Personal Branding Interview | Alexia Leachman & Hung Lee

Here is an interview I did recently with Hung Lee aka Wise Man Say.

Some of the things we talk about include

  • Brand Creation vs Brand Discovery
  • Brand Values = inflexibility? Or does it allow for inconsistency in life?
  • Brands get ossified as they mature – harder to change as you go on – implications for young people?
  • Transparency of social media – effect on personal brands
  • Language – and the need to do better. Bring in your ‘personal capital’

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Top 5 life regrets: don’t let them be yours

I came across this wonderful blog piece that really got me thinking. And crying.

Nurse reveals the top 5 regrets people make on their deathbed

It reminded me of when I was losing my mum and the conversations we had about regrets. She was full of regrets. So many things she wanted to do. And once I had lost her, I wanted to make sure that I wouldn’t die with the same regrets as her. So this blog piece written by a nurse who worked with the dying is quite poignant for me.

She cites the top 5 regrets as being;

“I wish I’d had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me”

It doesn’t surprise me that this is top. The world is full of people who are not being true and it shows in the way that they behave and the illnesses they have. Do what you love and spend time with people you love. Anything less is simply not worth it. You only have one life and even then it is too short. Don’t let this be your regret. Take time to find out who you are and what you’re about and be brave to start the journey. It doesn’t mean it’s an easy one, but neither is dying with the regret that you never even bothered trying.

“I wish I didn’t work so hard”

Apparently this was top among the men. They spent so much time at work and not enough with their family. Sure they had the trappings of wealth, but it’s only late in life that you realise that none of that stuff matters. What matters is how much you mean to others, the love that you share with others and the magic moments you spend with them. That’s stuff that money can’t buy and that you can’t get back once time has lapsed.

“I wish I’d had the courage to express my feelings”

Repressed feelings are so damaging both for your spirit and your body. Many illnesses come from not expressing your true feelings. It might mean a difficult conversation or losing some people along the way, but isn’t that better than being a fake?

“I wish I had stayed in touch with my friends”

The busy-ness of life can so easily take over that staying in touch with friends falls behind over the years. But remember, these are the guys that give you laughter, support good times and magic moments. And without them you have no laughter, support, good times and magic moments.

“I wish that I had let myself be happier”

Near the end many realise that happiness is a choice and had they made the choice sooner, their life would have had more smiles and joy. Why wait until your deathbed to make this choice? Happiness isn’t something that you achieve when you acquire stuff, it’s a state of being. As with anything, the order of things is be-do-have, not have-do-be. Used to be someone who would utter the words “when I have that raise/that car/that house/whatever I’ll be happy”. Then I lost my mum and I resolved to work through all my crap so that I didn’t die with the same regrets as her.

You might be wondering what the link with personal branding is here. Well for me, it’s about authenticity and integrity. If you’re being true to yourself and doing something that you love, then you’ll be happy. By actively managing your personal brand, you’re more likely to be mindful of your actions and less likely to get carried away with the current of life. For me, proactively managing your personal brand means being authentic and true, it means being well balanced in how you spend your time to ensure you achieve what you want. And often, when we acknowledge our true selves, our ambitions become more meaningful and selfless. And so it follows, that many of these regrets should pass you by. Now, isn’t that something to aim for?

So, now that you’ve read this list of regrets, are there any that you’re guilty of? Leave a comment below.

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Personal Branding: Reputation management is YOUR responsibility

The current debate on privacy here in the UK is an interesting one. A well-known footballer has been caught with his pants down. Literally. And so, in order to protect his reputation he paid in excess of £200k to lawyers for a super-injunction to keep this mess out of the press. Unfortunately, this didn’t keep it off the social networks and now it’s public knowledge. So, now not only has his misdemeanour come out, but it’s a hot topic on all media. Surely not what he had in mind when he coughed up his £200k.

This situation is quite complex so rather than get distracted in the privacy part of this debate I’d like to focus on the reputation angle.

If you are going to do something that damages your reputation, then you need to be mindful of the consequences. The transparency of social media has forced many of us to be more mindful of our behaviour. Whether it’s flirting around the boundaries of a relationship or showing a side of us that only alcohol reveals, we are all only too aware of the chaos that can ensue once it appears on Facebook.

So, to use the argument that a super-injunction is required to protect his reputation is a very weak one. The responsibility for reputation damage only lies with him! If he hadn’t acted like an idiot in the first place then he wouldn’t have anything to hide. And that is a lesson to us all.

If you do happen to act in a way that betrays your reputation, then surely on a personal level you need to learn from this. One of the first lessons of crisis management is to own up. Once you admit that you have made a mistake and that you are sorry, you are showing a human side. And that alone may gain you respect, merely for your honesty despite what you may have done. But trying to hide it, suggests that you are ashamed of your behaviour and that you know it was wrong. That is fuel for gossip and will only make things worse.

If we act is a way that is in line with our view of ourselves and reinforces what we want people to think about us, then there is no story.

So, has the transparency of social media affected how you behave? Are you more mindful of what you’re doing BECAUSE others have a window in on your life? Leave a comment below.

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My Favourite 4 Personal Branding Quotes

The term “Personal branding” is massively misunderstood. Even in marketing circles, branding is not understood, so the likelyhood of the masses getting their heads around personal branding is slim. So, to help out I’ve collated my personal favourite top 4 quotes that attempt to define what personal branding is all about.

Quote 1.

“Your brand is what people say about you when you are not in the room” Jeff Bezos. Founder of Amazon

What I like about this quote is the fact that Jeff captures the idea that your brand is what people THINK. After all, people tend to say what they think. And this goes back to what a brand IS; it’s the place occupied in the mind of others. It’s the associations and feelings people have about an brand entity (product, company, service or person). So here, Jeff really is drawing a comparison to the world of business branding.

Also, people like shortcuts and will try to pigeon hole you for sake of ease. Understanding how people choose to file you in their mind is incredibly insightful and worth finding out.

Quote 2.

“Personal branding is about managing your name — even if you don’t own a business — in a world of misinformation, disinformation, and semi-permanent Google records.

Going on a date? Chances are that your “blind” date has Googled your name.

Going to a job interview? Ditto.”

Tim Ferriss. 4 hour work week & 4 hour body

Here Tim reminds us of the importance of the digital world on our reputation and how Google can be our downfall if we don’t use it correctly.

Quote 3.

“It’s important to build a personal brand because it’s the only thing you’re going to have. Your reputation online, and in the new business world is pretty much the game, so you’ve got to be a good person. You can’t hide anything, and more importantly, you’ve got to be out there at some level.”

Gary Vaynerchuk Wine Library TV & Crush it!

This is fab quote because Gary highlights the importance of transparency and authenticity for a strong personal brand. You’ve essentially got to work out WHO you are and BE that person. Forget about managing different personas or trying to be someone else. You’ll fail. You’ve also got to be nice. People like nice people. If people are on your side, you’ll go much further than if they’re not. Helpfully, he also reminds us that you’ve got get out there… reminds me of one of my favourite Winnie the Pooh quotes “You can’t stay in your corner of forest waiting for others to come to you. You’ve got to go to them sometimes” ;-)

But, my favourite quote …

Quote 4.

“Personal branding is about figuring who you are and what turns you on and then monetising it”

Kelly Cutrone. PR Maven & Publicist. People’s Revolution

Not only does Kelly keep it nice and simple, but she manges to capture what I believe are 3 really important points whe it comes to defining personal branding;

1. Knowing WHO you are 2. Doing something that you LOVE!  3. Making money from it.

If you can find the sweet spot here, you’re rolling in it!

What do you think? Have you got any quotes that should be added to my list? Pop your favourite quote in the comment section below.

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Personal branding & consistency: the great debate #2

My last blog article Personal branding & consistency: the great debate #1 certainly prompted a lot of comments – feel free to have a peek.

Essentially, I wrote how about I came across the idea that consistency is not something to strive within the context of branding as it’s predictable and boring. An idea that for me I found hard to swallow. It was one event of two last week that ruffled my feathers! The second disruption of the force came from Hung Lee @wise_man_say when I came across his blog article entitled 5 reasons why Gen Y hates personal branding.  It’s a brilliant article that is well worth a read, so please do check it out. It raises some of the great issues of personal branding, and many that I felt compelled to comment on (read the comments section!). But it’s the consistency thread that I’ll pull out here…

Hung writes

“… the tension that exists between the twin tenets of Personal Branding – Authenticity and Consistency; it is essentially inauthentic to be consistent. Are you, my fellow humans, consistent? Almost certainly not. You have good days, bad days, every other kind of day in between; this is self evidently normal. However, the concept of Personal Branding doesn’t capture this dynamic; instead, it rails against it, preferring the static position of ‘always on’.”

But for me… [or at least my response to this was]

Consistency in brands is when the entity in question (person, service, product etc) behaves consistently according to their values. This still allows for massive inconsistencies in behaviour day to day. You’re unlikely one day to be tirelessly motivated by money, success and recognition, and the next day decide that lobbying for Greenpeace is actually more important to you in life.

If you’re not being consistent, it probably means one of 2 things: 1. you’re trying to be someone you’re not and you’re “borrowing” values, but can’t help defaulting to your true values. Or 2 you have a value conflict going on that is pulling you in different directions. But this pattern in itself will have consistency.”

Hung’s response to my comments were

“Brands Attached To Values, Allow For Inconsistencies In Day To Day Living. I agree that that Brands that have value embedded into them are more powerful than those that do not; however, I do not agree that this allows for the inconsistencies of authentic living. A brand is an abbreviation – a shortcut for people to understand who you are, in as short a time as possible. People do not have the time to process the ‘full you’ – hence why we create badges we call ‘Personal Brands’ so that overloaded consumers won’t have to have the hassle of dealing with you a human being. Any deviation from this and you are forcing your audience to do just that and, make no mistake, you will be penalized for it. Try it – tweet all day about something that really pissed you off (can’t think what..) and see what happens to your market. Something will.”

The problem we have here is a two opposing views that are unlikely to ever meet and so the debate could carry on indefinitely….

But before I move on, I just want to return to the idea of conflict between authenticity and consistency. I don’t see any conflict here. When you are true to yourself and behave in accordance with your values, you have integrity and when you have integrity, you are naturally authentic. People who are inconsistent in their behaviour are unlikely to be described as authentic, because they are clearly struggling to understand who they really are, and hence behave in such a way that reflects their true essence.

I decided to ask a few knowledgeable brand peeps how relevant or important they felt consistency was in the context of branding and this is what they said.

Will King, founder of @KingofShaves, says

“King of Shaves brand: “It is what it does, it does what it says”. Don’t just shave, King of Shaves #brandconsistency critical”

@BenAfia, Founder of Afia, an agency that helps brands to stick/engage through language

“Very important, but we need to let people’s (cust serv) personality come through too, Social media is changin things fast.”

@MalcolmLevene, Personal Branding Expert

“I put ‘reliability’ above ‘consistency.’ Reliability enables one to constantly raise the bar & change for the better.”

But it was @RachelElnaugh’s comment that really hit the nail on the head for me

“it’s about integrity – if you are true to yourself you can never be inconsistent!!!”

So, what do you think? Are consistency and authenticity happy bed fellows or never the twain shall meet?

If you want to read part 1 of this article go here: Personal Branding & consistency: the great debate # 1.

Thanks to Stockie for the image

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What’s authenticity got to do with onions?

We’re a lot more like onions than you think. Yes. Really.

If you’ve recently started working for yourself, one of the challenges you’re likely to come across is finding your true voice, your authentic self. Connecting to who you really are and what you really want is not always a straightforward process. One thing I have realised working with my clients is that the people that find it the hardest are those that were working in corporate environments that didn’t encourage them to be themselves. They’d spent so long trying to change who they were to fit in that they lost site of who they really are. This might have been because the organisational values and theirs were not aligned, or maybe they were doing a job that didn’t fulfil them or make use of their talents and strengths. Whatever the reason, once you’re free of the corporate machine you’re next biggest task is to do decide what to do next. And in doing so you’ll need to define yourself. In other words; develop your personal brand.

In making your next move, the chances are that you’ll use the online space to do so. Whether it’s on LinkedIn, ecademy or if you end up with your own site or blog. If you’re going to present yourself online, you’re going to need to make a call as to how you want to appear and what you want to say about yourself. That’s in addition to being clear about what you’re trying to achieve so that you know who you’re trying to talk to.

So, back to onions… like onions, when we’re an employee in a hostile environment we develop a thick skin to protect ourselves. It protects us nicely from the dirt that surrounds us; you know the politics, the falsities and all the other corporate BS. Then, when we get plucked free, the bit that people really want is the juicy fleshy bit. But to get to that, we need to shed a few layers first. How many layers will depend on how hostile corporate life was. Over to you Shrek…

Shedding these layers can take quite some time. I know personally, it took me well over a year to find my true voice. And believe me, the journey isn’t over!

The thing is, once you’re well on the way to finding your story you are blessed with the ability to really carve out a niche for yourself. Because in discovering your authentic self comes with it a renewed sense of confidence. This confidence enables you to inject your personality into what you do in a way that you’ve not done before. And once you get to do that, you’re on the road to uniqueness. The one thing that you can be sure of is that no-one else has got your personality. So, no matter what you end up doing for a living, if you do it YOUR way, then you will be unique and stand out from others. One of my favourite examples of this is Danielle LaPorte of White Hot Truth

Once you do this you will naturally attract others with similar values to you, which means you’ll probably enjoy working and being with them. And when you get to that, work doesn’t feel like work. And that my friend is success!

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13 personal branding insights from Kelly Cutrone

If you want to read a straight-talking overview on why you need to think seriously about your personal brand, you should grab yourself a copy of Kelly Cutrone’s book If You Have to Cry, Go Outside: And Other Things Your Mother Never Told You

Cutrone is one of fashion’s most successful publicist whose business People’s Revolution has offices in New York, LA and Paris. Known for her renegade, ballsy and honest approach in an industry full of falsity, her reputation is unparalleled. Her book reveals her journey from small-town US school girl to NY PR maven told in a reverent, funny shooting-from-the-hip kind of way.

But that’s enough of the intro. The reason I’m sharing this with you is because she has dedicated a whole chapter to personal branding “YOU are the brand: normal gets you nowhere”. Her insights and stories should be enough to persuade anyone who needs to earn money that personal branding is here to stay and should be taken seriously. What happens if you don’t take it seriously? Well… you go nowhere, fast.

But there are some of you out there who would prefer the shortcut right? And, as someone who loves giving everyone else shortcuts, here is my list of personal branding insights as shared by the wonderfully inspiring Kelly Cutrone.

1. Personal branding is about figuring out who you are and what turns you on then monetising it.

2. The people who are actually making a difference in the world are people who are not like everyone else.

3. People become successful because what they’re selling is authentic and consistent. They found jobs that aligned with their skills and passions, and they brought their true selves – idiosyncrasies and all – to work every day.

4. Everyone is selling something these days, and if you don’t have a clear point of differentiation – something that makes you special, unique, effective – you won’t get far in fashion, or any other creative industry, and you certainly won’t succeed as an entrepreneur.

5. It’s time to figure out what you are selling and how you are going to make people want to buy it…. Consider your whole self, and don’t be afraid to embrace everything that makes you unique.

6. Your point of differentiation does not need to be edgy or groundbreaking, it just needs to be different, and it just needs to be you.

7. Follow you inner voice away from what feels wrong and towards what feels right.

8. When you find something that feels right…. commit to it. Doing one thing well will open doors for you. A plant won’t grow as high if it’s reaching toward five or six suns.

9. Successful people, and brands, are usually highly specialised. They do one thing, and they do it in a better or more interesting way than anyone else.

10. Every successful brand has a message, and that message must be painstakingly driven home, in both appearance and substance.

11. Good brands are authentic, consistent and focused.

12. Be careful not to let your personal brand overwhelm your expressed desire to learn. The point is, after all, to make people want to work with you.

13. Don’t think that creating and promoting your brand is a 6-month programme. I’m forty-four years old and I continue to build my brand… and it is much more powerful than it was when I started.

Nothing there I’ve not already said, but it’s always nice to hear it from someone else, don’t you think?

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Why personal branding is relevant to business

When you talk about personal branding to employers, many are not interested. For them, they consider personal branding all about making the employee more valuable, which means that the employee may become more expensive and look to move elsewhere. Hardly something they want to invest in.

But what they fail to realise is that every time a customer interacts with their business through their staff, the customer is interacting with a person who has a personal brand. Now, that employee may not be conscious of their personal brand, but this doesn’t mean that they don’t have one.

What impression does the employee create? Are they presenting themselves in a manner appropriate with the business and its brand? Are the employee’s values in line with the business values? If the company values customer service highly, is this reflected in the behaviour of the employee? Whenever you have negative experiences with a business it is usually down to your interaction with a person and their attitude. Often, if senior management are made aware of the problem it is quickly addressed. And let’s not forget, customer service isn’t something that is restricted to the customer service department. Internally within a business, every employee has customers. Their customers will include their fellow team members, other teams they interact with and suppliers.

Look at it from a different perspective. Let’s say your business is one of many in a highly competitive market where there is little differentiation in the service or product offering. For example, professional services such as accountants or lawyers. Typically in these businesses, the professionals will all have similar qualifications and backgrounds. By the nature of what they do, it is standard fair. So, what helps them to stand apart? The people! People do business with people. So, it follows that the most successful people will be those that have great people skills and act authentically and consistently. Isn’t that the sort of person you’d rather have in your team?

So now tell me that Personal Branding isn’t relevant to business.

Branding in a business is often thought of as belonging to the marketing department. But in fact it straddles the whole organisation. Everyone in the organisation has a part to play in bringing the corporate brand to life. A brand breathes through its people. It’s the X-factor that separates the stars from the wannabe’s.

Staff attitudes, what they say, how they look, what they do, what people say about them, and their office environment. These factors will not only influence what you think of the individual, but the company they work for. It all contributes to the overall brand.

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The 5 perils of personal branding

We can safely say that when the topic of personal branding comes up that most people would agree that it’s a good thing, and if they had the time or inclination, they would probably get round to sorting out their personal brand.

But, is it? Are there any perils with starting such a journey? There are a lot of things in life that start out as a good idea that turn out to be a monumental disaster. Like putting up your party pics on facebook, only to discover that a director at work has seen them and now you’re not getting that promotion. Doh! Now I’m not saying that developing your personal brand is in that league, far from it. But what I am saying is that there are considerations, and you should be aware of them before you jump in.

High visibility high_vis_jacket

Remember the whole point behind personal branding. It’s to stand out and be noticed. You want work to come to you, and not vice versa. But, raising your visibility stakes means, you guessed it – you’re going to get noticed! So, are you happy with that? You may be some quiet shrew who’s damn good at what you do, but you prefer to hide behind your desk. Imagine spending the day wearing a high-vis jacket, does that sit well with you? And, more importantly, can you keep it up?

Transparency

glass-of-water

Developing your personal brand is a beautiful process of self-discovery. For a truly authentic personal brand, you’ll need to work out who you are and what you stand for. Then, you’ll need to be that and stand for it consistently. If you don’t, you’ll be betraying your brand (otherwise known as brand suicide). Some personal branders talk about persona being a crucial part of the personal branding equation. I think this wrongly creates the impression that you have a “persona” and a “real you”. By the way, if you look up persona you’ll get words like role, character, mask, actor etc. These are not words that talk about transparency and authenticity.

Accountability

Devising and launching your personal brand is a big step. It’s a sign you mean business. As a part of the process you would have identified personal goals and ambitions. After all, your brand will be there to support you in achieving these. So, now you’ve put your stake in the sand, you’ve got to be seen to be delivering. You’re accountable. Are you ready to be accountable?

Keeping it up

man_lift_weightsThe need for consistency cannot be underestimated. As with business brands, a personal brand needs to be reinforced and maintained. Consistently, both in terms of the message that you’re putting out there and the regularity by which you deliver that message. It’s hard work. It’s called brand management not brand laissez faire for a reason.

Conflict with employer

Now, for some this is not relevant. But for bundles of you it is. How does your brand fit your employer’s brand. If you’re all about the outdoors, high energy, risk taking, and you work in an accountant’s firm, there might be a slight mismatch. Some companies will only be interested in you being an employee if you reflect the corporate brand. While other businesses may be up for allowing you to be YOU. So, beware of being authentic too soon as it might put you out of a job!

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Branding; The Next Generation

A great article from Branding Strategy Insider last week cites a trend in branding toward the Holistic Brand Proposition:

“There’s every indication that branding will move … into an even more sophisticated realm — reflecting a brave new world where the consumer desperately needs something to believe in — and where brands very well might provide the answer. I call this realm the HSP — the Holistic Selling Proposition. HSP brands are those that not only anchor themselves in tradition but also adopt religious characteristics at the same time they leverage the concept of sensory branding as a holistic way of spreading the news. Each holistic brand has its own identity, one that is expressed in its every message, shape, symbol, ritual, and tradition — just as sports teams and religion do today.”

When I read this, the first brand that springs to mind in Guinness. Guinness has most definitely moved beyond the space occupied by “normal” brands and has taken up residence in the realm of holistic brands. With its iconic advertising, its association of black and beige and the fact that it pretty much owns St Patrick’s day all over the world. It has it all; the rituals, the symbols, the tradition, the legacy…

But, my question is this. If branding is to move into this new territory called holistic branding, on what basis?

Should all brands now be considering what their holistic brand assets might be? And what about new brands, are they really in a position to be citing rituals and tradition when they weren’t even around the year before?

And what if all brands got on this bandwagon? Would we be surrounded by big brand wannabes all punching above their weight?

Or, is this where branding comes full circle and where the authentic heart of the brand finds its true place, and the brand finds its purpose. After all, each brand needs to have a reason for being, as we do. And so, the beauty of this approach is that each and every brand will fill the space that’s right for it and express itself in the ways that are most appropriate. It is for everyone, and it is not dependent on how big you are but how authentic you are.

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