The conventional wisdom around personal branding has it all wrong.

I’ve watched countless brilliant experts and thought leaders get stuck in an endless loop of “finding their purpose” – waiting for their true value to magically reveal itself with enough soul-searching and vision boards.

Here’s what I know after years of working with leaders and experts:

Your personal brand isn’t about your life purpose. It’s about getting crystal clear on your mission and the specific value you bring to the table.

The Purpose Trap

Traditional personal branding advice often tells us to start by “finding our purpose.” We’re encouraged to ask profound questions about our life’s calling and what we care about most deeply.

Beautiful questions, yes. But they often leave ambitious professionals paralysed. When everything needs to align with your grand life purpose, even writing a LinkedIn post can feel overwhelming.

I’ve seen too many brilliant people play small with their expertise, because they haven’t yet had that lightning bolt moment.

A Better Way Forward

Instead of chasing purpose, focus on these five elements that actually move the needle on your influence and impact:

1. What You Do: This piece of clarity seems obvious, but often it gets missed. What is your primary profession in clear human language? Are you a lawyer? A coach? A leadership expert? This needs to be as simple as possible to understand.

2. Who You Stand For: The specific people you’re most passionate about serving. Is it a particular type of person? Or someone undertaking a very specific journey? This is about getting ruthlessly clear about who needs your expertise most.

3. Their Mission-Critical Problem: Not just any problem – the one that keeps your ideal clients up at night. The challenge they would pay handsomely to solve. These type of problems also usually have a large sense of urgency.

4. Your Unique Lens: How do your specific experiences and expertise allow you to see and solve this problem differently than anyone else? What is your unique credibility? This is where your story becomes your superpower.

5. The Transformation: The concrete before-and-after shift you create. The results you enable people to achieve. This is about the proven impact that your expertise and approach delivers.

Here’s Why This Works

When you focus on these elements, rather than your life’s purpose, something powerful happens.

You stop waiting for perfect and start showing up consistently with valuable insights. You shift from focusing on your ‘why’ to demonstrating exactly ‘how’ your expertise can make a tangible difference in peoples lives.

Let me share a quick story.

I recently worked with Sarah, a brilliant strategist.

She was stuck in the purpose-finding loop, questioning whether she had anything truly valuable to share.

But once we reframed the conversation around her mission – helping tech founders scale their businesses without burning out – everything shifted.

She stopped questioning her “right” to share her expertise and started showing up consistently with practical insights her audience desperately needed.

Your Next Bold Move

Your personal brand becomes irresistible when it’s grounded in a very specific mission, not an abstract sense of purpose.

So take two minutes, how would you describe your mission?  

Don’t wait for perfect clarity, just start practicing.

That’s when we finally stop waiting for our purpose to reveal itself – and finally start stepping into the arena.