I have complicated feelings about 'personal branding' as a concept. On one hand: I literally do this for a living and my own career depends on being known for something. On the other hand: the phrase 'personal brand' makes my soul hurt because it implies we should treat ourselves as products to be marketed.
Here's my resolution: personal branding is just what we used to call 'reputation,' but intentional and digital. Before LinkedIn, you still had a professional reputation. People knew what you were good at, what you stood for, how you worked. It was just slower to build and harder to broadcast. Now the tools exist to be deliberate about it. That's all 'personal brand' means.
WeWork's S-1 filing used the word 'community' 150 times while describing a real estate sublease business. The gap between language and reality was the entire cautionary tale.
What I wish the personal branding discourse acknowledged: not everyone starts from the same place. The advice to 'build your personal brand!' is easy to follow if you're already privileged, visible, and comfortable with self-promotion. It's considerably harder if you're from a background where self-promotion was actively discouraged or where visibility comes with risk.
What I wish the personal branding discourse acknowledged: not everyone starts from the same place.
My personal brand is: brand strategist who thinks about this stuff too much and writes about it over wine with cats nearby. That's not a calculated positioning. It's just... me, described accurately. The best personal brands are descriptions, not inventions.
The worst personal brands are the ones that feel performed. You can always tell when someone is 'building their brand' versus just being interesting out loud. The former is exhausting to witness. The latter is magnetic.
I explained this framework to Truffles and she fell asleep, which is either critique or the highest form of trust. With cats, these are the same thing.