You don’t have a personal branding problem. It’s a reputation one.

“You need to build a personal brand.”

Get all the bells and whistles of a brand. Be “consistent” on your projected image. Put yourself out there. Make noise…

Personal brand

“This is me. These are my values. This is my personality” → Me, Me, Me.

I bring you bad news: nobody cares.

Why? Because it’s not about you. It’s about your customers. It’s how THEY can thrive — you just happen to be the one who helps them do that. Or at least recommend somebody else when you aren’t the right one.

Brand

A person’s gut feeling about an organization, product or service. What THEY say it is.

It’s artificial, to build consensus and avoid confusion about A THING.

People are not things.

When you’re not in the room and people talk about you — that’s not a brand. That’s your reputation.

Reputation

A reputation is built, just like a brand, by the others. They key to a solid reputation is the consistency and trust earned. Not bought, not “because you said so”, not in a vacuum. ONLY when others say it is.

First steps

Instead of focusing on what “your personal brand” should be and have, do the (real) hard work and lead:

• How can YOU be of SERVICE to OTHERS?
• What are they trying to achieve?
• What’s that transformation they’re after?

Personal branding. Leave that to the non-sense.

Read this post and more on my Typeshare Social Blog