If content is at the heart of a modern marketing strategy, then personal branding is the soul and passion the spiritual fuel. Lately, I’ve been thinking and learning about some qualities or dimensions of personal branding. I can’t talk about personal brand building without thinking of Gary Vaynerchuk, what he’s accomplished and how passionate he is on the subject.
These might just scratch the surface, but here are some important mindsets and actions to weave into your personal brand building game plan.
Authenticity
This dimension comes up often in reference to our involvement in social networks or blogging. It may be tempting to imitate the practices of others you see succeeding in your field of interest. There’s nothing wrong with learning what works for others and adopt, for yourself, some best practices to follow. But stop if you’re putting on an act or trying to be like someone else. You have to be you. Who you are is far more interesting than a copy of someone else. Your background, life experiences, talents, perspectives and dreams are uniquely you. To borrow a thought from U2’s Original of the Species, “you are the first one of your kind…I want the lot of what you got and I want nothing that you’re not.”
Here’s an example of how being authentic, different – not afraid to stick out - plays out in real life by John Antonios.
Ultimately, your brand is not what you say it is. It’s what others perceive it to be that matters. Yet the authentic dimension of your personal brand can and will cause an impression that may serve you well. Here’s a few examples of people I think are building an authentic personal brand:
- http://punkrockhr.com/about/
- http://www.blondechickenboutique.com/index.php/about/
- http://johnhaydon.com/about/
Transparency
Transparency is authenticity’s kissing cousin. It has to do with being truthful, honest and most importantly intimately involved in conveying the essence of your personal brand to others. Hiring someone to do it for you without full disclosure is deceptive if not downright fraudulent. I heard from a guy who told me his client wanted to attract more links to his site by starting a blog. The troubling part of the story is the client wanted nothing to do with blogging himself, he was too busy for that. He wanted to hire someone to blog for him – as if it was coming from him. Bad idea. Readers who may turn into subscribers, fans and eventually customers want transparency.
The best way in my mind to build your personal brand with the transparency dimension is to have it come straight from you, unfiltered with all of your brilliance and blemishes mixed together.
Creativity (Meets Passion, Aptitude & Hard Work)
The third dimension to personal brand building believe it or not is the creative element. And allow me to be transparent and disclose that I get this idea from Sir Ken Robinson in his terrific book, “The Element – How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything” (amazon.com associate link). “The Element,” writes Robinson, “is the meeting point between natural aptitude and personal passion.” You hear a lot of voices exhorting us to “live your passion.” But realizing no difference between who you are and what you do takes more than just passion. You also need to be great – if not the best at what you do. And that takes hard work; and along with that, creativity which says Robinson is “the process of having original ideas that have value.”
So, imagine for a moment your natural aptitude (what you’re good at and have shown some talent for) is dancing. You love it. You love the feeling you get when you move. You’re passionate about dancing before live audiences who are entertained and inspired by your performances. You take lessons, you train and you practice for hours a day – whenever you can. It doesn’t matter you get up at 4:00 a.m. in the morning to practice because dancing energizes you. You’re a theater rat attending as many musicals and ballets and all kinds of dance performances that you can. You imagine how you could move to that music. And you train and push your body to greater heights of flexibility, endurance and creative expression. In a very real way you’re developing, publishing and promoting your content – your dance. And in the process becoming all that you can be as an authentic, personal brand. Why? Because you followed your passion, worked at developing your talent, did it with creativity and discovered your *Element*.
Consider a recent and remarkable example of someone living their Element. Apolo Anton Ohno is a passionate and gifted short track skater. He’s now the most decorated U.S. Olympic athlete in the winter games having won 7 medals. While he has a natural aptitude for his craft he trains for hours and hours a day. His body fat is just 2.8%, and he yawns frequently before a race causing some to thing he’s bored when in fact he does it to focus and relax. His personal brand is extraordinary and multi-faceted. It’s not unusual to have multiple creative talents and Elements. His passion to succeed, aptitude and hard work resulted in celebrity status as champion of Dancing with the Stars, season 4 with partner Julianne Hough.
There’s many ways to discover and further your creativity. And, as I’ve often said, “It’s not a matter of are you creative, it’s how are you creative that counts.” Being in your Element will help lead you to a stronger dimension of creativity that will help you build an unbelievable personal brand.
Serviceability
The fourth dimension to consider when building your personal brand is serviceability. Some, if not all of you reading this will want to monetize your personal brand. Nothing wrong with that. I do too. Some, quite honestly could care less if being in their Element and living their passion ever generates any income stream. The mark of building a powerful personal brand is not about what you get out of it in terms of revenue – it’s what you give, the value you offer. It’s whether or not you fulfill a higher purpose beyond yourself and service someone else’s needs. Think about what others value and what they might gain from you living your personal brand. How are they helped, inspired, entertained?
It’s really not about you or me. We’re just the givers and in the process make things a little better – and so find greater purpose on life’s journey.
I feel like I’ve said a lot, but have just scratched the surface. I’d love to hear your insights on your journey to build your personal brand in the comments.
