Let's Chat Personal Branding

[Andy Black]

I don't recall many threads discussing personal branding.

In my mind, we all have personal brands whether we choose to develop and manage them or not.

And it goes without saying we have them for life.

I've always loved @Kak 's observation that a personal brand is a non taxable asset. (If that doesn't make you take this seriously then I don't know what will!)

Personally, I've always had misgivings about building a personal brand. I've got a decent enough one on LinkedIn, and it's been good enough to date at bringing new business.

At one point I was posting Snapchat videos and heard some teenagers outside a shop saying "He does videos." I didn't like being recognised so hopped off that platform.


I thought the short video below was very interesting.

The founder of Gym Shark is hiring a personal brand manager. The commentator said this wasn't really a thing 1, 2, or 3 years ago.

I'm wondering why that's changed. Could AI produced content mean that content presented by real life people is getting more valued and more valuable?

Saying that, I work with many a business where the founder prefers to remain unknown.

I'm curious what your thoughts are, and if you're also on the fence and why.

Ash Jones on LinkedIn: This week Ben Francis MBE advertised for a Personal Brand Manager. He’s… | 51 comments

This week Ben Francis MBE advertised for a Personal Brand Manager. He’s not the only one that I’ve seen do this over the last few months either! Here’s two… | 51 comments on LinkedIn

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[Gypsy Soul]

Glad you opened this one up. I really need to understand branding from the experts.

 

[Jobless]

It's easier to relate to a person than an abstract brand.

Personal branding can backfire on you. If you try too hard, you will be perceived as less than genuine. Just look at any politician. Having a personal brand means making your reputation public, for better or worse.

I thought about this recently as someone wanted to buy my services and expertise for a project. I don't really sell services, but it seems I had made an impression on them. So it is true we all have a personal brand whether we like it or not.

I could seek more sales through building the personal brand further, but I feel this is not for me. I don't want to sell my name's reputation, or my time even if its a fixed price service. Up to a point though, it can be very lucrative. For this reason, maybe I should do it? But first pick carefully what this personal brand should be about.

Competition is fierce among the personal brands, but I bet it's about 100x times easier than launching a new energy drink brand.