How Outrageous Is Your Personal Brand?

  • 1 min read

If you haven’t caused some kind of outrage, you haven’t got a really big BANG kind of brand. That might work for you. Maybe you’re not in the really-need-to-be memorable kind of place in your career.

Maybe Twitter has so few of whatever you are or do that just by being …. you, you stand out. Maybe your Facebook friends are really friendly. It could be that you believe you really are connected to 6.3 million people on LinkedIn. Maybe you think we’re terrifically pinterested, and we have the G+ circle hots for you.

That is the way most of us seem to think personal branding works, given the volume of posts and the paucity of memorable ones. Or, the endlessly promotional ones. Or, the creepy feeling that 87% of people are “just listening” on social networks and media.

Is that what you’re doing?

Are you waiting to be discovered?

Are you waiting for a personal invitation to comment on every blog you visit?

Are you waiting for the really big opportunity to have a near miss with your future?

This last Sunday was the second annual Comedy Awards on Comedy Central. Robin Williams received the legend award, which went to Eddie Murphy last year. What defines both men who have really different approaches to their craft? Outrageous. Outrageously memorable. Fearless.

Your big BANG

If you’re not doing stand-up, you probably can’t be that outrageous, although being a little bit entertaining wouldn’t be a bad thing.

If you’re at all serious about the power of personal branding, and the powerful truth that you control what you mean to us, then you’ve got to leave the kinds of impressions that, at least occasionally, begin in our brains with: “Wow…”

If you’re not making it big in our brains, you’re probably not making it big with your personal branding, and that may account for the gap between where you really are and where you ideally are.

So, here’s the work to get you going on getting some bang for your brand.

  1. Whittle down everything you are to three words that we can attach to you: smart, creative, brave, patient, funny, strong, simple, silly, artistic, driven, generous, and the list is nearly endless.
  2. Then go about proving up those three words with your posts, pics, updates, links and most everything else you do online and on ground,
Picture of Nance Rosen

Nance Rosen

Nance Rosen is the author of Speak Up! & Succeed. She speaks to business audiences around the world and is a resource for press, including print, broadcast and online journalists and bloggers covering social media and careers.

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