A Personal Brand is Mandatory. If You Think Them's Fightin' Words, Meet Me on Tobacco Road at Sunset--Or Just Read This.
Vox put out an article recently entitled: "Everyone’s a sellout now."
Yikes.
They're referring to the fact that everyone--and I mean everyone--needs a personal brand. The 65-year old accountant, the 39-year old health care manager and the 27-year old make-up artist. And all humans in between.
I'm defining personal brand here as a VOICE OF AUTHENTIC and DISTINCT EXPRESSION that people know and love and recognize as YOU. It is your PRESENCE. It's what people say about you when you're NOT IN THE ROOM.
What do you stand for?
What do you not stand for?
This is your personal brand.
And this is scary to a lot of people (official statistic). So let's break down your fears:
1) THE FEAR OF MARKETING
As Vox discusses at length, most people now spend a SHIT-TON (A shit-ton is technical term that means "a whole hell of a lot") of time marketing themselves and building their brand for their book, podcast, band or business.
So much that they sometimes lose sight of their creative juice, and it feels like their OWN Zone of Genius was abducted by the Upside Down.
So I get it. And I feel it.
But building a personal brand doesn't have to be miserable. Especially when content is recyclable.....outsourcing is efficient....and....
(here's a truth that's bursting with fruit flavor:)
When you love your message, you'll love sharing it.
Yes, EVEN if you're not a marketer.
****A personal brand is mandatory.*****
2) THE FEAR OF SELLING OUT
There's some outdated notion that branding, marketing and promotion--going mainstream, pushing your services for money--equals SELLING OUT.
Chuck Klosteman defines the term "sellout" not as someone who sells something in order to get rich, but someone who compromises their values to do so.
So here's the Personal Brand Holy Grail
Building a personal brand fueled by ego, greed, desperation and panic get you some clients, but feels icky.
Building a personal brand FOR and FROM you soul, principles and values will get you the right clients AND feels nourishing and fulfilling.
****A personal brand is mandatory.*****
************
2) THE FEAR OF CONTROL
Otherwise known as the Cliff Claven response: "You're not the boss of me!"
I get that too. Lots of middle fingers and independent thinking. And I'm all for weirdness, freak flags and saying no to the status quo. I'm so on your side.
But here's the beauty.
You can still do things your way!
You can be as weird or as mundane as you want. As long as it's in YOUR voice.
Film yourself making the perfect gazpacho, show us your Star Trek figurines, nerd out about CX, defend your obsession with the Final Four, or post a video of you playing the Didgeridoo. ALL of that can be woven into your professional message.
Its called a metaphor! (My teenage daughter says "Mom, you think everything is a metaphor!" And I do, because it IS!)
A bonus: Most people don't need a million followers. You're not seeking to be an Instagram Influencer Sensation. You just want to get enough of the right, high paying clients to work less than 20 hours a week, buy $65 lipliner at Sephora, snag a second house in Portugal (so hot right now) and sleep well at night without a handful of gummies.
****A personal brand is mandatory.*****
And you're brave enough to build one.
Panicked? I can help with the metaphors, the brand and the marketing. I also have a friend in Portugal (Scott Stransky I miss you!) and an amazing editor Edith Freni who was once a pro boxer.
You wanna piece of me? Sign up for my magic here.
I help people build a personal brand they love.....
Meow.
P.S. Tobacco Road was the go-to location for all after-school fistfights in my town.
#personalbrand #youarebrave #brandmessaging #nomorecages