Comments on: Your Personal Brand is Not About You

By: Maxiosearch

Maxiosearch — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:16:38 +0000

Great approach Tac. I share your thoughts and personal branding is about sharing with others what you can do for them and what have others done for you as well to take you to your primary goals and objectives. Is not about you, is not about me, is about building a community of people interested in a specific topic/business area and share the passion for that!

To add some interesting resource to this conversation, I recommend all readers to share thoughts, tips and advices on Startups.com Q&A

Hope you like it!

By: amandaleighoc

amandaleighoc — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 03:20:03 +0000

We know this. We just forget sometimes. Thanks for the reminder!

By: Bruce Wilson

Bruce Wilson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 02:16:21 +0000

Agreed, business can be good like that. But the trigger in your post is making it personal on the customer side. Changing the perspective from relationships between entities to relationships with friends highlighted different opportunities.

By: tacanderson

tacanderson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:05:07 +0000

I think the paradox stems from the conflicting motivators. Most people aren't motivated to establish a personal brand with the intent of helping people. Yet most people who start off intending to help people aren't thinking about but are usually in the best situation to establish a personal brand.

By: tacanderson

tacanderson — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:02:30 +0000

Isn't it amazing how focusing on helping your customers is always a smart business move?

By: tacanderson

tacanderson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:59:59 +0000

Forrest, thanks for the comment. And I'm sorry that I'm about to say this because you probably hear it all the time but you have to have the coolest geek pop culture last name http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Maru

By: tacanderson

tacanderson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 23:56:27 +0000

I'm thinking the “The Empty Suit” is the east cost version of “All Hat, No Cattle.”

By: maryloukayser

maryloukayser — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:24:03 +0000

You have nailed the paradox of personal branding: in order for it to work effectively, you have to get yourself out of the way! As a teacher of more than 15 years, I witnessed too often in students both young and older try way too hard to “brand” themselves when all they needed to do was relax and just BE themselves! It's a funny time we live in, but a tremendous time…one filled with opportunity to help others differentiate themselves from the crowd and lead authentic, abundant lives. Great article! Thanks.

By: Bruce Wilson

Bruce Wilson — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 10:08:58 +0000

I bow to you, sir: evocatively stated. I read the post, read the comments, then asked myself: so what about my friends, what can I do for them tomorrow, literally? And immediately came up with a couple of things I had been overlooking that are not only “personal brand-aware” but smart business moves.

This is a very useful focusing point, thank you for sharing it with us.

By: Forrest W. Kobayashi

Forrest W. Kobayashi — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:29:11 +0000

Excellent post here, Tac! I know too many people attempting to establish a personal brand who always talk about themselves and what is interesting to them. It's about time that some personal brands starting focusing on their target audience.