{"id":7653,"date":"2014-06-22T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2014-06-22T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/creator\/?p=7653"},"modified":"2020-03-30T19:07:16","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T23:07:16","slug":"love-hate-personal-branding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wework.com\/ideas\/professional-development\/love-hate-personal-branding","title":{"rendered":"My love-hate relationship with personal branding"},"content":{"rendered":"

“I know the idea of a brand is something that I’m not supposed to care about…but I do think it’s a part of my life, and I’m trying to just be in control of it, as opposed to ignoring it.” \u00a0–\u00a0<\/em>Anna Kendrick<\/p>\n

This hilarious, \u201ccool girl\u201d, double\/triple\/quadruple threat articulates how many of us feel about personal branding. We’re supposed to be too cool for that. We’re supposed to be able to just magically gain lots of avid “fans” without caring a wit or trying too hard. \u00a0Clearly, personal branding is a loaded phrase for many.<\/p>\n

There are plenty who would threaten to vomit on you if you uttered this word in their presence. Ironically, many of these folks already have a large following on Twitter or their blog. A high percentage of them would disavow any knowledge of a “strategy.”<\/p>\n

I don’t believe them.<\/p>\n

Rarely can someone grow a following of 10,000 or more without thinking about to how present themselves. Perhaps they’re like Anna Kendrick, uncomfortable admitting that they have a strategy for being well-liked or even well followed. I suspect many would like you to think they don’t care whether they have 15,000, 34,000 or 10 followers.<\/p>\n

But here’s the secret: They do care.<\/p>\n

Even the people who admit to wanting to have some sort of strategy to grow their audience say it apologetically as if they’ve made a faux paus.\u00a0Why are so many of us ashamed to admit that we:<\/p>\n

a. Have a personal brand
\nb. Actually care about it?<\/p>\n

Why We’re at War With Personal Branding\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Social media deserves a big heaping of the blame plate.\u00a0In an age where “selfie” was named the word of year for 2013, we can all feel a bit insecure. Everyone looks so glamorous and put\u00a0together.\u00a0All the selfies, eBooks, and humble brags disguised as tweets has allowed impostor syndrome to spread wider and faster than the virus in the Matt Damon-helmed film Contagion<\/em>. It\u2019s easy to think that you have nothing of value to offer and really, why would you want to add to\u00a0the\u00a0tweet storm of bullsh– because somewhere deep down you know that all is not sparkly and wonderful all the time.<\/p>\n

For others, a personal brand feels inauthentic. It makes us\u00a0feel like a phony. We believe having a strategy = being a fake.\u00a0\u00a0You\u2019re not supposed to care what people think right?<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the\u00a0\u201cI can be anything I want crowd\u201d and it’s the hatred of being put into yet another box.\u00a0We’re unique, damn it! Not only do we want to be outside the box some of don’t even recognize the box at all.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Reality<\/strong><\/h3>\n

You have a personal brand, whether you realize it or not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Ignoring personal branding because you think it\u2019s fake is a sure way to ensure failure. Of course, having a facade or acting out a role is no way to long-term sustainable success. Or happiness for that matter. Especially happiness. But having a well-articulated personal brand doesn\u2019t mean you\u2019re a sellout. It doesn\u2019t mean you have to be a chameleon or\u00a0anything other than you.<\/p>\n

Being yourself is like taking the speed train to success and happiness. I grew up with an engineer and mathematician so let’s express this in a formula:<\/p>\n

If you pretend to be\u00a0(snarky, perfect, disinterested)<\/em>\u00a0it will be hard to maintain the facade when you\u00a0(want to connect, fail or fall in love, sprinkle sappy emotions across the planet)\u00a0<\/em>which will lead to\u00a0(loneliness, less business, sadness\u2014maybe even despair).\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

A Love\/Hate Relationship With Branding\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

When I was around two-years-old, my mother woke at 2 a.m. to find me in my sister\u2019s crib. I had dumped out the entire contents of my dresser onto her bed. My mom found \u00a0me trying on outfits and asking my sister her opinion. Though my sister couldn\u2019t quite talk yet, I persisted having my\u00a0fashion show and determined to figure how to best\u00a0present myself. By the time I turned four, my wardrobe was decidedly blue and I had shunned pink and purple entirely because they were too girly for my tomboyish self. That Christmas I designed my own costume for a Christmas play my brothers, sister, and I put on at home. I started thinking about my presentation at a young age.<\/p>\n

But there was a time when I turned my back on personal branding after perusing a few profiles of popular personal branding haters (one called it a circus, another vowed they’d unfollow you if you ever uttered the words).<\/p>\n

I admit it.
\nI wanted to be liked.
\nI wanted to be cool.
\nI shrank away from myself.<\/p>\n

It took me several weeks (okay, months) to pull myself out of the narrow space I crawled into and come out of the personal branding closet.\u00a0I remembered that I have\u00a0never<\/em>\u00a0been cool\u2014and probably never will be. And what was as important in life as being myself? Not much.\u00a0As I left my branding closet, I began to look around and saw that these haters were actually employing the very strategies that make branding effective:<\/p>\n