Every time you go into a hospital for surgery or treatment you’re always asked to sign a consent form listing not only the possible benefits of the procedure but also the possible complications. If there’s a chance you could die on the table they want you to know about it so they can absolve themselves of any blame if the worst happens. Why then is there so little said about the possible downside of personal branding?
Granted, personal branding is a great way to help your company grow. It allows you to firmly establish yourself as an expert in your field, something that always makes you feel good because you’ve probably worked very hard to get there, and it opens doors to advancement and expansion that you wouldn’t have otherwise had available to you.
The question is, what happens when something goes wrong and personal branding is revealed as something less than the miracle that it’s purported to be?
There are some definite pitfalls to personal branding, the first being that because you are the brand it’s going to be difficult (if not impossible) to transition out when you’re ready to try out new waters. If Donald Trump were to decide today that he’d had enough of being a professional billionaire and wanted to learn how to dive in the Olympics he would still always be known as the business success he’s branded himself.
It’s important that you understand personal branding is not the same as corporate branding. Corporate branding encourages you to pitch your company, your products, your services AND your team to the public, and after you’ve done all that you might throw in a quick little blurb about yourself and your history as an official bio and call it a day.
Personal branding isn’t about your company, or what you do, a problem that we’ll talk about it just a second. Personal branding is marketing yourself, and when you’re marketing yourself you’re marketing something that matters something you’re going to be stuck with for the rest of your life. Who you brand yourself now is who you’re going to be in the public eye for the rest of your life.
It’s important you make sure that’s something you can live with.
The second problem is that when you tie your personal brand in with a company you are also giving your company the right to ride on your reputation. That means if something happens to knock your credibility in the field your personal brand is going to suffer, and the success and future of the company along with it. That also goes both ways. It’s very difficult to maximize on the potential of personal branding, then attempt to separate your reputation from that of the corporation if something goes terribly, terribly wrong.
The bottom line is that in order to become a successful personal brand, you must first identify your core values and work with them. From that point on it’s vital to ensure that your reputation and the reputation of your company are able to live up to the promise made by your brand. Forget that retirement home in Oahu. You’re in this for the long haul.
Ray Subs is a public relations specialist working with N2Growth, a leader in business growth solutions. For more information, visit http://www.n2growth.com.
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