Through a blog post from my colleague Karen Katz, I learned that Mitch Joel had declared personal branding dead. Though his headline was “Personal Branding RIP,” he actually said personal branding as a concept has lost its way — and, as I didn’t realize until later, he made this statement back in February.
The kinds of criticisms Joel leveled at the way some individuals brand themselves could be addressed through storied branding. For example, he says that “Those that were doing it well, were doing it authentically and with true passion.” Given that one of the best ways to express passion and authenticity is through story, it’s possible those Joel admires are telling their stories well in their branding messages.
However, Joel asserts that “we’re moving ever-closer to the point where most individuals are expressing their Personal Brands in ways that make them look more like sterile and plastic TV news anchors than original thinkers. … there is an ever-growing group of those who come off as fake, insincere, and simply out for their own personal gain. In short, they seem and feel like plastic and taste like vanilla.”
A major part of Joel’s critique — as well as that of the many commenters to his post — is that people are not being themselves in their personal branding.
But as one commenter points out, Joel’s argument suffers from a lack of examples — a lack of stories, if you will — of both those who are communicating their personal brands well and those who are doing it poorly.
By contrast, Josh Hyatt, in an article in the Aug. 16, 2010, Fortune, offers stories of folks who are branding themselves well and those who’ve made mistakes. The specific thrust of these case studies is folks who are striving to build a “brand within a larger brand,” in other words, within their employers’ brand. This set of stories about personal branding is a bit unusual — and refreshing — in that Hyatt barely quotes any experts on personal branding and simply presents the stories.
Among lessons learned by the protagonists of these stories:
- Be sure the values expressed in your branding align with those of your employer.
- Choose discretion over self-promotion.
- Be sensitive to changing priorities.
But getting back to Joel’s post and the many, many comments it received … Most of the critiques lodged against current personal branding could be addressed with storied personal branding:
- Commenter Martin Lessard cites Tara Hunt, who substitutes “personality” for personal branding. The implication is that expressing your personality is the best kind of personal branding. One of the best ways to express your personality is to tell your story.
- Ryan Henson Creighton observes that “we wear social masks to hide our personality warts (and in some cases, our real warts … know any Facebookers who use their baby pictures or high school grad photos as their profile pics?) … People are too afraid to look foolish, to appear selfish, or especially to posit an opinion that later turns out to be wrong.” Ulp, guilty as charged. I often use childhood photos of myself in profiles. Although I like them better than adult photos of myself, I don’t think of myself as so much hiding as paying homage to my dad and the wonderful black-and-white photography he did. I’m also wary of expressing my opinion, not so much out of fear — in our very politically polarized society — of being wrong but out of fear of offending someone. I do not have enough courage of my convictions. I like Creighton’s parting words: “Be ugly. Be wrong. Make mistakes. Show your warts. Generate healthy and helpful debate. And be brave enough to admit your mistakes…” In other words, tell your story.
- The comments to Joel’s post contain an undercurrent of disdain for all the “experts” who write didactic posts on such topics as how to Twitter properly and how to blog properly. Paul L’Acosta writes: “Twitter asks “What’s happening” and if John Doe wants to say “I’m eating ice cream. Man, this thing is cold!”, JUST LET HIM DO IT!” I so agree. Every time I see a blog post telling folks how they should be doing social media, I read it as the author saying, “This is how I do social media, and you should do it this way, too.” Indeed, Ryan Rancatore notes, “some of the strongest personal brands out there today have been created unintentionally and organically by people who’ve never heard or cared about the term.”
- Ramsey Mohsen cites a wonderful Joseph Campbell quote: “The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.” You can express who you are through story.
- Scott Scanlon offers his report, Personal Branding is a Joke.
- Will Burns asserts, “The word “brand” should be no way near the word ‘Person’ (or any derivation therein) ever. It cheapens our humanity.” Perhaps “storytelling” is less cheapening.
- Kevin Dees says, “The people who follow me .. don’t see me as a ‘name’ or ‘brand’, basically something you buy from the store. They see me as an experience or a memory or someone they can relate to…” Experience/memory = story.
- Dennis Van Staalduinen argues that “brand is by definition IMPERSONAL.” Not when it’s storied, I assert.
- By way of promoting his company’s “platform for folks to build their brand with,” Josh Fendley cites Kevin Dugan, who uses this platform for his personal brand. It’s a clean, attractive site that nicely aggregates Dugan’s social-media presence. But I get no sense of who Kevin Dugan is or what his story is.
So, how do you create a storied personal brand? Just a few possible resources include:
- The branding chapter of my book, Tell Me About Yourself.
- Michael Margolis, who is all about storied branding.
- Bernadette Martin’s new book, Storytelling about Your Brand Online & Offline: A Compelling Guide to Discovering Your Story.