Learn to Build Your Personal Brand

“Most of all, I don’t want to be defined by anything not of my choosing.”
~ Phil Gerbyshak

I consider myself a newbie as far as being an entrepreneur. For the first three decades of my working life, I was Mz. Corporate America, and for most of those thirty years I didn’t think like Phil did, mostly because I didn’t really think about it at all.

For most of those thirty years there was also no such thing as the internet, and building my own brand meant the hard road of building my own business, something I wasn’t ready to take on. During my time in retail in particular, my customers and suppliers regularly asked me, “Rosa, you’re good at this; why don’t you open your own shops?” and my reply would be, “I have a great employer who I like working for, and who willingly takes all the financial risks for what I do; this is perfect for me just as it is.”

Today, that is a sentence I would never say. I have no regrets about my corporate time, it was pretty great, but knowing what I know now, I’m not going back. Reading back on it, I could say that sentence again, but the ‘employer’ I’d be talking about would be me myself, and I.
[See From Corporate Life to Self-Employment at Talking Story.]

As I got older, and better at what I did, financial risk became a minimal concern for me. Not because I had a lot to cushion any deficits, but because I had learned how to make money and spend it wisely to curb those deficits; cash flow is important, but it became just another “tool of the trade.” I had developed that entrepreneurial mindset needed to succeed on my own because my financial literacy had grown with me.

A bigger concern reared its head and became more and more intrusive every day, and that was this: I paid a high price for the comfort of staying with my employer –––as great as that employer was. The price was the loss of substantial intellectual property; while I was on their dime they considered my brain something they owned, especially because I’d become an executive. Once you get that corner office, there is no such thing as personal time off the clock; that bigger paycheck you get means your ‘boss’ is now also your owner. Whatever you might create doesn’t belong to you, even at midnight sitting at your own kitchen table.

The day came that I no longer felt comfortable with “having it good” as Mz. veteran executive. I wanted my creative discomfort to pay off for me and my family personally.

When I walked away from the corporate world in 2003, I had a terrific reputation, but I did not yet have a personal brand. Big difference. Your personal brand is about your own message, your own mission, and your own vision, and your reputation. Entrepreneurship is about keeping control of all those things in your own good hands.

“My message is consistently spread because I took the time to build my brand. If you don’t take the time to build your brand, you run the risk that someone else will. And I don’t want someone else to say who I am, I want to be part of that story!”
~ Phil Gerbyshak

When you have crafted a personal brand, you have crafted a significant driver in your reputation; for remember, a reputation is something you are awarded by others. Think of brand as cause (will it be yours, or your employer’s?) and reputation as effect.

The good news is that today, you can do what I couldn’t do in my yesterday: You still need to steer clear of the executive suite to pull it off, however you can reap the benefits of working in the corporate world and create your personal brand at the same time.

Phil Gerbyshak is one of the best examples I know of, and we can all learn from him. The quotes I’ve shared here come from an interview he’s given to Ron “Buzzoodle” McDaniel of Buzz Marketing Personal Brand as lead up to a presentation Phil is doing in Las Vegas in January. I encourage you to read through Phil’s interview with Ron, for you too can begin to build your personal brand today.

~ Rosa Say, JJL Contributor, and author of Managing with Aloha Coaching. A related posting made back in June on Talking Story, is the Not-so-Secret Weapon of the Self-Employed.

~ Read more about Phil in his index here at Joyful Jubilant Learning, and at his blog, Make It Great!

~ As JJL Contributor Greg Balanko-Dickson would say, “Live Large!” Grab more inspiration for building your personal brand from these JJL categories:

• BHAGs and Bigger Dreams
• Connecting and Relationships
• JJL Forum 2007: Make A Difference

Comments

[David Sandusky]

This is a great story of personal brand, re-branding and entrepreneurship - thanks for sharing.

I would suggest that a personal brand strategy is just as important for the corporate career as the self-employed or entrepreneur. These days more multi-career professionals (slash career) have a potential brand confusion. Fun stuff!

[Rosa Say]

Aloha David, and welcome to the Ho‘ohana Community. Thank you for the add, for you are quite right; anything more you have to add in this, your area of expertise, would be much appreciated!

We live and work in such a great time, where building a personal brand is entirely possible in every working situation - and yes, it is fun stuff!

[Rosa Say]

Quick update with David's comment in mind: Great article by Marci Alboher and Pamela Slim about the branding challenges of *slash careerists* at Marci's column for the New York Times: While We’re Talking About Branding

An excerpt:

"Here is what you have to realize:

• Effectively promoting a brand takes a huge amount of time and energy. So while you could easily and cheaply set up three different blogs for three different businesses, you will not have the time to write consistent, quality posts for each. Or if you do, you won’t have the time to run the businesses you are promoting.

• Slash careerists spend so much time resisting the idea of specialization that they miss a hidden truth: tiny market segments are filled with deep opportunities.

• While you stubbornly insist on promoting all of your areas of expertise, the media continues to look for narrowly targeted experts. As each day goes by, there are thousands of people establishing an online presence. If you are too broad or generic, someone who is not afraid to own a small slice of your market will elbow you out."

Read the rest there:
http://shiftingcareers.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/11/28/while-were-talking-about-branding/

[David Sandusky]

Good follow-up and article shared. This is the core of personal branding. My internet radio show tag is "Your Business is not Unique, but You Are". Meaning the core competencies, values and value proposition come from the individual, but the vehicle can take multiple businesses offerings.

Quick personal story to articulate my point: early '07, I did not plan to have a radio show but was approached based on my skills, reputation, contacts, speaking, entrepreneurship, etc. (part of my brand) to do a show called Startup Story Radio on a popular Denver AM talk radio station. I did it because it did fit, but quickly realized I was getting into radio sales, subject too narrow and other things that did not fit my brand as much. The /radio show host brand became clutter. It was cool, but interfered with my core business. My partner took the show on. I started an internet radio show in line with my business and that did not interfere from a commitment standpoint. Choice.

My other businesses make sense because of great people and even though different business, my brand and 'their' experience is the same. That should be the idea around slash careers (vs. hobbies)

For more of my thoughts, my name on this comment links to my short post "Slash Career" in my blog dedicated to personal branding.

[Rosa Say]

I think you've nailed the key to personal branding with this sentence David: "the core competencies, values and value proposition come from the individual, but the vehicle can take multiple businesses offerings." What is clear is that we live in a time of opportunity, where our only limits may be those we impose on ourselves.

[Vikram Rajan]

LEVERAGE your personal brand... without leverage, it's just a reputation... prone to all the vulnerabilities of time-based income and fleeting preferences (ours and theirs -- we become 'old hat').

Leverage comes through: Knowledge Products, Business Models, Mascots, Ambassadors & Proteges.... so multiple businesses is just one way. In fact, most of the celebrity experts we know of, grew their personal brands through knowledge products.

~ Vikram
PersonalBrandMarketing.com

[Rosa Say]

Aloha Vikram, welcome to Joyful Jubilant Learning and thank you for adding to the discussion.

In addition to the leverage of one's brand for business-related connections, I love that you added "Mascots, Ambassadors & Proteges" as well. When it is compelling, our personal brand acts as a magnet - part of the Law of Attraction - opening the door to a myriad of new relationships. As a messenger of my own brand, I am exceptionally grateful for how my book Managing with Aloha has introduced me to people I would never have otherwise known.

This is part of the knowledge product connection you speak of as well, and "learning to build your personal brand" is a learning to share of the knowledge you have - whether in books, podcasts, blogs, forum conversations and commenting! I am so glad that my post has introduced you to us (and you David!)

[Phil Gerbyshak]

Such a powerful article, and powerful conversation in the comments.

The more we know about ourselves, the more we can share our brand. It's truly a journey towards the brand, with the brand, and we must take folks along on the journey with us, or it's merely a slogan or a dream.

Indeed, it can attract folks to us if our brand resonates with others, but it can also repel, if it's not congruent with who we really are. Rosa pulled out a quote I shared about not wanting to be defined by others, but that's merely step 1 in the process. To build a true brand, you must live it, day out and day out.

Thank you for profiling me here Rosa. I know my comments aren't a departure from anything you, or the fantastic commenters have said, because you all GET the brand. I'm curious to get your take on why others DON'T think it's important? Perhaps that might help us understand a bit more, for though it seems very obvious to us, others are very confused.