Brand America: They Debated Diversity. Then Look Who Won.
Updated: 1 day ago
Three historic victories, one very famous political brand - and a question about who gets to look like a leader.
For two years, DEI has been discussed as though the letters themselves might climb through the window and steal somebody’s corner office! Then voters elected America’s first Muslim senator, its first Black woman governor and its first Native American woman governor. And those were just three of the numerous historic firsts across these midterm elections. Apparently, the leadership portrait needed a bigger frame.
Abdul El-Sayed won Michigan. Keisha Lance Bottoms won Georgia. Deb Haaland won New Mexico. Three people whose identities have historically been underrepresented in these offices became the people voters chose to occupy them.
Does that mean America voted for DEI? Elections are more complicated than that. Voters choose candidates for many reasons. But amid arguments about diversity and who deserves a seat at the table, these results widened the picture of leadership.
For anyone building a personal brand, that raises a question:
Are you building a reputation around your value - or around making yourself comfortable for others around you?
Abdul El-Sayed: Learn the name. Remember the message.
There is a familiar piece of advice given to people whose names, backgrounds or identities sit outside the expected mould: make yourself easier to accept.
Shorten the name. Soften the difference. Do not make people work too hard.
El-Sayed’s campaign offered a more interesting approach. In his Love Island-inspired “Senate Island” video, he addressed his name directly, showed his personality and brought the conversation back to healthcare.
Yes, there were beach balls. Apparently, the journey to public office now requires an understanding of reality television. But beneath the humour was a useful branding move: he introduced himself on his own terms while giving people a clear proposition. His “Pool” advert used visual satire to reinforce the campaign’s argument about corporate interests and household costs.
The entertainment had a job to do.
For personal brands, the distinction matters. Cultural identity can be visible without becoming the only thing people know about you.
The lesson: help people understand your value without treating your identity as an inconvenience to overcome.
And if your name takes practice? They can practise.
Keisha Lance Bottoms: A historic first still needs an everyday promise.
Black women in leadership often encounter a peculiar branding brief. Be confident, but watch your tone. Be accomplished, but remain relatable. Show personality, but please submit it for approval first. It is exhausting.
Bottoms’ victory makes her the first Black woman elected governor in American history. That milestone matters because the image of authority influences whom people can imagine holding it. But her campaign also gave voters practical reasons to choose her.
In “The Truth”, she combined pointed criticism of her opponent with proposals concerning Medicaid, grocery taxes and electricity costs.
My branding takeaway is that representation and relevance can strengthen each other. A candidate can carry the significance of a historic first while making a clear promise about everyday life.
The same applies to your career. You deserve to have your expertise understood in full, including the perspective your background brings. Your audience also needs to know what you can deliver.
The lesson: build a brand with enough substance to make your competence clear - and enough character for people to recognise you.
You should not need to sand yourself down until you resemble the previous person in the job.
Deb Haaland: Your lived experience can strengthen your authority.
Professional biographies are often fascinating exercises in selective memory.
The promotion goes in. The difficult years disappear. The prestigious appointment gets a paragraph. The experience that shaped your understanding of people somehow fails to make the final edit.
Haaland’s “Family” advert took another approach. It connected her experiences as a single mother and small-business owner, including relying on public assistance, to the pressures facing New Mexico families.
Her story offered context for her priorities. Experiences that might once have been treated as things to distance herself from became part of her case for understanding the people she wanted to serve.
That is where the diversity conversation becomes useful for personal branding.
Different experiences can reveal different problems, assumptions and opportunities. The strategic work is explaining how that perspective improves your judgment - and demonstrating it through your actions.
As a single mother who has built a career across cultures, I understand that connection. Some of the experiences that shaped my leadership never came with a job title.
The lesson: before you remove a chapter from your story, consider what it helps people understand about your capability.
You can keep your privacy. There is no requirement to turn your trauma into a content calendar.
Trump: A famous brand still faces a performance review.
Donald Trump was not personally on the midterm ballot, but his leadership was central to the political context. Reuters’ reporting identifies frustration with living costs and his leadership among the factors behind Democratic gains.
My branding interpretation? Recognition cannot permanently protect a brand from the experience people associate with it.
You can command attention and still leave your audience dissatisfied.
Business owners should sit with that.
Beautiful photography cannot indefinitely compensate for poor service. A powerful keynote creates expectations that delivery must meet. Eventually, people compare the promise with their experience.
Sometimes in the reviews. Sometimes at the ballot box.
The lesson: your audience gets a say in what your brand means. Listen before the performance review arrives.
What does this mean for the rest of us?
These results were shaped by much more than personal branding. No serious strategist can claim an inflatable or a compelling biography won an election.
But the three victories challenge a narrow picture of credible leadership. They give us reason to question the assumption that unfamiliarity is automatically a disadvantage we must erase.
Bias remains real. These wins do not make it disappear.
They do, however, invite ambitious people to reconsider the editing process.
The name. The accent. The background. The experiences that shaped your perspective.
Before you remove them, ask whether they help explain the value you bring.
Then substantiate that value. Show your expertise. Make your offer clear. Deliver what you promise.
If your audience voted on your personal brand tomorrow, would they understand who you are - and what choosing you would change?
Kx
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Note: Commentary on the videos used do not necessarily reflect that of the KUBI organisation - but create illustrations of the points being made.
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