Plot twist…Own Your Narrative Before Someone Else Writes It
Let me be clear from the start: this advice is specifically for Black professionals. If you’re not Black, the dynamics I’m about to describe may not apply to you in the same way. The intersection of race, visibility, and corporate politics creates a unique set of challenges that require specific strategies.
I can speak to the US and the UK because those are the two places I’ve lived and where I’m from. And in both contexts, I’ve watched the same pattern play out repeatedly.
The Influencer Paradox
Brands love creators—until they don’t.
Companies are increasingly hiring people with followings. They understand the creator economy is booming because it’s actually easier to pay an influencer who already has a mass audience to push a product than to build that reach from scratch. The math makes sense, and the strategy works.
But here’s where it gets complicated: when these same individuals are hired as executives or employees within the firm, the rules change. That valuable personal brand suddenly becomes a source of tension, scrutiny, and sometimes outright hostility.
If You’re Junior-Level: Master Strategic Subtlety
If you’re entry-level, just starting your career, and you happen to have a following or creative pursuit outside of work—whether you’re a musician, a DJ, a content creator, whatever—my advice might surprise you: keep it subtle.
Don’t talk about it at work. Just keep doing what you’re doing without making it a workplace conversation. If colleagues discover what you do (and eventually they will), brush it off casually.
“Yeah, that’s something I do.”
Never make it bigger than what it is. But crucially, never make it smaller than what it is either. Just acknowledge it exists and move on. Make it clear through your demeanor that this isn’t up for discussion.
This isn’t about hiding or shame. This is about protecting your peace and controlling your narrative before others try to weaponize it against you.
The Mid-Career Reality: When Your Success Becomes Their Problem
As you climb the ranks and your public brand grows alongside your corporate role, you’ll encounter something predictable: haters.
There will always be people in every organization who don’t think you belong in certain spaces. I’ve lived this. I remember vividly being invited to a conference outside of work—on my own time, during my personal hours—and being scolded for attending.
Not because I did anything wrong. Not because it affected my work performance.
But because these individuals felt I didn’t belong at that event.
This is what projection looks like. People who can’t build their own brands, who aren’t invited into these spaces, will make their insecurity your problem. They’ll start asking questions: “How come you got invited?” “How does Tope get to go to these things?”
Your success becomes a topic of conversation. Then it becomes their personal vendetta. The envy and jealousy is evident and vivid.
If you’re Black, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve been in rooms where people question your presence:
“Wait, how come you were at that event?”
“How did you get to Cannes?”
“Why were you at Davos?”
The answer is simple: I have a network and community outside of my day job.
And you should too.
Why You Need an Identity Beyond Your Job Title
This is critical, and we’ll dive deeper into this in Part 3: you must have an identity outside of your job.
Because if it all comes crashing down and corporate structures can and do fail you don’t want to feel like everything you’ve ever worked for was tied up in one company, one title, one environment.
Your job is not your identity. Your title is not your worth.
Treat Your Workplace Like Your Online Audience
Here’s the framework that helped me: you will have people who envy you at work. This is no different from building a brand online.
When you build a personal brand, some people will be drawn to it and some won’t. You accept this as reality.
Apply that same logic to your workplace. There will be people who like your brand and people who don’t. The real difficulty comes when their individual biases and prejudices affect how they treat you on the job.
But here’s the thing: if you’re doing your job and doing it well, what you’re building outside of work should not conflict with your work.
Create Strategic Separation
I always encourage people to do something completely different from their day job with their personal brand.
For me, I thoroughly enjoy creating content around makeup, tennis, and motherhood. These are my identities, my joys, my creative outlets.
From a corporate perspective, I focus on executive thought leadership—specifically building executives up in a way where they prioritize wellness and balance over burnout. I’m passionate about Africa as an economy that’s growing incredibly fast. And I speak about how AI, if we don’t get a handle on it, could be catastrophic.
These are different lanes. Different interests. Zero conflict.
But here’s what you’ll discover: there will be people who have no interests outside their day job. No identity beyond their job title. And they will do everything they can to project their limitations onto you.
That’s when you need to understand: it’s not about you. It’s their personal bias.
Own Your Likeness, Define Your Volume
As you’re building your brand, it’s important to own your likeness. To own who you are. To understand who you are.
But also understand this: you can be as loud as you want or as quiet as you want. You’re going to have haters on both sides.
So figure out what you’re okay with and what you need in certain seasons. Stop trying to calibrate your visibility based on making others comfortable. You’ll exhaust yourself.
The Google Test
I remember very vividly thinking to myself one day: If my child Googled me, what would she see?
That question was a turning point for me. It became the deciding factor to create my own lane and build my own brand while also amplifying the brands I worked for.
I wanted her to see someone who owned her narrative. Someone who didn’t wait for permission to take up space. Someone who understood that legacy is intentional, not accidental.
The Support and the Hate: Both Are Real
Will there be people who support you? Yes. There are people who have supported me along the way, and I absolutely love them for it. They’ve championed me, celebrated me, opened doors for me.
Will there also be haters? Also true.
And both are okay. Both are part of the journey.
What You Need to Remember
Your professional excellence should speak for itself. If you’re delivering results, meeting expectations, and adding value, your personal brand shouldn’t be weaponized against you.
Bias and prejudice are not your fault. When people treat you poorly because of their own insecurities or racial prejudices, that’s on them. Not you.
You contain multitudes. You are allowed to be a corporate professional AND a creative. A strategist AND a DJ. An executive AND a mother who posts makeup tutorials. Your multidimensionality is not a liability, it’s your superpower.
Build now, not later. Don’t wait until you leave corporate to start building your brand. Start now. Protect it. Nurture it. Because that identity outside of work is your insurance policy, your creative outlet, and potentially your future.
Moving Forward
Building a personal brand while Black, while navigating corporate spaces that weren’t designed for you to fully thrive, is not easy. But it’s necessary. And it’s worth it.
Because one day, someone will Google you. And they’ll see someone who refused to shrink. Someone who built something that outlasted any single job title. Someone who understood that true power isn’t given by a company, it’s claimed by you.
Keep building. Keep showing up. Keep being unapologetically you.
The right people will celebrate it. And the wrong people? Their opinions were never yours to manage anyway.
Part 3 will focus on maintaining identity outside your job and what happens when you decide to step away from corporate entirely. Stay tuned.
What’s been your experience building your personal brand while working in corporate? Drop a comment—I’d love to hear your story.