3 Reasons You Need A Personal Brand

Some people don’t like the term “personal branding.”

They make fossil-old jokes about sticking a piece of red hot metal on your hindquarters. Or they point at Gene Weingarten’s “How Branding Is Ruining Journalism” column where he takes issue with the idea of personal branding (and makes the same stale joke about cattle branding).

And now Oliver Burkman of the Guardian in the UK questions whether we really need a personal brand at all.

Yes. Yes you do.

1. A Brand is an Emotional Response To Your Face

In our book, Branding Yourself (affiliate link), Kyle and I define a “brand” as “an emotional response to the image or name of a particular company, product, or person.”

A brand is more than just a logo and a tagline. It’s the emotions you feel when you see McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, Manchester United, the Chicago Cubs, or BP Oil. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, that is the brand.

Side Note: This is all based on the idea that a company’s brand is no longer what they say it is, it’s what the customers say it is. So if customers say your company is evil and makes little children cry, then that’s what people are going to think of you. Like it or not, your branding is out of your hands and firmly in your customers’.

So, if people like you because you always tell the truth, then your brand is “honest.” If people like you because you know a lot of cool stuff, your brand is “smart.” If people despise you because you lie to people and hit on their spouses, your brand is “jerkface.”

Companies have names, logos, and taglines that we all respond to emotionally. So, too, do people have names, faces, and descriptors (adjectives) that we all respond to emotionally. And those emotional reactions are based on our experiences with you and what we know about you.

We feel these emotions when we hear your name in conversation, or when we get an email from you, or someone asks, “Do you know Stacy?”

Or even when we see your face.

2. Brand is Another Word for Reputation

Okay, so maybe the phrase “personal brand” is fancy 21st century marketing talk for “reputation.” Maybe I’ve turned into one of those trendoids who make up new words to describe things that already had perfectly good words. Maybe “reputation” is the word we should be using instead.

But that ship has sailed.

Someone like Gene Weingarten can wail and fuss all he wants about how “personal branding” is ruining journalism, but the fact is, “Gene Weingarten” is a brand himself.

“Gene Weingarten” is a curmudgeonly newspaper columnist. “Gene Weingarten” has regular readers and fans, because they want to see what “Gene Weingarten” said this week. If Gene doesn’t believe in personal branding, he should stop putting his byline under his column.

Oliver Burkeman can question whether “personal branding” is a real thing, or if it’s a detriment. But he’s the “This Column Will Change Your Life” guy for the Guardian newspaper. If he doesn’t believe in personal branding, he shouldn’t include the name of his column on his résumé, and see if he can land his next job based on his impeccable spelling alone.

3. Your Personal Brand Is Based On Your Past Accomplishments and Actions

We judge people based on what they did, not what they’re going to do.

We trust people because they did what they said, or helped us. We distrust people because they lied to us, or backstabbed us.

We think people are good writers because we read what they have already written. We think people are good salespeople because we know how much they sold. We think people are good athletes because we watched them play.

We look at people’s past actions, label them as good or bad, smart or dumb, honest or evil, competent or incompetent. And then we expect future accomplishments based on past actions.

Your actions and your accomplishments add up to your personal brand. What you do, how you react, what you say, who you help?

If you help people without expecting anything in return, you’re generous. If you say one thing but do another, you’re a liar. That is your personal brand, your reputation. It’s what follows you around like a shadow, until you find something bigger to replace it.

So, don’t pooh-pooh the term “personal brand.” You have one, whether you like it or not. You may choose to call it something else, but whatever you call it, it’s there.

If you don’t have one, you’ll never stand out from the crowd.