Personal Branding: How To Turn Yourself Into A Success
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William Arruda – Absolutely not. In fact, it’s really important to point out that the only people that you even care about knowing about your brand are those people in your target audience; the people who are going the make you successful, the people who are going to help you achieve your goals. What you do just needs to be authentic to you and differentiated from the other people who are talking to that same audience. I use Richard Branson as an example because he’s somebody that we all know and he’s really out there and outrageous. In fact, if we try be outrageous and that’s not who we are, we’re going to fail miserably at it. Ann Morrow Lindberg once said, “The most exhausting thing you can be is inauthentic,” so it’s really important that you just take whatever that authenticity that you have, whatever it is, find out what about that is compelling to your target audience and make it more visible.
Dan Janal – It’s interesting you mention that. I just did an orientation with a new client this morning and I looked at his website and he had a very interesting graphic on the front page. There is his face done sort of like a cartoon way, sort of looking like the old Chairman Mao posters with a flag in the background and the motto was, “Revolutionize your business.” I laughed when I saw that but I thought to myself, “You know, if you don’t think this is funny, then you shouldn’t work with this guy and it’s probably not going to be a good fit. But if you think this is a hoot, then you’re going to have a great time working with this guy.” I thought that was a great way of setting up a personal brand.
William Arruda – Absolutely, and that’s exactly it. You want to attract those people that are going to benefit the most from what you do and they’re going to tell all of the people they know about it. Again, it’s not…one thing branding is not, is it’s not being all things to all people; it’s the exact opposite of that. It’s being something very specific to a very specific group of people. To go back to the Volvo example right there—all about safety and security and who do they communicate that message to, but families, right. Sixteen-year old boys don’t care about safe cars, so they’re not wasting their time communicating to them, but families, especially with newborns, are really interested in safety and that’s why that message appeals to them.
Dan Janal – Let’s go back to that same issue with Branson because a lot of us, frankly, are—how should I put this politely—Boring. We’re all doing the same marketing things or the same diversity and discrimination workshops or the same time management things, and you know, we’re just normal people. We’re not Madonna, we don’t have big hair, we don’t wear extravagant clothes, we don’t jump out of hot air balloons. What can normal people do to set themselves apart?
William Arruda – Again, the challenging thing is, it’s something that’s unique to each person, so each person really needs to do a lot of soul searching to understand what it is about them that is unique them—it’s an incredible strength that they have—and at the same time, is relevant and compelling to the people that they need to talk to. It’s a very individual thing. I can give you some examples of some people I work with and what separates them, what makes them stand out.
Dan Janal – I think that would be a great idea.
