In a world where reputation shapes opportunity, personal branding has emerged as an economic driver, as Olayinka Oyetunji, convener of CLEAN conference 2025, revealed that a strong personal brand can earn someone 25 percent more than their peers.
Oyetunji, who spoke on “Commanding Influence through Strategic Visibility”, disclosed that branding oneself is part of personal leadership. She emphasised that hard work is good, but it is not enough to take one to exponential growth; hence, young employees cannot afford to ignore their visibility.
“Your personal brand is the impression you give to people, and you’ve to be intentional on how you create your brand, because influence is not an accident; it requires a visible and consistent brand presence.
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“Professionals with a strong personal brand earn up to 25 percent more than their peers. Being known for your value directly impacts your professional and financial growth,” she said.
Tosin Ojo, partner at Sahel Capital, speaking on “Audacious Goals into Strategic Wins’ shared how she turned her challenges at Stanbic Bank into a success story of determination, optimism and energy.
“My first job was in Stanbic IBTC Bank in January 2008. I was a mobile sales officer; it was the least of what I would want for a job.
“It was still in my mind that I was going to just find more quality assurance work to do; I’ll just be in the laboratory. All my dreams were to just get into Unilever or Nestle,” she said.
However, as her life dream was not forthcoming, she explained that she began to reason within herself that it is better for her to optimise her opportunity rather than waiting for an unseen job.
“I started thinking to myself that, actually, here, where I am right now, is what matters, after all, nobody owes me anything; so I have changed my attitude towards my job.
“Then I began to go out to Bonny Camp, Kofo Abayomi and the environs, scouring for clients; and I started feeling good about myself,” she explained.
Ojo emphasised that for exponential growth in the workplace to take place, people must learn to start from where they are, focus on their strengths, and not their weaknesses.
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“Success in life and career is functional to recognising what you have per time,” she noted.
Julius Omodayo-Owotuga, group executive director at Gereu Power Plc, who spoke on “Architecting your Career Transformation” shared his career trajectory.
“My major career transformation was sometime in 2007, I had worked in a bank, and moved to one of the big four. I moved to an international bank and then to the African Finance Corporation.
“Everyone around me thought, ‘that’s a very good job,’ but it didn’t feel that way deep inside of me. I was being paid in the USA dollar in 2007, but it just didn’t feel good, because there’s a difference between monetary reward and personal satisfaction,” he said.
Omodayo-Owotuga explained that transformation is not just changing jobs or getting promoted.
“It’s about evolving your capacity, mindset, and value, but more importantly, you’re evolving to achieve your objective.
“It’s a shift from potential to performance, the journey from where you are to where you can be. It means taking ownership of your growth story, rather than waiting for circumstances to shape it,” he noted.
Femi Bejide, chief executive officer at STATISENSE, encourages young employees to learn to evolve because sometimes, what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow.
Read also: Why personal branding is the new currency in Nigeria’s digital economy
“The disruption that is forming will be very massive, and you have to start making those adjustments from inside, because things are moving very fast. It’s like the old ways no longer work in the current era,” he said.
Bejide noted that because of the increased access to data permission, many jobs would be tokenised. He reiterated that because of this new development, people are going to be moving very quickly between jobs. “When skill is no longer the most important thing, what happens is that other skills that can be trained across multiple companies become what is very important
“Formal education is a threat; people should learn AI, because social skill is the new currency,” he emphasised.
CLEAN stands for Connect, Learn, Energise, Achieve, and Network, a transformative mentoring platform that harnesses the power of storytelling to inspire behavioural change and unlock career and life success.
