You’re going to hate this post. You should probably stop reading.
This post isn’t going to make us friends. It could even tarnish my “personal brand.”
Really, you should go. The couple hundred readers that followed me here from GenuineChris are gonna be mad. You’ll think I’ve lost my last marble. But I’ve got to say this. I have two true-believers left. This has to be said.
Personal Branding is a waste of time. Totally, completely, and without any major exceptions. It might make cash but…only when you can position yourself atop some ponzi scheme. When you do that, you lose touch with who you are. When you do that, you become some slithering reptile that monetizes every connection. You lose track of who you are, and you pontificate instead of creating.
I had a teensy personal brand, of sorts. Real estate people followed me from Lenderama, Bloodhound Blog and other places. I made a couple ridiculous e-books. (Note: that particular one is 80% half joking, to quote yogi berra, and if you want one, I’ll get you a copy, just lemme know in the comments).
Nowadays I have a business. This site? Not a business. Never will be. Just some place where I get things off of my chest, and consecrate my thoughts. A sandbox. Something that’s intentionally relatively anonymous. Not hidden; anyone looking me up can find it. But not “out there.” It shouldn’t surprise too many people.
My business is the real deal. I hustle, I find people that need what we do, and I tell ‘em we do it. That’s about the gist of it.
Together with my partner, we’re looking for great stories to tell, and we’re taking the simple “demo movie” farther than we’ve seen anyone go. Our stuff sells because Jason is a total pro. I’ve learned from working with him, it’s a treat personally, professionally, spiritually.
I’ve barely blogged about it. Because I’m fucking working, you know. Get that? This site is just an indulgence to clear my head and to keep some notes. I have to write or else I’m constipated, and people get irritable when they are full.. But the real work I do has nothing to do with this site. It also had nothing to do with GenuineChris, Guerrilla.Me or any of the other umpteen flailing iterations of what I was trying to do.
It’s Never About You – It’s Always About The Work
It used to be (back in, say, February) that I believed I was some sales supergenius when I netted a couple extra 3 figure sales. I puffed out my chest like a rooster. Coffee’s for closers, baby. Mmm buddy, text the wife and call your mom, you don’t have to give plasma this week…
I’m operating at a different level now, and the work I’m doing has more numbers before the comma, and the companies I serve have many, many more numbers before their commas. It still doesn’t matter. I’m just one fungible vendor, effortlessly replaced. Many people do the work we do. Adding friction to what I do would be dumb. A personal brand is not going to make my clients get their videos any faster.
Ryan talks about losing confidence, but I know the second I get even a little, I’m toast. Willie tells me I need to spotlight what I’ve done. Last thing I need. I’m 35, and my net worth is underwater. That’s part of my “personal brand.”
What do you really do? What do you make? You don’t inspire people to be more free, the epic conference call almost never is. You might be around when they convince themselves to do something different, but you didn’t cause it. Personal branding is a ripoff, at worst, and an undisciplined sales call at best.. What gets made because of you? And are you selling delusions, or are you being of real live service to others? Do people want or need that help?
I spent 3 years towing my ridiculous brand around, behind whatever I did. I had to think “is it authentic? transparent? is it me? Does it fit?” Really, I did. ”Is it in your face enough?” I was never less sure of what I was doing. I had traction. I was too broke to be any of the things I pretended to be. You think I wouldn’t have taken any sort of bribe? Heh. The whole world is lucky my kid never got sick or hurt and I never had to make any real hard decisions.
It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!
-Upton Sinclair
I was ready to “believe” anything because I was scared about as shitless as my wife.
Creating a persona is a waste of time. Do real work.
Even Tom Peters – who is credited with inventing the concept of personal branding pushes out content that says “it’s not about what you say about yourself.”
Create character. Cultivate kindness.Fix people’s problems. Listen to the bitching on Twitter, and offer a real solution to whatever’s ailing them. That’s how you use social media – if someone is whining about broken widgets, and you fix widgets, connect.
Personal Branding adds no value. What problems were solved because you became known as “the Firecracker coach?” Or whatever.
What you want to do is be preternaturally competent, you want to make it dead simple to do business with you and you always, always want to be around to help others. When you do that, things change, you get traction and life gets better for you.
[note: I took a bunch of links out of this thing because it came off as mean. the ones I left are from people that can take it and won't notice a pebble being thrown at a battleship]
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