Kevin Roberts describes building a consumer brand as a process of instilling “loyalty beyond reason” in the hearts and minds of consumers. As a person, building a personal brand is not that much different — and when working with students this is a discussion we start to have with them sooner than later. Last week I had this discussion with Ray. I have Ray in a 5th semester class and he’s knocking it over the fence. I haven’t seen him since 2nd semester and he was doing well then, but he’s grown even more and he’s entered into a place where he’s starting to put himself out there more and I’m starting to recommend him for things. Last week after class, we had the "building your brand" discussion very briefly and I promised to follow-up with some notes.
Start from the outside
A brand is an outward expression of the values, hopes, dreams and goals of a company… or, in this case, a person. It is how the world sees you and, to some degree how you’d like to be see… although as Marty Neumeier says: “A brand is not what you say it is, it’s what they say it is”. And he’s right. Sometimes the most deft brand-management can’t help a brand with a fractured soul. However, we’ll assume your insides are already in a good place. If you need a re-set on your values, then we need to be having a different discussion, but I’d guess that your head is on straight and your heart is in the right place. How the world sees you — or more specifically how you project yourself to the world — might need some refinement. This is where the discussion starts — on the outside. First and foremost, you want to project to the world what is already going on inside… or conversely, not do anything to throw folks off. There are a few places to start, but remember, this is about accurate projection, not changing who you are. Granted, sometimes the part you’re playing might differ from who you really are (or want to be), so that’s still a valid place of concern, so let’s start there.
Tony during his second semester... he's changed a lot since then.