauty are the things she likes and she has focused on them.
2. Be spontaneous, don’t you just love following her on Instagram? If we take ourselves too serious we just become less approachable.
3. Show your values, Rihanna is for an inclusive society and practiced what she preached with her beauty brand. It is not just for black women but for all women.
No longer is she unknown. Her name is one word. Like Madonna, Prince or Beyonce. We all know Rihanna.
XOXO,
Nancy
p.s. Last chance for the final 5 seats to the very last BrandedU seminar this Monday. Get your tickets here!
