Common Mistake Killing Your Personal Brand

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Our personal brand is so incredibly important, yet so many leaders, executives, even up-and-comers are getting a few key aspects wrong, and I think it starts with a phrase I've heard quite a few times, especially from people who've plateaued, people who are struggling with getting to the next gear, and it sounds something like, "I want to be seen as." Let's go. Yeah. Make it look, make it look, make it look easy. Hey, stand up guy, I'm on ten toes.

Big body pull up in a Range Rover. I could change the whole game when I say- I want to be seen as a branding expert. I want to be seen as a personal development expert. I want to be seen as an expert in the AI industry. And truthfully, no one cares what you want to be seen as.

A- and this, this is the problem. Gary Vaynerchuk had this great quote, I'm paraphrasing. It was on the Chris Williamson podcast a couple weeks ago in which he said, um, "Over a long enough time horizon, authenticity always wins." And after 15 plus years creating content, putting it online, growing multiple different, uh, D2C brands, B2B brands, even my own personal brand, establishing a speaking career, having written a book, et cetera, I can tell you that in the moments where my content resonated the most, where it had the most virality, the most engagement, and ultimately I connected with the most individuals who I wanted to connect with with that piece of content, it was when I was able and willing to be the most authentic with who I am. And in the moments where I was trying to be something contrived, where I was trying to, uh, manipulate a message to fit, say, a corporate bureaucratic structure or legal requirements, et cetera, those are the moments where that content just simply did not resonate.

And you've probably seen this. Look at the brands in your industry. There is a clear delineation between the brands that are getting, uh, engagement, that are getting likes, that are getting comments, that people are sharing, that are, th- that people are organically creating content around, and those that are not. And if you compare them side by side, one is faceless, impersonal. It feels like it came out of a, some sort of do it yourself cookie cutter box, that it looks and feels and sound likes everyone else.

There's, there's nothing differentiated about it. There's nothing nuanced about it. And the brands that are killing it are exactly who they are. Now, granted, that doesn't mean they're unprofessional. It doesn't mean that they don't come with thought, that they're not being sculpted in some way, that, that the individuals who, whether they're behind the scenes or out in front of the camera, that they're not putting real effort and strategy into what they're doing.

But it does mean they're relating to who that business is or who that individual is. And there are a few core q- questions I think we have to ask. One, this thing that you want to be seen as, right? Is it who you really are? Like, if you, if you don't know anything about branding, but you see that branding is one of the top 10 trends on LinkedIn right now, are you really a branding expert?

Do you really have something original, contrarian, something valuable to add to the conversation around branding, if that's, say, what you wanna be? And, and input whatever your thing is for branding, right? Is that who you really are? Now, it doesn't mean you have to be the number one expert to talk on a topic. But if it's not who you are, if it's not what you know, if you're doing it for reasons that aren't true to, um, your history, your experience, what you're passionate about, what you're knowledgeable about, then that's gonna come through.

And there are rare cases where people take on an entirely new industry, an entirely new genre of content and be successful, but oftentimes it's 'cause they're passionate about that thing. They just haven't up until this point in their life been able to engage in it, which is a completely separate topic, right? That's, that would be authentic to them, and then oftentimes those journeys are branded that that's what this is, that I'm starting from scratch. I'm passionate about playing the guitar. I've always wanted to learn the guitar.

I'm 40 years old, and I can't die without knowing how to play Stairway to Heaven, so this is gonna be my life's journey. I'm gonna document it. Awesome. That's perfectly fine. You're passionate about it.

It's part of who you are. You're just starting new. Good for you. That's authentic, right? But learning to play the guitar because somehow you feel that's going to add some sort of casual validity to your- The cultural aspect of your personal brand when you don't really care about playing the guitar and you're not really into it, there's nothing there.

So okay, question number two: Why do you want to be known as this thing? Why do you wanna be seen as this thing? Like, what is really driving this decision? And I think at our core, when we answer that question, we'll know whether it's real or not. And last, will this be something you'll be able to sustain?

So when you creating any vein of content, anything around our brand, oftentimes w- it's gonna take a really long time for it to connect, for it to resonate, for people to see us as that thing. And if this is not a topic that we can talk about over a long period of time, that we can have sustained passion and sustained engagement and sustained discipline to continue to create, to talk, to think around, to, to, to find different avenues, to add value to this, to this conversation, if, if it's not something that we can, that we can be with for a long time, if this is just a flash in a pan moment and you're trying to jump on a trend, that is not authentic to who you are. Being seen as that thing is not gonna resonate, and when you ultimately then end up jumping to the next trend, people are gonna have a very hard time following you, and ultimately, you're never gonna be able to build up a large enough audience to reach escape velocity. Okay, so there is a better question to ask when it comes to this idea of personal branding, and that is: How am I seen in the world? How am I seen in the world?

How do people view me today, and what do I need to do, passing through the filters, uh, the filter of authenticity, how, how can I create, how can I add content, how can I maybe remove certain things that I talk about to better align how I would like to show up with how I am currently seen? Because what you wanna be seen as doesn't matter. How you are viewed is your brand. What do people think when they see you, when they see their na- your name, your content, your image, your logo? What are they seeing?

That's your brand. It is a, your brand is a third party distinction placed upon you, not what you say it is. So how do we do that? Is it true to your values, right? Are, how you are being seen in the world today, is it true to your values?

Do you believe people are viewing you i- through their own filters and frameworks in a way that is true to your values? 'Cause if that's, if, if that's the case, then you're in a really great starting spot, and your personal brand is most likely a- at least partially au- authentic, and ultimately, you have a great starting ground. Number two, are you being transparent with the world? Now, transparency doesn't mean you spell out every detail of your life, you spill every or, or open up the closet doors to every skeleton. That is not what we're talking about here. But when a situation, topic, experience, story, when something is presented in front of you, when a question is asked, are you willing to give people more than a corporate, legally constructed response?

Give them some insights into who you are, into your thought process, into how you live, right? You don't have to go all the way to day-to-day nuances, but letting people below the surface is how they're ultimately gonna connect with you. We connect with the individuals who we can see ourselves in. And if I don't know who you are, if I feel like I'm always getting a glossed over, professionalized, you know, kinda corporate version of you, I have nothing to grab onto. There's no footholds.

There's no hand grips, right? I'm just sliding right off your brand, and it never is really meaningful or sticky to me, and transparency is the only way to do that. Again, n- I am not advocating for some full transparency, open a kimono. Some people do that, and that's great if that's your choice, understanding that there are always ramifications to how deep you go, and the deeper you let people in, the, you know, you have to be willing to be criticized, you have to be willing to question, and you have to be willing to have people know things about you. But we can, in a thoughtful way, if we're uncomfortable going all the way, which I understand, we can allow people to see behind the curtain a little bit, to understand maybe where this thought process came from.

And it can be as simple as sharing, you know, certain aspects of your life that, that define who you are, or at least give people some of the building blocks of who you are. Think of them as hand grips. Give people hand grips, things to grab onto, right? Just, just little pieces. Doesn't have to be every detail, but it can be little pieces.

And finally, would you consume your content, right? If you're looking at your brand and you wanna be known as an AI expert, right, and you're putting content out that you believe is transparent, that you, that you believe is, is real to your values, that... And, and there are people who see you as potentially an AI expert, the last step is, is the content you're putting out something that you would actually consume? Too often, I see people put things out and I'm like, "I know that person. They wouldn't watch that if it came through their feed," because they're just trying to get another piece of content out, or they feel like they have to comment on something just because it's a headline or a trend, even though they don't necessarily have a great take on it, or there's nothing new to their take.

They're just regurgitating other people's thoughts and feelings on a particular topic. This is not how you build a brand, certainly not how you build a personal brand. Create content you would want to consume, right? I, I was listening to someone the other day and they're like, "I never watch my own content," uh, and they had some kind of bloviating reason for that. And I was like, "That...

One, I guarantee that's not true. And two, why would you not look at your content?" Why wouldn't you take a second to go, "Man, I really like the way I said that there," or, "Geez, next time I talk on this topic, I'm gonna reframe this item," or, "Man, this is, like, really entertaining. That joke I told was funny," or, "This is a great story," or, "The next time I'm on stage or in front of my team or just telling a story in the living room with my family, man, I'm gonna tell this story. That, that really came out great."

There's no reason not to consume your content, because when you consume your own content, I'm not saying you watch every minute of everything you put out, but spot checking your content to a certain extent to, to say, "Man, this, I like the way this came out," or, "Geez, this is dry. There's no audio to it," or, "The audio doesn't really hit," or, uh, "Man, I just don't seem like I'm energized today. That, that piece of content was, was flat. I need to work on that, make sure I'm ready to go when I turn the camera on." Right?

Or, or whatever matches your goals and the brand you're trying to build. So guys, I think just, just to put a pin in this kinda, uh, bonus episode of the show, I, I want us to get away from thinking about how we want to be seen in the world. I think we need to ask a better question, which is, how do people view me? Like, how does my audience, how do the people that I wanna connect with, how do they currently view me? And then when we get a good idea of what that is, we can start to make small pivots, small adjustments, additive, uh, add things, delete things as necessary to sculpt how people see us in the world today to where we would like to spend our time.

And those three questions of, does how people currently see me match my values? And if not, what do I need to do to change that? Am I actually being transparent? And would I consume my content? Working through those three filters is a really great place to start.

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I'm outta here. Peace. Let's go. Yeah. Make it look, make it look, make it look easy.

Hey, stand up guy, I'm on ten toes. Big body, pull up in a Range Rover. I can change the whole game when I say so. I pull up, shut it down, yeah, they know. Huh.

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I invested wisely. Now the only thing I worry about is using too much wasabi. Get where you're going with SPY, the world's most traded ETF. Getting there starts here with State Street Investment Management. Before investing, consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses.

Visit statestreet.com/im for prospectus containing this and other information. Read it carefully. SPY is subject to risks similar to those of stocks. All ETFs are subject to risk, including possible loss of principal. ALPS Distributors Inc., distributor.

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