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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.)

Sunetra Pawar in a crowd 50-plus contenders

Quaid Najmi
Apr 8
2 min read

Mumbai:  The Nationalist Congress Party’s efforts for a walkover in Baramati Assembly by its President and Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Ajit Pawar may be a pipe-dream.

 

The by-poll has attracted a veritable circus of over 50-candidates with more than 60 nomination forms filed – negating the NCP’s public postures for an ‘unopposed election’ that created much political badmouthing.

 

As per Election Commission of India data, a total of 58 nominations were filed of which six were rejected on various grounds.

 

That leaves a whopping 50-plus nominees comprising independents or small parties still remaining in the fray, including the main rival, Congress-Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi’s formidable Adv. Akash M. More.

 

Nevertheless, NCP bigwigs are hopeful that many more, especially the non-serious candidates may fall by the wayside tomorrow – April 9 being the last date for withdrawals.

 

As Sunetra Pawar jostles in a crowd of contenders, many from the Mahayuti, including Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, her son Parth A. Pawar and other leaders have been publicly clamouring for a ‘consensus’ in memory of the late Ajit A. Pawar – who was killed in an aircrash on Jan.28.

 

Faced with the embarrassing predicament after the Congress gave a brutal tongue-lash to Parth Pawar for his utterances, now the NCP leaders have attempted to change the narrative.

 

Claiming that Sunetra Pawar’s victory is guaranteed, the effort now is to target a “historic mandate, with the highest number of votes polled and the widest margin over the nearest rival”, breaking records not only for Baramati Assembly segment but also of all the previous Pawar clan members who have won it.

 

Intended to be a solemn by-poll – necessitated after the tragic demise of the incumbent, Ajit Pawar, a 8-term MLA and 6-time DyCM – it has degenerated into a cacophony-cum-slanging match between the ruling Mahayuti and Opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi.

 

While NCP Working President Praful Patel has reached out to Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge for withdrawing Adv. More’s candidature, the state unit led by Harshawardhan Sapkal has maintained a tough posture.

 

“If public sentiments matter so much, then what about the peoples’ doubts regarding the (Baramati) plane crash… Why is the government not registering a FIR in the matter,” Sapkal shot back today.

 

Even as some Congress leaders like Chief Spokesperson Atul Londhe and others hinted at withdrawing from the by-poll race, Parth Pawar’s unexpected onslaught on the grand old party again soured the atmosphere.

 

As a massive row boiled over, the Nationalist Congress Party (SP)’s Sharad Pawar, Supriya Sule, Rohit R. Pawar and Shiv Sena (UBT) leaders like Sanjay Raut and others sided with the Congress and justified its decision to field Adv. More in Baramati – rankling the NCP.

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