I am a business owner. The next thing that I am going to say is going to be hard. It is cliche. I feel a lot of resistance to the concept. Here you go. I am trying to build a personal brand.
Personal brand is one of those dirty phrases that gets thrown out often. I swipe through countless stories and double tap hundreds of images where someone is talking about this concept. I understand the importance. I am fascinated with the current landscape of the digital world. I still for some reason cannot sit easily after I say it out loud.
I am not going to stop building a personal brand. As a business owner I see an immense amount of value in building your brand or a part of a brand around yourself. Attention has always been and will continue being the most valuable asset on the planet. Attention brings you customers, clients, relationships with interesting people. We all have a great deal of control over the kind of attention we are getting. You can not control the way someone interprets your work, but you can listen. If you keep consistently getting the same feed back there is a good chance you are consistently creating this perception of yourself.
When I sat down to start writing I was not really thinking personal brand. I was thinking about a conversation I had with my uncle. He is from a different generation. He is the most objective person in my family. We were talking about an impending schism in our family. I made mention of the perception I have created for myself in the family. He could not understand why anyone would care what other people think about them. He is not a creative type, maybe he was, maybe he secretly journals and draws pictures of cats, but to my knowledge he, is not a creative. He is also not a business owner. He hates social media. To him there is no equity in knowing how you are perceived. I personally think he is missing the mark.
Even without a business or art you are presenting to the world there, is value in understanding how you appear. You can more easily talk to someone if you know how they are perceiving you.If you are the angry Dad who is dismissive, even though you do care “down deep.” You will miss out on a lot of wonderful opportunities. If you are a business owner, think about what you are producing on social media. I started noticing people were surprised that I hated real estate photography but loved to film people and their stories. Just wake up a little. I myself am trying to and it feels better.
Do not ignore the importance of personal brand. You do not need to talk about it in depth. You certainly do not need to write about it. Just do not ignore it.
