{"id":700,"date":"2009-03-31T09:52:41","date_gmt":"2009-03-31T13:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/?p=700"},"modified":"2009-03-31T09:52:41","modified_gmt":"2009-03-31T13:52:41","slug":"personal-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/getgood.com\/roadmaps\/2009\/03\/31\/personal-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal brand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There’s been a great deal of conversation online in recent months about the importance — or not — of the “personal brand.”<\/a> While I admit to finding the concept of a personal brand, and all the posturing, positioning and posing that seems to go along with it, a bit noxious, I hadn’t found the exact words to express my opinion.<\/p>\n

Until yesterday when I was asked to share my thoughts on the subject during an interview with the website Radical Parenting.<\/a><\/p>\n

Rather than think of it as building a personal brand,\u00a0 I suggested that what we should really focus on is our personal reputation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Brands are created. Reputations are earned.<\/p>\n

Reputation embraces your ethics. Proponents of the personal brand will argue that it does as well. Maybe so, but the link is far less clear. Brand is a construct. There’s something inherently artificial in a brand. The notion of an artificial construct having ethics is a great plotline for a science fiction novel, but it just doesn’t work for me out here in the real world.<\/p>\n

Moreover, the company doesn’t own the brand. It may think it does, but the brand is a shared <\/strong>construct. It is the combination of the image or story the company sets out to convey and how it is actually perceived by the customer.\u00a0 It shares its brand with its customer. On some level, then, the notion of a personal brand is an oxymoron.<\/p>\n

My reputation, on the other hand? I earned it. I own it.<\/p>\n

Bottom line, it’s not what you say<\/strong>. It’s what you do <\/strong>that matters.<\/p>\n

Words to live by. I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There’s been a great deal of conversation online in recent months about the importance — or not — of the “personal brand.” While I admit to finding the concept of a personal brand, and all the posturing, positioning and posing that seems to go along with it, a bit noxious, I hadn’t found the exact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t