The other day I was working in a hip coffee shop, as you do when you don’t have a “real office.” I know it was a hip coffee shop because all of their syrups were house-made, and they only played vinyl music (they were playing Side A of Television’s Marquee Moon). A gentleman struck up a conversation with me. He was asking what I did for work. And when the subject of personal branding came up, he gave me a look of disdain and said, “I’m not a brand, man. I’m a man, man.”
That got me thinking – a lot of people have misunderstandings of what personal branding is or even misunderstandings of who it’s for. Some people misunderstand and are turned off by the concept. Some people misunderstand and try to incorporate it for all the wrong reasons.
Before you think personal branding isn’t for you, let’s first debunk the common misunderstandings.
Personal branding is not about being fake.
Personal branding isn’t about trying to pretend and make people think you’re someone that you’re really not. In 2020, when a corporate brand appears fake, most people can see right through it, and they call it out quickly. A personal brand is just the same – it has to be authentic to who you truly are. That means you have to dig in deep into what’s important to you, what makes you stand out from the crowd and what value you can contribute to others.
Personal branding is not boasting.
A lot of people people think that personal branding is all about telling everyone how awesome you are. Actually, that’s just PR. In reality, personal branding is having your actions speak louder than your words. It’s about showing people that your actions consistently match who you want people to see you as. One of the best customer experience brands is the Ritz Carlton. They built their brand on exceptional customer service, but how many Ritz Carlton ads to you see regularly? Most of what we hear about them comes from word of mouth or stories of their customer experience.
Personal brand is not selfish and narcissistic.
Some people think personal branding is the number one channel for everyone to know who they are, and they focus all their efforts into just that. That’s narcissistic. That’s also unsustainable. Again, a primary component of personal branding is in the value that you bring to others. When you start to focus on that, and people begin to recognize the value you bring then you know you’re doing it right.
If you still don’t believe in personal branding, that’s totally fine. But I feel compelled to break it to you – you’ve still got a brand. Whether you call it your brand or whether you call it your reputation, whatever it is that people think about when they think of you, those adjectives and attributes that they have in their head when they hear your name, that’s your brand.
Like Jeff Bezos says, “Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
Your hope (and your goal) is for them to not go all Mean Girls when they do talk about you.
You hope that it’s good things they’re saying about you when you’re not in the room, maybe even recommending you to others based on all your talents and how you approach work.
Think of the last time you asked people for recommendations to help with whatever challenge you had. You probably heard personal recommendations like,
“Do you know Jay? He’s really good at roofing, and he’s super punctual. He can definitely help fix your roof.”
“Do you know Carie? She’s an incredible baker, and she really listens to what you’d like in designing a cake.”
“Do you know Alan? He’s a fantastic project manager. He ensures everything stays on-track, and he does it while keeping positive morale and energy across the whole team.”
That’s how you want people talking about you when you’re not in the room.
People are going to talk about you regardless. It only makes sense for you to get in front of it. It only makes sense for you to influence and manage how people are going to talk about you.
That starts with defining, managing and staying true to your personal brand.
