Personal Brands

The talk of a personal brand is relatively old, within the past few years. (I did say "relatively" and what it's relative to depends I suppose...might be relatively new compared to personal marketing and definitely new compared to electricity.)

What is personal brand you ask? For starters, if you can imagine your name as the name of a company or organization, and the reputation that name has amongst it's friends, colleagues, peers, and associates you'd be right on target.

It's something that most of us probably don't think too much about but probably should.

There has been a few iterations of this idea that I'm familiar with over the years. Power dressing or Dress for Success for example, was the idea that the way you dress influences how people perceive you and how they relate to you. That movement if you will, addressed the idea of a visual brand but unfortunately it fell short of a complete brand identity for the individual because you might still open your mouth or pick your nose or forget necessary information. It only looks good and that's important, but it's not everything.

Another brand movement is the idea of going green or being green. Again, it's a great example of a portion of what it takes to create a personal brand identity. Here the emphasis is on what you do—not how you look and again, not what you say. But as they say actions speak louder than words...of course this assumes anybody notices you with your dreadlocks, linen clothes, bamboo socks, refusal to use chemicals, etc. Because now you stink, you look funny, and your hair...well...it's kinda nasty. And of course you still can't say anything or you'll give it all away.

All that said, indirect personal brand movements spawned by the likes of things like Verbal Judo, and How to Win Friends and Influence People all taught us how to be heard effectively. How to get our messaging right, and deliver it in a way that is received by people favorably. These focused on how to speak well but we all know that "words without actions are empty." So again... not quite there.

Finally, social networking arrived. It's taken a while to get it together, but this is a great place to bring it all together. It's not a branding movement per se, it's just a movement, but what's unique about it is that it allows the combination of your visual brand, your messaging, and your actions to all coincide. And guess what? If they don't, people will notice.

I was recently reading in Forbes online that the future of job hunting is going to be directly related to your Reputation online—even potentially more-so than your resume. As it stands, "80% of HR professionals use online reputation information as part of their hiring process, and that 70% had rejected a job candidate due to what they found online." That's not a joke.

So are you ready to take the idea that how you look, what you do, what you say, and what you want to accomplish all MUST jive? You cannot expect to be a photographer if you spend your time writing blogs on branding for example. You cannot expect to be a martial arts business owner if you don't engage your target market AND furthermore, look, act, and BE the part. There is way to much availability to information, videos, photos, and knowledge on the internet to do things half-way. You must focus and grow deep, showing those around you that know your stuff. They will talk about it. You should talk about it to. Get involved in the networks out there around your area of interest.

Caution though... DON'T market yourself or your specialty until you have perfected it. You'll only be teaching others that may have interest, that you're only mediocre.

Once you start to succeed, brag on yourself a bit. You've worked hard. Show it. Get others to show it. Build on it while it's hot.

Alright... go get your brand on.