Personal Branding or just self indulgence...

I got it in my head a couple of weeks ago I needed to update my professional photograph as part of my ongoing, ever evolving personal branding to ensure I’m portraying an image that reflects my value. It’s a classic marketing pursuit.

After a quick Google search you’ll find Wikipedia defines Personal Brand (or Personal Branding) as the practice of people marketing themselves and their careers as brands. While previous self-help management techniques were about self-improvement, the personal-branding concept suggests instead that success comes from self-packaging. The term personal brand is thought to have been first used and discussed in a 1997 article by Tom Peters. And if you take it a little further, the same Google (with the help of Business encyclopedia) defines Brand Equity as a marketing term that describes a brand’s value. That value is determined by consumer perception of and experiences with the brand. If people think highly of a brand, it has positive brand equity. When a brand consistently under-delivers and disappoints to the point where people recommend that others avoid it, it has negative brand equity.

Yes that is exactly what I was doing — keeping my Brand Equity front and centre using the subtly of a photograph to reinforce it.

Being an accomplished Sales and Marketing Leader with a reputation for effective strategy, creative problem solving and execution; highly experienced in sales and marketing management with a number of awards. And also someone who brings a wealth of cross-functional skill sets in product, price and marketing management as well as sales management and development to help business leaders with their commercial problems, I set out to build a brand.

Using my initials and the belief I’m clever, I built the name GPEStratagem — I adopted the Scottish Unicorn as my logo (because it is unique, speaks to my heritage, and is full of character, as well as strength), and adopted the moniker iamgpe. I had a very professional photograph taken and build a web site with social feeds where it made sense.

And then I started to blog for no other reason than if you want build a personal brand you need to articulate its value.

Over the years I have evolved my web site and expanded my social channels but I hadn’t done anything with that original photograph. Why get a new photograph now after all this time? Maybe it was the desire to keep my brand and image fresh, or maybe the belief that social media photographs shouldn’t be “too dated”, or simply a belief there were subtle changes in who I am, or what my value has become. Whatever the reason, it seemed new photographs were the only way to get the message across to support my personal (and professional) branding efforts.

A very talented photographer named Phillipa Croft (who likes to work with natural light) was able to help me in this regard. Having the photographs in hand I have know uploaded them onto my web site and various social media feeds, and even got a blog topic out of the little adventure as a bonus.

Arguably I’ve done a reasonable job of couching this in my personal branding strategy… although I suppose I’m just indulging myself by showing off my new pictures and how the natural light captures my features nicely.

In either regard, you have to admit Phillipa takes a fine photograph.

iamgpe

PS — OK, OK… it’s self indulgent. But then again, isn’t that an important component of effective Personal Branding.

The bullshit that is personal branding...

It struck me the other day that the whole idea of "personal branding" is bullshit, and also so very marketing — and this is coming from someone who has spend a fair bit of time in the "field of marketing". Although, I would also be the first person to say you need to develop your "personal brand" (and yes a bit of a contradiction is presenting itself).

Before you call bullshit, hear me out — and believe me I shall be brief.

The Internet has given rise to many things in such a short period of time; 50 % good and 50 % not so good — and we have all adapted. One of things that has taken off is the concept of personal branding, and although not a new concept, it has very much accelerated because it is next to simple to get a great photograph of yourself, create a YouTube channel, and set up as many social media feeds as you can handle — and if you are reasonably calculated, present yourself in the perfect light, and with the perfect personal branding. Sadly, most will be taken at face value if it looks great and if it's entertaining. Sadder still though, there's also a collective understanding that under the thin veneer that is the internet, there lives an expectation that not everything is really as truthful as portrayed — and we seem to be alright with it. Another example of the adaption to the Internet I suppose.

Becoming lost is the word reputation (and maybe even the concept); you know, the overall quality or character as seen or judged by people. Reputation is a word of substance — something that takes a long time to build, and sadly if you are not careful, can be lost quickly (and maybe never recovered). Your reputation is built upon your character and abilities, and although sometimes masked for a little while, will always truly represent who you are. The personal brand is forever nebulous and changing based on the environment that fosters it, while reputation is solid and built on your character and capability.

Maybe all I am really trying to get across is that if your personal brand is not built upon your character and abilities (your reputation if you will), then it simply is all just bullshit.

iamgpe

PS — For those who may not be familiar with the term

bull·shit [ˈbo͝olˌSHit]

NOUN — stupid or untrue talk or writing; nonsense.

VERB — talk nonsense to (someone), typically to be misleading or deceptive.