The new generation understands the value of the personal brand. Previously, personal brands were the things of celebrities, authors, or other public figures. But now, often the best business opportunities are available to those with the best personal brands. By establishing some sort of public persona, you can make yourself visible to potential employers or other great potentialities.
But how do you build a brand without losing your identity? How do you set up a public persona without becoming a total phony?
I believe it’s possible. Here are three ways.
1. Make your brand about your character, not performance.
If your brand is about being the best or most fashionable or most funny, you’ll begin finding your identity in those things. That’s a slippery slope, because if you ever stop being the most _______, you’ll feel completely lost.
Instead, make your personal brand about character. Be the person who is 100% reliable. Be the one who is always encouraging. Be the one who sees clarity in the midst of confusion. Those things stick with you because they’re the real you.
2. Embrace the imperfections.
Resist the urge to filter every moment of your life. You don’t have to be the public picture of perfection. Be honest about the good and the bad in your life.
3. Be about friendship over connections.
Finally, establish friendships over networking connections. Friendships will help you be more real in your interactions, and it will keep you from using people. I’ve also found people are much more willing to help me when I approach them as a friend rather than an “associate”.
Plus, in this new generation of people building their personal brands, this is the only way our social society will survive. If the whole social construct deteriorates to business networking, we will have lost our humanity. The friendship approach is much better.
Have you successfully built a brand without losing your soul? What have you done to make that possible? Share in a comment below.
