Great personal brands are simple, understandable, and straight forward in their brand promise. If you want to create a strong personal brand do yourself a favor and avoid the hype and rhetoric being espoused by the masses of overnight personal branding experts who have suddenly flooded the marketplace. Most so-called personal branding gurus are more akin to modern snake-oil salesmen than they are legitimate professional services providers. Personal Branding as a marketing discipline has regrettably been diluted by the hordes of attention-seeking purveyors that seek to separate you from your money by confusing hype with branding. Hype and spin have little to do with creating a growing and sustainable personal brand. Personal brand equity is built over the long-term by doing the right thing, and adhering to these 5 personal branding attributes that I developed more than a decade ago.
True personal branding professionals use a values-based business process to help clients develop a brand strategy that puts their best foot forward while remaining authentic in their messaging. This is best accomplished by utilizing a solid business process which results in the certainty of tactical execution. Smoke and mirrors gimmicks might work for a short while, but when the ruse begins to unravel there will be a very steep price to pay….the loss of your reputation.
Strong personal brands are built by understanding that it is the ability to leverage your gifts and talents to help others succeed in achieving their goals and objectives that make the difference. Leaders must follow a common-sense approach to focusing on the items that truly add depth and breadth to the personal branding process.
