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Introduction to Personal Branding
Who Am I?
What is Personal Branding?
Where Does Personal Branding Take Place?
When Should You Start Branding Yourself?
Why Do You Need a Personal Brand?
Things You Need to Know
How This E-Book is Organized
A Quick Overview of Branding
The Self-Branding Process
Taking Stock of Your Current Brand
Labeling Theory
Your Skill Set
Your Evolution
The Company You Keep
Balancing Your Personal Life and Professional Life
The Events You Attend
Your Worldview
Your Attitude
Developing Your Personal Brand
Who Am I?
Hello there!
My name is Colin Wright, and I run a multidisciplinary design studio in Los Angeles.
I’ve made personal branding a big part of my business, and cultivating a strong brand has
helped my business grow while many others are dying. After spending hours upon hours
answering the questions of friends, colleagues and strangers regarding my marketing
tactics, business secrets and general recommendations on how they can increase their
chances of getting new clients or locking down a new job, I decided to put together an
ebook so that I could 1) get this (ostensibly valuable) information out to more people, 2) take
part in the burgeoning movement toward open information on the web, and 3) increase the
value of my own personal brand (if you don’t understand what I mean by this, read more of
this ebook and you denitely will).
If you want to nd out more about me or what I do, meander to my site, colinismy.name.
What is Personal Branding?
Personal branding involves managing your reputation, style, look, attitude and skill set the
same way that a marketing team would run the brand for a bag of Doritos or bottle of sham-
poo. The idea is that you can develop a collection of symbols and associations with yourself,
granting your name, face and work the same benets that companies with solid
brand equity (like Coca-Cola or Apple) enjoys.
Colin says:
I
decided to focus on building a strong personal brand after resigning from my last job. I knew that
as a multidisciplinary designer and developer intending to work as a one-man studio, I would be
marketing myself (and my image) as much as my skills and experience. This in mind, I gured out
exactly what kind of experience I wanted my clients to have, how I would emphasize what I felt were
my strong points and how I would market the positive aspects of working with me in particular (as
opposed to someone who has the same skill set and price range). I quickly decided on a name for my
studio that would uninchingly call my personal focus to their attention: ‘Colin Is My Name.’ It’s been
a great conversation starter and clients have loved the name, though government ofces and banks
course, your online presence is important, too, so that will also be covered in some depth.
page 7 • Introduction to Personal Branding • ExileLifestyle.com
When Should You Start Branding Yourself?
Unless you have a time machine (that can go backward…one that can go forward won’t be
especially useful in this case), today, right now, is the very best time to start working on your
personal brand. Whether you realize it or not, you probably already have the beginnings of
a personal brand that you’ve been building up since you began your professional career (or
very likely, even before that). Whether you want to continue in this direction or strike out with
a whole new brand, the sooner you get started pushing that brand the direction you want
it to go (rather than letting it run loose like the family poodle), the sooner your brand will be
strong enough to help you get where you want to be professionally.
Why Do You Need a Personal Brand?
There are many reasons you should want to develop a personal brand. Building a positive
reputation (whatever that might mean in your eld) can lead to increased word-of-mouth
advertising for you and your services. When your reputation spreads and precedes you, it
also makes interactions with potential clients that much easier, allowing you to spend less
time convincing them to hire you, and more time negotiating the scope of services and
payment (and actually working on the project).
Managing a personal brand helps you build a kind of brand equity, which will grant your
name and products a certain star power. This associative celebrity can aid you in future
projects you may wish to undertake, allow you to easily segue into alternate-but-related
elds and will grant you expert status within your current eld.
By recognizing and optimizing your personal brand, you will become part of and associ-
ated with specic ideas, movements, aesthetics, cultural attitudes and people. The more
you rene your brand, the more targeted your message becomes and the more you will be
doing the work you want to do, with the people you want to be working with, and at a price
point that everyone can agree on.
And those are just the short-term benets! In the long run, taking the time to lter out the
rough and think through what kind of professional you want to be and how you want the
rest of the world to see you can actually make you a much more skilled, fullled and happy
that goal.
The very rst thing you should do, though, is gure out what you current brand is. We’ll do
just that in a section I like to call ‘Taking Stock of Your Current Brand.’
page 10 • Things You Need to Know • ExileLifestyle.com
page 11 • Taking Stock of Your Current Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
Labeling Theory
There is a eld of study in sociology focusing on what’s called Labeling Theory. This theory
is based on the premise that an individual’s identity is partially (or largely, depending on
who you talk to) determined by the words that are used to describe them. According to this
theory, if a child is told they are bad over and over, they will end up being a bad person. On
the other hand, someone who is told they are good-looking or intelligent will have a more
positive self-image. This theory illustrates why it is so important to use the correct words
when describing yourself, your work and everything related to your personal branding.
For example, if you are a creative writer with little experience and are not yet writing full
time (and you work as a cocktail waitress to pay the bills), you would not want to introduce
yourself as a cocktail waitress who wants to be a writer. You would introduce yourself as a
creative writer, telling anyone who will listen about your most recent novel premise or how
many hits your blog on the modern American tragedy received.
Labels are powerful and thusly you should refer to yourself, even if just in your own mind,
as the title you wish to achieve. You shouldn’t lie about it (introducing yourself as a Nobel
Prize winner if you haven’t won one yet, or a doctor if someone is injured in an accident, for
example, would be a bad idea), but always make sure you are preparing yourself for where
you want to be, not where you are.
Colin says:
I
started up my rst two businesses in college, and from that point on I began to see myself as a
business owner. Even when I working another job full time, the things that would matter most to
me would be the passion projects I was working on in my free time, on the weekends and late at
night. After my rst taste of business ownership, I knew I was going to be a lifelong entrepreneur. I
could tell that people started to see me differently…there’s a certain degree of respect and dignity that
with a grafti artist (or wear the same thing, but throw on a design-oriented t-shirt over your
collared shirt for a slightly dressed-down touch that still maintains the sophistication of the
suit). There will be more on how to dress for your brand in a later section.
Your Skill Set
No matter how great your branding is, at some point you will need to have a skill (or ideally,
several). In fact, a big part of building your brand is dependent on your current and future
skill sets, how you develop them, and how you use them once you’ve got them.
A skill set is a group of related skills that, when put together, add up to a marketable pack-
age. For example, a graphic designer that focuses on movie posters will generally have
a skill set that includes mad Photoshop skills for photo and graphic manipulation, a solid
grasp of typography, experience with a variety of printing techniques and services, and a
broad range of composition, color, contrast and other various aesthetics-related procien-
cies. This is one skill set.
It is important, from a self-marketing standpoint, to develop a handful of well-developed
skill sets if you want to be truly successful. Even those professionals that focus on one
aspect of their craft in order to become the absolute best at what they do require supple-
mentary skill sets. In fact, I would argue that it’s nearly impossible to become really great at
anything without a supporting cast of skill sets to keep you moving forward and to give you
a grasp of the big picture.
page 13 • Taking Stock of Your Current Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
For example, if the aforementioned movie poster designer wanted to expand his business,
he might learn how to screen print, design splash pages for web sites, and write copy. The
rst two skill sets are not that far removed from his primary one: learning to screen print
will allow him to design for the screen process and produce his own t-shirts and posters,
while learning to design for websites will increase his list of potential clients and workable
industries tenfold. These two supplementary skill sets make use of a lot of what he already
knows, so he has a head start each time he learns something that’s related. The copy writ-
ing skill set is a bit further removed, but still makes use of his latent creativity and experi-
ence dealing with Hollywood promotional materials…he could write the copy for the posters
he designs! Or design the layouts and illustrations for the books and articles he writes!
page 14 • Taking Stock of Your Current Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
Then, to make sure you don’t back out, tell absolutely EVERYONE about what you are doing.
Give specics. Tell them about the class and the book you had to buy and why you want to
learn that skill set and where it will lead. The more people you tell, the more people there
are holding you accountable and making sure you follow through. And so, if you drop the
class or stop pursuing that path, they will be asking why and you will look bad. It’s amaz-
ing how much the fear of simple, harmless shame can keep even the most non-committal
person on the path to bettering themselves.
Take note, formal classes and meetings with friends are not the only ways you can improve
yourself through learning. You can learn every day just by paying attention to what’s going
on around you. Hear a word you’ve never heard before? Ask the person who used it what it
means, or look it up on Wikipedia. You can also nd a lot of helpful, random information on
websites like Lifehacker, where they are all about self-improvement, getting things done, Do
It Yourself projects.
Your Evolution
Colin’s Experience:
A
t rst, most of the work I was doing was the kind of work I had always done: print design, web
design and development, and some random photography projects here and there. As time
went on, however, I began to take on projects that didn’t directly relate to my core strengths. I
began to consult with clients on their new media endeavors, e-commerce questions, marketing strate-
gies and branding woes. Because of my personal interests in social media, technology and branding,
I had started evolving from a graphic designer into something more complex, opening up lots of
doorways and bringing in many new clients I would never have had access to otherwise.
It’s important that you keep changing, not just because it makes life more interesting, but
also because the people who are constantly evolving are the ones that relentlessly continue
to move up in the world.
Careers are constantly being born and dying due to the non-stop changes in technology,
the economy, public sentiment, social norms, international attitudes and many, many other
environmental variables that none of us has any control over. Like diversifying your portfolio,
enough to keep moving forward in life. When I moved to Los Angeles, I had to start from
scratch, but I was able to put together a great group of friends and associates that have all kinds of
interesting things going on. Many of them had ethical codes that were similar to mine: emphasizing
quality in their work, aiming for sustainability, and looking to improve the industry rather than to
make a quick buck before getting out. These were people that I could go out to networking events
with, knowing that they would have my back, and they knowing that I had theirs. Networking wing-
men are worth their weight in gold.
The second crowd you will want to have is your collection of professional friends and col-
leagues. These people are perhaps not as close on a personal level as your rst crowd, but
they know your business inside and out, and you know theirs. You all lean against each
other, but also maintain certain barriers, keeping the relationship mostly professional in
nature; if your core crowd invites you to birthday parties, this crowd invites you to lunch
meetings. It’s important to have this group to back you up when you need a recommenda-
tion, new connection or advice on a tactical business decision.
“
page 16 • Taking Stock of Your Current Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
The investment you make to maintain a healthy professional crowd is fairly simple: a basic
level of understanding about their prociencies and services and an open line of com-
munication to share information, contacts and bad client stories. This is the crowd that you
will be seeing at networking events and on Twitter, rather than at bachelor parties and on
Facebook.
Building up a reliable pair of good crowds is important, and it can be equally important
not to get sucked in to a bad crowd. A bad crowd consists of anyone who will bring you
down personally or professionally. This includes business associates with bad reputations,
frenemies who like to see others fail so they look better by comparison, signicant others
with incurable emotional issues, and anyone who has ever stabbed you in the back. Always
forgive, never forget, and denitely don’t let them back into your crowds.
Balancing Your Personal Life and Professional Life
As you develop your brand, certain aspects of your lifestyle may become work-related, even
though they may not fall into the sphere of a 9-to-5 job. When you are working outside of
available for its completion. In other words, if you have a TPS report to complete and little
else to do before 6pm, it could take you all day long to nish that TPS report. On the other
hand, if you have a late lunch meeting scheduled at 2pm, you can and very likely will polish
off that report quickly, knowing that you have an early deadline. Making plans is a very good
way to create articial deadlines that will keep you from falling victim to Parkinson’s Law.
Another idea: do something easy rst. Go wash the dishes that are sitting in your sink, or
take the trash down to the dumpster. A little victory is still a victory, and even something
small can give you the jolt of adrenaline that comes with a sense of accomplishment. Next,
make a list of everything you have to get done. Be sure to put those dishes and taking out
the trash on there, because those are victories you want visualized. Go down the list and
handle the small tasks rst. After tackling a handful of the smaller projects, you will usually
nd that only one or two large tasks are left, and you will be able to give your undivided
attention to them, unworried by piles of tiny tasks that seem like tall hurdles when bunched
together. They are now nothing but words on a Post-It with lines through them. Lines! They
are pathetic. You are strong.
The Events You Attend
Going out, seeing and being seen is not only important in Los Angeles. Today, a photo can
be uploaded to the Internet as soon as it is taken, so being at events and associated with
the right organizations, groups of people and causes is a great way to develop your per-
sonal brand.
Colin’s Experience:
I
have been fortunate enough to attend many fancy gala events, but the events I’ve found to be
the most enjoyable are art gallery openings. The crowd at a gallery opening is almost always a
bit more sophisticated and interesting than the crowd you’d nd at other get-togethers of similar
scale. Finding a gallery with the right vibe was a bit difcult when I rst moved to Los Angeles, but
after running Colin Is My Name for several months, I had found a handful of different galleries to
attend, each of them showing good artwork and all frequented by good people.
“
page 18 • Taking Stock of Your Current Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
that he deserves it, and that he will not under any circumstances be working overtime.
Who would you rather hire: the upbeat, driven and friendly applicant, or the bent, uncom-
fortable, unmotivated guy, for whom the world is a series of disappointments?
Exactly!
page 19 • Taking Stock of Your Current Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
Your Attitude
It’s difcult to explain the benets of attitude because it is largely immeasurable and more
than a little subjective. I’ll say it all the same though, because it’s my ebook and I can say
anything I want. But honestly, it’s important to have an attitude that others react favorably
to. This can mean very different things in different industries, but there are certain traits that
can be emphasized that seem to consistently translate into an advantageous outlook that
others will be able to see.
The rst is to be ‘good.’ It’s a word that means different things to different people so you
can also look at it as being happy, passionate, content, helpful…all of these positive ad-
jectives add up to being a good person. You can achieve this status by helping out your
community, making changes that positively impact the world at large or an individual, and
(to borrow a page from Google’s playbook) by not being evil. Being good will garner encour-
agement and help from the most random and unpredictable places because people like to
help those that they consider to be good. So take an objective look at your life and see what
you can do to emphasize how ‘good’ you are, and then live in a way that benets others
(which will in turn benet you).
The second is to be happy. If you are happy you will go through life with a positive outlook:
bad things won’t seem as bad and good things will seem great. You will have a surplus of
productive energy and there will always be extra time to get something done (even if you
have to work harder to nd it). If you are not happy, you will likely not be successful (and
even if you ARE successful, what’s the point if you can’t be happy?!).
The third is to be driven. If you’ve ever met someone that just seems to have it all together
and is moving through life like a bullet toward their goals, you will understand why this is an
important trait to focus on. Driven, motivated people inspire others just by existing, and they
are able to nd pleasure in even the simplest and most tedious tasks, so long as they bring
this list can consist of things about you personally (you have a bad habit of telling jokes that
make people uncomfortable) or professionally (you’re always at least a few minutes late to
meetings). With this one it will be very important to ask others, and to uninchingly accept
their answers. Part of self-improvement is being able to accept criticism constructively, so
tell them about what you’re working on, tell them to be honest, and then write down what
needs some work.
Take a look at the sheet of paper with the two lists; this is the foundation of your personal
brand right now, at this moment. As with any brand, there are good things (the Toyota Prius
is good for the environment!) and there are bad things (people who drive the Toyota Prius
can be very smug!). The trick to developing and strengthening this foundation is to empha-
size certain aspects from the rst column, while decreasing or completely eliminating lines
from the second column.
page 22 • Developing Your Personal Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
Colin’s Experience:
I
knew that I wanted to emphasize a friendly and comfortable client experience, the breadth of my
knowledge of design, development, marketing and related industries, and the fact that I specialize
in sustainable design practices and branding for sustainable businesses. There were also certain
things I wanted to avoid doing that were common in my industry, but that I didn’t believe in and
wanted to take a stand against (articially inating hours, working with the cheapest contractors
rather than the best and perpetuating environmentally-unfriendly practices, among others). I knew
that there were lots of bad habits that I had picked up over the years that I would need to jettison if
I was going to clearly present who I was to potential clients, including a tendency to not plan before
starting a project. Working on these habits have allowed me to create more of a partnership with my
client, which in turn allows me to draw on their experience in the eld and opening up stronger chan-
nels of communication so that they will be more likely to listen and take my advice when it comes to
aesthetics, design, marketing and functionality.
Absolutely everyone will have to utilize different approaches to strengthen their core brand,
because everyone has very different pros and cons to their personal and business reputa-
tion. A good place to start is with the simple, obvious problems. If you are known as the guy
representative democracy works fairly well, but that it would be ideal if there were less cro-
nyism and more of a meritocracy in place…” and on and on and on. Whew! Politics alone
could take up an entire sheet of paper by itself, and you shouldn’t stop there! Move on to re-
ligion and society and relationships and science and corporatism and genetically modied
foods and modern art and anything else that you might have an educated opinion about.
If you come across something that you don’t know enough about to form an opinion, do
yourself a favor and quickly look it up on Wikipedia or some other relatively reliable source
of information. Even knowing a little bit about it will likely steer you away from or closer to
your preconceived notions. Do keep in mind, however, that a notion without knowledge is
simply ignorance (not something anyone wants to be associated with).
Colin’s Experience:
I
thought about my determination to focus on sustainability and I had to gure out if I was going to
only do green projects for green businesses and subcontract the rest out, or specialize in the green
projects while continuing to take on work from anyone who had the money to pay for it. I ended
up deciding that, while I enjoy doing work for sustainable businesses, I wouldn’t have as much impact
preaching to the choir as I would spreading the word. I ended up deciding to take on any project that
seemed interesting, but also to do my best to make that project more eco-friendly when possible.
“
page 24 • Developing Your Personal Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
So think about your ethics for a while. Meditate on it, talk to a friend (or handful of friends)
about it over a glass of wine. Do what you have to do to explore your mind a bit and gure
these things out now, because after you’ve established yourself as, say, the Pro-Life blog
writer, it will be quite difcult to change your reputation and client base or job if you sud-
denly decide you’re Pro-Choice (and hate writing blogs).
Owning Your Brand
It’s not easy to pick your identity apart, gure out what personality traits and habits need
to go, and actively work to scrap them, one by one. Even more difcult in many ways is to
look in the mirror and to be okay with who you are. It sounds very ‘after-school special,’ but
being able to deal with the fact that you didn’t turn out exactly how you thought you would,
“
page 25 • Developing Your Personal Brand • ExileLifestyle.com
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