What a "Personal Brand" is Not

Using the 'F' word in every second sentence does not make you Gary Vee.

All it does is make you come across as severely challenged in the area of communication.

Gary Vee is one of the most powerful influencers in the world because of the immense value he adds to his followers by sharing knowledge that is based on the solid foundation of his success as an entrepreneur, deep expertise on his topic and authenticity.

Speaking at a school in your backyard called "the International" does not make you an international speaker. An international speaker means that you have spoken internationally.

Writing, "Impacting a billion lives by 2030" on LinkedIn is not going to cut it. It should follow up with a strategy and proof of the work you are doing to impact 1,000,000,000 lives.
Yes, it has nine zeros.

In the process of reinventing yourself, personal branding comes much later in the process.

Your personal brand is an assessment your market makes about who you are and what value you bring to it.

I see a lot of people shelling out an insane amount of money to order themselves a personal brand.

Well, the key word in personal branding is 'Personal'. Your authentic self.

Branding is highly strategic but it is very intangible as well.
Brands, whether corporate or personal, live in the hearts of their target audience. And, a place in someone's heart has to be earned.

It's not what you say about yourself. Your claim has to be backed by credibility.

Steve Jobs did not start by calling himself the innovation ninja at the edge of the cutting edge technology impacting a billion lives. (Yeah, I see such bio's on LinkedIn)

The world calls him one of the most innovative and brilliant business minds because he revolutionized six industries... personal computers, animated movies, music, phones, tablet computing and digital publishing.

Personal branding does not mean taking on a new persona that is artificial and packaged. We have to be strategic about our personal brand but it has to be authentic.

Credit your end customer with the intelligence to figure out authenticity from made-up.

I will leave you with these famous words from the original Don Draper, David Ogilvy.

The customer is not a moron, she’s your wife.