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By:

Divyaa Advaani 

2 November 2024 at 8:58:38 am

Being Liked Is Not Branding

AI Generated Image Think of someone specific you met in the last six months who seemed genuinely interested in connecting further. The conversation was warm. There was energy in it. They said all the right things — let us stay in touch, I would love to explore this further, I will reach out next week. And then they did not. Not because they were rude or dismissive. Not because something went wrong. But because by the time next week arrived, you had simply faded. This is one of the most...

Being Liked Is Not Branding

AI Generated Image Think of someone specific you met in the last six months who seemed genuinely interested in connecting further. The conversation was warm. There was energy in it. They said all the right things — let us stay in touch, I would love to explore this further, I will reach out next week. And then they did not. Not because they were rude or dismissive. Not because something went wrong. But because by the time next week arrived, you had simply faded. This is one of the most quietly expensive things that happens to accomplished founders — and almost none of them know it is happening. Being liked is not the same as being remembered. Being remembered is not the same as being recalled at the right moment. And being recalled at the right moment is the only version of any of this that actually creates business. The gap between a pleasant first impression and a phone call that begins with "I immediately thought of you" is not filled by warmth or competence or even a genuinely great conversation. It is filled by a personal brand strong enough to occupy a specific, distinct place in someone's mind long after the meeting has ended. Here is what most founders are not told. When someone leaves a conversation thinking "what a lovely person" they have given you a compliment. When they leave thinking "she is exactly the person I would call if I ever needed to solve this specific problem for someone I care about" they have given you a business. The difference between those two outcomes is not how much they liked you. It is how clearly they understood what you stand for and who you are for. Most accomplished founders are genuinely likeable. Many are impressive. Very few are specific enough to be recalled at the moment an opportunity arises. They exist in the minds of their network as pleasant, capable, talented — and entirely interchangeable with the other pleasant, capable, talented people those same contacts met last month. That interchangeability is costing you more than you realise. Every time someone in your network encounters an opportunity that should be yours and instead recommends someone else — not because they like that person more, but because that person's name surfaced first and most clearly — your brand has failed at its most fundamental job. The founders who get called first are not always the most qualified. They are the most memorable. Not memorable in the sense of flashy or loud or relentlessly present online. Memorable in the sense that when a specific need arises, a specific face and a specific name and a specific value proposition surface together, clearly and immediately, without the contact having to work to reconstruct who you are and what you do. That kind of memorability is not an accident of personality. It is the result of a personal brand built with enough clarity, consistency and intention that it leaves a distinct impression rather than a pleasant but general one. It is the difference between being someone people enjoyed meeting and being someone people think of when it counts. Think about your own network right now. When an opportunity arises that is perfect for you — do the right people think of you immediately? Or do they think of you eventually, after they have already recommended someone else, and feel a pang of recognition that they should have called you first? If it is the second — your brand is not broken. It is just not specific enough yet. And that is entirely fixable. I work with founders on exactly this — building a personal brand clear and consistent enough that the right people think of them first, not eventually. If you are ready to stop being the person people liked and start being the person they call, book your consultation call with me on this link: https://www.calendly.com/divyaaadvaani/founder-brand-audit — Divyaa Advaani, Personal Branding Strategist (The author is a personal branding expert. She has clients from 14+ countries. Views personal.)

Sinking Ship

Correspondent
Jun 9
2 min read

Barely a month after the BJP’s historic landslide ended 15 years of Trinamool Congress rule, Mamata Banerjee’s once-invincible party is rapidly disintegrating into a spectacle of opportunism, defections and panic.


The speed of the collapse has been breathtaking. The first crack appeared in the Assembly last week when 58 TMC legislators openly defied the party line and backed rebel leader Ritabrata Banerjee’s claim to the post of Leader of the Opposition. The revolt was a public declaration that Mamata Banerjee’s authority no longer commands unquestioning obedience.


Now the contagion has spread to Parliament with at least 14 TMC MPs meeting in Delhi to discuss breaking away from the party. Leading the charge was Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, who has asserted that she and 19 other MPs are willing to support the NDA. If enough MPs cross over to meet the two-thirds threshold, the TMC’s Lok Sabha unit could effectively implode.


The symbolism could scarcely have been more humiliating. Even as Mamata Banerjee attended an INDIA bloc meeting, rebel TMC MPs were huddled elsewhere with BJP leaders and strategists.


None of this should come as a surprise. For over 15 years Mamata Banerjee had projected herself as Bengal’s undisputed political colossus. Far from being a democratic political party held by any ideology, the Trinamool Congress was a party of rampant opportunism held together by Mamata Banerjee’s cult of personality.


Those who joined the TMC did so because it controlled municipalities, contracts and licences. The moment power disappeared, so too did much of the loyalty.


The TMC’s urban structure is crumbling as well. The resignations of Kolkata Mayor Firhad Hakim and Bidhannagar Mayor Krishna Chakraborty have only reinforced the impression of a leadership losing control over its own ranks.


Meanwhile, the chickens are coming home to roost as the new BJP regime under Suvendu Adhikari has wasted no time in going after the TMC’s criminal elements. Across the state, former TMC strongmen who once appeared untouchable are finding themselves under investigation or behind bars. Former municipal officials face extortion allegations. TMC leader Jahangir Khan has been arrested in connection with cases involving extortion, voter intimidation and post-poll violence. Another party leader was reportedly found hiding under a pile of sarees while evading arrest. Scores of local leaders are either facing scrutiny or hurriedly returning allegedly extorted ‘cut money’ collected through welfare schemes.


There is a delicious irony in this downfall. Mamata Banerjee rose to power promising to dismantle the arrogance of the Left Front after 34 years of uninterrupted rule. Yet her own regime eventually acquired many of the same characteristics of the Left. For years, allegations of corruption, political intimidation and patronage politics swirled around the TMC government. Electoral success had insulated the party from accountability. Defeat has now removed that shield. Now that power is gone, the rats are leaving the ship.

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